40 years ago publishing a book was not always about how famous you are. Today if you are famous, that generally equates to book sales. It used to be about the quality of the writing. I am still an avid reader and I aspired as a kid to be a writer.
In those days the only way you published a book, whether fiction or nonfiction, was sending in your print manuscript to a publisher. I specifically would buy the Writer’s Guide, which still exists, but alas I never completed my stories, my books or anything that resembled a book. I did, however, write two screenplays, which I have actually never sent off. Still insecure and thinking I am not good enough to publish, I really never completed this journey.
A Perchance Meeting
About a month ago I ran into a publisher and asked him about how I would go about publishing a book based on my blogs. It would cover most of the same subjects, but would be nicer, clearer, and directed at a specific audience. He told me that typically it would cost me around $2,000 to put everything together to publish my book. This did not sound good to me. I am either too cheap, or more importantly, I don’t think I would actually make more than $2,000, so forget about that. This would require selling 100 books. Not a chance in hell.
However, he did direct me to a website called CreateSpace.com . I started by creating an account on CreateSpace.com. What I have noticed so far is you can spend about $2,000, but you can also go as far as you can with CreateSpace.com without spending a dime. You just have to do your own work to get it done.
I started the publishing process, I am still waiting to see if there is a place that will require me to enter my credit card. Has not happened so far. I could be wrong. I am trying to publishing without spending any money, and that is what this blog article is about.
Step 1 – Create An Account
I went to CreateSpace.com and created an account for myself. Very simply and easy to do. No charge required. CreateSpace.com assigns you a member ID. You can log off and log back in easily. Just mentioning because I am looking for any gotchas.
Step 2 – Create Your Book or Project
Second I clicked “Add A Project”. They ask you if it is a book, a video, dvd, etc. I said a book. I entered the name Website Feature Discovery. That’s my temporary name. I added a subtitle. They ask a few other questions like if is a series, the author name and edition. Nothing to complicated so far. They then generate an ISBN Number for you in order to publish the book. I realized, wait, I haven’t had to enter my credit card yet. So as far as I know it is still going to not cost anything.
Step 3 – Trim and Word Template
You choose your book size. The most common size is 6″ by 9″. You can change that book size. You can download a word document that is formatted exactly how your book will appear. You can use this to create in Word the final book manuscript that is used to print the book. Finally, there is a book cost calculator you can click to help you figure out how much the book will cost.
Step 4 – Interior
Ok, this was the first page where there was an optional cost of creating something more than a cream page color. If you accept the common settings on the interior, it is still free. If you want something special design services, fonts, etc, that starts at $199. I clicked Skip That!
Step 5 – Cover
They have two free options and one paid option. For free you can use their cover generator or upload a PDF file to spec with your cover (I am assuming color). For $399 you can pay for design services. I tried out their book cover generator and it seems like it works. Have not yet spent the time finishing up using it, but is seems like it works…
Step 6 – Complete Setup
This is where you review the interior, cover and book options. Once you have completed the set up, it is time to start building your manuscript.
They give you an estimate of how much it will cost to publish your book. For instance my book is 130 pages and 6″ by 9″. It comes down to about $2.50 per book. They also cover how much royalty you will be making if you sell on Amazon, Kindle, in dollars, euros and pounds where your book will be available. If I sold my book for $16.95, I would receive about $8 royalty per book.
So the royalty situation is not great, but at least it’s something, considering I have not put up a dime, just my time. Hey that rhymes.
Lastly, once I publish my book, which I am calling “Thinking Start-ups”, will post that here!