How I Self-published My First-ever Muslim Fiction Book, “Asiyah”

Writing more or less comes easy to me. I love it, need it and depend on it in so many ways. So writing a book was a life-long goal for as long as I can remember… it was never a question of “what if I write a book?” as much as “when will I write my book?”
Asiyah is a story I have been wanting to tell since high school in 2010. Muslim populations have been under an arguably self-inflicted pressure to conform to Western norms way before my childhood, and no one I know has been spared of this burden. In that challenge I found my voice, and I found Asiyah. Named after my now four-year-old niece, Asiyah is the story of a Muslim girl in her mid-twenties who is trying to understand herself, and her role and responsibilities in this world. Stuck in limbo land between fashion and spirituality, she embarks on a journey to embrace modesty and love herself for who she is, flaws and insecurities included.
I chose to self-publish my book because I didn’t want to rewrite/edit parts of the story based on someone else’s interpretation of “what’s good” or “what’ll sell more.” I wanted to offer my readers a true and authentic story of a Muslim woman’s life and struggles (politics aside). So, here is how I took Asiyah from words on a screen to words inside a beautifully-designed book (I can say that without sounding egotistical because I didn’t design it!).
- My Kickstarter campaign: So this deserves a whole article on its own, but I’ll keep it short. I set a funding goal of CAD $6,000 after estimating editing and printing costs (Googled those), and then spent several days studying Kickstarter, analyzing other campaigns and reading the Creator FAQ’s. I decided to hire a professional videographer for a promotional video and included that cost in my funding breakdown (cheeky, cheeky!). I put down my pledge levels and within a couple of weeks sent in my campaign for approval from the Kickstarter team. Once I received the go-ahead, the campaign went live. I ran it for about forty days (again, determined this based on other campaign patterns and my levels of confidence in raising the total — which weren’t very high I have to say), and throughout the month promoted the campaign on every platform I could access. I asked friends, professionals and bloggers in the field to spread the word about my campaign and kept an anxious eye on pledges every second of the day. Once the funding amount was met and the campaign closed, I received my funding (minus Kickstarter’s fees) in the following week and was all ready to go.
- Finding editors: Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of options for Muslim female editors out there. I knew for sure I wanted a Muslim female editor because that was my target readership, and I needed someone who would understand the cultural references in the story and the personal challenges Asiyah faced. So I actually picked my editors the way you’d pick a good restaurant —lots of Googling and reading testimonials :) I hired two because I’m a bit of a perfectionist and wanted to make sure I had more than one professional opinion on my story. I used the better-known editor first so that she could give me a full and critical, in-depth report of the manuscript and then spent several weeks making major changes to the story. Finally, I used the lesser-known editor as a mentor and overall proofreader.
- Hiring for book art: In the final stages of my writing, my husband recommended 99designs.com to me to get started on finding inspiration for the cover. After scrolling through numerous artist profiles, I came across Italian artist Venanzio’s work and totally fell in love… the only problem was that his work was very different from what I wanted, and I knew it would take some work to explain the Islamic theme to him. But I would do it. So, I got in touch with him, pretty much begged him for a good deal and we got started right away.
- Finding a book designer and printer: I did a lot of research on internal book designing. I came across all kinds of responses, from do-it-yourself designing software to thousand-dollar professional designers. In the end, I found the software too complicated and decided to use the last of my budget on hiring a designer. Luckily, I found my designer in the same company that I used for printing (First Choice Books in Victoria, BC.) How did I find them? Nothing new here — lots of Googling. I e-mailed 8–10 printers and judged their responses for efficiency and professionalism to pick which one I felt I trusted the most. Luckily, my instinct (and my husband’s) was bang-on. I couldn’t be happier with their service and will happily continue to pay hundreds of dollars in shipping to get these impeccably printed books shipped to Ontario. Also, the printers usually send an unbound, paid proof of the book so you can assess the quality and/or make changes before the final printing.
- Marketing: Instagram has been great for this. My profile, @asiyahthebook, has been gaining followers slowly but steadily and I use it to post promotions and giveaways as well as collaborate with other Muslim artists. Influencer marketing on Instagram works wonders too, and depending on the influencer’s following size, I’ve paid about an average of CAD $200 per post. Asiyah is also available to order on Amazon and through my website. I also cold-call/e-mail bookstores and lifestyle stores in countries all over the world with the proposal to get Asiyah on their shelves, and register for booths at conferences to sell copies. Posters help, too. At my community center, university campus, etc. I’m currently working on approaching publishers and public libraries.
- Packing and shipping: Self-publishing is not a money-making thing. A lot of my “profits” from book sales go into promotions, and buying material to pack and ship orders. Being a small business, I don’t get great discounts from Canada Post and so a lot of the times I share shipping costs with buyers so as not to discourage them with expensive shipping fees. I’m now looking into FBA (fulfillment by Amazon), which is a great way to save on coss and having to personally ship books.
And that’s it! By no means was this an easy journey but it sure as heck was a rewarding one. Having people read Asiyah and leave glowing reviews on my website is a wonderful experience which makes all the hard work worth it. If you have a story to tell or a manuscript that’s waiting to be published, take matters into your own hands and DIY! :)
