Steps towards publishing my book

[Graylorne]

I'm definitely going to try to publish Shardheld as a trilogy. I've started an extra story line to flesh out Part 1 to about 50k. Am I wrong in thinking this would be a nice and low-priced ($2.99) start?

I applied for an EIN number from the IRS to sell on Amazon.com.

I opened a CreateSpace account with Amazon, to publish my Shardheld works. I made a CreateSpace preview of part of Book 1, to be viewed and commented on here: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1116428

Now I’ll dive into Smashwords (that’s very popular over here in NL).

Obviously I’m forgetting a load of things, so if anyone would have suggestions, I’d be grateful!

 

[Devor]

Self-Promotion is for talking about a book you've published. Since you're really asking questions, I'm moving this to the Publishing forum, where you should get more notice.

 

[Graylorne]

Thanks, Devor (for both moves). I wasn't really sure were it belonged.

 

[Graylorne]

Took an important hurdle today: foud my publisher agreeable to making the three covers of my to-be-selfpubbed Shardheld books. That's not something every publisher would do, I'd say. Very acceptable price, incl. complete lay-out.

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

Took an important hurdle today: foud my publisher agreeable to making the three covers of my to-be-selfpubbed Shardheld books. That's not something every publisher would do, I'd say. Very acceptable price, incl. complete lay-out.

That raised a red flag with me, for sure.

If you are self publishing, you are the publisher.
If someone else is your publisher, you're not self publishing.

That's the basics. The places that say they "will help you self publish", and then upload your work to *their* account with *their* company name listed as publisher are almost universally scams, and ought to be avoided.

But you said you're using Createspace, which is a printer, not a publisher... I use Createspace for my print editions. If I wanted to upload my four year old's latest crayon scribbling, they'd "let" me do that... As the business owner using their printing services, I have complete control of what my final product will be.

Bit of advice, too: I don't usually recommend using the Createspace services. Stick to their printing. You can get better quality on cover and layout from a freelancer, most of the time. (I do my own, but there are a LOT of people with their shingles out on the Writer's Cafe of Kindleboards.com)

 

[Graylorne]

Ah, no, I wasn't clear enough

I'm published by an up and coming small press publisher here in the Netherlands. They bring out my Revenaunt books and are going to do the first of these internationally coming Summer. My publisher himself is also an illustrator.

Now I'm going to self-pub my other trilogy, Shardheld, instead of offering it to them. That way, I can quickly enlarge the amount of my titles on Amazon and hopefully my overall sales, what benefits him as well.

I asked him to do the covers, because I like his style and it's different from the generic mush I see on Amazon, and he agreed. They'll even do the upcoming Rhidauna titles in the same general style of lay-out, to enhance visibility.

That sort of great cooperation not every publisher would offer, I'd say.

Me, I'm using CreateSpace, under my own company name and only for the printing. I won't use their services, rather choose my own editor etc.

 

[Graylorne]

Another little step forward: I just registered myself with our Dutch ISBN agency. For a one-time fee (or rather, to a max. of 100 ISBN numbers) they wrote me down as a publisher. ISBN numbers are only €9.00 each in NL.

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

Ah, that makes total sense. And very cool of your publisher to cooperate with you on the covers like that.

 

[Graylorne]

I just obtained my EIN number of the US Internal Revenue Service. By old-fashioned telephone from a nice lady. Perfect service!

Shardheld book #1 is now in the hands of a pro editor.

The cover is in the works.

Now only that last 10k. of book #2 that still bothers me.

Anyone here interested to do a preliminary Alpha reading of book #2 (content, character, logic)? I would be grateful.