Self-Publishing 101

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Traditional publishers receive several thousand manuscripts each year
from hopeful writers; they publish less than one percent of them.
Undoubtedly Elicksen is justified in saying it is easier to get an
audience with the Pope than to have a book accepted by a traditional
(royalty) publisher. There are options, however, and this book is
devoted to exploring them. Some of the alternatives prey on the hopeful
and soon separate them from large amounts of money. These publishing
options include vanity presses, print-on-demand, and e-publishing
services. Elicksen describes how each of these, and traditional
publishers, work in order to provide the decision-making context for the
option she recommends—self-publishing. The advantage of
self-publishing is that the author is in control at every step in the
process, including the profit potential.

Starting with the premise that rejection by a traditional publisher
doesn’t mean a manuscript is bad, Elicksen provides a detailed,
practical overview of the path from book idea to sales of the finished
product. She looks at planning, writing, editing, software, agents,
contracts, scams, design, typesetting, covers, paper, proofing, pricing,
printing, binding, distribution, timing, publicity, advertising,
marketing, and sales.

The book provides solid content, organization to die for, a brutally
honest approach (“If you’re writing … to make money … perhaps
you shouldn’t be writing at all”), a fast-paced style, and lots of
helpful extras. These include dozens of useful web addresses, nine
sample documents the self-publishing author will need, a table on how to
estimate the unit cost per book, and an editing self-test.

A strength of the work is that while it provides encouragement in the
form of examples of famous and successful authors who have
self-published, it makes it clear that self-publishing is a route that
requires a commitment to planning and marketing. It provides both
encouragement and a healthy measure of reality to a writer considering
publishing a manuscript.