Publishing

Publishing

Where to start?

I first publish to Createspace and order a proof copy. They are Amazon’s back-end for self-publishers. If you haven’t bought an ISBN number they will assign you one for free.

By this time, I’ve done several rewrites, run grammar checkers and read a self-printed hard copy. When my proof copy arrives, I go through it to make sure the formatting is correct and looking for additional grammar and spelling errors.

The grammar checkers I use are the free versions of Grammarly, Ginger, Word and Hemmingway Editor. Csgenerator.com is a good site to check for replacement words, sentence structure or phrasing of sentences. You can only load short inserts of your work at a time. So, it is quite time consuming, but worth it if your stuggling for a varitey of wording.

If all looks acceptable I publish. Createspace puts your book on Amazon worldwide in print-on-demand and Kindle editions. They reformat your Word doc to a mobi file for Kindle. I pick all channels that they distribute, including Book Stores and Online Retailers, Libraries and Academic Institutions, and Createspace Direct.

Next, I publish on Smashwords. They specialize in ebooks and convert your Word.doc (note; not .docx) file to a variety of efiles. You can download epub, mobi, irf, pdb, pdf, txt, original, or read from their online reader. I also select all their distributing channels.

From there I publish on LULU. They also require you to purchase a paperback proof. Besides the Standard paperback, you can order Premium paperbacks or Professional hardcover copies. And of course, you publish your work in ebook format.

At this point, my book is on Amazon, Kobo, Barns & Noble, Book Daily, and dozens of sites. There are also a lot of paid sites to publish on. So far I’ve stayed away form paying, but it could be something for you to check out.


One thought on “Publishing

  1. A minor point: Your paperback is a different publication than your ebook, so it needs a different ISBN. That’s why I publish my ebooks on Smashwords before Amazon — I can get a free ISBN from Smashwords.

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