I've wanted to be a published author since I was at primary
school. I finished my first novel (one about unicorns, called 'Waterfall
Mountain'!) when I was in my early teens. It was a portal fantasy involving,
well, unicorns. Anyway… I wrote a lot of animal stories. I blame the late,
great, Brian Jacques and his fantastic Redwall books. The first novel I wrote
(and finished) about people was
called The Kingdom of Malinas.
I was sixteen. At that age, you think everything you do is
awesome. I wanted this book published.
Bear in mind, the internet wasn't really a thing when I was sixteen. All I could do was go to
the library and read the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.
First thing to do now when you want to self-publish? Get on
the internet. Join forums. Check out Absolute Write. Do not send your MS to
every vaguely accepting-sounding publisher you can find and then give up when
you get an endless stream of rejections.
I self-published because I was young and impatient and I was
lured in by all the vanity presses telling me that all the best authors of old are
self-published, and it's cheap! And easy! And you will earn millions!
I ended up in contact with Minerva Press (they no longer
exist) but, luckily for me, quickly realised they were a vanity press. While
looking for real self-publishing companies, I came across Trafford.
The Kingdom of Malinas was published by Trafford Press first
of all. I did all the editing, the layout, the design – my brother did my front
cover. I paid Trafford money. I made nothing.
My second bit of advice? Do NOT pay a publishing company
anything to publish your book. Just don't. Pay an editor, yes. Pay to get
copies of your book, of course. But don't fork out money just because you're
eager to be an author. Research. A lot.
After a few years (and TKoM is no longer published by
Trafford), I chose Lulu. I rewrote my novel to the best of my ability at the
time, and, this time round, hired a professional artist to design the cover.
This is my third bit of advice. HIRE AN ARTIST. Unless
you're an artist yourself. In which case, I'm very jealous. I found my artist
through DeviantArt. She was fantastic, and her cover is the one I still use.
You must find an artist who is good at design, too, one who'll know how to give
you a good font.
Font is what lets a lot of self-published books down. The titles
and author names often look terrible and, to me, are usually the biggest giveaway
that the book is self-published (not a bad thing, but will put some people
off).
Do not let your little brother do your cover art. Unless – same
as above – he is an artist.
If you're not confident of your editing abilities, or if you
just want one, hire an editor. Get beta readers too.
A couple of years ago, I finally decided to rewrite TKoM
again. For the final time. And this time, I published through Smashwords and
Amazon as an ebook only. This is great because you don't have to pay anything. You don't need to buy proof
copies, you see.
I also published the remaining two books in the trilogy –
The Empress Graves and The Barbarians' Key. You can find details of these, as
well as links to buy, here: http://ejtett.weebly.com/young-adult.html
My final bit of advice? Unless you want some of your
royalties going to Mr American Taxman, you need to get an ITIN. This is
extremely easy – please don't panic about it because it sounds more complicated
than it is. There is a very simple and easy to follow guide, here: https://scarlettparrish.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/how-this-uk-author-got-her-itin/
To recap:
1. Research. Don't rush into anything.
2. Don't pay a publishing company.
3. Hire an artist and editor.
4. Get an ITIN.
To follow other posts in this series visit:
7 August: Thaddeus White- nuts and bolts on how to self-publish
14 August: Me - pitfalls to avoid
21 August: Jo Zebedee - marketability and why some books suit self-publishing rather than the traditional route
28 August: Teresa Edgerton - advantages of self-publishing when reprinting a back catalogue [initially traditionally published].
