Guest Post: Self-Publishing with Jasime Roy

The Highs and Lows of Self-Publishing

Challenges of Publishing: My Journey
Jasmine Roy

Becoming a book author isn’t a simple job. Though the entry barrier has been lowered in the past few years, sustaining yourself through the bumps isn’t so easy. Making contacts with various parties in the book industry and then proposing your manuscript to the publisher through a book agent. And then waiting for their approval and more likely getting rejections is all so disappointing. After you face a couple of rejections, you are soon on the track of negative self-talk, quick to label yourself as a loser before another publisher really starts to like your work.

This phenomenon is fairly common and has driven many book authors to walk the self-publishing pathway. And there’s nothing wrong with that. This is an age when relying on someone else to carry out your job is likely to land you in trouble and give your nothing but failures and disappointments; a DIY job is highly preferred even in the publishing industry. For new book authors, self-publishing is definitely a route worth taking.

I took up self-publishing when it became too much for me to handle the constant rejections and delays by various publishers. Some sane person who’s been here for quite some time gave me a wise piece of advice of going for self-publishing.  Looking at my initial record of publisher rejections, I felt his advice was well-meaning and a well-intended one.  

My Self-publishing Experience

I love my work, and I know deep inside that I possess the drive and passion to make my dreams come true. However, to make them come true and in the quickest way possible, I needed to make amends in the way that I do my work, not just writing but publishing too.

Since my first successful experience at self-publishing was for a short romantic novel which revolved around a couple who weren’t sure about the feelings they shared for each other but later ended up being together. I thought making an interesting eBook out of this with a touching cover page and a title that captivates and moves the hearts of all that believe in true love.

I hired a self-publisher and instructed them about the design and title text that I wanted to incorporate into the e-copy. I ensured that there was an intrigue factor in the book; nobody likes to read a book that has a tell-all synopsis.  This had happened with me for one of my comic books when my extracts summarized all that was in the book. No doubt that the EBook never found any readers.

For the romantic novel, I registered with all possible free eBook websites and made sure the copies of my eBook were available for downloading from there. I wrote the book extract in such a way that it appealed to the modern youth. When you are publishing a romantic novel, keep in mind the target audience. If the eBook cover page and layout represents the age when your grandpa met grandma, you are cooking up a recipe for disaster.

In the first month itself, my EBook picked up sales through Amazon.com. That was the moment of utmost happiness for me. After enjoying the first few readers for my eBook, I made it a paid version in the third month. And it surprised me to see that people were willing to buy the paid version of my eBook too. Remember to cash in on the success as it may not last. If you wait too long before converting the free version into a paid one, the readers will circulate the free eBook to their friends who will no longer need the paid version. I had committed this mistake while publishing my comic eBook.

Self publishing a book may seem interesting, but you have to be well-versed with a lot of things and be good at handling them all at once. It did not take me much time to find a self-publisher from the highly informative online databases to help me with the implementation part. But, the planning part was all mine; they grant you the freedom to choose whatever design and layout you want for your book. And yes, for a romantic novel, don’t forget to use that oomph factor for publishing!

Author Bio: Jasmine Roy has extensive experience in writing on a range of topic. These portals not only support publishers, new authors, freelance illustrators but they also provide valuable information and services to publishing agents and agencies.
Please visit the author's site:  http://pubmatchblog.wordpress.com/