Self-Publishing: A Process

In writing groups, I see quite a few people getting hooked into the promises of vanity presses-- people who claim they have a successful team of artists, editors, printers at their disposal, but very few (if any) are more than clever advertisers looking to do anything more than run off with your money. When you dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that to protect your work, you must be mindful of who they are using, which rights you are retaining when you sign anything and if they are going to be proactive in marketing a new author or if they leave you to that. You can use services like Reedsy to scout your own editors and cover designers and it's not as difficult as vanity presses would like you to believe. With services like KDP, they offer the exact same services for free, only charging on a needs basis if you do use their affiliate for design and editing.

I don't plan on getting into those details here, but building trust can be a daunting task but 'getting what you paid for' isn't an assurance in publishing. Even authors signing on to tradtional publishers get no guarantee of performance unless they or their agent is careful to negotiate the involvement. That being said, I currently do everything on my own. As for getting what I paid for, I certainly have enough student loan debt to necessitate an investment in using my own education.

You've probably heard people insist you must at least have outside editors and cover designers. I wouldn't put stock into that. There are just as many people that think it's okay to get a deal and pay an artist $25 for a cover. Sorry, but that's highway robbery and they're underselling themselves if their work is worth a shit. In truth, if you can't afford any options, it makes sense to learn the skills and gather some beta readers. Certainly pay an artist or editor if you can, but don't shame the starving artists who put in the work and take different risks to get their work out there.

I'd much rather go into what my process has involved. It's taken some time to learn what I want when I present my work. It's going to be different for everyone but I'll share what works for me.

Writing:

It starts with the content. I don't have just one method here. Sometimes I plan, sometimes I just write. Sometimes I edit while I go, sometimes I wait until I draft. Through trial and error, I've discovered I'm a skeletal writer when it comes to throwing out ideas. Some writers are fluffy and end up having to cut a lot, but I find I am methodical, building first the logic then dressing it up. Because of this, I find it beneficial to edit even in first draft phase. The reason I do this is because I like to print the first draft and edit it with a red felt tip pen and if it's too rough, the edit end up looking like a massacre. While I do like to mark up the grammar and wording, I like to use the margins to make notes of where the story might need more emotional development, action or other detail. I edit almost obsessively and it can be cleansing for me where it can be demoralizing for others. I don't find it blocks my creativity to switch between writing and editing. In fact, it also makes it harder to hit blocks because I don't just accumulate debris that I'm terrified of confronting later. 

TL;DR: Write, edit, write, edit, edit, write, edit x3-- this is a method you will develop with trial and error.

Editing:

Stills deserves its own section despite its mixed presence in my writing process. If you need something more structured then it's easier to keep to a simple guideline; even if you do pull in an editor, you should self-edit the entire manuscript at least three times. First draft, edit, second draft, edit, final draft, edit is the least you should do. Should, but don't have to. Some of us are more grammatically inclined or detail oriented or chaotic about when and where. I will advise walking away from a project midway through and staying away from it for a week or so for at least one of the edits. The more you can discipline yourself to become a stranger to your work, the more you can efficiently criticize and catch things you might have been blinded to. Editing is proofreading, fact checking, consistency, repetition. Yes, if choose to be your own editor then you will need to be patient enough to walk away and wait. It's a passive devotion of time in that you are not actually working on it, but waiting to bring fresh eyes to it. Do some short stories or research papers. I wouldn't advise doing character sheets or maps or origin stories because that isn't distancing yourself from it at all. The discipline for self-editing comes from forcing its absence. I would not consider an edit to be properly done without that step though.

TL;DR: Self-editing requires you to distance yourself from your own work long enough to develop an impartial eye.

Formatting:

I just did a post on this in great detail so let's skip straight to the TL;DR. It's very simple once you figure it out and it's absolutely the most important. You can afford some minor formatting snags but if it becomes too distracting to be read, your book is going to get chucked. Just follow my formatting post and get it right the first time.

Cover Design:

Despite my background as an artist, this was tricky. Not because I wanted something trendy but because self-branding IS difficult. I've done many features concerning the images I do for book design but I wasn't quite learned in creating a brand beyond the first book. I had made the logo designs tie in to each other, but admittedly did not consider placement of other elements such as author name, continuing fonts, etc to be continuing elements. I attempted to remedy this in later books though, paying attention to where items were on the spine where they line up on a shelf or even the color of my blurb boxes. The images are often a key factor in placement and sometimes I do have to sacrifice consistency of alignment to make the elements cooperate with the image. Cover design is both rigid and fluid and requires some amount of sacrifice. What each design needs is very dependent on how effectively you want each element to complement the next. I do plan on doing a post about how to do basic cover art. It should help you make good independent decisions that follow your vision. I've seen many covers touted as bad which were actually effective in either arousing humor or curiosity. Even as an artist, I can still say it's folly to judge a book by its cover. 

TL;DR: cover design is a visual checklist. It's a portal into an experience. Even bad covers can be good.

Uploading:

Prior to uploading, I like to have a folder prepared to go. It contains:

• A .docx of the formatted ebook
• A .PDF of the formatted print book
• The original PSD of the book cover design
• The PDF of the full cover for print
• A .jpg of the front cover only for ebook.

I start with KDP's bookshelf and start a new Kindle book. On the first page, I enter in the book details like author name, title, blurb, etc. On the second, i upload the docx and jpg and then preview to check for errors. I usually set my books up on a pre-order schedule, something I wish they'd do for print in the future. For those, I'm usually stuck with saving it to draft and manually approving it on the release date. After I set that up, it asks if I want to start the paperback so I do. It carries over the ebook info and I upload the PDFs and approve those if they don't catch any errors. I set up pricing then save it.

TL;DR: come on, it's not that long.

Sharing:

I don't really do much by way of marketing so this is more accurate. I set up a way to share release dates over social media. The most time consuming part is updating the website but each book gets placed into the Latest Release section, a marquee in the Books section with excerpt and buy links and a new Fun Facts entry. I also use FaceBook, both my main feed and Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, my blog and sometimes Instagram to announce preorders and releases. Beyond that, I don't do much because the writing and designing comes first right now. Because I want to get a web comic going this year too, I need room to be creatively experimental. I would love to hire a marketing guru someday to handle this part of it, even if it's the only investment I make. I have to say, I actually love the other parts enough that I'm not desperate to outsource the rest. This was part of the reason I pulled out of searching for traditional publishers. I do actually love the process of formatting, editing and designing on top of the writing. 

It will be exciting to change that up for what a web comic demands. And yes, I will continue writing books. The current frenzied frequency will slow down after the summer but UnSung and its series' partners, UnHeard and UnVeiled, will follow. I may be pursuing either the Piscine novel or the YA fantasy series after but writing will continue alongside the webcomic.

In any case, just did the Flying Pig Marathon yesterday so I'm finishing up this recuperation day with writing a blog from the comforts of bed, but the close call of dropping it on my face a few times means I've tempted fate long enough.

I hope this sheds some light on your possible process. Don't let prevailing attitudes bully you from at least attempting a new experience. You very well can try and fail and pull your book and rebrand it anytime-- the beauty of self-publishing. I may be pulling my first book to redo the cover design. I ended up being more consistent with the other covers so I'd like to at least make that one line up. I do need to swap in an editted PDF. I ended up changing a few things in the ebook and trilogy versions that were left in the first book. Might squeeze that in in the next few weeks. Might have a surprise there too. I'm plotting but time will tell.