Am not writing much these days because I'm doing a course in self publishing and apart from the onerous task of trying to follow all the technical stuff we also look at traditional publishing.
The big five publishing houses :Penguin random, Macmillan, Simon and Schuster,Hachette and Harper Collins only take submissions via an agent.
You can research an agent via a free platform called Query Manager but it will probably throw up hundreds of possible agents in your genre.
If you do find an agent to take you on and if they are successful in finding a publisher they will take a commission of 15-20%
In the end you as writer will receive 5-8% commission for a paperback, 15% for a hardback, 20-25% for an e-book and 25% for an audio book.
If you self publish the royalties for a print book are much higher at 60%
and 70% for an e-book on a platform like KDP AMAZON
BUT
Then you have the task of advertising and promoting your book.
Some of the benefits of self publishing are that it is quick compared to the traditional route
and you have complete creative control.
Costs are not that high.
But You will need an ISBN- International Standard Book Number.
You don't need one for an e-book.
https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/
A single one costs 93 euro while a block costs 174 euro. As you would need a separate one for a hard back and you are likely to write more than one book it may be more cost efficient to buy 10.
Amazon will provide one free but this means that your book is only available through Amazon.
COVER
You can download a free book cover using a free tool from Canva.com.
Start with a template and modify. Make sure you avoid the images with the crown on them as these have to be bought.
This whole business of cover design I found very tricky so a tech savvy friend would be a big asset.
You can also find a free image on Pixabay.com
and customise it using Canva
For interior design and typesetting a free tool to use is Reedsy.com
EDITING
Most of us will ask friends to read/edit but bear in mind we need
A content edit- the one that takes in the big picture, the structure of the narrative
A copy edit for clarity, coherence, consistency
And a line or style edit for grammar, repetition and style.
It is advisable to have an author website if you want to develop your audience and you need to do this if you self publish
A website will tell about us, have links to other social platforms, social media links , a mailing list and perhaps a blog.
I started to sign up with Wix.com but ended up with Weebly.com as I found it easier to use
You can set up a site for free but once it's up and running you will pay a monthly maintenance charge of around 8 euro.
Mine is not yet published as I have links to develop etc.
I hope aspiring writers find this useful. It is meant only as a guideline. Will keep you posted on my progress!
