The self-publishing journey: Step 3 & 4

Insight for aspiring authors and book lovers

Step 3: Design a cover

We have all heard the adage "don't judge a book by its cover". And while this may be true, we must not underestimate the value of a good cover that will appeal to your target audience.

A tantalising book cover will help draw potential customers to you. It is a good idea to properly outline who your target audience is and do some research into what visual images appeal to them most.

In the self-publishing journey, this is one of the areas where you are given much more control than with traditional publishing. If having a say in how your book is visually presented is important to you, self-publishing is worth in-depth investigation.

In addition to your cover, make sure to not overlook how your book is typeset. The font, colour and layout of your pages are visual aspects of great importance.

Roxanne shares some insight into her experience with these two steps below!

Designing a cover

Lexi and the Magic Cats' cover was designed by David at DC Cover Creations. For me, word-of-mouth truly helps when doing something for the first time. My developmental editor’s recommendation saved me time by introducing us. We started with colour combinations plus plenty of images to give him ideas.

Be aware that the designer does not read the story, so visual explanation and accurate images will help. We then moved on to the font, tone, lightness/darkness of the letters. I had to decide on my author name, buy my ISBN number, work on the back cover and give him the size of the book for publication.

David is skilled in his work and after about three attempts we got it. We've included the link to his website below where you can browse his previous work. Make sure to spot the Lexi and the Magic Cats cover!
https://www.covercreator.uk/gallery

Great work and I look forward to working on the book cover for book two of the Lexi series.

Typesetting

Typesetting for Lexi and the Magic Cats was done by DTP Impressions. Thank you to my developmental editor/mentor at this stage to support me through the whole journey.

Make sure you are happy with the font, I changed it. I had confidence and trust with this wonderful typesetter, Rose Elphick. She made sure I checked the manuscript over and over again and then again. A professional, caring, and skilled typesetter who doesn’t mess around showed me how it all works and backed me all the way through to publication.

A great team. I look forward to publishing the Kindle version this summer. Please contact me if you would like to work with her and her team.

With love,
Roxanne
xx

Step 4: Pick a formatting option

Once you have gotten your book digitally packaged and ready to go, it is time to start looking into the different ways of releasing it into the market. Here is where the unique characteristics of your target market will again come into play.

There are many free resources and research available online, so you will need to do a bit of a dig in order to understand the options available to you and how different platforms will work when you start selling.

Again, you have more control over your preferred option than with traditional publishing so you'll have to come up with your own preference. We've listed 3 types of formatting options for you to investigate further:

1. Print on demand
2. eBook
3. Audiobook

If you feel you need a variety of formatting options in order to serve your market, it may be a good idea to stagger their releases. This gives you time to create any new format as well as time to make some sales in order to fund the next stage of your release.

For example, releasing an eBook might be the cheapest option at first as there are no printing requirements. After you have made some sales, you could then release a paperback edition and then even an audiobook.

We hope you have been enjoying this newsletter series and that is has been giving you a better idea of how the world of book publishing works.

Look out for next week's email where we will cover Step 5 & 6.

In the mean time, have a bright and magical week!

Roxanne needs Amazon reviews!

If you have read Lexi and the Magic Cats, consider showing your support for Roxanne by leaving a review on the book's Amazon page.

You don't need to have ordered the book through Amazon in order to leave a review. You can provide a review of the story or of the author.

Your support means the world to us and Amazon reviews go a long way in helping to spread the message of Lexi and the Magic Cats.

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'Inside us all is a sense of wonderment.'

The self-publishing journey

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