In this video Rose plays the role of an author who has completed a manuscript and is now wondering how to publish a book. Her questions guide the conversation – which is punctuated with avatars and mind maps to clarify the content – such that it becomes a comprehensive overview of how to publish a book.
We talk about the different book-publishing options available today and share the important things that every author should know about book publishing, including some of the traps to avoid. If you’re looking to publish a book, then this is what you need to know before you make your descision as to which route you’re going to choose.
If this is familiar territory for you, then you’ll recognise what a gold-mine of information it is for authors new to the publishing world, so please do share this video with them. We find that far too many authors are ignorant of publishing basics – like that you don’t pay mainstream publishers – and so get caught by unethical publishers. Vanity presses, for instance, have been around for a long time; they tend to be big concerns and so have big advertising budgets and sales people who know exactly what to say to manipulate the unwary author into taking one of their ‘deals’. Videos and articles like this not only educate authors they also warn them about the sharks in the industry.
Video contents
The video has chapter markers to make finding the relevant sections easy.
00:00 – Intro.
00:48 – MAINSTREAM PUBLISHING – The big five publishers and their imprints.
01:20 – How to approach the big five publishers.
01:52 – What a literary agent does and how to get one.
02:56 – Important things to know about how mainstream publishing works.
05:17 – How long does mainstream publishing take?
05:52 – OTHER BOOK PUBLISHING OPTIONS – the different kinds of indie book publishers and ways to get a book published.
06:34 – SELF-PUBLISHING
06:56 – Does your book need an editor?
07:36 – Cover and interior design? Can you do it yourself?
11:05 – Next steps – the two main printer/distributors for indie books.
11:36 – What’s an ISBN?
12:06 – OTHER INDIE PUBLISHING OPTIONS – Hybrid publishers, assisted self-publishing services & vanity presses. 13:39 – What is a vanity press? And why you should avoid them.
14:22 – Overview info-graphic of the different ways to publish a book.
Links for how to publish a book
In the video I talk about the importance of doing your research to make sure that you find reliable service providers, and I mentioned the Alliance of Independent Authors as a trusted source of information and resource for finding reputable and ethical service providers. Click here to find out more about them.
A more detailed version of the ‘how to publish a book’ info graphic in the video can be seen here.
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