Considering Self-Publishing? 5 Helpful Resources To See You Through

Considering Self-Publishing?

If you decide, as I did, that you don’t feel like joining the endless rounds of rejections and delays, you may decide to self-publish.

This is the second post in a series of three on selling your rights and marketing your book, sparked by a recent radio interview with Vanda Symon on Otago Access Radio. You can check out the first of these posts here (or you can listen to the podcast!).

Here’s 5 resources that may help:

1. Join an author’s group, and search out authors networks online. I’ve joined Science Fiction Writers of America, Romance Writer’s of New Zealand and the New Zealand Society of Authors.
2. Listen to podcasts. My favourite is Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula, (www.selfpublishingformula.com) but there are others.
3. Join the Kboards.
4. Download a couple of good books. The one I recommend is David Gaughran’s Let’s Get Digital . This post on his blog is also an excellent resource. – Feb 18 update: David got in touch to say there’s a new edition of his book available.
5. Develop an author platform in advance; identify who your readers are, and develop a relationship early. More detail coming in the next post, or you can check out this blog post from Smart Author Sites here.

Time and Money

Like learning how to succeed at any business, it takes time to learn self-publishing. It takes even longer to do it well! You need to develop a grasp of book writing, book production and book selling.

If you don’t want to learn all these parts to the business, but you have the funds, you may choose to outsource some of these elements. It will probably take a few years to earn these costs back, but hey, as I said in my last post, your rights last for at least 70 years, so you have plenty of time!

Check Before You Spend

Before spending anything, CHECK any provider thoroughly. There are a few dodgy operators about, some who, at first glance, appear reputable. READ this blog post from David Gaughran here.

Let me know if there’s anything I’ve missed. What resources have you used? Any other blogs or interest groups you’d recommend?