You Can Do It!
It does not cost a lot of money to self-publish.
I’ve heard it said over and over, I can’t afford to self-publish. Well, I’m here to tell you that you can afford to self-publish your own book. I’m quite sure of it, as a matter of fact.
You’re probably thinking that, I don’t know your financial situation. And that there’s no way that this could be right. Don’t I need an editor? I’m no visual artist, what about a cover image? How do I actually publish my book?
And those are all valid questions. Questions that can be answered one of two ways: Sure, you could hire someone to do all of that. Or, you can do it yourself using free tools. And if not all of it, the more you can get accomplished on your own the better — every small step brings your book closer to being published.
What if I told you that, Polk Knoll: A Collection of Short Stories, was published for zero $? That’s right. I didn’t spend a dime on it. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. 🤑
Now I do realize that I have the advantage of being an editor myself. But I still need help on this front, so I look to my fellow writers. And I would say that simply because you’re reading this on Substack, you probably have that covered too. Ask some writer friends that you respect to Alpha or Beta read for you — offer to do the same for them in exchange.
And although I’m no visual artist, I was able to create my book cover using the ChatGPT image creation tool. I start with a written prompt, then request any edits needed. Both Chat and I have gotten much better at this in the past 8 months. While I worked on the cover of my first book exclusively for over two weeks last January, it took me less than an hour to complete my second book cover. And yes, I did it for free. I’m talking less than an hour in actual time. It took me three days — three sessions of the free-image-creations, to get it done. Patience, is a virtue.
Amazon does not charge to create an author account or publish a book in any format, either. It even has a book cover creation tool(that sucks), if you want to go that route. And although it isn’t super navigable, it’s Help Center has the answer to any formatting questions you may have. Or you just can ask the AI search engine of your choice, and let it summarize the info for you…
Honestly guys, I’ve drafted a whole book on this process — but it’s almost already irrelevant. While I would never consider using AI during the writing process, it is quite adept at answering publishing and format questions.
Still on the fence? Don’t know where to start? Here’s what I told a fellow writer and potential client earlier this week. First steps:
Get a collection of stories together, anything you’d consider adding to a book.
Add them all to one document.
Make a quick run through them, making any edits that you notice.
If you have a question on how anything should be, buy the latest copy of the Associated Press Stylebook. It will serve as your editing guidebook.
As you’re working through the edits you’ll start to get a feel for the stories and how you might want them to appear in the book. What stays and what goes.
You can do all of this yourself. Just make sure that you start a new copy/draft each round of edits.
Once you have something you’re pretty sure is close, I can come in and proofread it. Then help you with the self publishing process.
If I can do it, you can do it. Small steps.
Are you looking for Editing Services? I offer my clients Proofreading, Copy-editing, and Developmental-editing services. I can even help you build your Substack! The Southern Copywriter.com
Polk Knoll — A Collection of Short Stories, is a compilation of the first stories I’ve published. Though this is but one of a number of books I’ll publish this year, this collection of stories is very special to me. It’s hard to explain the feeling of pressing the publish button for the first time — it’s exciting, and scary to put your work out there for others to read!
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So true MJ. I've self published on Amazon and there is something really exciting about seeing your book in print and holding it in your hands isn't there?!
I also self publish ebooks on Buy Me a Coffee and, as you say...it costs nothing yet a little bit of time and bucket loads of LOVE 💕