and work around current schedule,
in as little as 90 days.
What Self-Publishing Company Is Best?
The best self-publishing company? You may need to find out how self-publishing works. You do not need a company to help you self-publish. You only need to understand the process, and you can do it yourself!
When I first decided to write and self-publish years ago, I did not know what to expect. I thought it was rocket science to understand the process and do it myself. Taking time to understand what to do, saved me a lot of money.
To help you understand what you need to do, look at it this way. You, the future self-published author, is like a builder. When a builder has a project to build a house, the builder cannot do everything alone. So, he invites various tradespeople to help. Each tradesperson comes in at different times during construction. The mason, the painter, electrician, carpenter, tilers and roof people. The painter s not called until there is a wall or furniture to paint. The roofing person comes when it is time to roof and so forth. The builder coordinates the different process and makes sure everyone do their part.
You are an independent author with no staff of your own. You write the book, hand it over to an editor, the person to format it with correct specifications, a graphic designer for your book cover, book promotion sites to promote and other tasks. Each person comes in to do their bit when it is time to do so. Your job is to coordinate everything.
If you are a builder and invite a company to help you build your house, they will hire others to help and charge you for their service.
Do You Need a Self-Publishing Company?
No, you do not need one. You can do all of the processes yourself or hire professionals on freelancing websites to help you. It is free to publish on Amazon. They sell the book for you, and you get a paid royalty.
However, you may choose to pay a company to do the entire process for you.
If you decide to coordinate the process yourself, what should you do?
Start by transferring your manuscript into a word document. Amazon accepts DOC files if they do not have images or elements that bleed. But if your file or manuscript contains images, you must convert it to a pdf file. Your Kindle or eBook files are epub files. Please do not let this stress you. Converting to the recommended files costs less than $30.00. So, you can do this without spending thousands for a company to do it!
Selling books is quite tricky, and you do not want to spend one cent more than necessary. Save money for marketing instead. We will talk about marketing in the future.
Who Is the Best Self-Publishing Company?
This question is a bit tricky. Why? I have asked people what they meant by a 'self-publishing company'. One group thought self-publishing companies are self-publishing platforms like Amazon, IngramSpark and Smashword. And the other group refer to a company that helps them publish their books for a fee and places them on the platforms mentioned above. Some of these self-publishing companies are vanity presses and not publishing companies. Vanity presses are printers who help print your book and may take away some of your rights to your book.
The beauty of self-publishing is the author retains all rights to their books. So, if you choose to use a company, check the fine print and understand what you are signing. Remember, they are not traditional publishers. Traditional publishers do not ask authors to pay them. They pay authors upfront for their books. Some aspiring authors have signed up for "self-publishing," thinking they are signing up for traditional publishing. Understand each process, so you sign up for what works best for you.
Should you use a self-publishing company? Only you can answer that. Keep in mind that you can do the process yourself. And if you need a little help understanding the process, sign up for my 1;1. Book an assessment call here.
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