BellaOnline Forums Computers PDA Self-Publishing Your eBooks

I have been looking at how to self-publish -- Do I need to have an ISBN number? Do I need to buy special software? How do I market my eBook? --

What tips can you offer someone who is considering self-publishing?

Hi Kathryn! You don't always need an IBSN- thats primarily for traditional publishing where things are scanned. If you decide you need one, you can get one here www.MyIdentifiers.com. You don't need special software - however you should turn your book into a pdf. If you think its going to do really well it would be best to find a firm who can limit the number of downloads and alter the pdf so that it cant be emailed.

The tips I can offer you is to write your book well. Maybe find a copy editor to spruce it up. Market it on google and forums. Create other sites with free articles to market your book-with the intent of teasing it.

I would definitely get an ISBN number for any book I wrote, so that I could have a print copy as well. With so many self publishers out there it's in essence free to do, and you get a cut of every book sold.

You can make a PDF file out of pretty much any document creation software - PageMaker, Word, you name it. So make the document like you would any other book. Work on it seriously for several weeks to months. Spell check it 8 times. Then give it to friends and have them spell check it. You'd be surprised at how many typos you miss.

The book won't sell well if it's not professional. So it is *key* to put a lot of effort into the book's creation and finishing.

I don't know about other self publishing companies, but CreateSpace creates an ISBN for you for free. They don't charge anything but their cut of sales, because they print on demand.

Definitely join writing groups, both online and in person. Get involved with other writers. Join authonomy.com. CreateSpace has a good system too, where you swap reads before publishing to get a feel for how others may view your book.

When I was writing my novel, I went over and over it many times. Then I had friends and family read it, and they found many, many typos that I had missed - things that spell checker wouldn't have found. Things like misplaced commas, apostrophes, and capitalizations. Also, factual matters like breeds of trees that didn't grow in certain areas. I had researched these things, but not in detail. All in all, it took longer to get the novel ready for indie-publishing than it did to write it! But it was well worth the effort.

Shannon

Yup I've used CreateSpace, Lulu and CafePress to do self publishing. I realize some of them "give" you ISBNs but they retain ownership of the ISBN. I would always want to 100% own it so if I decided to switch publishers it didn't become an issue

I agree completely on having as many reviewer readers as humanly possible. There are all sorts of types of mistakes you tend to miss!

With CreateSpace, you own everything! You are totally free to switch publishers at any time.