And Now for Something Completely Different

[hrj]

Tired of me posting about my recovery and PT? Today I'm going to talk about the non-linear process of setting up a self-published book. The details I'll describe apply to the specific tools I use (Velum for content formatting, Draft2Digital for distribution, and various methods for creating the cover art).

Aside from the actual contents of the book, there are several key pieces of data necessary to complete this process:
* ISBN(s) -- included on copyright page, optionally on back cover, generated by Bowker
* Price (hard copy only) -- calculated by D2D based on size and page count, required by Bowker, optionally included on back cover
* Cover specifications -- calculated by D2D based on size and page count, required to create cover art
* Cover art -- required by D2D prior to generating cover art template (see the problem?), optionally uploaded to Bowker, optionally requires having ISBN and price

Are you getting the picture about everything being a pre-requisite for everything else? Fortunately, almost all these processes can be revised prior the the final go-live. So here's what the overall process might look like.

1. Assign ISBN(s) in Bowker. Wait on uploading cover. Enter estimated price.
2. Add ISBN(s) to book text in Velum and generate formatted files. Upload book file(s) to D2D. (These can be updated later if necessary, as long as the page count doesn't substantially change.)
3. Create dummy cover art. It should be an image of the words "dummy cover art" just to make things clear. Upload to D2D.
4. Have D2D generate a cover art template. (The key parameter is the width of the spine, since you'll have selected the basic dimensions already.) At the same time you can get the suggested hard copy price.
5. Create the cover art, optionally including the ISBN (for the hard copy) and the price on the back cover.
6. Upload the cover art to Bowker and adjust the price.
7. Update the cover art in D2D to the actual version.

Mind you, this is only the second time I've done this process. I may find a better workflow after I've done it a few more times.

Oh, and the current project is the book version of The Theory of Related-ivity, which I'll have out by Worldcon next month. (I love a deadline.) I honestly have no idea how many people will be willing to pay for this thing. The book version has substantial updates from the original blog series, but it also has and annoying formatting issue. The ebook format doesn't do footnotes, only end-of-chapter notes. So if you're the sort of person who likes to glance at the footnotes as you go (and many of my footnotes are meant to be read as you go), then you'll want the hard copy. But the graphs in the hard copy are b&w only (cost restrictions) whereas the e-book has lovely color-coded graphs. (I worked really hard to come up with graph formatting that would work for both.) So if you love staring at graphs (and my graphs are meant to be stared at) then you'll want the ebook. Obviously the answer is to get both.

Comments

[heleninwales]

This checklist is enormously helpful. I've just finished the final read through of a comic fantasy novel I wrote twenty years ago and now intend to self-publish. We've published non-fiction (written by my husband) before using Lulu, but this will be my first attempt at self-publishing a novel as an ebook.

[hrj]

I have yet to go through the process for a novel. My first was a short story collection, so I had to work with things like "this isn't a chapter, it's an independent unit" and adding a publication history. This second project is non-fiction (my Best Related Work analysis), so rather than having a flat structure of chapters, it has more of a multi-level outline structure which Velum doesn't fully embrace. The TOC has all the levels, but Velum only treats the highest level as "chapters" and since the foot/endnotes go at the end of the chapter in the ebook, that means a lot of separation between the marker and the note. Also I have lots of tables and figures. It makes me nostalgic for PageMaker, even if it would mean doing the formatting for the ebook and print book separately. At one time I bought a copy of Quark to replace PageMaker, but then never had a project to use it on before my copy went obsolete. And I simply don't have enough projects to make it worth shelling out for an InDesign subscription. Grrr.

[heleninwales]

It's a useful starting point for my own research into how to self-publish the novel. I'm currently looking for an artist to do the cover and will have to decide things like whether I resurrect the publishing imprint we had many years ago or just accept whichever ebook company I go with as publisher.

[hrj]

You can identify yourself with a publisher name even if you're publishing through one of the distribution platforms. In fact, it looks a little better if you do. I have an actual registered business name as Harpy Publications, but it doesn't need to be that official.

[heleninwales]

That was what I meant, just use the old name. It wouldn't need to be set up as a business. Actually it would be a slight variation on the old name, but I think it would look better. I hope to self-publish five or six novels eventually.

[jreynoldsward]

You might want to check Ingram Spark out for paperback instead of publishing hard copy through D2D. Better royalty because it's just Ingram's cut, not Ingram plus D2D and vendor cut.

(32 selfpub books to my name...I know a wee bit about the process, shall we say?)

[hrj]

I fully expect I'll refine my methods as I progress. At the moment, I'm aiming for lowest administrative friction while I work on mastering other aspects (like formatting, etc.). If I tried to do everything optimally off the bat, I'd be paralyzed by the learning curve. Instead I'm adding refinements one project at a time.