Ep 33: How to Self-Publish a Book

Self-publish your book.

Every step you need to take to get your book in front of an audience - learn the process of publishing with Naibe Reynoso, a journalist and the founder of Con Todo Press. And Jane Friedman, a publishing industry expert, shares her secrets to ensuring your book is as discoverable as possible.

(05:32)  What are the steps to publishing a book?

(13:21) What's the ISBN and how do I get one for my book?

(18:12) Considerations an aspiring author should make if they want to make a profitable business out of writing books.

(19:50) What Business model works best for someone who just wrote their first children's book?

(21:04) Technical elements that you need to know before trying to sell a book.

(24:15) Andrea lists the key takeaways from the episode.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] JANE: It is exceptionally rare for anyone to make a living off book sales alone, especially if you're early in your career, if you're not a celebrity, if you're not already an influencer of some kind with brand recognition, then that first book that you put out there is just the first step of a very, very long journey. And I think many writers just have misplaced expectations about what those sales will look like regardless of how they publish, regardless of the genre. It is very hard to sell a book.  

[00:00:35] Host: Hi, This is Small Business, a podcast brought to you by Amazon. I’m your host, Andrea Marquez. On This is Small Business we cover all things small business that will help you start, build, and scale your business. We will hear from guests with diverse backgrounds, point of views and stories, with the hope of hearing from many types of small business entrepreneurs. On each episode I end with key takeaways that you can use on your business journey.

[00:01:00] Aright, so you've written a book, and now you wanna share your stories with the world. The next big step on your journey as an author is to navigate the daunting world of publishing. Today, we'll demystify the process, step by step, to help you understand how to release your work to your readers aka your customers. From refining your manuscript to selecting where you wanna print your book, we will delve into the essential considerations that pave the way towards a successful book release.

Coming up -- I'll talk to Jane Friedman, a publishing industry expert, about how to start the process of publishing a book. But first -- I want you to meet Business owner, Naibe Reynoso, a journalist and the founder of Con Todo Press, a company that publishes and creates award-winning bilingual children’s books that amplify the stories and voices of underrepresented communities. Naibe is also a multi-Emmy award-winning journalist and author and has contributed to various regional and international networks. [00:02:00] Like most of the small businesses we feature on the show, you can find her books in the Amazon store. Also, remember that if you want to hear your story on This is Small Business, we have a voicemail line where you can ask questions or share your entrepreneurial story. We want to hear from you! Find the link to the voicemail line in the episode description. Here’s a question that one of our listeners had:

[00:02:25] VM: How do small businesses go about scaling? I feel like we’ve reached a point where we want to scale more and go to that next level but find it a bit difficult just because there’s not blueprint, but um, looking for some strategies and ideas on how to level up and go to that next level with your small business once you feel like you’re ready.  

[00:02:42] Host: Scaling is something that a lot of the businesses that we have on the show are thinking about and it’s something that we also like to dive deep into because how you scale has a lot to do with your business model, how you’re set up, where you are in the journey of your business, and of course, resources available. We’ve talked about this subject on previous episodes [00:03:00] like the one with Back to the Roots that features Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora as well as Chuck Templeton. That episode talks about how they made the jump from small to medium. One of the key takeaways they mentioned through their journey to success is zigging when others zag. Since there is a lot of competition out there, it’s important to think about how you stand out and take risks. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis and seek advice from the people who are where you hope to be one day. We’ll also be talking about this subject on later episodes in this season so keep a look out. So let’s get this show on the road and meet Naibe!

[00:03:35] Naibe: So I'm a journalist. I've been a journalist for over 25 years and I feel like everything came together at the right time, right? The perfect storm. I'm a mom also. I walked into a bookstore and I took my son because I was really looking for something where he would feel represented, seen, [00:04:00] and he would feel pride in his culture because the climate at the time wasn't so warm and fuzzy for minorities, especially Latinos. So I really wanted him to get the other side of the story of how amazing we are as a culture and how many, how much we've contributed to the United States. But I did not find anything for his age range. Right. Between five- and eight-year-old age range. I found books for babies and I, there's obviously history books, but not for his age range.

So that's kind of where the seed was planted of why don't these books exist? Why can't I create them? I'm a journalist. I've been doing stories about my community, highlighting my community for over 20 years. I'm multiple Emmy award-winning journalist so I can do this. That's what, you know, that's what I was thinking. So that's how Con Todo Press was born. And even the naming, like give it your all. Con Todo.

[00:04:50] Andrea: I know this is going to sound cheesy, but, GRACIAS Naibe. As a Latina, this is so inspiring to hear. [00:05:00] Not only am I a Latina but I also LOVE books so this story is especially close to my heart. What I also love about your books is that they're both in English and Spanish. And as a bilingual myself, when I was little, I would've loved to have this because it was either, you read everything in English or you read everything in Spanish. And because I went to school in the United States, most of my reading was in English, so growing up my parents were always worried about me being able to speak Spanish correctly. And so I think instilling that is very important at a younger age. So, I want to jump into our topic today. The first step to publishing a book is, obviously, to write it. But what comes after that?

[00:05:40] Naibe: So after you write the book, you have to know what category is your book fit into, right? There's a lot of different categories, whether it's a board book, whether it's for five to seven or a little older, young adult romance, et cetera. So once you've, really narrowed down what that book that you wrote is for, what audience is it for, [00:06:00] the next step is finding a copy editor, right? You have to find a copy editor that's really gonna fine tune your words. Sometimes we feel like, but my words are perfect cuz it's my words. But this is a product that's gonna go out to hopefully thousands of people and you want the best work, right? So you hire a professional copy editor to look at your manuscript, the words that you've written, and to improve them, not only, with grammar, but also contextually like improve the script.

You might have a blind spot where you're not realizing that it doesn't make sense or this character, why is this character here, et cetera. So that's the next step. The way you find a copy editor is you go on different platforms such as Read Z, which is kind of like a Fiverr or an Upwork specifically for people in the publishing industry. And there you will find freelancers who have or still do work for big publishers and just are looking for extra work. [00:07:00] So I've found amazing publishers that have worked for the top publishers in the industry. So you really have that confidence of like, okay, this manuscript has been vetted by a true professional.  

After it's been copy edited, looked at for grammar, et cetera. Then you hire your illustrator. Right now I'm talking specifically about children's books, but you still need an illustrator or a graphic designer, even if you have a romance novel, right? What's gonna be on the front cover? We'll go with the example of a kid's book. You need illustrations, so that's the next step. The way I've found my illustrators is different ways. One is, there's another platform called Behance, where illustrators put up their portfolios and you can skim through. But before you do that to save yourself some time, do a mood board as far as what kind of vibe do you want this book to have? There's so many different styles, right? So that way you don't waste your time looking at portfolios that aren't ultimately gonna be a good fit for your manuscript. [00:08:00] So you have to make the decision, is this gonna be watercolor, is this gonna be vivid colors? What style? Once you have that style and then you start looking at portfolios not only on Behance, which is an option, but also on Instagram. I have found some of my illustrators on Instagram, so you search the, the hashtags. I've wanted to work always with Latina or BIPOC illustrators. So I'll search hashtag Latina illustrator or also just illustrators. In that hashtag, so many different amazing illustrators come up. You make a list of all of your favorite ones based on that concept of your mood board, and then you reach out to them, and you see, do they have an agent? Are they just work for, hire, et cetera. So that would be the third step, right?  

Hiring that illustrator, writing a contract, making sure that everything, you know, all your ducks are in a row because there's a lot of different elements that go into copyright and who's gonna own the artwork. So do you wanna own it? As a small self-publisher, if you do, [00:09:00] you have to do work for hire. And you have to put that into the contract where you're outright just purchasing the rights to their art. If you're gonna do royalty based, then you do a contract based on royalty. How much royalty are you gonna give them? Write that in the contract and be very clear. I personally did hire a publishing attorney, cuz I just wanted to make sure I did things the right way. I highly advise you to hire a publishing attorney so they can give you a template of contracts or look over a contract that you are going to have for the rest of your publishing life, right, with that specific illustrator.

[00:09:30] Andrea: Small pause here, and I bet you already know what I’m going to say listener. But we can’t stress enough how important it is to consult a legal professional. Know that none of the things mentioned on this episode should be taken as legal advice. We’re here to provide you with general information. So before you do anything, please seek qualified professional counsel on your specific matter. The hiring of an attorney is super important so don’t make that decision lightly or based solely on anything we cover today on this episode, or any other for that matter! [00:10:00] And if you want to learn more about hiring legal help, check out our third episode of this season with Cynthia Dahl, where she covers different types of free legal resources available to small business owners, or take a look at our show notes! Ok now, back to Naibe.  

[00:10:17] Naibe: So after illustrations are done, contracts are signed. Now is the last step, which is the book formatter. And the book formatter, I like to call them the chef. The chef puts everything together, all of the ingredients. Right before that there's a tiny little step that seems complicated but isn't that complicated. Once you do your research, it's getting your ISBN, which is that barcode, that number in the back of the book that we all see that identifies your book, figuring out the price, getting your barcode, which is not difficult at all. And then submitting it for copyright. So after you have all of that, like I said, you get the chef, which is the book formatter, [00:11:00] who gets all those ingredients together, gets your manuscript or your text, the illustrations, puts them together, your copyright information, your author's note if you have one, and then, basically gives you this document that's a PDF format and that is your print ready PDF format and now you're ready to go to print.

So you can decide whether you wanna do print on demand or if you wanna go and do an offset printing with any printer either in the United States, there's printers all over the world that you can work with. I print through Amazon, but I also print through an offset printer in China. But I do have print on demand through Amazon which is a really, really cool tool because with print on demand, if you don't have a lot of money to fork out thousands of dollars for offset printing, you don't have to, you could just write your book and then put it up on the Amazon KDP platform, Kindle Direct Publishing, and they will print the book as people order the book. [00:12:00] You don't have to mail the book, you don't have to even process shipping, nothing. All you have to do is upload it onto the platform and then you receive a royalty depending on how many books were sold in a period of time. Every month I get a royalty from Amazon, from all the print on demand copies that are sold. So it's an amazing, amazing platform cuz it's like you literally set it and forget it, you know? It's, it's like pretty much just money that's coming in. You've front-loaded all the work, and now the rewards just are gonna come for the rest of my life. Basically On KDP.

So that's the last step. And then obviously putting out, releasing it finally and promoting it.

[00:12:42] Andrea: Thank you for taking us all the way through. Ok so let’s unpack a bit. You mentioned that the first step you have to go through is finding an editor, and you talked about where you can find that editor in different places. And then after that you found an illustrator. [00:13:00] You specifically found illustrators that aligned with the content of the book and could carry out your vision. And then after that you got a publishing lawyer, you figured out what your ISBN code is, found a printer, and then you finally published it, mainly through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. I want to know more about the ISBN, and that stands for the International Standard Book Number, as I just quickly searched, and the process of getting that.  

[00:13:26] Naibe: That little ISBN number seemed the most intimidating because it's like, that looks so official. Do I have to take a test to get one of those numbers? Do I have to be certified? Like how do I get an ISBN? And it's as simple as going to BOWKER.com, create an account, and literally you can have an ISBN right then and there within minutes because all you have to do is pretty much tell them what's the name of your book, how many pages, what audience it is, what you're selling it for, and bam, it'll spit out the ISBN number and there you go. [00:14:00] You do need an ISBN in order to publish a book, it's an identifier if you wanna sell on Amazon, or if you wanna sell to a different small bookstore or libraries. All of these need that official number because that's how they identified it within their system, and it's kind of like a uniform system, identifying system that everyone uses.

So yes, you definitely need it. And then another number, some people don't get it, but I always get it, is the LCCN number, which is a library of Congress control number. And that's super easy to get too. But the LCCN is basically the identifying number that all libraries use for their system. So it's good to like get all those numbers so your book feels and is official, official, official. And it's not just pieces of paper bound by stitching. It actually has all the numbers that all of these different institutions will want to use for their categorizing systems, et cetera.

[00:15:00] Host: You're listening to This is Small Business, brought to you by Amazon. I’m your host, Andrea Marquez. You just heard from Naibe Reynoso, a Journalist and the Founder of Con Todo Press. You can find out more about Con Todo Press in our show notes on our website: Thisissmallbusinesspodcast.com.

Naibe gave us so much valuable information on the process of publishing a book. And she made even the technical intimidating parts of publishing - like getting your ISBN or LCCN easy. And I love that she shared her experience with printing her books via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s helpful to know just how easy and seamless the process can be.  

Like Con Todo Press, the small businesses we feature on This is Small Business are some of the many small businesses selling in the Amazon store who have tapped into some of the tools and resources offered to help them succeed and grow. One of those resources is the Amazon Small Business Academy where you can find the help you need to take your small business from concept to launch and beyond. [00:16:00] You can strengthen your skills at no cost with live and on demand trainings, Q&As, events, and even find more This is Small Business content. If you don’t know where to start, you can take the free self-assessment on the Amazon Small Business Academy site at www.smallbusiness.amazon.

So far, we've talked about the process of publishing a book and we'll dig deeper into other considerations that you might need to make before you publish your work with my next guest: Jane Friedman, a publishing industry expert with nearly 25 years of work experience in the industry. Here’s Jane.  

[00:16:30] JANE: I've spent 25 years working in the publishing industry in some capacity. I started out on the traditional publishing end, but about 10 years ago I went full time freelance. I run my own small business which focuses on helping writers navigate the book publishing industry, and also the, what I'll call the emerging creator economy, but mainly, I'm helping people understand the business, because publishing isn't necessarily the most transparent business in the world.

[00:17:00] Andrea: We just talked to Naibe Reynoso about her experience writing her books and went through the step-by-step process. I’m curious if your steps align. What is the next step you think an author should take as soon as they finish writing the book?  

[00:17:12] JANE: I think it really helps to have a cooling off period. Usually the first impulse of writers after finishing a book, the first draft is to submit it somewhere, or to show someone. And I think, if you are the normal author, if you're like 99% of most authors, you're gonna need to revise it in some way and usually it's, it's not that I think you have to run off and hire an editor, or find a critique group, or find beta readers, which of course you can do all those things, but I think the most valuable thing you can do is just let it sit for a little while, whether that's a week or a month, so that you can look at it with fresh eyes and decide: What have I missed? Where do I feel like I need to address some issues? What do I feel confident about? And then proceed from there.  

[00:18:00] Andrea: You work with authors to help them understand the business of publishing. What are some of the first considerations an aspiring author should make if they’re looking to make a profitable business out of writing books?  

[00:18:12] JANE: It is exceptionally rare for anyone to make a living off book sales alone, especially if you're early in your career, if you're not a celebrity, if you're not already an influencer of some kind with brand recognition, then that first book that you put out there is just the first step of a very, very long journey. And I think many writers just have misplaced expectations about what those sales will look like regardless of how they publish, regardless of the genre. It is very hard to sell a book. And what I find is that a lot of writers will short circuit. They'll put in a lot of time and energy into selling that first book, treating it as a sprint rather than a marathon, and then they give up. [00:19:00] They might even abandon writing altogether because they're like, What? There aren't any rewards here. I essentially got paid one cent per hour, and actually that might even be a good rate. And so you have to look at the bigger picture of how this book is going to support your career, your visibility, and some other ways that you might earn money as a result of now having this book.

Now the answer to that is, what the business model will be is going to differ, whether you're fiction, nonfiction, children's, etc. But I think every writer has to give some thought to what that business model will be, which will include book sales, but book sales is typically a very small percentage to start.

[00:19:36] Andrea: Because we spoke to Naibe who writes children’s books, what business model would you suggest for someone who just wrote their first children's book? And what I'm hearing is that it has to do with volume, right? Like don't expect the first one to just hit it out of the park. You kind of write a lot of them, it sounds like.

[00:19:55] JANE: Yes, yes, regardless of what you're writing, it helps to have a series, [00:20:00] it helps to have spinoffs, it helps to build over time the number of books you have in your library as an author. But aside from that, in the children's market in particular, one thing most authors love to do is library visits, classroom visits, other visits like that, that sometimes come with an honorarium or a speaking fee, other times they don't. But if you are comfortable in that role as a speaker or a teacher, that to me is like the number one path that I would be looking at. But, you know, the thing is you have to remember until you're an author with some name recognition, it can be tough to get that payment with your very first outings and so you may have to do some things on a free basis or for less money than you would like as you gain experience, and the word starts to spread about what you do.

[00:20:53] Andrea: Are there any technical elements that you think a lot of people don't think about prior to trying to sell a book?

[00:21:00] JANE: The book foundation is very important, and what I mean by foundation, aside from the content or the story itself, is like all of the things that go into the package and into how that book is going to be discovered. So it includes things like the title, the cover design, the subtitle, if there is one very important for nonfiction, the pricing, the format, the page count, all of these things when you put them together. It turns it into a title that people are often assessing against other titles that they know, and so it's really to your benefit as an author if your book abides by whatever the industry standards seem to be for your category, and so it helps to look at those comparable titles, comparable authors, to see if you're in the ballpark of what readers are expecting or looking for in your genre or your category.

And then there's another level beyond that, which helps with discoverability, which has to do with keywords, categories, some people refer to this as the metadata, which is just a fancy word for how books get discovered, [00:22:00] especially in online environments and the book description itself and some of the different ways that you describe a book and retail a book at places like Amazon. You know, there are things like customer reviews and professional or editorial reviews and other assets that go into making a better presentation for your book, what it's about, who it's for. And so what I sometimes see is authors will just take the first thing that pops into their head for like the back cover copy, which often ends up on the book description page or the retailer page, and they haven't really put much thought into is this saying something that's persuasive or effective in an online environment, especially if people can't pick up the book or, you know, flip through it very easily. Am I hitting on the keywords or the phrases or the terms that people would be searching for when they're presented with an online bookstore environment?  

And so, this is really, I think, the [00:23:00] shortcut to all of this, of knowing what is the right thing to do, is understanding those comparable titles and authors, seeing what they've done, and pulling out, you know, the things that are going to make sense for your book given the genre or category that you're in. This is one area where you don't want to break the mold or be different from everyone else, especially in fiction and in children's literature, people tend to like more of the same or they're shopping for very particular likes and they want clues, signals that, oh yes, this book is for me because it's going to have that great thrilling twist at the end, which you would mention in your book description. So I consider these fairly technical issues where you can actually hire people to help you, or if you do enough study and research, you can handle it on your own.

[00:23:50] Host: Judging a book by its cover in the publishing industry is real. That was Jane Friedman, a publishing industry expert with nearly 25 years of work experience in the industry. [00:24:00] Thank you for listening today -- As always, let’s end the episode with some of our key takeaways on self-publishing your first book:

  • One. Take a breather. Once you've finished writing your book. Let it sit for a while and come back to it after a week or even a month to revise it. Taking a break from your writing will help you look at it with fresh eyes and spot some mistakes that perhaps you didn't before.  
  • Two. After that breather, Naibe gave a great timeline of what you should do when you've decided that your book is ready to publish, so let's quickly go over it. One. Decide the genre of your book. Once you've narrowed it down then you can move on to Two. Get a Copy Editor that'll help you fine tune your words and make sure your book is ready to be seen by hopefully thousands of people. You can find a copy editor on different platforms like Red Z. And Jane did mention that you should make sure your copy editor is the right fit for you and that might take a bit of time to find. But it’s worth it. [00:25:00] Then, we move on to Three. Hire an illustrator or a graphic designer. You can find them on sites like Behance or even Instagram, but before you look through examples of their works, make sure you create a mood board of what you want your illustrations or book cover to look like so it's a lot easier to pinpoint what you want when you're looking through their work. Four. Get your ISBN and LCCN codes, it's as easy as making an account on bowker.com and the Library of Congress and uploading your work. And finally five. Figure out your printer, there are tons of options to print your book. You can find a local printer and/or use Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
  • One last key point mentioned was discoverability. Descriptions and titles are important to help your audience find your book. Jane suggests that you should do research on what other books in your genre look like and try to emulate that. Do judge a book by its cover in this case.  

[00:26:00] I'm curious – Are you thinking of publishing a book? How are thinking of printing it? Or maybe you’ve already gone through this experience and have self-published many books! I'd love to hear about your journey! Reach out to us at thisissmallbusiness@amazon.com to tell us what you're up to. Or let me know what you think of the episode by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts – it’s easier if you do it through your phone. And if you liked what you heard -- I hope you'll share us with anyone else who needs to hear this!

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, and I hope you are if you’re listening to This is Small Business. Or maybe you already have your small business up and running and you’re ready for the next step. A super valuable resource that can help you is the Amazon Small Business Academy where you can find the help you need to take your small business from concept to launch and beyond. Take the free self-assessment on the Amazon Small Business Academy site at www.smallbusiness.amazon.

That's it for today’s episode of This is Small Business, brought to you by Amazon. Until next week – This is Small Business, I'm your host Andrea Marquez -- Hasta luego -- and thanks for listening! [00:27:00]

CREDITS: This is Small Business is brought to you by Amazon, with technical and story production by JAR Audio. [00:27:15]

Tags

Business Model
Planning
Marketing

Also Available On

Share with Friends