Welcome to the Self-Publishing Course

We hope that these tutorials and tips are helpful to you in your book publishing process. Happy writing!

Writing and Publishing Checklists

Children's Book or Illustrated Book Checklist

Why we use Kindle Direct Publishing

We have found that Kindle Direct Publishing offers the most freedom, accessibility, profit, and convenience. This is a free way to publish your book and also have it accessible to anyone in the world to purchase. Another benefit of this site is that you are able to sell books without much advertisement. Although publishing through this website does require a bit of knowledge with how to manage technical platforms, we have found that it is quite simple considering its free. To give you an example of what to expect for the cost of your books and the royalties you will receive; say you have a book that is 24 pages, it will cost the distributor about $4 to create that book. If you charge $12 for that book and order a copy to sell yourself, you will profit $8. If someone purchases a copy of your book through Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you will profit $4. We find that this is the best way to self-publish because authors do not have to purchase a certain minimum amount of books and authors can sell their books through the distributor without spending anything. Because the books are printed as they are purchased, you can buy however many copies of the books that you need. The only downside we have found with this platform is that you are unable to create books that are hardcover. However, this isn’t a big downside since softcover books are cheaper and easier to sell.

Book Writing Process

Here is a video of how I begin writing my children’s book, specifically a rhyming book.

Digitize Your Art

This app is called “Snapseed,” and it is a great tool to turn your art into a digital format. All you need to do is take a picture or scan of your art work and edit it through this app. I used this art work to create a cover for a book.

Story-boarding

Here is a video of how I divide my writing into pages, and create my story boards for my illustrator.

How to Use Notes to Scan Story Boards

Here’s just a short video to show you how I use notes to scan my story-boards to send to my illustrator.

Create Your Kindle Direct Publishing Account

This video has all the information you need to set-up your Kindle Direct Publishing account and to get your book published through this website. You need to set up your kdp account before sending your story boards to your illustrator because you need to decide what size you want your book to be.

Publishing with IngramSparks

This video has all the information you need to set-up your IngramSparks account and to get your book published through this website. This video will also go through the steps of setting pre-orders and creating hardcover books.

Finding an Illustrator and Editor

This video shows how to navigate the Fiverr website to find an illustrator and editor. It also goes over what to expect and how to find what’s best for you.

Free or Cheap Editing

If you are writing a longer book, the price for professional editing can be pretty pricey. If you are unable to pay the prices even for some of the freelance editors you might find on Fiverr, I have found this website that has suggestions for free and cheap editing. Click here to check it out.

Another option for free editing is doing some of it yourself. I always think you should have another person read your work, actually as many people as possible but there are resources to learn how to do it yourself. This is a VERY long process but if you don’t have thousands of dollars to pay an editor, it might be your best bet. Here are three books that I recommend to learn how to edit yourself: Self-editing for Fiction Writers, The Artful Edit, and The Copyeditors Handbook and Workbook.

Picking Fonts for Your Book

This is a quick video to show you how we find fonts for free and install them. I believe the fonts are one of the most important things for any type of book! This is what sets you apart.

Formatting Your Manuscript

In this video you will learn how to make your illustrations and text into one document so it is ready to be published.

Formatting Your Manuscript into an eBook

This video goes over how to turn the manuscript from your paperback into an eBook.

Creating a Cover Page and Copyright Page

This videos goes over how to create a cover page and copyright page which will be included in your manuscript.

Copyright Example Page

Creating a Cover

This video will show you just how to format your Word Document page so you have a cover and back that is ready to be published. This is one of the most important parts in publishing your book. Although the saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” we all know that’s exactly how people decided what books to read or not. If you need some feedback with how your cover looks, reach out to us! We’ll be happy to let you know what we think.

Using Canva to Create Covers

This video will show you how I use Canva to not only create stylish covers for you books but how I use it to add designs to my manuscripts. Click here to try it yourself!

Using Facebook to Advertise

We always have great luck when it come to advertising through Facebook. This video shows just how easy and cost-effective it is to do so.

What is a launch team?

Having a launch team before your book is released is a strategy to get your book reviewed by a lot of people and have it higher ranked on Amazon. The more reviews you have on Amazon, the more likely people are to see it and buy it. How do you create a launch team? Well, there are several steps that we are going to layout for you:

Before you even ask for a launch team, you need to be building up anticipation on your book. Post sneak peeks of your illustrations on social media or send out chapters to your email list. You need to have your following intrigued.
Figure out what you can give away for free. Maybe this is a free ebook, maybe it is some service you usually sell, or maybe it is something else that you have created. Personally, I have always given away a free ebook since they will need that anyways to review the book. One thing I have done in the past is a live virtual reading for everyone that is on the launch team.
Reach out to your following and see who wants to be a part of your launch team. Make sure you build it up and show how big of an opportunity it is.
Your first tier of your launch team should be your friends and family. People that you are close with and will give that extra effort. Make sure you tell them how important this is to you. Your second tier is people you aren’t as close with and will help you infiltrate a new crowd. Make sure you get as many of these people as possible.
Have your launch team read your free ebook version and on your release day, review the book on Amazon and share it on their social media accounts.

Getting Your Book into Book Stores

Although your book will now be available online through Amazon and Barnes and Nobel, it’s a big accomplishment to see your physical book on the shelves. You more than likely live in a town with a local book store. Local book stores love supporting local authors and will either buy a few books from you or put your books on consignment. Truly, I don’t always make the most amount of money this way since I had to purchase my author copies and then provide the book store a discount, but if you keep advertising your books at their locations and they sell well, you can have a long term relationship with them.

Marketing and Selling More Books

This video is an example of a consultation call I would have with someone about how to market and sell more books. This video goes into depth of my experience with selling my books and shares some recommendations of how to reach more people.

Sample Bookstore Email

Amazon Advertisement

Here is a great tutorial on how to sign up an Amazon advertisement for you ebook or paperback.