(Part two – Self Publishing)

Marketing, ISBNs, Blurbs, Front Matter

What self-publishing tasks can you be getting on with while your manuscript is being edited?

Once you’ve handed your manuscript to a copy/line editor, it’s really important that you don’t touch it again until the manuscript is returned back to you. Having multiple versions of a manuscript in play gets extremely confusing, and needs to be avoided wherever possible.

However, there are some things you can be doing while your manuscript is with your editor. I’ve outlined some suggestions below – and these will be different, depending on whether you are hoping to secure a traditional publishing contract or are going to self-publish.

(If you are hoping to secure a traditional publishing contract, have a look at Part one – Traditional Publishing.)

Marketing

As with traditional publishing, you can start marketing your book now. This means thinking about the best platforms for promoting your book. Social media is an obvious one – which platforms are you familiar with? Do you already have an author account? Can you start building a following? All authors need to have some form of web presence – even if it’s just a static site that you can direct people to, with details of your upcoming books and where to buy them. Writing a blog, keeping readers updated with the publishing process, letting them know what to expect – all of this will help when the book is available for sale.

There are lots of authors who are very good at building mailing lists – this is something else to consider. Most self-publishers intend to sell their books through Amazon, and it’s worth remembering that if you do this, you will never be provided with details of the people who buy your book. This means that you can’t promote your next book to them. So it’s important to try and build your own mailing list if possible. You are then in charge of your own data, and don’t need to rely on Amazon.

Effectively, you are building your author brand. You need to find a way to connect with your readers – to demonstrate to them why they should buy your amazing book, rather than the amazing book written by someone else. What about you, as an author, will give you an edge? One way to do this is to work out why you’ve written this particular book. If you can say your novel is based on something that actually happened to you, in places you’ve actually visited, straight away you are forming a personal connection. Clearly with some genres (such as science fiction and fantasy), it’s unlikely that you have personally experienced many of the events in your novel, or visited many of the places. But did you base any of the characters on family or friends? Did you write it because you wanted to encourage your son to read more books?

Some suggestions for growing your mailing list

If you have written the first book in a series, the end of book 1 can have a hook – coming soon… join my mailing list
Give readers the option of naming a future book
Add a sign-up form to your website.

Blurb

You will be responsible for writing your blurb (the text on the back of the book). A lot of authors find this hard, so it’s worth starting this sooner rather than later. There are lots of websites covering blurb writing. I’d recommend listening to this podcast episode from the Self Publishing Show, where they talk about just how explicit a blurb should be. It’s about managing reader expectations, and they say: “You almost need to say this is an MI6 thriller book. This is a romance book set in a high school. You need to tell someone that they are in the right place, if they like these sorts of books.”

The blurb is probably the first thing your reader will actually read, so it’s important to get it right.

The blurb also doesn’t want to be too long. Have a look at other successful authors in your genre – how long are the blurbs on their books? Often around 200 words is a good length, but these words need to be impactful and intrigue the reader enough to want to know more.

Reedy’s blog How to Write a Book Blurb that Sells (with Examples) (reedsy.com) outlines how a blurb should introduce the characters, set the stage for the primary conflict, establish the stakes and show the reader why this book is for them. That’s a lot to pack into 200 words!

I’ve written before about how one recommendation is to use the blurb to literally give away ALL the good bits in your book. When we watch a trailer for a film, it often shows us all the best bits, but it doesn’t stop us from watching the film. Personally, I’m no so sure this works for books, but it’s something to think about.

It’s also worth considering how your blurb will appear on Amazon, and the Reedsy blog goes on to talk about how to make your blurb particularly appealing on Amazon and other online booksellers.

Further reading: Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion by Louise Willder

Cover Design

Another thing you will need to think about as a self-publisher is the cover. Should it stand out? Or should it look the same as other books in your genre? Should you draw it yourself (unless you are a professional cover designer, the answer is no!), or find a professional? What should you put on the cover? Have you decided if you will be using a pen name?

The cover needs to tell the reader – within a few seconds – what genre the book belongs to. It’s got to tell them whether it’s science-fiction, a crime thriller, a romance, a horror. And for this reason, it’s really important to stick with the conventions in your genre. Readers who love crime thrillers will pick up (or click on) books that LOOK like crime thrillers. If it looks like a romance book, they are very unlikely to give it a second glance.

The cover design needs to align with your readers’ expectations.

So when someone asks me for an opinion on their book cover, my first thought is, is the genre obvious? The colour, the font, the images used, all provide information which potential readers will, subconsciously, understand.

If you aren’t sure what the cover expectations are for your genre, then a simple Amazon search can help. Looking at best-selling books, you can select your preferred genre, and see the covers of books which are currently selling well.

As an aside, another interesting question is whether any people shown on the front cover should match the description of your protagonist (eye colour, build, hair length). When you are reading a book, how often do you actually look at the cover? Probably not very often, and by this point you’ve already bought the book and are (hopefully) invested in the story, so the details of the cover are unlikely to be impactful. And if you are reading on an e-reader, you are even less likely to look at the cover.

I know that many of the authors I work with are romance writers, so it might be worth you having a look at this article about demystifying romantic comedy and chick lit cover design: Romantic Comedy and Chick Lit Cover Design Demystified (yummybookcovers.com).

One final point – I’d recommend that you don’t put the price of your book on the back cover. Because if you want to change the price (for example, discounting it), you will need to load new artwork on all the platforms selling your book.

Front Matter

Have you written (or thought about) your copyright page, your acknowledgement page and any dedications? As you are self-publishing, it’s really up to you what you want to include in your front matter, but you will have to have a copyright page. This can be a little confusing, so have a look at Creating Your Copyright Page: A Guide for Indie Authors from the Alliance of Independent Authors. They have text that you can cut and paste into your copyright page.

ISBNs (International Standard Book Number)

The ISBN is the number that sits with the bar code on the back of your book, and every book will have a unique ISBN. You can also buy your ISBN now. In the UK, all ISBNs are sold by Nielsens. You will need a different ISBN for each version of your book (hard back, paperback, large print, audio, e-book), so be prepared to buy more than one! At the time of writing, one ISBN will cost £91.00 but don’t panic, you can buy a batch of 10 for £169.00. Nielsons explains ISBNs as follows:

“Whilst it is not a legal requirement to allocate ISBNs to your books, it is used by publishers, booksellers and libraries for ordering, listing and stock control purposes. It enables them to identify a particular publisher and allows the publisher to identify a specific edition of a specific title in a specific format within their output. Systems used by publishers, booksellers and libraries all rely on the ISBN to identify books ensuring they select and stock the correct title and edition.”

If you are not based in the UK, have a look at the International ISBN Agency to find the relevant details for your country.

I’d also recommend you have a listen to The Pen to Published Podcast: ISBNs for a concise explanation about what’s required.

These are all suggestions for things to be getting on with, while your manuscript is away with your editor. Of course, you should also take some time to sit back, relax and pat yourself on the back. Many many authors don’t make it this far!