The Self-Publishing Manual Pre-Release PDF Copy

The Self-Publishing Manual, Pre-Publishing Release

"I want to publish my book but I don't know how to do it, please help me." 

In my How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group I get some version of this question more than any other. Usually the book is written and that is as far as the author has gotten. The question is where do I start? What do I do? How do I publish my book? I have just published, now what do I do? These are really big and often confusing questions. So, let’s dive in and see if I can give you some direction and the basic overview of how you can publish your book.




The Self-Publishing Manual, Create and Publish Your Own Print or e-Book, is an updated and revise version of my previous how to publish your book publication. So much has change in the past few months. CreateSpace, which was our go to site for publishing and selling paperback books on Amazon, has been merged into KDP.Amazon. This is a total rewrite, all updated for using KDP/Amazon/Kindle. Lots of new marketing info, more in-depth e-book. This version is the pre-publication version. All the updates are in and I am doing the final edits.

Part 1. Key Publishing Questions. Part 1 takes you through many of the basic questions that people ask about publishing their book. I talk about where to publish, what is print-on-demand, what is an ISBN number, KDP.Amazon, Kindle and how does copyright work.

Part 2. Writing, Creating and Publishing Your Book. Part 2 is an overview of the creating and publishing process. I have broken it down into 12 steps. We start with creating the content. Then print or e-book, what is involved and how do you do it, interior and cover. We move to publishing your book, how and where it is done and then one of my favorite topics, re-purposing your content for additional revenue. Includes the Self-Publishing Checklist.

Part 3. The Bonus Section. In the bonus section I cover four topics; how to launch your book as an Amazon best seller with a Best Seller Check List, expanded with more tips and ideas. How to create a book quickly using my Top Ten Technique and we wrap-up with a resource list.

Part 1. Key Questions to Ask Before You Begin
• Where Are You in The Process? Are You Just Starting Out or is the Book Complete?
• What Kind of Book Are You Creating, Novel, How To, Children’s, Picture, Coloring, 
Poetry, Business, Cookbook?
• Is Your Book Going to Be Paperback, Hardcover, E-Book or All the Above?
• Which Do I Do, Self-Publish or Traditional Publish My Book?
• Where Do I Publish My Book?
• Self-Publishing Sites Comparison Chart
• What is Print-on-Demand Printing?
• What is KDP.Amazon/Kindle Print?
• Why Does Kindle/Amazon want My Tax and Bank Account Info?
• What is an e-Pub?
• What Programs Should I Use to Create My Book?
• What Programs Should I use to Create a Picture/Children’s Book?
• Can I Create a Hardcover Book?
• Can My Book Be in Bookstores?
• How Do I Get My Book in Bookstores?
• How Do I Make an Audio Book?
• Are You Publishing Primarily in the US or Worldwide?
• How Long Should My Book Be? 
• What is an ISBN Number?
• Do I Need to Copyright My Book?
• Who Owns the Book’s Copyright if I Publish on Amazon, Kindle/Amazon or Me?

• How Do Royalties Work?

My Story, Learning to Write at 53

Part 2. How to Write and Publish Your Book

Writing the Book
1. Writing Your Book
2. Collect Your Graphic Assets, Images, Pictures, and Charts
3. Key Elements that Every Book Should Have
4. Editing Your Book
5. Pre-Edit Printed Proof
6. Six Different Options for Publishing Your Book.

Creating the Book
7. Creating a Kindle e-book, Including a Kindle Formatting Guide
8. Creating a KDP.Amazon/Kindle Print Book, Inside and Cover
9. Creating a Quick Print Book Publishing Your Book
10. Uploading and Publishing Your Book
11. Launching and Marketing Your Book

Re-Purposing Your Book’s Content
12. Re-purposing Your Book Content for Additional Products

Self-Publishing Checklist

Part 3. Bonus Content
• Making an Amazon Best Seller
• Best Seller Checklist
• Top Ten Technique for Creating a Book

• Publishing Resources

Pick up a Pre-Release copy of the book, Click Here

Buy the Book

Journals and Workbooks Are Easy Items to Make and Sell on Amazon and Expand Your Products

Journal Books are hot these days along with all of the coloring books that have flooded the market. Think of them as coloring books without pictures. They are easy and fun to produce and sell on Amazon using print-on-demand though KDP.Amazon, what we use to call CreateSpace. Journal books can also add nice additional product to your mix.  If you have written a book, journals and workbooks make a great extension to your current book and as a product to sell.  

Howard Hales' new Marketing Journal, made with PowerPoint

There are many different kinds of journals that you can make, these include: Prayer Journals, Meditation Journals, Gratitude Journals, Travel Journals, Exercise Journals, Food and Recipe Journals, Medicine Journals, Planting and Gardening Journals, Inspirational Journals, Doodle, Art and Sketch Journals, Baby and Pregnancy Journals and many more.

Journals can be simple with just lines or complex with different page designs, ideas and tasks. They can be stand alone like a travel journal or be part of another book, such as a workbook that is a companion to a tips or lesson book.

By Becky Norwood

One of the ways I think about getting ideas for journals is to look around you for repetitive tasks that need to be recorded. Like a diet journal, every day has to be written down. Journals can support another book or a period of time. The advantage of building one around a period of time is that the customer will need to buy the journal again and again. Something to think about when you are looking for ideas for your next journal project.

See Becky Norwood's Networking Journal book based around keeping track of business contacts. A great use of a journal based on an activity.


Think about how you can take the type of journals above and mix them into these different journal structures.

• Simplest would be just blank pages.

• Add some lines or grids for drawing and writing.

• Add some quotes to the lines or grids, inspirational, tips, spiritual says.

• Add some illustrations to the pages, jazz them up a little, part coloring, part activities. How about adding puzzles and activities.

• A task driven journal that walks the reader through a series of steps, 100 days to a better life, that kind of book.

• A log journal, like a seasonal gardening journal, or health journal for diabetes or dieting. A book where you record daily activities and results. This kind of journal has a time frame on it, you need to buy it again and again.

• A journal that supports a book, the companion workbook. This is a great way to expand an existing book and add sales. Add some videos and you have a course.

• Lots of us produce information books, 52 tips, lessons learned, that kind of book. At the end of each chapter we often ask the reader questions or we start discussions around our books topic. Take your current book and expand out the questions or come up with some new ones, add lines for writing the answers, maybe make the book size bigger. It is a version of the workbook idea above. This book includes all the text of the original book, just expanded out with all the activities. Again this becomes a nice add on sale to the original book. Add the word workbook on the front cover.

Journals are pretty easy to produce using programs like InDesign, PowerPoint and even MS Word, really any program that can edit text and produce a pdf file. Use KDP.Amazon for printing and selling.

To learn more you can check out my latest course on How to Make Journal Books. In the course I show you how to set up your journal book using InDesign and PowerPoint. Yes PowerPoint, you can a make a book with a program you probably already have on your computer. I have even seen people make them using Google Slides Presentation. So it can be pretty simple. The course also includes pages and cover templates for both InDesign and PowerPoint for a 160, 6" x 9" journal, along with step by step instructions. Check out the video intro above.

NEW TEMPLATES I have now added a full 140 page, 6" x9" with cover template that you can open, add art, customize and publish on KDP.Amazon. It comes in both PowerPoint and InDesign. It includes a title page, legal page, and all the pages set up with lines ready to go. The package also includes a laid out ready cover template for a 140 page book.

Sample pages from the InDesign and PowerPoint Journal template

J. Bruce Jones is an author of over 50 books and a product developer of lots of stuff, Want to know how to publish your own book? Check out my latest book Self-Publishing SECRETS, Create, Publish and Launch Your Book. Click here to pick up a copy.

Beta, How to Make a Journal Book Course for Beginners

I am putting together a new course on how to make a journal book. This is a beginners level course and we will be using software that you probably already have on your computer.

I will be doing the first webinar/webcast Dec 1 and then out to the world after that. This post includes my rough notes and ideas as I put it together. I will be working with Becky Norwood and her site Journey to Authorship

Beta, Course Outline

Your Concept: what is your journal about,
types of journals, daily, meditation, gratitude, travel, nature, exercise, food, diabetes/medical, 

How Are You Publishing Your Book: Where are you selling it, Amazon? Createspace? Print-on-Demand

Design: picking the size of your book, how you are going to make it, book structure, options

Master Slide or Template: layout, page numbers, graphics on the page

Interior Page Layout: Formatting each page, adding art

Cover Layout: building the template, cover design, layout

Images: sources, file formats and sizes, conversion
Graphics Factory, Shutterstock, draw them, public domain, Freelance/Fiverr.com

Output: file prep for publishing, pdf, interior, cover

Publishing: uploading your files, CreateSpace.com/Amazon

Marketing: social media, book launch,

Laying out a journal page, from upcoming course on making journals

Resources
Journey to Authorship, https://www.facebook.com/groups/JourneytoAuthorship/
On this project I am working with SpotlightOnYourBusiness.com
Image Conversion, Online-converter.com http://www.online-convert.com/
GraphicsFactory.com, http://www.graphicsfactory.com/

Learn More
To know more be sure to sign up on our mailing list over on the right for notification for when this course is ready

Learn How to Make a Book Cover for Your CreateSpace PaperBack Book Friday Aug 14, 2:00pm

In this weeks How to Publish Your Book Show I will show how to layout a book cover for the print-on-demand site CreateSpace/Amazon. I will build the front, spine and back cover for the Amazon best selling book the Goddess Guide.

Be sure  to sign up over on the right for our new Book Marketing Checklist, filled with tips and tricks and information for marketing your book.

Learn my layout tips and techniques in this hands on episode, Friday, August 14th at 2:00pm EST, 11:00 Pacific.

Click here to join me for the broadcast on Friday  https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c8mh56alumqr5us4q12q48ijqq4

Learn How to Build a Kindle Book Cover with Canva from How to Publish Your Book Show

In today's show I show you how to build a Kindle book cover using Canva.com and all the great templates. Canva is a great site for making all kinds of artwork for social media, blogs, and now books.


 

Resources http://www.canva.com