Publish a book

Flip

Flip

Winger
Has anyone ever done it on here? I've finished mine which is about the length of 1.5 so have setup the usual social media accounts and was looking into giving away the first 10-20 days for free on a website and as a freebie on Amazon. Then the rest as a paid ebook on amazon with random days from the book published on the blog / website. Its in a diary format so easily done. Anyone done anything similar as I'm kind of just scrambling in the dark here so any advice welcome. Ta
 


@Lexingtongue anything is the approach above reasonable? Once I've finished the edit the plan was to submit it online to a publisher but most of them seemed to have stopped accepting "blind submissions". Any advice on publishing on Amazon? Do you normally get a friend to have a read through and feedback before sending off? Basically if you've been published how did you go about it. The book is essentially diary based on modern historical events from a bloke think - sweary stereotypical taxi driver with a heart. Apologies to all taxi drivers out there but hopefully you know what I mean.
 
Flip said:
@Lexingtongue anything is the approach above reasonable? Once I've finished the edit the plan was to submit it online to a publisher but most of them seemed to have stopped accepting "blind submissions". Any advice on publishing on Amazon? Do you normally get a friend to have a read through and feedback before sending off? Basically if you've been published how did you go about it. The book is essentially diary based on modern historical events from a bloke think - sweary stereotypical taxi driver with a heart. Apologies to all taxi drivers out there but hopefully you know what I mean.
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I self-publish mine. I build them in InDesign, separate page for each chapter/section. I then use the downloadable Kindle addon to publish them directly into Amazon mobi format. I read through mine like five or six times and agonise over insignificant word choices and sentence structures to an unhealthy degree. If I have one tip for you it is proofread your stuff to death, to the point where you even hate reading it. You don't want it to be in the public domain and be full of obvious typos and mistakes. I have a couple of mates who I can rely on to read through and make useful suggestions and find hard to spot errors. My lass reads through my recent ones but she's useless really and won't criticise anything I write. I have a graphic design background so I also build my own covers and that. Uploading to Amazon is easy enough, they make the process easy to digest and it's in basic steps. I've never sent mine to a publisher or agent. I've had a fair amount of success cashwise, and I was a number one bestseller in the post-apocalyptic genre on Amazon briefly not long after my initial release.
 
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Flip said:
@Lexingtongue anything is the approach above reasonable? Once I've finished the edit the plan was to submit it online to a publisher but most of them seemed to have stopped accepting "blind submissions". Any advice on publishing on Amazon? Do you normally get a friend to have a read through and feedback before sending off? Basically if you've been published how did you go about it. The book is essentially diary based on modern historical events from a bloke think - sweary stereotypical taxi driver with a heart. Apologies to all taxi drivers out there but hopefully you know what I mean.
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The traditional approach is to approach agents rather than publishers. There are exceptions but it's rare that publishers accept submissions.
Self publishing on Amazon is easy up to a point, but you can also make a terrible mess of it.
I've run workshops and written blogs on it. I'll see if I can dig out some relevant ones for you.

Absolutely get other people to read it and give feedback first. Ideally people who aren't afraid to be honest. I have a team of four who all bring something a bit different.

Giving it away free on Amazon isn't quite as straightforward as you would imagine. You are limited to five days every three months although there are ways you can 'game' it slightly.
 
RestlessNatives said:
The traditional approach is to approach agents rather than publishers. There are exceptions but it's rare that publishers accept submissions.
Self publishing on Amazon is easy up to a point, but you can also make a terrible mess of it.
I've run workshops and written blogs on it. I'll see if I can dig out some relevant ones for you.

Absolutely get other people to read it and give feedback first. Ideally people who aren't afraid to be honest. I have a team of four who all bring something a bit different.

Giving it away free on Amazon isn't quite as straightforward as you would imagine. You are limited to five days every three months although there are ways you can 'game' it slightly.
Click to expand...
How would I go about doing a workshop on the publishing process, mate? I think that would be something I would be fairly adept at.
 
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A couple to get you started. Most important advice I would give is to take your time and don't rush into it.


wp.me

How to self publish. (Creating a publishing checklist.)

I am often asked about how I self-publish. In this blog I give some advice on how to self-publish and what goes into a self-publishing checklist.
wp.me wp.me

wp.me

How to self publish. (Creating a publishing checklist. Part Two.)

How to self publish. (Creating a publishing checklist. Part Two.) In a previous blog, we covered the publishing steps taken up to formatting. In today’s blog I will talk a little about the steps af…
wp.me wp.me

I'll dig out a few more that might be useful over the weekend.
Lexingtongue said:
How would I go about doing a workshop on the publishing process, mate? I think that would be something I would be fairly adept at.
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I did it as part of the Sunderland Creative Writing Festival a few years back. In the last one I ran an editing workshop but I also helped run the festival.
I've run writing workshops through things like the Cultural Spring.
Obviously there's nothing happening at the moment with COVID and I suspect budgets will be tight coming out of the back of it, but start speaking to local festivals, libraries, community groups etc.
You could try doing online ones on Zoom or similar. Use your social media presence to advertise.
 
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RestlessNatives said:
A couple to get you started. Most important advice I would give is to take your time and don't rush into it.


wp.me

How to self publish. (Creating a publishing checklist.)

I am often asked about how I self-publish. In this blog I give some advice on how to self-publish and what goes into a self-publishing checklist.
wp.me wp.me

wp.me

How to self publish. (Creating a publishing checklist. Part Two.)

How to self publish. (Creating a publishing checklist. Part Two.) In a previous blog, we covered the publishing steps taken up to formatting. In today’s blog I will talk a little about the steps af…
wp.me wp.me

I'll dig out a few more that might be useful over the weekend.

I did it as part of the Sunderland Creative Writing Festival a few years back. In the last one I ran an editing workshop but I also helped run the festival.
I've run writing workshops through things like the Cultural Spring.
Obviously there's nothing happening at the moment with COVID and I suspect budgets will be tight coming out of the back of it, but start speaking to local festivals, libraries, community groups etc.
You could try doing online ones on Zoom or similar. Use your social media presence to advertise.
Click to expand...
I'm useless with my social media presence. I always worry about putting too much out there and I severed links with a number of writers on Twitter as they posted the same shit continuously all day, every day. It really fucked me off. :lol:
Flip said:
@Lexingtongue anything is the approach above reasonable? Once I've finished the edit the plan was to submit it online to a publisher but most of them seemed to have stopped accepting "blind submissions". Any advice on publishing on Amazon? Do you normally get a friend to have a read through and feedback before sending off? Basically if you've been published how did you go about it. The book is essentially diary based on modern historical events from a bloke think - sweary stereotypical taxi driver with a heart. Apologies to all taxi drivers out there but hopefully you know what I mean.
Click to expand...
Some tips I forgot I published seven years ago after releasing my novel:
www.goodreads.com

My alternative tips for prospective self-publishers

1 - Take pride in your workSome authors pop self-published books on Amazon that are littered with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and are not prop...
www.goodreads.com

Some of my flash fiction if you give a shit:
 
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Lexingtongue said:
I'm useless with my social media presence. I always worry about putting too much out there and I severed links with a number of writers on Twitter as they posted the same shit continuously all day, every day. It really fucked me off. :lol:

Some tips I forgot I published seven years ago after releasing my novel:
www.goodreads.com

My alternative tips for prospective self-publishers

1 - Take pride in your workSome authors pop self-published books on Amazon that are littered with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and are not prop...
www.goodreads.com

Some of my flash fiction if you give a shit:
Click to expand...
The ones who spam you constantly about their books get unfollowed straight away. The point of being on social media is to be social, you'll buy books on the back of someone being interesting rather than them advertising to you constantly.
 
RestlessNatives said:
The ones who spam you constantly about their books get unfollowed straight away. The point of being on social media is to be social, you'll buy books on the back of someone being interesting rather than them advertising to you constantly.
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Very much agree.
 
Flip said:
Has anyone ever done it on here? I've finished mine which is about the length of 1.5 so have setup the usual social media accounts and was looking into giving away the first 10-20 days for free on a website and as a freebie on Amazon. Then the rest as a paid ebook on amazon with random days from the book published on the blog / website. Its in a diary format so easily done. Anyone done anything similar as I'm kind of just scrambling in the dark here so any advice welcome. Ta
Click to expand...
What is it about?
 
I'm a beta reader for an editor so read manuscripts and give feedback on the book, theres a 40 question survey which goes into depth on story, characterisation, dialogue, narrative. The editor I do it for employs specialists for different genres. Also I leave comments in the manuscript on things that occur as I read it. Just did a 35000 word one and got 35 quid ish. So that's an option if you dont want a full story edit and proofread but I'd usually reccomend one. Beta readers aren't there to pick up spelling grammar etc.
My friend is a fiction editor, her mate is Tillie Cole who self published one story on Amazon, got a few grammar pedant mates to read it, got a good social media following, struck gold on a story idea and got some book deals and now has about 3 series on the go.
The editing can be quite cheap and the beta read can be too depending on how many words it is obv.
 
blondemackem said:
I'm a beta reader for an editor so read manuscripts and give feedback on the book, theres a 40 question survey which goes into depth on story, characterisation, dialogue, narrative. The editor I do it for employs specialists for different genres. Also I leave comments in the manuscript on things that occur as I read it. Just did a 35000 word one and got 35 quid ish. So that's an option if you dont want a full story edit and proofread but I'd usually reccomend one. Beta readers aren't there to pick up spelling grammar etc.
My friend is a fiction editor, her mate is Tillie Cole who self published one story on Amazon, got a few grammar pedant mates to read it, got a good social media following, struck gold on a story idea and got some book deals and now has about 3 series on the go.
The editing can be quite cheap and the beta read can be too depending on how many words it is obv.
Click to expand...
Are you the young woman reading mine currently? Made a few comments on my Twitter?
 

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