Self-Publish Your Book: A Quick & Easy Step-by-Step Guide

Writing in a Nutshell #6

by Jessica Bell

Are you ready to self-publish your book, but dreading the massive learning curve? Well, there’s no need to dread it anymore!

This 6th installment of the bestselling Writing in a Nutshell series, will not overwhelm you with all information available—it will tell you exactly what you need to know, without the faff, by following a foolproof, cost-efficient, time-efficient, extremely easy-to-follow, step-by-step self-publishing method.

Want to go from manuscript to a professionally published book within one week? Then this is the book for you.

You’ll learn how to: prepare your manuscript in Microsoft Word, design your paperback and eBook cover, prepare your front/back matter and blurb, format your paperback interior & eBook, proofread your designed pages, register with desired retailers/distributors, export your eBook to a retail-ready file and upload your paperback and eBook to retailers/distributors.

Not only will this book save you time and money, but it will also save you from inevitable stress. What are you waiting for? Self-publish your book today!

Genres: Writing

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2015

About the author

Jessica Bell is a multi-award-winning author/poet and singer-songwriter who was born in Melbourne, Australia.

In addition to having published a memoir, five novels, three poetry collections, and her bestselling Writing in a Nutshell series, she has been featured in a variety of publications and radio shows such as Writer’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, The Guardian, Life Matters, and Poetica.

She is also the Publisher of Vine Leaves Press, and a highly sought-after book cover designer. She currently resides in Athens, Greece, with her partner and son, and a pile of dishes that still don’t know how to wash themselves despite her consistently teaching by example.

For more information visit: iamjessicabell.com

Reviews

[Emma Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many ‘how to’ writing and publishing guides on the market and like any self-respecting procrastinating writer, I have read a lot of them. This guide from Jessica Bell is by far, my favourite.
Every step from formatting to cover design to actually getting your book out there is covered in step-by-step detail. Jessica manages to spell it out in simple detail without being condescending. I love the bullet points; not only can you tick off items as you do them, but it breaks down what can seem like huge tasks into bite size, manageable chunks. I’m not the most technical person, but I managed to follow each and every step with ease. A quick example: before reading this book, I spent days (probably more like weeks) messing around trying to format my book. With this book, I had it all finished in one day. That is how good this book is.
I seriously cannot recommend this book (or the others in the In a Nutshell series - I have them all) enough. If you’re serious about self-publishing, you have to buy this book.

[Luca Marchiori · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Jessica Bell’s Writing in a Nutshell series has not yet become the standard craft reference for all aspiring writers, then it should have. The books in the series cover everything about writing creative fiction and non-fiction from showing—not telling —to polishing a finished manuscript.

They have now been joined by the sixth, and perhaps ultimately the most useful, book in the series: Self-Publish Your Book. This amazing volume tells you step-by-step how to take the manuscript you have been lovingly incubating under Bell’s expert gaze, and turn it into a volume as professionally produced as Bell’s books themselves.

The book is divided into sixteen chapters that cover everything from formatting the manuscript properly, through cover design, choice of format (eBook or paperback, or both?) to getting your book into the hands of the distributers, from where people can actually buy your baby. It’s quite technical, but it needs to be, and everything is explained in Bell’s extremely user-friendly prose that could make brain surgery seem like, … well … something a lot easier than brain surgery.

In recent years, self-published authors have taken a lot of flak from the traditional publishing industry—most of whom are running scared—for a lack of professional quality, particularly in terms of production values for books. With this book, Jessica Bell gives you the tools to break through that reputation, sharing the secrets of her own success as an author and self-publisher, backed by her years of experience as an editor and writer.

If self-publishing is a revolution, then Bell has placed herself firmly at the head of it, holding the flag. With this book and the rest in the series, you too can become part of the movement and take the publishing power into your own hands.


Disclaimer: author provided an ARC in return for an honest review.

[Misha Gericke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great introduction to cover design and formatting, with very easy-to-follow steps.

[Bryn]

A placeholder for Shirley Bostrom’s self published book, “The Power of Kari”. A book of a mother’s grief over the loss of her daughter, learning who Kari was to so many and celebrating Kari’s many gifts.

[Karl Drinkwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was impressed by the clear, no-nonsense attitude of this book. Even though it covers a subject I know well, I still picked up some tips and alternative ways of working. The aim is to give one experience-honed way of publishing a book, and it works well at that; even though I use different software and processes that suit my workflow, much of it is translatable. Note that this is a guide for once you already have an amazing book written and properly edited. Never rush to publish until the book is as good as it can be, so research those topics elsewhere (I've heard that Jessica's other books in this series cover these areas very well if you are new to them).

The one thing I'd change would be to include images at the point when they're referred to in the text rather than in an appendix at the back (I'm happy to then zoom in on images to see them in more detail). I was reading on a Kindle so jumping to the appendix and back is enough of a chore that I didn't refer to the useful images. That may even have already been changed in the latest edition, invalidating even this minor suggestion.

Overall this is a really useful and fairly fool-proof guide to what can be a very technical and complicated process. It makes an excellent starter, holding your hand until you're ready to go off exploring and learning more on your own.

[C.S. Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-have for every indie author who wants to save loads of time and money. It's that simple.

In this book you'll learn it all: from formatting tips, to registering with retailers, to how to design your own e-book cover. I personally found it extremely useful, and I already put a lot of the book's advises to practice.

The author provides easy templates for you to use, which will not only save you tons of time, but also, tons of money. I can't emphasize this enough.

So if you're an indie author, you'll want to buy this book. Unless Donald Trump is your father. Or you're related to one of the guys who invented Google. Or you're Martha Stewart.

[Jessica Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very excited to bring this book into the world! And thank you, Glynis Smy (author of Maggie's Child), for your fabulous quote for the front cover. :-)

[Margie Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful

One of the most instructive books I have read on self-publishing. Easy to read, step by step, and refreshingly free of fluff.