When you think published author, you think of book signings. New York Times bestsellers, books blown up on billboards, and movie adaptations.
Truth is, most of us don't even get there. We aren't even part of the considered to be considered.
Publishing advances in a non-linear fashion for indie authors. Or at least me. When I first thought I'd like to be published, it was 2018. I was in grade ten, just finishing up a novel about Greek mythology that I had spent two years on. (Non-consecutively. Finished a 40,000-word draft, forgot about it, then picked it up and doubled the word count).
Pearl of Meissa was queried 40+ times to agents who wanted nothing to do with it. Their responses were your copy and paste 'Dear Author' type, with no clue or indications as to why they'd rejected. As a high school student who knew nothing about the industry, it had left me confused and disheartened. I had poured my heart and soul into the query letter and novel, and because no agents wanted it, I thought it worthless.
So I scrapped it for a while. Mulled it over. And quite possibly the best thing to have ever happened to me—I came across Twitter's writing community. Except they weren't New York Times bestsellers, nor were they making millions a year from sales. Some weren't even making five dollars. (Ok, I might've fit into the latter, but anyway).
Here, I was introduced to the concept of self-publishing. Which felt impossible. If you're reading this going, 'well, there goes my hopes and dreams,' keep reading! I promise it gets better.
As I navigated through different resources, testimonials, and such, I learned some very important things:
Stop thinking it's going to happen overnight.
Stop thinking it won't happen
Indie publishing requires a very large amount of energy. Let me repeat:
Indie publishing requires a very large amount of energy.
Energy that some people don't have, and they only realize it once they've put $500 and a year of their life into the venture. There are many, many costs associated with putting out a book. But first, I had to decide what route I'd be going.
Kindle or paperback?
And because of my answer, I cannot testify to one of these options... In a way. After weeks of research, I concluded that I lived in too small a town (caught about fifty years behind general society) to go with only an electronic version. And let me tell you, I wouldn't change a thing.
So, I chose both! Paperbacks open doors that would've been bolted from the inside three times over. In choosing this option, not only did I get away with 'two for the price of one,' but I doubled my audience.
I use IngramSpark, which is a print-on-demand service. Their initial setup fee is $50 USD, which includes paperback and kindle setup. Paperback alone was $50, and so I felt a bit ridiculous even considering not taking the Kindle plus paperback option.
It's cheaper, for you and the consumer, quicker and travel friendly. Besides, you can't exactly stain or accidentally tear the page of your Kindle.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The road to indie is a long one.
Write the book
Edit the book
Create the cover
Format the interior
Market the book
Stress
But then there are the sub-categories.
Edit the book (but pay an editor, you'll miss so many mistakes. But if you can't afford an editor, try and do it yourself, but you're going to end up stressing that you're not qualified enough or that you're too busy).
Create the cover (using copyright-free materials. It has to be eye-catching but relevant to the plot. Then, discover your elements aren't high definition and you have to scrap it. Then, if you happened to create only the front cover, realize you have to create the entire book and somehow blend the front with the spine).
Don't get me started on interior formatting. Because I was too cheap to pay the $40 for a monthly subscription, I raced to finish within the trial's 7-day period. Which meant staying up for a straight 15 hours to teach myself how before finally attempting to do so.
There are tons of (stress) free options out there,
Reedsey book formatting being the major competitor. I used it for my first novel, Pearl of Meissa, before realizing I needed something more in line with my Greek mythology brand.
All you have to do is insert your chapters and watch it go. It's all free, and you can download your file once per 10 minutes. Made a mistake? Sorry, gotta wait. But at least it's free.
For e-pub, I found Draft2Digitital to be extremely helpful in file conversion. They index your pages and have several themes to choose from for paragraph division and chapter headings.
As for book covers, I'm afraid there's no easy way out of that one. You can use Unsplash for copyright-free photos, but the creative license is yours. Unless you pay a cover designer.
Though the road to indie is hard, it isn't impossible. Stop doubting yourself. Whether you queried with no success or want to exclusively self-publish, I've got you covered.