Newbie? Get Published Without Stress by Becky Peleowo -

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You’ve finally finished your masterpiece. You have it typed, edited and peer-reviewed by trusted professionals and you’re ready to share it with the world. Congratulations but how do you get your work published? Voilà! This post is for you. Relax and savour the process of getting published without hassles. We’ll walk through the entire process together, from start to finish, and I’ll show you how to get published in no time.

So what are you waiting for? Brew up a cup of your favourite brew and let’s get started!

Follow the Recipe!

Getting published is similar to the art of writing or making a painting or composing a music score or even more like the fine art of getting your cuisine done. It requires patience, making choices, commitment, collaboration and of course, enjoying the fruits of your labour but you need to follow a recipe; a process to achieve good results.

Below are seven pivotal ingredients to following professional standards of publishing both e-books and hardcopy books.

Editing
Design
Production
Distribution
Marketing
Promotion
Rights licensing

Tea or Coffee?

Whether you’re a tea or coffee lover, there’s nothing like the smell of a freshly published book or the sight of them.

Books can be soft-copies ( e-books) or hard copies (hard copies). Whether they are gently brewed(e- books) or hard brewed (physical books), a book remains what it is; a portal of information.

Some people prefer e-books to hard copies because of the cumbersome nature of physical books while others would opt for hard books because it is believed that they’re better assimilated than soft copies. Whether this is an assumption or a fact wIll be decided by researchers. In a research shown by the Pew Research Centre, traditional books have a higher rate of being read than e-books.

Also, it is a fact that the use of e-books can endanger the eyes through long exposure to artificial light from the gadgets used. Research has shown that the light from most digital devices can cause damage to the sight and disturb ability to sleep at night.

As a publisher, you should consider which platform best sells your kind of book. During the COVID 19 pandemic, e-books were more marketable than physical books but for lovers of a good library, the hard copy would still be the best option. Since you know your audience, select the channel you think most appropriate for them. Children books for instance, should be encouraged as hard copies so as to reduce screen time for them.

Choose the Right Sauce…

For starters in the publishing business, choose the right sauce for your potatoes.

There are plenty of ways for first-timers to get published without all the stress but first you need to decide if you want your work self published or you want a publishing company or a traditional publisher to do the job for you.

With self publishing, the jobs of printing, editing, proofreading, formatting, book cover and market design is under your control. You take the larger share of profits made from the business of publishing. You’re able to negotiate your terms and no key decision is taken without you. When you do Indie publishing, you’re not just a self publisher but one who takes the job more seriously. You’re an independent publisher. This means you oversee the process of publishing from start to completion and any professional involved in the process is rewarded according to your terms.

Trade publishers or traditional publishers have a larger share of the returns from publishing. Hybrid publishers combine the features of the trade publishers and the self-publishers which means there is an agreement between the author and the publisher on terms relating to the publication.

The publishing method you should choose should depend on certain factors:

Do you have enough money to fund the publishing all by yourself?
Do you have the skills required to design your cover page and page outline?
Are you willing to market your finished work by yourself?

No one wants to serve a new book to readers only to find them displeasing to the sight or tasteless. So be sure to have your funds ready and hone your digital story telling and designing skills to independently self publish your books.

If you’re opting for trade publishing, then you must be ready to follow the terms dished out to you. Surely, you wouldn’t expect much gain either.

If you wish to self publish hard copy books, you might want to get an ISBN ( International Standard Book Number). Each country has National Libraries that issue this numbers. Soft copies do not require one because the site you’re posting on would assign one to you.

For Nigerians, check out the link below:

How To Get An ISBN or ISSN in Nigeria.

Add More Flavours, Taste Again!

Still wondering what this is? Yes, edit and revise again. There has to be a print layout of what your work looks like before it goes to bed. This is your final chance to make corrections.

Editing and revising your work is an extremely important step in the publishing process. In fact, it’s often said that editing is half the work, and revising is the other half. That’s because getting your work ready for publication takes a lot of time and effort, and it’s important to make sure it’s as perfect as possible.

Make sure to read through it multiple times, and to fix any errors you find. A copy editor is the right man for this job. They would fish out not just errors but weird formatting tics.

Dish to Everyone Important

If your work is being published by a contracted publisher, you’re covered on this stage but if you’re self publishing, it’s time to test run your new invention – Review!

Publishing without marketing and promotion is synonymous to opening a new restaurant, preparing the dishes but informing no one that Food is Served.

For promotions and marketing, you might want to organise a book reading programme. Participants may pay a token for attendance or you might want to leave it as free-for-all. Lovers of good books and professionals in the field should be invited to listen to your book being read. It is a form of mouth-to-mouth marketing. This might be able to help you get your foot in the door.

Another option is to submit your story to a magazine or journal. Ask them for a review. This can be a great way to get your work seen by other writers and editors, and it can also help you build up your writing portfolio.

The electronic media is not left out here. Make a list of all the media houses you desire to contact for a book review. With the wide range of viewers and listeners they have, you would be able to reach a larger audience. It’s an effective method of marketing but it is cost-effective. Remember to assign a genre to your book so you can get a proper review.

A very good option is to submit your work online. There are many websites that accept submissions from new writers, and most of them have easy-to-use submission forms.The more you submit, the better your chances of getting accepted. Crowdsourced reviews like Amazon and goodreads are great examples. Readers can help to recommend your book to others but remember, they can also dull its shine because they are often not professionals.

The social media is super fast; Instagram, facebook, and even Whatsapp are awesome promotional tools. You create the group ahead of publishing and let your followers know there’s coffee brewing so that when your book is finally published, they are willing to review them. They would tell you more truth than family or friends.

Don’t forget to do a follow-up on all the places you have your work being reviewed.

Dinner is Served!

The publishing process can be long and arduous, but don’t give up until your work is in circulation. With enough determination and perseverance, you’ll get there in the end.

Now, Go Get Published!

Research Links:

Copywriting format

https://app.hypotenuse.ai/blog-post?blogId=d896fa47-5e06-4777-bd16-c34855bfe0b4

How to get your research published

www.elsevier.com

What is an indie author? And other Self-publishing FAQs

https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/what-is-an-indie-author/

Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing Your Book – 2022 – MasterClass

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-self-publishing-your-book

“E-books and Hard Copy Books: The Pros and Cons of Each – The Albion College Pleiad Online” https://www.albionpleiad.com/2020/09/e-books-and-hard-copy-books-the-pros-and-cons-of-each/

“How does blue light affect sleep?” https://www.activehealth.sg/read/sleep/how-does-blue-light-affect-sleep