Friday, March 26, 2010

What does a self-publishing author need to know? My latest project.

When I decided to enter the realm of the publishing world, I knew almost nothing about the industry in general and even less about the "sub-industry" of self-publishing. I was well versed in the subject matter of my first book and had reasonable writing skills. Once I decided to not use a traditional publisher, the learning curve really took off. After investing several hundred dollars in books on a wide range of subjects that related in one way or another to my publishing efforts and my overall small business, I found myself somewhat overwhelmed by everything I felt I had to learn.

Given the complexity of starting even my tiny business, I made the decision to "pay to publish" using Dog Ear Publishing. Dog Ear did a marvelous job with my first book, Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball: Bench Coaching for Success. I was able to see my book in print, it is selling reasonably well on Amazon (I need to work harder to market it!) and was able to learn a tremendous amount about the self-publishing industry.

I still had a lot to learn and continued to make mistakes as I continued to go through the learning process in discovering how to be a self-publishing author. This led to my most recent project, the manuscript of which is now finished and waiting to be edited, etc. It is written in what I hope is an easy to understand format of 301 questions and answers about things an author needs to know in order to self-publish. 

The book is based on what I have learned. I do not claim to be an authority about the entire field of self-publishing, but I have learned a great deal. I would like to share what I have learned with other neophyte authors considering self-publishing, helping them avoid wasting large sums of money and time like I did in the learning process and to steer the reader to the best source of information for in depth research when more information is needed.

I am sure it will have some revisions done to it between now and the time it is actually published and ready for sale on Amazon. But, the cover is being designed, the ISBN for it purchased, copyright, etc, and it should be ready for sale by mid-June at the earliest.

If anyone would like to see a proof copy delivered electronically, please e-mail me at info@kcsbasketball.com, and I will be happy to send you a draft in return for helpful and constructive criticism.

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