Publishing your own first book – your experiences?

PocketCompass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82144744#Comment_82144744

I can definitely understand the appeal of finally holding a physical book with your own name on the cover! I'm not expecting to make much money from it either, although I'd still like to see whether I can find a route where I'm not simply paying to have the book published. The local side of what you describe does appeal to me though. Readings and approaching independent bookshops are things I could actually imagine doing, much more so than trying to build a following on social media. It's interesting to hear that some of your friends have managed to get their books stocked that way. Do you know how they approached the independent bookshops? Did they simply go in and ask whether they'd be willing to stock a few copies, or did they already have contacts there?

martindow

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82151710#Comment_82151710

Local bookshops were happy to host events where they read. It suits both really - the book shops are pleased to get people through the door and see it as beneficial for them. The authors also enjoy the opportunity.

If you look online you will be able to see what sort of things your local bookshops are organising and you may well find that they want to show how they are integrated to their community. Most seem to have a section on local history and local authors. You may find yourself pushing at an open door!

twopenny

The novel I'm reading is about someone publishing books (weird eh 🙂) and there is a link there about a way to send manuscripts, like a clearing house for collages. But it's back somewhere. I have a quiet day tomorrow 🙏 and I'll see if I can find it.

I do remember a colleague who published a book. The eternal repeat editing she had to do put her off writing any more but she wasn't young then and everyone is different. Otherwise we wouldn't have our favourite writers.

Sorry, trying to find one sentence in a whole book was impossible. But there is a central place to submit which is another Chanel to go down.

Have you researched how to find your target audience? Style need for your genre? Stuff like that to give you a better chance? There's some general advice online but probably more detail if you can find a book about it at the library. Also read the books similar to your style and see how they deal with pace, amount of speech to description and such.

shunsumaker

No, I haven’t published anything myself yet. However, I followed the whole process pretty closely with a colleague. Even after the finished manuscript, quite a lot was still unresolved. Sometimes it was about editing, then the cover, and then typesetting. Feedback kept coming up in between as well. Someone just had to take care of all that.

Therefore, having someone along for the first book doesn't sound so far-fetched to me. Self-publishing or a traditional publisher wouldn't necessarily be my only options either. I once considered Novum publishing, for example. There, the author contributes to the costs. What exactly is taken care of probably depends on the package chosen and your budget.

I probably still wouldn't commit right now, though. It might look different once you have a finished manuscript in front of you. With my colleague, it only became clear bit by bit what she would do herself and what she wouldn't. It was far from obvious beforehand.

PocketCompass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82151755#Comment_82151755

Thats really encouraging to hear. I hadn't considered that local bookshops might actively welcome events like this, so I'll definitely have a look at what the independent shops around me are already doing. Thanks!!

PocketCompass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82151974#Comment_82151974

Wow, I'm genuinely touched that you actually went back through the book and tried to find that passage for me! Please don't worry about not finding it. The fact that you even looked is incredibly kind of you 😍

The idea of there being some sort of central place for submissions is interesting in itself and gives me another avenue to look into. I can also imagine that the endless editing could eventually take some of the enjoyment out of writing. At the moment I'm still very much at the stage where it feels exciting rather than exhausting, but I'm probably underestimating how much work comes after the first draft.

As for target audience and genre, I've thought about it to some extent, but probably not nearly enough yet. I do read quite a lot in the sort of genre I'm writing, although I've mostly just read for enjoyment rather than consciously analysing things like pacing or the balance between dialogue and description. That's actually a really good suggestion. I'll definitely start paying more attention to that as I read 😃

PocketCompass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82153149#Comment_82153149

That's really interesting! Especially because what you describe with your colleague is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking about. It's not so much that I don't want to do anything myself, but with a first book I can imagine it being quite overwhelming to suddenly have to make decisions about editing, typesetting, cover design, distribution and everything else.

I hadn't really looked into Novum before, but that kind of model sounds closer to the middle ground I've been wondering about. I'll have a look at what they actually offer and what the costs are.

And you're probably right about not deciding anything yet though. I'm still a logn way from having a finished manuscript, so for now I'm mostly curious about the different routes and trying to understand what the options actually are. Looking back, do you know if there's anything your colleague would have done differently, or anything she wishes she'd known before she started the publishing process?

twopenny

It's natural to help if you can 🙂 some forums I was on when it was a good site and pre internet phones we sometimes went beyond and some people helped people stuck abroad were helped with a lift somewhere, phoning up for help if a person had contacts in that country so scanning a book was simple.

One of the people who I knew on there for years is tied into publishing but the site has stopped messaging and I didn't get her email. I'll post and ask when I know she's active and think how I can do it without giving personal information away. See what she has to say. She'll be more up to date than me.

Good thing there's no rush 😄

shunsumaker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82161767#Comment_82161767

My colleague had above all underestimated the many rounds of corrections. She thought in the beginning that with the finished manuscript the biggest part would be done. It wasn't. There quite a few coordinations were added on top, especially with the cover and with typesetting.

Whether in retrospect she would have chosen another path, I can't tell you. To me, however, with this matter it became clear how much work still arises after the writing. And there, with a first book, it would indeed be important to me to have someone who knows their way around the processes. Not having to find out yourself for every little detail who is responsible now.

With Novum Publishing, I would therefore ask more specifically about personal support. They do offer various services around the publication, after all, but what of that is included in the respective package and how much one has to take over oneself, I would clarify beforehand. Especially if one wants to have a say in the cover or copy editing.