Spiderwize's Self Publishing Blog

The Inverness Book Festival has been running for eight years and is now a fixture of summer in the Highlands of Scotland. This year’s Festival kicks off on the 10^th of August and runs until the 14^th, making it a five day event which will be well worth the time to attend for readers or writers, be they in the self publishing industry or otherwise. Local literary buff Brid McKibben is in charge of this year’s activities, which will contain the now expected array of both local, Scottish and general United Kingdom writers, plus a few surprise guests.

The little ones won’t miss out either, with special events designed to keep them suitably entertained such as Bookbug Rhymetimes and the daily activities that are organised by the Festival’s Arts Ed group.

The Inverness Book Festival has never struggled to attract top cream writing talent, with the likes of GP Taylor, Iain Banks, Katie Grant, AL Kennedy, Kenneth White, Tom Devine, Cameron McNeish, Scoular Anderson (do you think he scowls a lot, then?), Emma Wood, Ewan Morrison, Des Dillon, Lance Price, Lin Anderson, Stuart MacBride, Melvin Burgess and Shirley Spear all having attended the event in previous years. This year’s guest list includes such names as Christopher Brookmyre, John Eunson, Tom Renouf, Louise Welsh, and Andy Wightman.

p.s. The Inverness Book Festival will be worth taking the time to visit.

One festival that literary types of all kinds, not just in the self publishing field, might want to take a look at if they have the time next month is the West Meon Festival of Books. The West Meon Festival of Books runs from the eighth to the tenth of July, and is a small but intimate literary festival that takes place in the small village setting of South Downs Country Park in West Meon (fairly obviously). West Meon itself is apparently located somewhere between Winchester and Petersfield in Hampshire on the A32.

Ticket prices tend to vary, though they were 55 pounds last year, which might seem a bit steep to some, but on the other hand, like I said, it is a very intimate festival and lets you get up close and personal (but not that personal) with some respected authors. This year those names include the likes of Michelle Magorian, Jake Wallis Simons, Nigel Farndale, Jane Shilling, Leo Benedictus, Anthony Quinn, Nick Hayes, Julie Hill, and Allan Mallinson. Previous years’ guest lists have included such names as Poppy Adams, Gillian Tindall, Wendy Cope, Natasha Solomons, Maureen Duke, Jack Sheffield, Jane Gardam, Rebecca Shaw, Sophie Hannah and many more besides.

As well as all the visiting authors, other events at the festival include bookbinding, activities for the rugrats, and all the usual literary festival stuff, I would imagine.

p.s. Those fancying a more intimate literary festival should check out The West Meon Festival of Books.

Those interested in self publishing, literature should absolutely check out the Buxton Festival Literature Series. The Buxton Festival Literature Series kicks off on July 9th and carries on until the 27th July – no fly by night weekend festival this one – and consists of a wide range of activities and a multitude of well-known guests.

The event features a morning literary series, concerts in the afternoon and evenings with operas being performed with themes such as exploration, modern politics and espionage all being taken on, while the ‘big name’ guests this year include the likes of Dame Ellen MacArthur, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Esther Freud, Colin Thubron, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Will Hutton, Michael Broadbent, Salley Vickers, Miranda Seymour, Richard Miles, Professor Christopher Andrew, Virginia Nicholson and many more besides. Guests in previous years have included the likes of Patrick Gale, Melvyn Bragg, Cherie Blair, Kate Atkinson, Prue Leith, Joan Bakewell, Vince Cable, award-winning journalist Kate Adie and former Liberal Democrats leader Paddy Ashdown.

Entry to the Buxton Festival Literature Series is not free I’m afraid, but if you’re under 30 seats cost just five pounds a head and under 16s, pensioners and students can get in for half price, so it’s not too bad at all really.

p.s. The Buxton Festival Literature Series has a lot to offer.

The Humber Mouth Literature Festival is an annual event that occurs in Hull. Granted, Hull isn’t the first name that might spring to mind when you think about either great literature or literary festivals. However, it appears that might be a rather ignorant response, given that in previous years the festival has attracted names such as Germaine Greer, best selling writers such as Louis de Bernieres and Jonathan Coe, and noted poets such as David Wheatley and Carol Rumens and has been running successfully now for 18 years, since its inception way back in 1993.

This year’s festival kicks off on the 25th June 2011, but will carry on until the tenth of July, so there’s plenty of time for you to get your affairs in order to ensure that you can be there. As in past years, there are plenty of name guests that those in the writing field, be it self publishing or otherwise, will recognise, such as George Monbiot, Simon Garfield, Adam Mars-Jones, John Hegley, Jon Ronson, Jenni Murray and several others besides. In addition to the guests, there will also be some events such as a celebration of literature in Hull throughout history, which will be presented by famed singer and songwriter Jack Underwood, workshops, stuff for children, and all the things you expect from a literary festival.

p.s. The Humber Mouth Literature Festival should be well worth a visit.

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.

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