Secrets of Self-Publishing
Digital Tools for Publishing and Marketing
by Marilyn McLeod
Consider
the Possibility Press
http://www.ConsiderthePossibilityPress.com
Also by Marilyn McLeod
Nutrigenomic Diet for Weight and Fat Loss: One Consumers Journey
Conscious Networking: Finding and Creating Your Ideal Communities
Peer Coaching Reference: Extending Your Coaching Dollar
Recession or Plenty: 7 Steps to Success in Business & in Life
Social Media Series:
Social Media for Beginners: Step by Step for Small Business
Social Media for Small Business: Tips for Using Your Time Effectively
How to Work with Your Web Developer: Asking the Right Questions
Social Media Strategy: Navigating the New World Online
Social Media Workbook: Creating Your Master Plan
* * * * *
Secrets of Self Publishing
Digital Tools for Publishing and Marketing
by Marilyn McLeod
Copyright 2010 by Marilyn McLeod
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
DISCLAIMER:
This publication is designed to provide accurate information in regard to the subject matter covered. The author is not engaged in providing legal, financial, investment, accounting or business advice. Should the reader need such advice, the reader must seek services from a competent professional. The author particularly disclaims any liability, loss or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein. The author is an independent consultant and coach, and does not represent any of the websites or organizations mentioned herein.
Secrets of
Self Publishing
Digital Tools for Publishing and Marketing
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number
International Standard Book Number 978-0-9822290-6-4
* * * * *
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Tom Antion, Dan Poynter and Judy Cullins for your great example and sharing important tidbits that helped me find my own way through the publishing experience. Thank you to Marshall Goldsmith and Ken Shelton who inspired me to take the step of actually writing my first book.
Thank you especially to my customers, my followers, subscribers and fans, who inspire me to give my best. And I hope you know I often learn as much from you as you learn from me!!
Marilyn
McLeod
San Diego 2010
* * * * *
Introduction
This book is written for authors who want to take charge of their own publishing process. Maybe you have a limited budget and you're willing to invest some sweat equity into publishing your book. Maybe you want to self-publish and you have plenty of money to hire what you need done, but you'd like to be well informed as a consumer of the creative services you'll be hiring out. Or maybe you just want a quick checklist to help you keep track of where you are in the process.
This book takes you through the technical process of creating the book and using social media to let people know about your book. For more detailed information including legal, creating your own publishing company, strategy and other marketing tips, check out Dan Poynters site at www.parapublishing.com. For help writing your book, contact Judy Cullins at www.bookcoaching.com.
For more information on the technical side of a website, or more detail about social media, check out my Social Media for Small Business Series.
If you need more support, check my website for webinars, teleclasses and coaching opportunities.
www.CoachMarilyn.com
@marilynmcleod
* * * * *
About the Author
Marilyn McLeod has always been a writer, and spent much of her childhood in the company of books. Only recently has she turned her own writings into books. This journey led her to learning the self-publishing route step by step, which she shares in this book.
Marilyn began working with Internet technologies and online marketing in 1996, back in the days when Macromedia Flash 2 fit on a 3.5 disk, registering a domain name involved sending an email to netsol and paying $70/year, and a whois search displayed all the domain names registered with that character string so you could see at a glance who your competition was online.
In the 90s you couldn't say she was especially enthusiastic about the whole Internet thing, or even computers for that matter, much preferring nature to the digitized world. After spending a summer living happily in a primitive home in the north woods of Minnesota, she moved to downtown Minneapolis and took a job where she was surrounded by three computer systems. A short time later she decided to come to terms with her new digital landscape, put up a Do Not Disturb sign for a week while she poured over computer manuals, and thus she went from being afraid of computers to becoming the resident expert.
As she learned more about business, became a small business owner herself, a consultant and finally a coach to other small business owners, she brought her technology with her and applied it to her clients projects.
In 1996 when she decided to put her coaching business online, she chose to learn the technology behind the website. This turned out not to be a simple task, as she found that many discreet technologies came into play. She also discovered that experts in one technology often had no awareness of the technology that came before or after their little part of the spectrum.
In those early days it was clear that if she were going to have an online business she needed to be the one who understood the entire spectrum, so she could effectively communicate with specialists as she needed them, and be able to determine for herself which specialists and technologies to bring into various Internet projects.
This book reflects her journey into the self-publishing and social media space.
* * * * *
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
About
the Author
Chapter 1: I Wrote the Book ... Now What?!
Chapter
2: Author's Checklist
Chapter 3: Creating the Cover in
Photoshop
Chapter 4: InDesign Layout Step by Step
Chapter 5:
HTML Layout Step by Step
Chapter 6: Repurposing Content
Chapter
7: Social Media
Chapter 8: Follow-up
* * * * *
I Wrote the Book ... Now What?!
I'm going to assume that you've already written your book. You know why your new book will help you in your next career move (or you have another purpose for writing the book), you know your audience and what they want, and your book is your perfect business card (as Ken Shelton would say). If you want more help with this step, look through my first book Recession or Plenty: 7 Steps to Success in Business & in Life and go through the exercises to help you get clear about your own path, to make sure this book will support you as you move forward in your business or in life. Now is the time to make adjustments to your book, before its actually published, and before you've formatted it.
Is your book perfect? Is it the final word on your topic? Probably not! There is a time to say enough and just get it published. It'll never be perfect, and hopefully you'll continue to learn so every day there will probably be some tweak you'd make as the world changes, and your own frame of reference changes as you learn. Books are in some way a static entity because they stop evolving at some point in time and are simply printed. As you have more to say, keep a notebook that will help you make the updates to the next edition or give you topics of conversation for your blog, among your readers groups, or if you're a speaker, as you interact with your audience.
Because I care about the earth, I'm not sure there's a value in pre-ordering boxes of books that may or may not sell, so in this book I talk about printing books using print on demand services. If you want a hard cover book, you'll probably need a traditional publisher and you'll get boxes of books. If you have a traditional publisher your experience will be slightly different from what I describe in this book, because they'll be doing the layout and taking care of those details. Your role will be more of approving or coordinating with their efforts.
No matter who your publisher is, don't assume they'll do the marketing for you. Every author who wants their book to sell should also create a marketing plan and follow through personally. If this book is an extension of a career or social mission you care about, then marketing your book is probably simply an extension of the work you're doing anyway. I'll give you some specific marketing strategies in Chapter 7 Social Media.
There are myriad software packages and other services available to you to create the text and images you need for your book layout. To simplify, I'll give instructions from my own frame of reference. If you're using different software or a different process, simply think of the function I describe in my instructions and look for that function in whatever program you're using.
When I refer to specific commands in a software package I'll put square brackets [like this] around the specific commands. Again, by the time you read this book the software may have changed, so if what I'm telling you doesn't fit what you see on your computer screen, think of the function and see where you might find it in the software program you're using.
I'm on a PC using the following software programs:
Microsoft Word 2002
Adobe InDesign CS4
Dreamweaver CS4
Photoshop CS4
HomeSite+
Notepad
When I'm on my Mac I use the following software programs:
TextEdit
Adobe InDesign CS4
Dreamweaver CS4
Photoshop CS4
BBEdit
Adobes CS4 is a fairly expensive program. If you're purchasing this software yourself and you're on a budget, consider what it would cost you to hire someone else to do the layout for you every time you write a new book. Once you've got your own system down and you've created your own templates, it'll take even less time to layout your second book.
If you're not a techie and just want someone else to take care of this, then use the technical chapters in this book as guidance regarding how to ask your creative professional for what you want. If you speak their language you're more likely to get what you want using less of their time and yours, thereby hopefully saving money.
If you have CS3 you'll be able to do everything I describe except you wont be able to use the automatic cross referencing, which I think personally is worth the cost of the software! Imagine trying to keep track of changing page numbers as you edit the book, to make sure the references are still accurate. Well, I don't have to imagine, because I have the experience, which is why I upgraded! Whatever your creative environment your own computer and software, working with a team of creative professionals or your own publisher, I hope this book can help you along the way. A book like this would have saved me so much time! I hope you find value from my experience.
* * * * *
Author's Checklist
Foundation
What I'm doing in business and/or life that matters to me right now
How this book supports my goals
Description of my audience
Where I can find my audience
Offline
Online
Keywords my audience would use to search for what I do
Timelines
Events where I want to sell my book
Other key dates involving publication of my book
Book Details
Create a Word doc with the following information so you can copy and paste to other applications as needed.
Note: Whenever possible use keywords in your title, subtitle, back-cover sales copy and book description.
Title
Subtitle
Author(s) and contributor(s)
Size of your book
Page count
Copyright date (file copyright at www.copyright.gov/eco)
ISBN (from your publisher or get your own at www.myidentifiers.com)
Price
Back-cover sales copy
Book description
Authors bio
URL to book website, blog or Facebook Fan Page
Production Details
Create a folder on your computer that's easy for you to find later called [Books].
Create a subfolder with the name of this current book [thisbook].
Create two subfolders inside [thisbook] called [notes] and [print version].
Under the [notes] folder create two subfolders [docs] and [images].
In the [print version] create two subfolders called [exterior] and [interior].
Your file hierarchy will look this way:
Books
thisbook (an abbreviated reference to the current book
you’re creating)
notes
docs
images
print version
exterior
interior
Place the following documents in the [notes] folder:
Your Word doc with title, subtitle, authors, back cover copy, etc.
Any images you want to include on the cover: authors photo, cover design, publisher logo, etc.
The .psd or .png template you received from your printer, or the exact dimensions they said your finished .pdf should be.
Word doc of book text (without index or text formatting you'll do this in InDesign)
Book cover pdf proofed and ready for print
Book text pdf proofed and ready for print
Marketing Plan
Create calendar of events and tasks:
Create online hub for your book (website, blog or Facebook Fan Page) up to one year in advance of publication date) include pre-publication special ordering if possible
Schedule any speaking engagements or radio interviews
Prepare email list of people who are interested in your book
Prepare mailing list for postcards
Order enough books to sell at events
Order books to have stock on hand if you're fulfilling your own orders
Send postcards
Email blast
Publication date of book - have book launch party
Announce on social media sites
Ongoing - interact with readers online and personal appearances
* * * * *
Creating the Cover in Photoshop
Your book cover is very important. This is the place to spend money if you're on a budget.
Start with your books finished size. Go to your printer to find out exactly what dimensions they need for the pdf file. Ideally, if you give them the page count and size of your book, they'll be able to give you a .psd file with guides to let you know how much room you have on the front and back cover, and on the spine. You'll also need to know exactly where they'll place the ISBN number and bar code if they add this automatically for you. You can purchase a bar code from Bowker along with your ISBN numbers if you've done this yourself.
Its best to create your Photoshop book cover file after you know the spine width based on the number of pages times the thickness of the paper. You can always make adjustments to your Photoshop file later, but its easier to just start with the right dimensions.
If you don't yet have a firm page count, its still a good idea to put together some kind of design for your book cover if you're in the process of writing it, to make the finished product more real to you while you're in the creative phase. Even a sketch on paper can be helpful.
Have next to you at your desk:
Other books you like the look of to serve as a guide for placement of elements.
Open Photoshop
[File, Open] and navigate to the [notes] folder, find your .psd template, click on it, and click [Open]. You're now looking at your template.
[File, Save As] and navigate to the [exterior] folder. Create a filename [thisbook-cover]. When you click [Save], Photoshop will automatically add the .psd to your filename.
Notice the layout: find the front cover, back cover and spine areas.
Creating Your Own Template
[File, New]
Enter the dimensions of your book cover. The width will be the total of the front cover, back cover and spine widths plus some amount specified by your printer for variations in cutting. Your cover design should extend a bit beyond the size of your actual book cover to give the printer a little leeway, so you don't end up with white lines at the edges of your printed book cover.
The resolution should be 300 pixels per inch, and the color mode should be CMYK. Note: CMYK color is used by printers for tangible items like paper. RGB color is used by computer monitors for images conveyed by light. As you create your book cover in Photoshop, you're looking at your CMYK colors through the lens of your RGB computer monitor, so what you see wont be exactly what prints in terms of color. If you want a guide to help you, purchase a printed book of color samples that show CMYK printed colors along with their RGB settings. Your printer may be able to suggest a good reference compatible with their printer settings.
Photoshop File
Notice the panels along the right side of the screen in Photoshop. Well just be using the one that says Layers.
Notice at the bottom of that panel, from right to left, you see first a trash can, then an icon that indicates new layer, and then an icon that indicates new folder.
When you click on the new folder icon Photoshop creates a new folder with a generic name. There are several ways to customize the name of the folder:
Click directly on the folder name on the layer (if you click slowly twice this may work) and type in the name you want.
Click once on the folder layer so its highlighted, then click once on the flyout menu (that icon that looks like a tiny list to the very right of the word Layers at the top of the layers panel). Select Group Properties and then type in the name of the layer.
Right click on the folder layer and select Group Properties, then type in the name of the layer.
Create four new folders and name them [front cover], [back cover], [spine] and [bkgd]. Be sure the [bkgd] layer is at the bottom of the list in the layers panel. Photoshop will automatically create a Layer 1 or Background folder at the very bottom, which you should just leave where it is. You'll be covering it over with content you add to the file.