Today, new technologies have allowed many authors to venture into publishing their works online thanks to platforms like Bubok or Kindle, the latter of which coined the term "Kindle Generation" more than five years ago. This phenomenon has contributed to a greater democratization of the literary world and even to the possibility of a publisher approaching you if your book receives positive word-of-mouth and climbs to the top of the bestseller lists.
At Actualidad Literatura, we've discussed self-publishing on a few occasions, but today I'm bringing you a summary of the essential allies every writer needs before publishing their book . Some may be optional, but all of them will undoubtedly influence the final result.
Register
Registering your work before publishing it should be the most important thing before embarking on this adventure, although you probably already knew that. Platforms like SafeCreative (which has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years) or opting for the classic Intellectual Property Registry are essential allies as the first step in the rigorous process between that finished work and its final publication.
proofreader
"Why would I want a proofreader?" you might be thinking. Well, we all know that proofreading is possibly one of the most tedious phases of the publishing process, sometimes even leading us to overlook certain typos simply because we're doing a mechanical rereading that requires a second person to ensure we have the work we wanted, in a more objective way. You can choose from a friend's mother who's a language teacher to one of the many professional proofreaders who work online.
illustrator
When we're about to publish a book, we must keep in mind that the cover is the first thing the prospective reader will see. And these days, knowing whether we're about to consume a rather amateurish or a more polished work based on its cover is an increasingly common understanding. You might have no design skills and spend countless nights with Photoshop, request the rights to a beautiful photograph and apply a sepia filter, or even just include a selfie taken in the bathroom after a nap, but the truth is that hiring an illustrator to capture the style and concept of our work on the cover is the ideal solution. And the best part is that there are more artists than ever to choose from online .
book trailer
The option of a book trailer is similar to the previous one, except that this one is perhaps somewhat more arbitrary due to the fact that the cameras on our smartphones nowadays work wonders and simplicity is always welcome in this no less important complement when it comes to promoting our book and, especially, making its future launch go viral.
EPub support
Trying to encrypt our Word document in ePub format or using a free tool via Google might not be the most effective way to convert our manuscript into an ebook . Therefore, hiring the services of a reputable company to convert the document we'll upload to the platform seems like the best option. Companies like EpubMATIC offer conversions of 100-page documents for 20 euros, which is quite reasonable if we're looking for optimal results.
Printing Materials
Those planning to publish through Amazon's CreateSpace platform for physical books will find that printing and shipping from across the Atlantic isn't always as affordable as they might expect, especially if they want the book to arrive as quickly as possible. Opting for an alternative, local printer to print their book can be a good idea, considering that the largest portion of the price is typically shipping costs.
Social Media
This point becomes the basis for the promotion of any published book but, nevertheless, before that you must update your social networks when it comes to heating up the atmosphere and ensuring good sales during the first days of publication.
These 7 allies for publishing your book online are essential if we want the first impression of our work to be positive.
Once we complete this process, the best thing will be to focus on promoting it. And that, friends, YES that is an adventure.
Do you usually have these allies before publishing your books independently?