Publish Online, On the Cheap!
I have a new nonfiction book coming out in October:
Publish Your Novel Online for Under $500: A Step-by-step guide for Writers.
It’s available now as a Kindle ebook preorder.
Is it about consciousness? Only in the sense that publishing is a way to express one’s conscious thoughts in the world. It’s my first “How-To” book. After completing the Newcomers trilogy of sci-fi novels, I realized I had acquired some experience in self-publishing. Why not share that?
Friends kept asking me, “How did you do it? Where do you start? What does it cost?” And a million questions like that. Fortunately, I had made careful notes throughout the publishing process because it can get complicated and my memory isn’t perfect. I thought I would publish those notes as a brief booklet. Well, the brief booklet became 285 pages and I decided to put it out as an ebook.
Some writer friends were surprised at the title. “$500? I thought you could self-publish for free!” That’s what I thought, too, at first. It’s probably possible to do it for nothing but I’m afraid the result would not be something to be proud of. $500 is cheap, believe me. You can easily pay thousands.
“At least, is it easy?”
Well, yes and no. Compared to what publishing used to be like, the technology makes it possible for an ordinary person like me to self-publish without much expert help. And it’s getting easier all the time. But at this historical-technological moment, self-publishing is still a bit of an ordeal, not for everyone. If it was a walk in the park, I wouldn’t have written the book.
On the plus side, the way the self-publishing industry is moving, you can do the parts you can and hire out the parts that you can’t do. For example, I paid someone to do my cover design. That’ a skill I do not have. (Ten bonus points if you spot the spelling error on the draft cover above). I did my own inside text formatting, however. A la carte is the way to go if you want to self-publish on the cheap.
I’m giving a series of free talks at local libraries over the next few months to explain the basics of self-publishing. So far, the demand for them has been enthusiastic. Apparently, lot of people have scribbles they’re dying to get into the daylight. Maybe some of these authors will be interested in my new book.
A ton of books are out there already on how to publish online, but most are very business-oriented, focused on how to get rich by selling books online. That never was my goal. I’m a writer. I’m not keen on business and I’m not driven to get rich. My goal is to find my readers. That’s why I publish. I thought there might be a niche for a how-to book on self-publishing designed for writers like me.
I’ll take the feedback I get from the library talks and use it to update the book before its release date on October 1, 2019. Then we’ll see if anybody in the wider world is interested.
You can preorder the ebook now at: