publishing Archives - Fiona Fletcher Reid

A Guide to Self-Publishing Your Book [Guest post]

by Fiona likes to blog | Apr 7, 2022 | WRITING

Guest blog post by R L Hanslow

I became a self-published children’s writer in December 2020, it was the year that changed everything for most people and I was no exception.

It allowed me to throw caution to the wind and just do it. Big girl panties were well and truly on.

If you’re reading this you’re either an avid reader of Fiona’s blog, one of my friends or family members (hi guys!) or you want to know how you too, can become a self-published writer.

Self-Publishing Tips

You’ve got the idea, you may even have a full manuscript and you’re at the, “What the H E double hockey sticks do I do now? “stage. Firstly, take a deep breath. Inhale for four, exhale for six, and we’ll get through this together.

My first self-publishing tip is this: Be realistic and define your version of success.

There’s a good chance you’ve got something incredible in your midst but traditional “success” won’t come overnight. It’s a gruelling path but one that can be rewarding in more ways than just making money. If money is your main goal it’s probably best to re-think your career choice or add side hustles.

The Basics of Self–Publishing

These are the three most common ways to self-publishing your book:

Self-publishing completely by yourself. With this option you can of course hire the freelance assistance you may need but you cover working with retailers and distributors to sell your book. You can also be your own distributor.
Self-publish by paying a service company to assist you.
Work with a hybrid publisher.

I chose to go down option one for my personal circumstances, so the knowledge I have has come from trial and error in this process.

I submitted to publishers and I, amazingly, got positive feedback each time but as I’m classed as an ‘unknown author’ they won’t take the chance of giving a traditional contract (Where the publisher pays you for your book) and only offered me hybrid contracts (where they ask you to pay anything from £2,000-£10,000 to publish your book with them and they can make any changes they want).

I was told by author Alison Belsham that you should never accept a contract where you have to pay money to a publisher and I’m so glad of that advice.

Print On Demand vs Offset Printing

The next steps would be to tackle 3 key factors. These factors will help you to see which avenue is best for you and whether it would be best to do print on demand (POD) or traditional offset printing. Ask yourself the following questions:

How/where do you plan to sell your work?
Where do you want to drive sales?
What is your budget?

I personally use Amazon KDP which is a free way to publish your book on Amazon on e-book, paperback and hardback form and the only charge is a percentage taken off any sale you get.

You get any royalties owed to you automatically every three months. This is a great option overall, but especially if, like myself, you don’t have a large budget to play with.

Side note: If you’ve got a book with a lot of illustrations or are catering to children, I wouldn’t recommend e-book formats as they don’t translate well at all and the demand for children’s e-books isn’t there like adult books.

Printing Your Book

I also print my own copies of my books as the books made using KDP are a different size, paper texture etc than I’d personally choose so I use Digital Printing UK where I can choose everything for myself including the quantity.

After my first book, I learned that doing a pre-order campaign is a great way to determine how many books you’ll need before getting carried away and ordering more than you can store, sell or afford.

If you are going down the children’s book or illustrated book route, please bear in mind that costs for these will be higher than just text-based books.

I am lucky to be able to collaborate with my husband, who is a skilled graphic artist and illustrates my books but if you don’t know someone personally, there will be this added cost also.

Hybrid Publishing

If you choose to get someone to publish for you or feel that you are in a position to hybrid publish, please do be extra careful. More money doesn’t always mean you’re guaranteed success and there are a lot of scammer companies out there who will take your money and never do a thing they promised you.

Do your research on the companies and publisher before you sign anything or send them any money. Look at their websites and have a separate search for the authors and books they say they’ve helped previously.

It might sound like an obvious thing but when you’ve worked so hard on something and you’re just desperate for it to be put out there, these companies can make it sound like they have the solution to all your problems.

Editing Your Self-Published Book

Before actually selling your book, I would recommend making sure your book is edited to a professional standard. As my books are children’s books, I am able to make the edits I need to, however, if you have three hundred plus pages, I’d recommend a professional editor.

Sales Channels for Your Book

All authors/writers would love to have their work on the shelves of Waterstone’s, WH Smiths and even on the supermarket shelves and this doesn’t necessarily have to be a pipedream for self-publishing but be prepared for it to take a long time and some hard graft behind the scenes.

To even have your book looked at by the likes of Waterstones or libraries, you have to be registered with Nielsen and then further contact the wholesalers and suppliers to set up an agreement contract with them.

Gardners is the main wholesaler for Waterstones and then once you have confirmation of set up you then apply to Waterstone’s via their Independent Publisher scheme. For libraries, you will find Gardners and Askews and Holt are two of the most popular wholesaler and each has its own requirements to be on their seller list.

If you want to start by just selling on Amazon KDP or alternatives I’ve recently discovered Draft 2 Digital and Ingram Spark that are perfectly acceptable and will be a lot less hassle for you in regards to printing, shipping etc.

Amazon KDP also gives you a free ISBN which helps with costs and it does offer help in regards to marketing but this part isn’t free and depends on your budget.

You can also sell on your own website if you plan to give out to only family and friends etc, to begin with, you don’t need the use of an ISBN but if you plan to sell to the public, wholesalers, suppliers etc you must buy an ISBN.

What is an ISBN number?

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is a unique thirteen-digit code specifically generated for your book. You can easily register for an ISBN online, I personally use the Independent Publishing Network website however Nielsen have options to buy on their site and many others also.

The cost of an ISBN is around £89 and some companies may charge extra for barcodes. If you plan on selling your book in paperback and hardback you will, unfortunately, need a separate ISBN for each format. The good news is, ISBNs never expire so once you purchase them, it’s yours and you never have to renew.

There is a legal requirement for all UK publications that have ISBNs whereby once your book is registered and published, you must send one copy to the British Library within one month of publication. You have a legal obligation to do this and supply any further copies for them or any of the six National libraries in the UK that request copies.

Promoting Your Self-Published Book

This is the part you really need to keep your own defined success in mind and keep grounded. Social media is a great tool for promotion, however, ask yourself if you are prepared to dedicate hours every day to posts, following trends etc. You will find a lot of people who are willing to review your book, especially on Instagra for a small fee.

Make sure your book has a good blurb or tagline. It’s always the attention to detail that catches the eye of buyers, you want them to want your book. In the same vein as this, having a good author bio can also be an advantage.

If you have a text-based book you also have the option of maximising your distribution via the likes of Google Play Store and Apple iBooks, you can even think about doing your own audiobook. I would definitely recommend joining the Goodreads Author Program as with a network of over 65 million members, it makes it a useful promotional platform.

Lastly, I know writing can be enjoyed in solitude but making writer friends will be a great help on this journey, not just for promotion but also for support and rejuvenation when you need it the most.

Final thoughts

Self-publishing isn’t for the faint of heart or those who want to make a quick buck. It has been one of the most exhilarating and mind-blowing experiences for me so far and I’m still learning as I go. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Fiona for being such a wonderful mentor to me and giving me this opportunity.

If you are ready to take on the journey, I wish you all the luck in the world and by all means, please contact me or connect with me on social media via my website Made You Co. There you will also find more of my writing work and how to purchase my books.

Love hard. Be fierce. Horns high.

How to plan and outline a non-fiction book

by Fiona likes to blog | Feb 17, 2021 | WRITING

So you want to write a non-fiction book? Amazing! I’ve personally written two myself and am in the middle of planning my third, so now feels like the perfect time to let you in on the process I used to plan and write my non-fiction books so that you can try it out for yourself.

Non-fiction covers a lot of bases including memoir, self-help, true crime, how-to and history. Whatever type of non-fiction book you want to write, this guide will offer a step by step process that will get you closer to your writing goal

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Be curious

Both of my non-fiction books are very different. One is a mental health memoir and the other is a how-to guide for freelancers called Out of Office, but both began with a sense of curiosity. I think writing should come from creativity, first and foremost, so I don’t advise that you to plan your book writing process based on trends or trying to fill a gap in the market.

Instead, challenge yourself to dream up an idea for a book that you would simply love to write. Because the reality is that it can take anywhere between six and twelve months to write a non-fiction book and it requires a lot of focus, so above all you should make sure that you enjoy the process as much as possible.

There are a lot of books out in the world, and as little as 1% of them will end up becoming bestsellers so your book might not become an overnight success, but you should still aim to feel proud of what you’ve written.

Open your mind to new ideas for your book by consuming new topics in the form of books, podcasts, magazines, newspaper articles, movies and documentaries. Keep a notepad handy at all times to make a note of any ideas that come to mind, and enjoy this exploratory phase of writing. I also find it helpful to journal on a daily basis as this allows me to organise my thoughts and free write about anything that’s on my mind. You’ll be surprised at how many brainwaves you have when you’re journaling about nothing in particular.

Brainstorm

Once you’ve spent a few weeks (or months) mulling over your idea, set aside a day to get everything out on the page. First of all, get a large piece of paper and write down all your thoughts about the book you’re considering writing. I find doing this with pen and paper is much more effective than writing out words into a document. Try creating a mind map based on a few of the larger topics and gradually noting down any threads attached to each one.

For example when I was brainstorming my book Out of Office one of the main topics was mental health. The threads attached to that were words like social media, taking time off, isolation, money worries, etc. Once you’ve done this for several topics you’ll start to see just how much information you have to work with, how they link together and how it will form the structure of your book.

Research

If you feel ready to start structuring your non-fiction book then you can move onto the next step. However, if you feel like there are a few gaps in your knowledge or some interesting threads you’d like to follow a little further then now is a good time to do some research.

Dig deeper into the content you consumed at the ‘be curious’ stage. Look at the bibliographies in the books you read, read newspaper articles and biographies on the people who interest you the most. For non-fiction books, I love using the Blinkist app to get a general overview of the key ideas of the books I’m interested in before I read the full book. Audiobooks are another great way to deepen your understanding of a particular subject area, before you settle on a book idea.

Pick a structure

The structure for your non-fiction book will depend on the type of book you want to write. In my mental health memoir, I open the story at a dramatic low point which took place in my late twenties, a sort of prologue which sets the tension early on. After that, I use a fairly standard chronological structure that follows my childhood through to the present day. In Out of Office, I structured the book to follow the typical journey of someone who wants to go freelance. I start by explaining what freelancing is, lay out the pros and cons and then offer practical advice on how to get started, grow and develop over time.

Your book might offer a step by step process to solve a specific problem. In which case, you should aim to write the book in a way that makes this as easy as possible for the reader to follow. For example, you’ll probably need to explain some of the concepts early on in the book to allow the reader to understand and implement the advice you give later in the book.

Organise

I like to organise my ideas visually, and this is how I’ve planned all of the non-fiction books I’ve written. Take a look at the mindmap you’ve created and cross out anything that is no longer relevant.

Now, get a stack of post it notes and copy a single word or idea onto each note and stick them on a blank wall. You’ll end up with lots and lots of sticky notes, but now you can rearrange them into a loose structure. Group similar topics together, then rearrange them into an order that makes sense for the reader. For example, when planning Out of Office, it made sense to talk through basics like how to raise an invoice before more advanced chapters such as how to raise your prices.

You might find that some topics are actually themes and crop up several times throughout the book. That’s OK, just write a few more notes and stick them in wherever you need them.

For example, in my mental health memoir I knew I wanted to talk about my love for writing as a child, then contrast that with my lack of creativity as an adult. Similarly, in Out of Office, isolation is something I write about in multiple chapters of the book as it makes sense to talk about the widespread issue in the beginning and then offer advice to manage it later in the book.

Draft an outline

For me, the whole point of this process is to create a book outline that will then act as a guideline to write the book. If you’re creating a book proposal to send out to agents or publishers then you’ll need an outline as part of that, but even if you’re self-publishing you’re going to need some sort of plan in place before you sit down to write. Using the post it notes you rearranged earlier, you should now see the basis of your outline. Remember to include a short introduction, then divide the book into sections, then headings, then subheadings. It’s OK if you’re not 100% sure of the chapters and their exact order. You can only plan so much and a lot of the answers you’re looking for will become clear through the process of writing the book.

Now you should have a loose plan for your non-fiction book. If you’d like more support on actually writing your book, you might be interested in my Find Your Voice course which teaches you techniques on how to hone your writing style and write from personal experience.

Further reading:

How to Write Non-Fiction by Joanna Penn https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4750/9781912105779

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up by Lee Gutkind https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4750/9780738215549

Depression in a Digital Age by Fiona Thomas https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4750/9781912478507