Hard Earned Lessons Learned
A Guide on What I Wish I'd Known When Self-Publishing
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Congratulations! You've written a book! Finally, the hard part is done, and it is written. But now what happens? Publishing can't be that hard, right? I published my first book in 2016. I had taken a few courses and thought I knew what I was doing when I went to publish. Turns out, there's a LOT of things not covered in many online courses and a LOT of things I did wrong. I published my second book in 2018, and a third in 2020. Each book was an improvement over the last as I learned more and more of the secrets of the publishing industry. Traditional publishers don't share their secrets, they just do it for you. Self-published authors don't always know what their choices really mean, so they appear to have lower-quality results. You've worked hard on your writing. Your book deserves the best. Cover topics such as ISBN numbers, look at titles and pricing, pen names, additional pages, business details, and more to publish a high-quality book.
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In some ways, this book is a nice overview of self-publishing, including some business setup discussion, some nitty-gritty how-to details, and some mindset tips. But I found some glaring holes.
1) The only major retailers discussed are Amazon and Kobo, and Kobo gets only a brief mention. What about Draft2Digital, Apple, Barnes & Noble, or even Smashwords, PublishDrive, or Streetlib? There are even more, depending on your genre and format, but the basics would be a good start.
2) There is no mention of the business philosophy behind ISBNs to help authors decide if they want to use the free ones or buy their own.
3) No easy DIY book formatting options are mentioned, like Reedsy, D2D, Vellum, Atticus, or others. Sure, they have their different pros and cons and vary price points (including free), but that's why they deserve a discussion.
4) No mention of how to set up a business bank account (or even that you SHOULD).
5) There is no discussion of KU vs wide (which means “not KU and available a lot of places”). And yes, it's an important question.
So, do I recommend it? Sure, as a starting point before you research more, this is a great book. But if you're only going to read one self-publishing business book, this should not be it.
