Spiderwize's Self Publishing Blog

Do you have a manuscript collecting dust (maybe electronic dust)? If you have in the past submitted your manuscript to mainstream publishers or if your manuscript would only appeal to a niche market then self publishing your manuscript may be the route to take. But before you take the plunge and go the self publishing route we have some tips below:

1. Spelling / Grammar: Is your book ready for the general public to read? Make sure that your manuscript has been thoroughly proofread. It is highly advisable that you get someone else to proofread your manuscript. It is so important to make a good impression to the reader. If your reader starts finding spelling and grammatical errors it can be a real turn-off and seriously damage the potential of your book being taken seriously.
2. Copyright and defamation of character: Before you publish a book it is imperative that you own or have permission to publish all of the contents that are contained in your manuscript. This also includes images. As the author you need to make sure your book does not contain anything libellous that someone might take offence to. You may wish to read our blog Avoiding Defamation of Character. Remember when you are self publishing in most cases it will be up to you the author to make sure your book does not break any copyrights or contains anything libellous against an individual or groups.
3. Storyline / narrative: You may wish to get a trusted friend to read your manuscript and ask for comments to the storyline / narrative. This can help to iron out any confusing or hard to read sections of your manuscript. This is also a good test to see someone’s response to your work though remember as you are getting a friend to read your work you may not receive the same response from the general public.
4. Distribution: It is a good idea to get an idea now what type of availability to the general market you want your book to have. Do you only want to sell your own copies or do you want your book to be available for sale on retail websites? Deciding this now will help you to find the right publishing service that is suitable for your needs.

I hope the above will be of some help to you self publishing your manuscript. If you think there are any other useful steps that should be included then we welcome you to add comments below.

Top image by: markhillary

So you are an author in the UK and have a book, perhaps a novel, to publish. Self Publishing in the UK is not difficult as it used to be with today many companies offering self publishing services for authors. Though you still need to be wary of what services / companies you use. Please see some tips below regarding some of the main items to be aware of when self publishing in the UK:

Proofreading / editing
What can be a major downfall for a self published book in the UK is the spelling, grammar and other types of errors. For your book to be well received and have a chance of good sales / distribution, it is imperative that your book is well edited.

Copyrighting your book
Copyright is an automatic right and arises whenever an individual or company creates a work. Though, if you wish, you may register your copyright with a registration service. This is not a requirement but registering your copyright makes it easier to prove your claim if your work is plagiarized – this is entirely up to you. You may wish to take a look at the following UK service that provides a copyright registration service: www.copyrightservice.co.uk

Formatting your book’s text
There are many aspects of your book to think about when your book is being formatted. You will need to make sure your formatting includes any setting that your printer requires. You could format your book yourself but we always recommend getting an experienced formatter to do this for you – preferably a formatter in the UK.

Designing your cover
As with formatting, we would recommend that you hire a designer to do this for you (preferably someone experienced in cover design). Badly designed covers have been another downfall for self published books. The designer will need to make sure that the book conforms with any settings that your printer requires, which will include setting the correct bleeds at the edges of the cover.

Getting an ISBN number
When self publishing you will need to ask yourself if you require an ISBN number? See our blog post on Does my book require an ISBN number? If you do require an ISBN number you will need to purchase the ISBN numbers from the UK ISBN agency Nielsen – their website is http://www.isbn.nielsenbook.co.uk. You will need to register yourself as a UK publisher as only publishers can purchase ISBN numbers from Nielsen.

Finding a printer
There are many printers available in the UK and if you are going to use a Print-on-Demand printer then it is recommended that you use a UK POD printer. If instead you are going to use an off-set printer (printing only in bulk), then you may also wish to get some printing quotes from overseas printers, as their prices may be more competitive then some UK printers.

Wholesalers
If you want your book to be available to purchase throughout the UK, then you may wish to look into the possibility of making your book available to the two biggest UK book wholesalers. They are Gardners and Bertrams.

Lets us Self Publish your book

Instead of self publishing yourself you could use a Publishing Service Provider like Spiderwize. Here at Spiderwize we offer full Publishing Packages that include all the necessary services and items an author needs to get their book / novel professionally made and printed. See what Self Publishing Packages we have to offer.

Image of flag by: micora