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Self publishing a book

Self publishing a book

Author: Ben

Date: 2024-03-13

Overview

You want to publish some of your writings into a book? You can do it (largely) yourself!

Books are made of

  • Your content
  • A layout software
  • A image for the front cover, spine, and back cover
  • About and copyright material
  • An ISBN
  • A publisher
  • A printing house
  • Distributors
  • Readers

The Situation

flowchart LR
    content["Your Content"]

You have some writings

We will assume your writing is in text files without any images (emojis are not images, they are canonical text. Ask any generation since 1980)

Key concepts
ConceptDescription
Your WritingPoems, stories, etc
Text FileAny way that text could be represented. On computers, usually in .txt files or .doc or in some kind of application’s text editor
The work to do
  • ☑️ Write a few pieces
  • ☑️ Put them on a computer (type, copy, use optical character recognition software)

Step 0 — Assemble your body of work together

flowchart LR
    subgraph Your Computer
      one["Work 1"]
      two["Work 2"]
      more["..."]
      three["Work n"]
    end

Put all your work in the same place and plan to publish it. You can do it!

Choose approximately what pieces you want to include. It will be easy to exclude pieces later so don’t worry about adding too many.

Key concepts
ConceptDescription
CollectionA grouping of work into a coherent bundle
AnthologyA collection of works by different people
ThemeThe tone or purpose of your book. Could explore multiple themes
Work to do
  • ☑️ Find all the pieces you may want to include
  • ☑️ If you want to include other people’s work, ask them for explicit permission in writing.

Step 1 — Converting them into a standard filetype

flowchart LR
  piece --> piece_markdown["piece.md"]
  piece_markdown --> piece_latex
  piece --> piece_latex["piece.tex"]

Move your file into a structured text format such as markdown or LaTeX.

Markdown file “sunrise.md”

# Sunrise
The sun rises only
because the earth
is big


I too am protected

LaTeX file “sunrise.tex”

<title>Sunrise</title>


<verse>
The sun rises only \\
because the earth \\
is big
</verse>


<verse>
I too am protected
</verse>

We’re going to use LaTeX for the remainder of this tutorial.

For converting from plaintext or markdown to LaTeX, see this script or use this tool

Step 2 — Add metadata about the work

LaTeX File: sunrise.tex

<title>Sunrise</title>
<author>Ben D</author>
<created>2024-03-13</created>


<verse>
The sun rises only \\
...

As you collect the pieces together, you may forget where they came from or when they were written. Keep that information in the file at the top in a structured way. We can use it later when publishing to attribute people to their work or add details to the page.

File system layout

book/
    poems/
           sunrise.tex
           other-poem.tex
    book.tex

Step 4 — Collect them into a book

book.tex

import verse


include poems/sunrise.tex

Start the layout into a book by copying the above template.

Step 5 — Generate your first PDF

In your command line
Terminal window
pdflatex book.tex

This will generate a PDF of the interior contents of your book

Step 6 — Add a copywrite page and an about the author page

copyright.tex
TODO: copywrite
introduction.tex
TODO: introduction
about.tex
TODO: about

Then update book.tex

book.tex
import verse


include copyright.tex
include introduction.tex


# TODO add the table of contents
generate table-of-contents


include poems/sunrise.tex


include about.tex

Add information about the book such as the copyright information, the introduction for the readers, and add a section about the author at the end.

We’ll also add a table of contents

Rebuild a PDF

Terminal window
pdflatex book.tex

Stage 7 — Make the cover

Making a cover is a little tricky, but here’s a good way to get started:

TODO: include an easy way to generate cover art

Aside — Notes about cover art

Cover art makes a big difference in the immediate perception of the book.

Modern tools such as midjourney make it easy to generate images from a written text description, but this author suggests trying to keep the visual complexity very low.

Automated tools would benefit from commands or modifiers such as “minimal, empty, modern”

Step 8 — Print your first book!

  1. Sign up for lulu.com

This author gets no royalties from Lulu, it is just a good and easy to use service

  1. Create a new project
  2. Choose your paper size, matte or glossy finish, and paper type
  3. Upload the PDF that was created.
  4. Upload the cover art
  5. Skip the publishing and distribution parts
  6. List yourself as the author
  7. Don’t bother getting an ISBN or doing other formal documentation stuff
  8. Print 5 copies or so to mail to yourself
  9. Eagerly await your first printed book!
  10. Keep reading, there is more below!

Step 8 — Registering an ISBN

There is a lot of material online about ISBNs. If you have the money available, this author thinks that buying a pack of 10 ISBNs from Bowker for about $300 and registering them to yourself is the best approach.

Note about privacy: Bowker requires an address for you. You can put a PO box or virtual mailing address for better privacy. You can also put your home address but it will be listed on the published book registry.

This author uses Earth Class Mail to register a virtual mailbox and the ISBNs are registered to that address. This costs about $30/month.

Step 9 — Updating the copyright page

Modify the copyright page to list the newly acquired ISBN and choose your license.

Depending on what you care about, you could choose a creative commons license or a more traditional “All Rights Reserved”

If you want to encourage derivative works, you may want to consider a more permissive license.

copyright.tex
TODO: copywrite


ISBN: 123-123-123-123-123


Copyright: @Author Name 2024
License: CC-BY

Step 10 — Tweaking the layout, editing the pieces, correcting print errors

Once you get the initial copies or at any time; you can do some editing on the layout and structure.

Terminal window
pdflatex book.tex
mv book.pdf to book-2024-03-13.pdf

### Step 11 -- Publish to Lulu

Go back to (lulu.com)[https://lulu.com] and open the project

Create a new version, or a new project.

Update the inside material, update the cover.

Add the copyright information and the ISBN. Add any other contributors or editors to the publication information.

Set pricing (this author suggests starting at $15. You can always change later)

Publish to Lulu bookstore!

Step 12 — Publish to Global Distribution

Order a proof copy for yourself from Lulu

Once the proof copy arrives (actually they don’t verify this so you could approve immediately), approve for global distribution.

Step 13 — Get the word out!

Buy a set of books to ship to yourself. Sell them in person to your friends for $10, and offer to autograph them with a few sentences personal note.

Start autographing books before you give them out.

Ask your nearby cafes if you could leave a free copy there.

Add a few donated copies to your neighborhood’s little free library. Write a personal note inside.

Submit to SF Litquake or a similar literary festival.

Tell your friends and family!

Step 14 — Recognize the emotional difficulty of having your work assessed by others

It is tricky to have your work be read by others. There could be a fear of rejection or of harsh feedback.

Feedback about your writing quality may be the expected fear, but you may be surprised by the positive experience people have while reading your book.

Ask for descriptive feedback, rather than critical feedback. Ask them what stood out to them, not which parts they liked. Your psychology will be better supported by hearing your work was seen, more than whether people liked it. And if they do really like it, they may go out of their way to tell you. So if you ask for descriptive feedback, you’ll get that plus some compliments.

Despite how many people in the world are authors, most people do not know any close friends who have published a book. You’ll stand out for going through the process, and that is also powerful social recognition.

Personal aside: When someone asks me if I “self-published”, I say that I started a publishing group and that the publishing group published it. Technically the group is just me, but it lands surprisingly well with both people who praise self-publishing and those who think it’s “not real” publishing.

Summary

You can publish that book; I believe in you. You’ll get some compliments, you’ll get a real sense that you can do the thing!

Happy writing!

Questions: ben @this_domain_you’re_on.com

Further Reading