Publish Your Own Book: My Step-By-Step Guide Helps Get Your Book Out!

Want to publish your own book? With my novel, Anna’s Awakening, I did every step by myself. Want to learn how? Read my step-by-step guide.

 

 

Why Publish Your Own Book?

To publish your own book, it takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication. For many people, this is considered to be the only option after exhausting multiple options with agents, rejections, and the unwillingness of traditional publishers to accept new authors. 

When it came to publishing Anna’s Awakening, and previously Inside Iris, I chose to do it my way. I researched the publishing industry and decided that begging apparent ‘industry experts’ to take a chance on my book wasn’t something I was willing to do. To me, I wanted to do it on my own and take power away from agents, publishers, and the traditional method.

Before I was an author, I was a playwright and wanted desperately to get work put on in Northern and Southern Ireland. However, what I was repeatedly faced with were repeated rejections and claims that there ‘was no funding’. This meant the only plays that were put on were:

  • Written by established playwrights,
  • Written about the troubles – either humour or historical, or,
  • Written with American tourists in mind.

As a child who experienced the troubles, I wanted to move myself as far away as possible from the bloody past of my country. As far as I was concerned, I wanted to showcase how Belfast shaped me as an author and writer. I didn’t want to look back to the past and relive it over and over again through art.

This experience taught me if I were ever to be published as an author, I wanted to move as far away from the established system as possible. I have never been a person to kiss the backsides of others to get a connection or open a door. As Northern Ireland can be seen to be very traditional in how it views the arts, I wanted to buck the trend and publish my own books.

If you plan to publish your own book, how will you go about it? Does the process daunt you? Do you publish your own books as a hobby, but want to take your next project more seriously? Here is how I went about publishing Anna’s Awakening, book two of The Iris Trilogy.

 

Step One: Write The Book

annas awakening first draft publish your own book

 

Okay, this is an obvious step to take. It would be best if you wrote that book to publish it. It may sound silly to make that point, but there are many people out there who would love to write a book and have never gotten round to it. There are also thousands of authors across social media who need to view themselves as authors rather than ‘aspiring authors’. 

In life, there are three things people would love to do in their lifetime:

  1. Speak a second language,
  2. Play a musical instrument, and
  3. Write a book.

When I sat down in the spring of 2018 and wrote the first chapter of Inside Iris, I didn’t know if the book would ever be finished. (download the first three chapters for FREE by registering for my newsletter). I stalled after about six chapters and a 10-year-old-girl in my class at the time made me a deal and shook my hand. This meant that I had to finish the book because she wrote me stories to take her mind off stresses, and I gave her chapters if the infant Inside Iris. 

This gave me the kick up the butt that I needed to write my first novel, and I did.

With Anna’s Awakening, I wrote the first draft straight after finishing Inside Iris. This was a tough task, but, as I had the story fresh in my head, I was able to slide seamlessly into the next 90,000 word first draft. Therefore, I had written over 150,000 words of prose in six months. 

I wouldn’t recommend binging the writing of your novels, but this worked for me at the time. I went from being a man who was disillusioned with a career in education to someone who had written two novels, edited and published one, and had the germinating idea in his mind that he would like to write professionally.

There you have it, friends. Complete step one and write the novel. This first draft can be all over the place. It doesn’t matter. Get it down and allow it to breathe for a short time before entering step two.

 

Step Two: Draft The Book

After investing time as well as blood, sweat, and tears into that all-important first draft, it is vital to give the book some time to breathe before you start redrafting. By entering the redrafting process, you need to be critical and add or remove parts of the novel to make it flow better.

When you redraft immediately, the point is that you will not see the areas of the novel that fail to work as well as others. The time between finishing the first draft and starting with a second draft means that you can return with a critical eye, but also with the energy to undertake the massive task ahead.

As I made my way towards Christmas in 2018, I redrafted Anna’s Awakening roughly. This was mainly a read through and adding some basic points that I had made a note of when I completed the first draft of the book. This allowed me to see where the book was and, most importantly, how it read from start to finish.

This is a valuable process that no writer should ignore. By focusing mainly on reading Anna’s Awakening, I was able to learn how a reader would see the story. Here, I learned a lot and put the book away again for another period of time while I gathered my thoughts and made a plan of attack.

annas awakening second draft publish your own book

When you publish your own novel, it is a long process. Here, months after completion, I printed out my second full draft for BETA readers and trusted friends.

 

After several months, I got back into the redrafting process and took out the red pen. It was painful, and I battled with myself endlessly over choices and plot points linked to characters I loved. However, I knew I needed to make the story paramount. This meant that some sacrifices had to be made.

A month or so later, I printed out the second draft of Anna’s Awakening for trusted friends and BETA readers to give me their honest opinion. This is the scariest part of the process as you open up your book to the eyes of others.

Inside several days, I started receiving texts from my friends and readers that made my heart radiate inside my chest – they loved it! I remember two of my critical and trusted friends asking for the third instalment as the ending was so dramatic. ‘The ending?! OMG! Have you written the third book yet?!’ is one of the texts I still have on my phone today.

The redrafting process, when you publish your own book, is vital. This means you need to open your book up to criticism but also be critical in your own right. Your next novel will only work if you can remove what doesn’t work and replace it with what works better. Your readers will thank you for it in the end.

In the process of publishing Anna’s Awakening, I had to tackle one of the most critical elements – the book cover.

 

Step Three: Get A Solid Book Cover

A book cover design can make or break sales. The old saying of never judging a book by its cover is irrelevant in a modern, hyper-competitive world of self-publication, independent publication, traditional publication, and social media. 

With a vast array of choice out there, we need to ensure that the cover of the novel we have given months of our life is eye-catching. The cover design needs to be desirable for those whose eyes scroll across it on a bookshelf, Amazon, or social media. In the modern world, your book could have as little as 0.4 seconds to impress on a person on social media or Amazon. This is especially relevant on a mobile device with a single column to scroll through.

When it came to the Anna’s Awakening book cover, I contacted a friend of mine, Adrian Power at Bad Wolf Scribbles. Adrian and I are in a local business group together, and I loved his style as an artist. We met on several occasions to share ideas and put together a book cover that we both felt would best suit the novel itself.

One thing to be aware of is to ensure your bespoke book cover is checked in line with the Amazon book cover checker. You will also need to research your paperback dimensions carefully to ensure your cover fits the book perfectly. This was an area that had to be repeatedly checked by Adrian and myself as we finalised the look of the cover, so be aware.

It wasn’t long before I had my book cover design and was ready to upload the Kindle and paperback manuscripts for publication alongside the book cover design. However, I was missing one element – my own ISBN.

annas awakening author proof

As the steps all started to come together, I was finally able to make final checks on the author proof ahead of publication on on March 3rd 2020.

 

Step Four: Your Own ISBNs

When I published Inside Iris, I went through Amazon, and another publisher put the novel out for me. The advice I was given meant that the publisher used an Amazon ISBN for the Kindle and paperback editions of Inside Iris.

When it came to trying to get local and nationwide bookstores to stock my book, they all said I needed to have my own ISBN, and the book had to be on the Nielsen book directory so it could be scanned in stores.

As far as I could see, only limited stores would take my book. This limited amount was narrowed further when most asked for the ISBN and Inside Iris wouldn’t be found on their databases.

Now, with Anna’s Awakening, I wanted to complete the step I was unaware of before and bought 10 ISBNs for my next ten books. This will mean that I am effectively my own publisher and distributor.

By researching this topic in a lot more detail for Anna’s Awakening, I have seen that the advantages of purchasing your ISBNs far outweigh the negatives. Therefore, if you want to be serious about your next book release, buy your ISBNs.

Once they’re bought, and your book cover design adorns the shiny new ISBN, you are ready to publish your own book.

iris trilogy fiction books

Click on the image to see the fiction books I have released so far. Both Inside Iris and Anna’s Awakening are available for purchase on Kindle and paperback from Amazon.

 

Step Five: Publish Your Own Book

When it comes to the day you publish your own book, you will need to follow the guidelines of how to format the Kindle and paperback editions of the novel.

Online, there are dozens of articles and ‘How to…’ guides about formatting the inside of the novel. You can perform a simple Google search to get the information you need.

When I looked at Anna’s Awakening, I wanted the paperback to appear differently to the Kindle. When Inside Iris was published, I didn’t want the paperback to have the Kindle hyperlinked chapters. This meant I prepared and formatted two separate manuscripts for Anna’s Awakening.
The paperback was formatted slightly differently, paying attention to margins, gutter, and not including the chapter index.

The Kindle edition had to be formatted with hyperlinked chapter headings, and page breaks included. This meant that code was inserted into the document to tell the Kindle software the information it needed to know to navigate and format the Kindle edition appropriately. Please make sure you are diligent with the Kindle edition to ensure it is done as required and check through the Kindle book using the Kindle previewer. This will ensure you see the book as the reader will when they buy their copy on launch day.

Once you have uploaded all the information Amazon need, you can click the publish button and publish your own novel.

seo copywriter

Click the image to read my 5 SEO copywriter tips for authors in 2020.

 

By learning from the process of Inside Iris and being driven to change career to become a freelance copywriter ultimately, I felt much more prepared to enter the world of publication with Anna’s Awakening. 

There is no doubt that my decision to get trained in digital marketing and the process of learning Search Engine Optimisation helped me grow my online presence as a UK fiction author. The desire to also learn programmes within the Adobe Creative Cloud and grow my Adobe Portfolio meant that I was able to create my promotional material like never before. 

content plan data sgfiction

Numbers don’t lie. When I learned Search Engine Optimisation, my website grew a lot online. Look at the data above showing the website growth SG Fiction had in the time since I really focused on SEO. You really can publish your own book!

 

I know if you publish your own book you don’t have the weight of a traditional publisher behind you and bookstores can be awkward about putting your book on their shelves. However, independent bookstores can be much more receptive to stocking books of local authors who have their own ISBNs and have the book registered with companies like the Neilsen database within the UK. If you can get independent bookstores locally to support you and your work, there is a chance that you can get your books into the hands of readers who are interested in sourcing local writers with a story to tell.

As for international readers, the accessibility of the Kindle Store and other distributors means that you can have a print on demand service that delivers in multiple territories around the world. This can cost thousands as a traditionally published author.

Can you publish your own book? Absolutely! As far as I can see, the publication is only the start of the journey. If you want to get exposure online, it does take time and effort. It can also cost you money with social media or Google advertising to get your book in front of people’s faces. However, if advice is needed, you can always contact me at scott@sgfiction.co.uk to see how I can work with you on your next project. 

Take the leap and believe. You can publish your own book in 2020 and beyond.

inside iris sci fi books covid 19