[Stylist] Mark's Short Primmer on Self Publishing

[M. Taylor]

Hello Everyone, 

I was just thinking about what David wrote in that few blind people ever
divulge how they got their work to market.

So, I thought I would provide a very brief primmer on how it is done, or
rather, how I did it.  Remember, this is just my general opinion and
experience, only.

1.
The text should be either created in or imported to, a mainstream word
processor.  I suggest either MS Word on a PC, or Pages for the Mac.  It
really doesn't matter as long as the final format of your work can be
converted to a .RTF (rich text format.)    Use style headings for chapter
titles, Table of Contents, etc.  Assuming you already have a computer/word
processor, this does not cost any money.  Believe it or not, I still use MS
Word 2007 for my work.  (smile).  

2.
The next step is to convert your .RTF document into an eBook or .ePub
format.  There are many free .ePub converters available, some more
accessible than others.  In fact, now that I think about it, the latest
version of Pages and MS Word come with built-in ePub converters.  Back when
I published my two novels, even though I created the original documents in
Word, I used a Mac program called Storyist to convert them to ePub format.
I did this because, back then at least, Storyist was completely VoiceOver
accessible and I did not need to use any vision in order to convert my work
into an eBook.  This included imbedding a photo as the cover art.  Speaking
of cover art, please keep in mind that it is not necessary to have any cover
art on a book if you merely intend to distribute it via email.  Be that as
it may, it's probably a good idea to use some kind of photo or image as the
cover art.  So, depending upon which ePub converter you use, this part of
the process can cost as little as nothing or upto $50 or so.  Storyist, the
program I used, cost, back then, somewhere in the neighborhood of around
$39. It was well worth the money.

Once you convert your files to .ePub format, it's a good idea to see if the
process worked correctly.  You can do this by merely opening the ePub file
in your favorite book reader.  In my case, I opened my files in iBook on my
iPhone.  It was really quite exciting, at the time.  (smile).  When you do
this, you can then check to see if the chapter headings, TOC links, and any
book navigation buttons work correctly.  Remember, these items will be
configured, automatically, by the ePub converter program, assuming that you
used style headings in your original document.

So, now you have a properly formatted ePub version of your book.  Great.
Keep in mind that this file has absolutely no DRM (digital rights
management) protection.  This means that anyone can copy it and give it to
anyone else.  Generally speaking, this is exactly what many first-time
authors want to happen.  They want people to share their work with as many
people as possible, for free, so that they can develop a loyal following.
If this is what you want, then you can simply distribute your work via email
or upload it to a web site and provide a link to it.

But what about ISBN numbers?  

3.
So far, I've discussed how to get your work into ePub format for simple
distribution, only.  I left out ISBN numbers because, if all you want is to
distribute your work to friends or place it on the web for prosperity, then
an ISBN number is not absolutely necessary.  Be that as it may, I would
recommend against distributing your book without assigning an ISBN number.
As far as the mechanics are concerned, once you have the number, then you
will include it in the original book file, before converting the file to
ePub.

In the United States, one can purchase an iSBN number or numbers from
Bowker.  I've not done this in quite some time but, if memory serve, you can
buy one number at a time for around $50 or you can purchase numbers in
batches of 10 or even 100 for a flat fee.  In my case, I purchased 100 ISBNs
at once, in order to save money.  Regardless of what some websites would
have you believe, the cost of any ISBN is a flat fee.  Once you have that
number, it is yours, forever.  If you intend to sell your book, you must
have an ISBN number assigned to it, in order to make it marketable.  

Generally speaking, the process is as follows:
You go to https://www.myidentifiers.com.  Next, you create a free user
account.  Then, you purchase your ISBN number or numbers for a flat fee.
Then, on the site, you assign your own titles to each number that you own.
The bowker website, in my opinion, was not very screen reader accessible,
six years ago.  It may have improved since then.  Regardless, I will paste
in their technical support info:
Bowker Technical Support 
Free technical assistance for any of our online subscriptions is available
via our hotline from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Monday through Friday (EST). 
630 Central Avenue
New Providence, NJ 07974
Toll-Free: 1-888-BOWKER2 or, (1-888-269-5372)
In NJ: 1-908-286-1090.

4.
Are you still with me?  So, now you have your ISBN, your ePub formatted
document, and at least one photo.  At this point, you have all that you need
to distribute your work on a mainstream portal such as Kindle, Amazon,
Create Space, etc.  
The benefit of publishing your work to Kindle, iBook, etc, is that those
platforms provide DRM protection for your work.  So, when people buy my book
on their iOS or Mac OS devices, they cannot share that book with anyone
else.  The same is true with Kindle.  The easiest way to get your work on
Amazon, as a print-on-demand book, is to setup a Create Space account and
upload your ePub files there.  

Well, I hope this is enough information to get you started, if  you decide
to self-publish.  At the very least, I hope it answers some self-publishing
questions.

Mark