This is not a how-to:
My Adventures Self-Publishing a Novel
In the great wide world of writing and publishing, there are so many ways that creatives can find their niche. It just depends on what you’re looking for and meeting yourself where you’re at.
In 2018, I had written a novel for years that I was really happy with at the time. It felt like a big first step in my writing experiences, and I wanted to celebrate it, or take that achievement as far as I could.
If you’ve read my “Records of Rejections” blog, then you know this is one of the works I tried to query with traditional publishers.
As time went by with no resounding interest, I started to adjust my expectations.
This helped me to realize that in seeking “closure” for the project, perhaps my project could benefit from searching out nontraditional routes.
There are many ways that writers publish their work, such as Amazon, Wattpad for fan-fictions and original works, and many others. There are so many paths a writer can opt for.
In my case, I wanted to overcome my own self-deprecation with my writing, and self-publishing to see my work in print — hold the words in my hands, smell the newly minted pages — seemed like the way to go!
This route takes a lot of marketing to be successful monetarily, but at the time, my dream was to just be in print. The outcome holds potential to be different for each writer — the journey will be what you make of it.
These are my reflections on self-publishing my first completed novel.
1. Choose your Publishing Medium
Much of the discourse of publishing on internet giants like Amazon at the time had somewhat mixed reviews. Many spoke to the ease of using the platform, but at the time I believe that only paperback copies and eBooks were available. Since my main goal was to see my work in print, format was a factor. Like many readers, I’ve always been partial to hardback copies.
Some of the self-publishing discourse also spoke to the detrimental effect platforms like Amazon had on Indie Bookstores (shop your Local Indie Bookstores — here), which have always been close to my heart.
Eventually, knowing these objectives helped me to find a platform called Lulu’s Press Inc. This is an On-Demand publishing company on which you can create the books of your dreams!
Whether you’re creating a family history, printing a journal, or publishing a novel, there are no fees to publish and no minimum-order requirements.
You create your work, and only pay for what you order. When and if others order on the platform, you receive proceeds for your work, with Lulu keeping 20% for fees. There’s a really handy “Book Cost Calculator” that will calculate how much you should set your book cost at, and how much you could make.
Since my goals revolved around just being in print, this was less of a priority, but Lulu has a whole FAQ forum to guide users through the process.
2. Legals
Lulu takes care of your ISBN, for free.
From there, you get to take charge of every aspect of creating the final product. This process taught me so much.
Assuming that you make a final edit part of your publishing process, you’ll want to be on the lookout for copyright factors. In my case, a lot of things referenced in my book were in public domain because my work was historical fiction, but I realized that multiple aspects such as certain song lyrics were still protected by copyright or had them renewed by a company, even posthumously on behalf of the artist.
A way around this is to simply remove any specific lyrics, and just namedrop the song and artist. You can request permission to use, but sometimes this could lead to fees down the line financially, if your book were to make any sort of income. The U.S. Government actually has a database and articles to guide writers on this journey.
Another step that really felt like I was an “official author,” (for whatever that means) was the process of filing for my Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) — The Preassigned Control Number Program.
When you receive your LCCN, you place this inside your book on the copyright page.
Another exciting step (and something to consider with cost) is that you have to send a free copy of your completed work to the Library of Congress. They will keep your book stored in their catalogue.
There’s nothing like sending your completed novel to the United States Library of Congress to make the process feel more “official” or real. Not that the validation is needed of course, but this checked off a few of the reasons I wanted to see my work in print. If you’d like to see your work in print, but don’t want to publish it to the public, you can skip this step.
3. Formatting
Formatting your book on the page will be the most time-consuming aspect of publishing with Lulu’s. But hey, you’re creating your masterpiece!
General rules of thumb are that the format your book is uploaded to needs to be compatible — these are generally-used formats by the writer community, such as Word.
Once it’s uploaded, there are rules to formatting your book for publication that need to be considered. For example, there needs to be a blank page at the end of the book. Other sticklers for formatting can be found on Lulu’s helpful Blog about Publishing and formatting your work.
4. Cover Art
Cover art is a very fun aspect that authors that are traditionally published have less control over.
In traditional publishing, there is a team of people for this.
But with self-publishing, you get to be creative with an aspect that will often serve as your potential reader’s introduction to your work!
“The Wonderer: a Darby, Baird, & Co. novel:” one of my Storybook Illustrations/original artwork.
Artistically inclined? This would be a great space for original artwork, themed for your novel or written work.
In my case, I actually had some original drawings that were at the end of the novel. But for the cover, I opted to purchase publishing rights for an image. Now, this takes a lot of research to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable cite that actually owns the rights — but it can be worth it, if you really want to use a specific image.
On a different project, I actually found a photograph that appeared vintage of a girl in ballet slippers sitting on a “paper moon,” and located the original photographer.
It turned out, she was the owner of a vintage clothing shop, Paper Moon Vintage — and she gave me written permission to use the photograph, so long as credit was included for her shop and the girl in the photograph.
But these are the fun bits! Get creative, follow copyright laws, but mostly just have fun creating your work!
5. Unboxing Day
Once you’ve hit the publish button on your work, you’ve released your novel into the world for readers to find.
While publishing nontraditionally will not have the built-in hype and PR that traditional publishing would have, you can certainly create this for yourself.
The important thing for me was to take a step back, admire all my hard work and what I had learned, as well as “feel” more like a writer. This process took months beforehand of editing, having friends edit and give feedback for revisions, and research — but it was so worth it.
While I often look back and find I have to resist the urge to cringe at that first work — this is what got me to where I am, today.
Whatever you’re considering publishing, writing, or creating, I hope you’ll enjoy the journey!
Happy Writing xx
