Tips on Publishing a Book

First off I want to say to everyone who has this link because I gave it to you. Congratulations!! On your journey to publishing a book

This is exciting! This means you are finally fulfilling your dreams of becoming a published writer. Your book may be poetry like 2 of mine are, or a novel or even a children’s book. Whatever your genre is I hope this blog post will help you on your next steps.

I’ll let you in on many secrets I discovered over my last 9 years of professionally writing. First secret is-

This is your adventure and other that practice links I will share and information the rest is just my opinion. This I ask you to just consider. It may help you avoid some of the pitfalls I seemed to step right into on my first attempt at having a book published.

So are you ready to learn about publishing your book? I’m excited to share with you.

Copyrights

Giving your book copyrights is extremely important. I once was a writer on a website of a lot of other writers. One of the other writers shockingly uploaded contents on my 2nd book. At first I was in such a big see of anger and shock that someone would even do this (but trust me there are people in this world who will want to take credit for your work) How distressing!  So depending where you are in the world your country will have a place where you can obtain a copyright for your book.

In Canada this is where you go.

Copyright Canada

You want to file for your copyright online because it is cheaper. If you do not have a publisher yet just leave this area blank. I haven’t checked lately but it is only a few dollars to change anything on your copyrights later. Then you can fill in your publishers name and have a new one shipped to you. I feel it is important to copyright your work before sending it to any potential publisher or sharing it online. It is very important to protect your efforts and people do steal. No matter how surprising that sounds.

pstt – When you receive your copyrights in the mail, please put it somewhere safe so you always have it. My 4 copyrights are all put into picture frames. That way I cannot loose them.

ISBN Number– There are ISBN number genoraters online. Last time I checked they are free. (If you are submitting your works to publishers you can hold off on this step because they may assign you one. If you are deciding to go indie (independent author) Meaning publish the book on your own you will need an ISBN number. Visit the site below and generate an ISBN number for your book.

Apply for ISBN

Why is ISBN number important?

This is basically more important than the title of your book to distributors and sellers and also to libraries. If your dream is to have your book in lets say Chapters , your book will need an ISBN number. This is how your book is catalogued. Most places do not go by book title.  You can also add your ISBN number code to the cover of your book. This makes it easy for stores and libraries to scan into their inventory.

Book Cover-

Some tips for your book cover- Always keep the title of your book as short as possible. I made this huge mistake on my first book Entangled Within the nature of things.  In the beginning I did a lot of book signings and public speaking events. Imagine saying that title??

What is your book called?

Does the title roll off your tongue easily?

Remember you may be nervous speaking to others about your book and the easier the title the better.

Thats just one reason why- But the biggest reason is because studies have showed that books with short titles always are purchased and read more. Keep it simple always is the best rule.

Synopsis- Your Synopsis is a short description of what your book is about. It is the phrase you will repeat over and over . Naturally after someone asks you what your books name is they all also ask you what your book is about- A short description should be on your cover. (A sentence or two long )

Remember the saying-Don’t judge a book by its cover- Guess what everyone does. Visit your local library sometime or books store and you will see books that have exciting covers get opened. This is a constant battle with any writer. How do we get people to actually open our book and read it.

• short titles
• catchy synopsis
• Brighter colours

Publishing 

This is where it gets fun :) A lot of people think, write a book, find a publisher…Make money!!!!! – done (retire).  I wish!!!! Only a few percent of the population will ever get to experience this.

I will write another post tomorrow sharing all the advice and experience I have.  Keep in mind this is just my opinion haha!