Just. A. Little. Further.
I’ve finished the print and digital versions for my flash fiction collection (at last!), and am now in the home stretch. Accounts are set up with digital (and print) purveyors, so it should* just be a matter of getting the files uploaded and hitting “Publish!”
This has been so long in the making that I can’t even say. The good news is that while the learning curve for indie publishing has been nearly vertical, with any luck future books shouldn’t** take nearly as long to get out into the world. Why? Because I’ve learned a whole slew of skills:
- interior book layout and design
- front matter
- back matter
- pagination
- headers and footers
- readable and embedded and copyright-free fonts
- cover creation
- definition of “royalty-free” and why you should pay for it
- writing jacket copy
- pricing
- ISBN and BISAC
- formatting a book for print
- formatting a book for digital consumption (epub and mobi formats)
- contracts and net royalty calculators
- which companies are worth dealing with
And that doesn’t even get into the hours spent learning the page layout software and creating the book template, learning the image manipulation software, learning the e-book editing software, learning the e-book conversion software, and studying how others have indie published good-looking books.
There is definitely something to be said for paying a professional; at the same time, I think it’s invaluable to have a functional knowledge of how these things work, even if I end up hiring professionals in the future.
Hmmm. That might also apply to other life situations, come to think of it.
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*”Should”. There I went and jinxed myself. Because I think that this process will only take another week at the most, it will most likely take another three months. Wait for it.
**Doh! I went and did it again. Argh.