Self Publishing help – Blue Poppy Publishing – book publisher in North Devon

How to Format a Paperback Novel for the UK Market

Using Word to Format a Paperback – UK

I make a part of my income from formatting novels for other writers, so obviously it would be madness to give away the secrets of how I do that, right?

Well, maybe that is actually wrong. Some people have time but no money, others have money but no time. If you are one of the latter, and you want your novel formatted just reach out to me and I will do a professional job for you at a reasonable rate.

If on the other hand, you are time rich money poor, then below is the secret laid out for you in full detail. It’s my first final draft (We all know what a first final draft is, right? It’s the one you think is perfect but it isn’t really) so if you spot any mistakes, or if it raises more questions than answers, please tell me.

And just like how some restaurants will supply the recipes for their signature dishes, safe in the knowledge that many customers would sooner leave it to the professionals, I am happy to let you see how I do what I do. If nothing else, some of you might appreciate why my charges are actually a little on the cheap side.

How To Format a Novel in Word

Okay, here’s the link you need. This is a .DOCX file so it is only going to be useful to people using Word 2013 or later. Also, your computer will warn you not to open it unless you are sure it’s from a safe source. I can only tell you, there is nothing sinister in there and you are just going to have to trust me. I can’t prove a thing. But most people coming here probably already know me, so that’s cool.

BasicNovel129x198

This file is set up exactly like a novel with the correct page size and general layout conventions. In addition, instead of consisting of generic lorem ipsum and Insert Title Here, text, the document itself is a step-by-step instruction manual for how to tweak and adjust the settings to suit your own personal aesthetic preferences.

When you open it, I recommend you save a copy with the title of your novel, and then set about dropping your text into place while keeping the original version to check back in case you did anything wrong.

What is an ISBN, and Do I Need an ISBN for My Book?

Does my UK Published Book Need an ISBN?

You might think the answer to this is a resounding yes, and in most cases it will be. In fact, technically the word “published” pretty much presumes you have an ISBN. However in some cases, the answer may surprise you.

Read on for more information.

As always, please note, this article is written in the UK for self-publishers who need a UK perspective on the subject. Readers in the USA or Australia may find the general information useful, but not the specific UK bits.

What is an ISBN?

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is like a birth certificate for a book. It means that the book is a recognised entity in the world. But if a human is born and, for whatever reason, does not have a birth certificate, then they are still a human being and every bit as real and legitimate as someone who does have one.

And just as a human needs a birth certificate, or some form of official recognition such as a naturalisation certificate, to participate in all aspects of society, so a book that wishes to be part of the big wide world of Goodreads, Amazon, Waterstones, and other major retailers, needs an ISBN

However, a book is still a valid thing – a product – which can, in certain circumstances, still be sold even without an ISBN.

When is it okay NOT to have an ISBN?

If your book will be sold exclusively by you; within your personal network, via your own website, at events and talks, or through third party selling sites like eBay, then is does not require an ISBN.

In addition, if you have a good friend or relative who owns a shop, and they have promised to stock your book, and they will buy copies direct from you, you do not need an ISBN. Even if the local bookshop wants copies and they are happy to buy them from you, then you probably don’t need an ISBN although the absence of an ISBN could really put them off.

When do I NEED an ISBN?

A barcode and ISBN on the back of the book makes it look more professional, so even if you think your local shop will buy direct from you, it might improve your chances if you have the ISBN.

You DO need an ISBN if you hope to see your book stocked in any book retailer that you can’t directly supply (and usually even if you can), or in any official organisation that sells books, e.g. the National Trust gift shops or any museum gift shop. These organisations will not (except in extremely rare circumstances) buy direct from the author. They also NEED a barcode in order to use their scanner at the point of sale.

N.B. – being ABLE to order your book does not mean that a particular shop will ever hold stock. That’s another big side issue.

You need an ISBN if you hope that your local library will buy a copy. Without an ISBN they simply can’t buy it at all. Also, without an ISBN you cannot claim any public lending rights royalties. (see below).

They may be persuaded to accept a donated copy, but you should check first because libraries do not usually accept unsolicited books to their collection. If your book has a lot of useful local content they are more likely to accept a copy and put it into the system. Even if you give them a copy, some libraries may still require a barcode, which realistically means you need an ISBN.

You also need an ISBN if you want to see your book listed on Goodreads, or to list it normally on Amazon. And, of course, if you are using any print-on-demand and distribution service, like Amazon KDP or IngramSpark then you can’t proceed without allocating an ISBN.

Amazon will, eventually, create a page for any book that has an ISBN. So will Goodreads.

You can add it yourself, or wait until it gets added, but it will be there when, or in case, anyone wants to review it or discuss it on Goodreads, or sell a second-hand copy on Amazon.

The Pros and Cons of an ISBN

Cons

ISBNs cost money to purchase (quite a lot if you only buy one! See “How do I get an ISBN in the UK” – below)
Once your book is published you have to give some to the legal deposit libraries.
It’s a bit of extra hassle

Pros

Your book looks official (because it is)
Your book can (in theory) be stocked in bookshops
Your book will (eventually) get listed on Goodreads and Amazon

That’s … more or less it, in a nutshell. I feel as though I have missed something here but I have to publish at some point.

How do I get an ISBN in the UK?

First of all, if you are self-publishing or being traditionally published with Blue Poppy Publishing then we handle all of this for you.

If you are self-publishing independently then you will need to purchase one or more ISBNs from Nielsen.

You can ONLY purchase UK IBSNs from Nielsen.

If anyone else offers to sell you an ISBN then your book will be officially published by them. The main exception of which I am aware is that Amazon KDP will offer you a free ISBN. While that technically means they are the the publisher of your book, it doesn’t mean a lot and you are still in control. However, if you are going to publish your book with a print run, or with IngramSpark either as well as, or instead of KDP then you need your own ISBN and you may as well apply it to KDP as well. (There is still some debate over this but it’s a side issue)

Here’s the link for the Nielsen ISBN store https://nielsenisbnstore.com/Home/Isbn

As soon as you go there you will note (at the time of posting) that the pricing system is just about the most unfair looking scheme ever.

1 x ISBN = £91
10 x ISBNs = £169 (or £16.90 each)
100 x ISBNs = £379 (£3.79 each)
1,000 x ISBNs = £979 (98pence each)

I expect there is a valid reason, but I can’t fathom it. Probably to do with processing fees. Heaven only knows how it works for Amazon, or Harper Collins who must use tens of thousands of ISBNs

Anyway, there’s nothing you can do about it, but do not be tempted to buy an ISBn from a company offering them to you for a tenner, or whatever. As I say, they will then officially be your publisher and you will almost certainly have difficulty listing your book properly on the database.

How do I get the book barcode for my ISBN?

Rule ONE: Don’t pay for this service.

The ISBN you get from Nielsen doesn’t come with a barcode. But you need one on your book. Luckily, there are plenty of websites that will make a barcode for you free of charge. My favourite one to use is BooksFactory who are a printer based in Poland. I love their quotes form, too, because it is instant and doesn’t require my email to get a quote. Also they are usually cheaper than everyone else’s, especially on very short runs.

Anyway, their barcode generator is here; https://booksfactory.co.uk/index.php?cPath=78_80
just copy and paste the number into the form and hit go. It will generate a B&W PDF of your barcode at the correct size – 25mm (1″) high – to insert into an InDesign or Photoshop (etc.) cover file.

Registering your book on the Nielsen database

This will need an article of its own at some point. If you want it and it’s not here then ask and I will try and motivate myself to write it.

In brief. Nielsen’s websites have terrible UI and I spend a lot of my life screaming at the screen. There are two main parts.

https://www.nielsentitleeditor.com/titleeditor/ for adding new titles to the database
https://bookorders.nielsenbooknet.com/ for informing you of any new orders from wholesalers.

Nielsen isn’t a wholesaler, they are a data service. You list your book/s on their Title Editor site with the correct ISBN, title, author name, cover, and all the other pertinent information and they serve it to the wholesaler which seems now to be just one comany, Gardners, who then provide that same data to the retailers, Waterstones and the rest.

If Waterstones want a book they place an order with Gardners who then send you and order through the Book Orders site. You raise an invoice and post the book to Gardners in Eastbourne, and they then open the package and add it to the order from the branch of Waterstones in your High Street. I know it seems crazy, but not as crazy as Waterstones ordering books from thousands of different athors.

Anyway, it’s a massive minefield and one of a number of good reasons to self-publish through a small independent publisher like Blue Poppy Publishing.

What is Legal Deposit?

As soon as you create a book-baby with its ISBN birth certificate you also have to give, free of charge, a copy of your book to the British Library. This is a legal requirement and you don’t get paid a penny for it. In fact you have to cover P&P as well.

Legal Deposit Office,
The British Library,
Boston Spa,
Wetherby,
West Yorkshire,
LS23 7BY

In addition they will probably ask you to send 5 copies to the other Legal Deposit Libraries. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cambridge University and the Bodleian at Oxford.

If they ask, you are legally obliged to send them, but you don’t have to volunteer.

Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries,
Unit 21 Marnin Way,
Edinburgh,
EH12 9GD

Again you can’t charge and you have to pay for postage. It is, however, worth using a signed for service. From personal experience, they haven’t always been 100% perfect in acknowledging receipt. Sorry to have to say that.

If you are using a Blue Poppy ISBN then this will all be handled at this end, and you don’t need to worry.

What about Public Lending Rights – PLR?

If your book is stocked in an offical UK library, and if even just one person borrows it, then you become entitled to PLR.

It’s not likely to be a fortune, possibly a few pence, perhaps a few pounds, but it’s every year, it’s free to sign up and if you don’t then you don’t get anything.

This is another area that could do with expanding into more detail but if you visit https://www.bl.uk/plr you can find more information. If you already have a book in print with an ISBN of course, then you should register, and claim your title.

Three Good Ways of Publishing – Self-Publishing – Assisted (Not Vanity) Publishing – and Traditional Publishing

OK, I think I am ready to write this. As ever, please excuse the odd typo, the books are professionally edited, but the website isn’t.

What’s the Difference Between Traditional Publishing, and Self-Publishing?

What, in terms of what actually happens, is the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing?

And what is the difference between assisted self-publishing and vanity publishing?

You could be forgiven for thinking that traditional publishing is the Holy Grail. But just getting a publishing deal does not mean you have “arrived” and you are by no means guaranteed to be rich. Far from it. Nor will you be immune to having to do a lot of hard work.

You may have decided that self-publishing is the route for you. You can’t face the rejection process, you’re not a TV celebrity, or you just can’t wait around to see your book in print. I did, and I don’t regret it. But boy did I make a lot of mistakes along the way. I still am making them!

Or you may want to have the creative control of self-publishing, without all the stress of having to learn every stage of the process. Getting experienced professionals to handle the production and distribution, while you focus on the fun stuff like writing the book and selling copies to friends and family.

Each of these routes is a viable way into print and each has its own benefits and drawbacks.

Of these, the one I admit to knowing the least about is traditional publishing. However, here’s what I do know.

Benefits of traditional publishing

The first andmost obvious benefit is, cachet or kudos. You have goen through a fierce selection process, some would call it a rejection process, and come out at the end a winner. You have run the guantlet of agents and comissioning editors, partial requests, full requests, and publishing deal offers, and you made it to the end. Hands clasped and raised in victory, you dance the happy dance of the published author.

Traditionally published authors do not have to find an editor, or a typsetter, or a cover designer. They don’t have to find the best price for printing, or worry about how many books to print. The publisher takes care of all that.

Trad authors don’t have to produce a marketing plan, or an AI sheet, or send out ARCS, or handle distribution, or stand in freezing market halls to sell their books. They get given a few free copies of their book when it is printed. They will even sometimes receive copies of the book in French or German or Japanese, if it does well.

Trad authors GET PAID up front. It’s not always very much. In some cases, especialy with very small presses, the payment is zero. But, unlike musicians signign record deals, they are not asked to pay any of that money back even if the book doesn’t sell. That’s a risk the publisher takes.

Drawbacks of Traditional Publishing

You don’t have much, if any, artistic control once you have signed over the rights. You may well still own the copyright, but the publisher can edit the MS, they have final say on the cover art, and the blurb, and how the book is marketed. Everything. If you write historical fiction, a publisher may not care as much as you do about anachronisms. That Edwardian dress on the cover of your Regency set novel may make you scream, but you can’t do a thing about it.

Although you don’t have to produce a marketing plan, you will still be required to attend events, book signings, etc. as part of the marketing plan that the publisher has made. They may assign you a member of their team to liase, but you are not off the hook completely.

You do get paid up front but, unless you’ve got a fantastic reputation, it won’t be much, and the subsequent royalties can be as low as 1.5% on rrp. One million books at £10 each would still give you £150,000 at that rate, but don’t count on selling that many books. It is staggeringly unlikely. I believe (though I may be wrong) that about 5% is the upper end of royalty rates for trad authors.

Benefits of Self-Publishing

Self-publishers have complete artistic control at all times. They get to chose their editor, they can play around with the layout until they are happy with it, they get to decide on the cover art, either doing it themselves, or engaging a cover designer, and they can write their own blurb.

Self-publishing authors can make a much bigger royalty on their own books. even using PoD (print on demand) like KDP and IngramSpark, you can earn about 10%-50% per book sold, and there are few or no up-front costs involved. (IngramSpark has a set-up cost per book. This can be eliminated with ALLi membership* using a spceial discount code.) *Affiliate link

When it comes to printing, you should be able to print a B&W paperback novel that would retail for £10 for about £2-£4 each on runs as low as 100-300, so you can expect 50%-80% profit – that’s your royalty rate!

You can produce a Kindle edition (and other ebooks formats for other platforms if you want to) and make extra money there for zero outlay.

Drawbacks of Self-Publishing

You won’t get rich; you may even lose money.

Having that artistic control means you have to learn all these skills of layout, design, editing, etc. Or risk producing a very poor quality unprofessional book that will embarrass you for years to come. I speak from experience!

You are paying for everything! So if you engage professionals, e.g. editor, graphic designer, cover atist, etc. it is going to cost you up front. Most self-publishing writers who make money from their work spend several thousand pounds on production. Thos who do not, usually don’t sell many books beyond their immediate circle of friends and family.

You have to decide on the print run. If you print more books they cost less per book to print. But if you print too many you could end up with boxes of unsold books that you paid for.

Low volumes. You are unlikely to sell more than about 300 physical copies of your self-published book. Any more than that puts you firmly into bestseller territory. You will need that exxtra income per book to cover your set-up costs.

Benefits of Assisted Self-Publishing

First, let’s be clear, this does not include “Vanity publishing” which often describes itself as assisted self-publishing.

Here is the difference as I see it, and I do have skin in this game so you don’t HAVE to trust me if you don’t want to.

Vanity publishers; take control of distribution, and they own your rights for a fixed period. They charge an up-front fee to you for production costs and printing costs that is typically several thousand pounds, and the deal allows you a small number, perhaps twelve or twenty, of author copies. You may also buy copies at a special author rate. That is to say, you are being permitted to buy copies of the book that YOU paid to have printed. Some of these companies are worse than others. The worst of these are flagged up in ALLi’s free Self-Publishing Advice website. (We’re too small to even get a rating).

Assisted Self-Publishing; is similar to self-publishing, in that you retain control and you still pay for everything. However, you also still own your books. Blue Poppy Publishing is that type of business. When an author has paid to have 100 or 300 or 1,000 books printed, they OWN those books. Blue Poppy stores them and handles distribution for as long as they want them to. If they decide to take over, they can claim all their remaining stock back.

Assisted self-publishing gives you the cachet of having a publisher. Most people don’t know the differnce between a self-publishing imprint and a traditional publisher. The Blue Poppy Publishing name, and logo combined with the quality production, makes you look like a proper published author.

You don’t have to handle distribution. Blue Poppy provides an ISBN, sends off the legal deposit books, and handles distribution through Nielsen and the wholesaler gardners. Shops can, in theory, order your book.

You are still free to produce a KDP edition, etc. If you want to sell the ebook on Amazon, you can set that up yourself alongside the print run. (though there’s a lot to be said for waiting until the print run is almost sold out before putting the book on Amazon. Local bookshops like the exclusivity.

Drawbacks of Assited Self-Publishing

The biggest drawback is if you mistake a dodgy vanity publisher for something like Blue Poppy. There are loads of small publishers like me springing up. I’m sure that all have come up with a similar idea independently because its time has come. Just be sure to check the terms of the arrangement. I don’t provide a contract, but I do explain the deal clearly to anyone who asks. Also, and I may be unique in this particular thing, I never take any money from anyone until my job is done and we are ready to go to print.

The other drawbacks are similar to those of self-publishing. Low volumes, high up front costs and the need for you to do a lot of hard work on marketing. Expect to sell 100-300 copies of your book, mostly to friends and family. The best will do better because of word of mouth, but nothing isguaranteed. You will probably lose money, but by avoiding some of the more costly errors, hopefully, the risk of losing money will be reduced.

Some notes on editing a self-published book.

As well as being a writer, and a publisher of other writers, I used to present a radio show called “Book Club” on The Voice, a local community radio station in North Devon
(as a volunteer).
I see lots of self-published books. Most are reasonably well edited, but one or two have come to my attention which appear to have been written for school homework and not even marked. One of the worst had an error in the dedication and multiple errors on the first page. That book and, many like it, are not just embarrassing to the author, they also give the world of self-publishing a bad reputation that the rest of us have to work twice as hard to shake off. Sorry if that sounds overdramatic.

I know a few authors who do a passable job of self-editing although I would never recommend it (few of us are blessed with the ability to see our own mistakes, as a cursory glance over the articles in this website will illustrate!) Many more will pass their manuscript over to a trusted friend or family member who has a talent for spotting mistakes, but by far the best option is to get a professional editor. It need not cost the earth, and is money well spent if you aim to sell beyond your closest circle of friends.

There are three broad types of editing as follows. Unfortunately, the terms used and their definitions are not universally agreed on, as a brief serach of the internet will reveal. I am using the following terms and will explain each below.

Structural/developmental edit
Line edit
Copy edit
Proofreading

A structural edit or developmental edit will look at the overall structure of the book. If it is a novel, the editor may suggest removal of entire paragraphs or even chapters, adding new chapters, changing the sequence of chapters, changing the ending, the motivation of the main characters, removal of excessive characters, speeding up the pace by removing description, changing “tell” to “show” etc etc.

N.B. We’ve never consciously done this at Blue Poppy Publishing partly because our authors are already pretty good at telling their story, and partly because we don’t work to a formula. That’s not to say we will never go down this route, but I don’t expect to any time soon. What almost always happens, however, is that the author will send their first draft to a few trusted Beta readers who will, sometimes, read it and provide feedback. If the author agrees with the feedback they will make changes, usually before we see the M/S.

A line edit is more about checking for things like overall sentence structure, e.g. avoiding run on sentences, clunky grammar, etc. , consistency, e.g. do the heroe’s eyes change colour, or does a supporting character change name part way through the book? The line edit will also correct spellings, grammar, and punctuation as it goes through but this is also considered in more detail at the copy edit stage.

The copy edit, also sometimes called proofreading, is the final nit-picking stage. This is where, we hope, the last stray spelling error, abberrant
or superfluous comma, and missing full-stop is corrected. I say “we hope” because while we aim for perfection, I suspect that typographical errors are a little like bacteria; you can only reduce them to an acceptable level, and never eradicate them completely. As an example, after three passes of editing, and during the formatting stage, I noticed that “St. Pancras Station” in London, had been rendered as “St. Pancreas”! I corrected that, but we still found four or five things that were arguably incorrect after printing. The book concerned currently has 55 reviews and an average 4.4 stars on Amazon, so I think we got away with it.

Proofreading, this is a specific stage which does exactly what the name suggests. This is the stage of reading the proof copy. This used to be a physical printed copy but these days it is more likely to be a PDF. There shouldn’t be anything wrong by now, but there always is. The proofreader will catch most of those sneaky bits that got through every other stage. They will also note anything that doesn’t look quite right in the layout. A single word on a new line when it could be re-jigged to get it on the line above, for example.

In the main, because we have to work to a tight budget, we usually get a general line edit and copy edit rolled into one, then a proofread before printing, just in case.

You should anticipate costs of at least £10 per thousand words for a decent job of editing. More if your manuscript requires it and a LOT more if you also need a structural edit. The better your own editing is, the less it’s likely to cost.

Most editors will edit a few pages of your MS and give you a clear idea of their costs once they know your style and the work likely to be involved. This will also give you a clear indication of the sort of improvements they are likely to make.

Recommended editors.

We have used a number of editors in particular Sarah Dawes thankthecat@gmail.com who edits all of my (Oliver’s) books.
Sarah is a member of the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders and is always my first choice.
I can wholeheartedly recommend Sarah. She will not only pick up obvious typographical, punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors, as you would expect, but will also fact check all sorts of things, from historical details and anachronisms, to foreign words and phrases (she sent my Latin to her old Latin teacher for marking! Oh the shame!)
She will also pick up on continuity errors, and will frequently rewrite clunky sentences in vastly better prose than I could conjure up. (Her experience as a ghostwriter probably comes in useful here).

Helen Baggot edited “And the Wolf Shall Dwell”. Her website is helenbaggott.co.uk/
It is worth noting that Helen works a little differently from most editors usually doing a series of passes for a lower rate per thousand words, and then passing the MS back to the author for approval. This is a useful method for self-published authors on a tight budget because if they feel confident enough in their work that they can get away with only one or two passes of editing, then they may save money. It also allows them to spread out the cost of editing; usually the largest single expense apart from printing, over a period of time.

Another lady who has edited and helped to publish other authors, in Ilfracombe and North Devon, is Paula Good at PG Office Services who offers a range of services beyond editing including formatting and print services.

You may want to check out Susan Sugden. She sent me a lovely email and CV in search of freelance work, but I don’t produce enough to keep one editor fully occupied. Here website is here.

It is worth noting that all good editors are ruthlessly efficient, but don’t be afraid. They are on your side! I will add others here as and when.

In a perfect world, with unlimited money, you would have three or four separate pairs of eyes, one for each stage of the editing process, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and writers like to eat food just like normal people. You can get a good full editing job done with one editor for around £10-£20 per thousand words (at the time of writing).

Formatting

Formatting is still partly editing, but is also a separate stage in which the priority is no longer correcting mistakes. This is the part where your raw manuscript, possibly still typed out in double-line spacing and the default font of your word processor, is turned into a beautifully laid out book and exported as a PDF ready for printing. There is a cheap way of doing this which involves pouring your text into a formatting software app and accepting whatever comes out the other side. The better way is to format it properly by human hand and eye. You can learn to do this yourself, or pay someoen like me to do it for you. At the moment I cahrge £1 per 1,000 words, so even if it’s a massive tome of 100k words, you’ll only be forking out a ton. If money is really tight (I know the feeling) then I’ll be writing a “how to format” article soon.

Proofreading

Strictly speaking, the term “proofreading” refers to the process of reading the “proof” copy and checking for any last minute errors, in particular any errors which only manifest themselves when the book is printed. This could include abberrant punctuation or spelling errors that somehow got through the entire process of editing, but it is more about making sure the gutter is wide enough, the pages are all actually assembled correctly* and that everything looks as it should before we give the final instruction to the printer to proceed. This is a step which most self-published authors probably miss but if you can take the time at least to check every page and the front and back cover for any last minute inconsistencies then it may save you an expensive mistake on a long print run.

*Yes, we once had a consignement of books in which the last 64 pages were in the wrong order – not our error, thank goodness!

How do I Self Publish my book in the UK?

A famous quotation goes something like “Everyone has a book in them.” and, although the quote goes on to say, “…and in most cases that’s where it should stay.” we at Blue Poppy Publishing think that there are still a lot of great books, both fiction and non-fiction that could and should be published.

A bit about Blue Poppy Publishing, Devon.

I am at great pains to point out that we are not a vanity publisher, but also we are not a traditional publisher either. I guess we are really an “assisted self-publishing” company, suitable for someone who has already decided to self-publish anyway but needs a little extra help.

That means that if we publish your book, we don’t buy the rights, or guarantee sales, but we will help with those aspects of self-publishing that you either can’t or won’t do yourself and, while we try to keep costs to a minimum, it will be you paying the bills just as if you did it all yourself.

Of course, we do still have to make sure we don’t publish a book that isn’t well written, interesting, original and well produced. Every book that carries the “Blue Poppy Publishing” logo will affect the sales of our other books. If it is good, then readers may want to try our other authors. If it is awful they will never forgive us.

Also, we tend only to want to work with authors from our local area, and then again, you might just want to do it all yourself and not involve us at all. So as crazy as it may seem, I’m going to set out some of the things you need to know to self-publish a book in the UK.

This will then link to other articles giving you more detail on each area.

The Basics of Self-Publishing.

Cost of Self-Publishing

Anything from nothing to a few thousand pounds is usual.

You can publish a book for zero cost, but you should be careful. A great deal depends on what your hopes and aspirations are for your book, but even if you only want to print off a few copies for close friends and family, you should at least take the time to ensure your book has been properly edited, even if that just means re-reading what you have written and trying to correct obvious spelling mistakes. You will also need to format the book and create a cover. If you are good at these things already, or are willing to learn, you may be able to do them yourself, although there is an art to book cover design that arguably extends beyond what can realistically be taught.

If you have ambitions to be a professional or semi-professional writer, then you really do need to spend some money to make sure your book is up to scratch. But how much should you spend and who can you trust in a minefield of companies who are out to take your money?

We have certain trusted editors, illustrators, cover designers, and printers whom we have used on previous occasions and I will provide their details. We also offer formatting and cover design and preparation in-house, although I make no claim to being a top cover designer I don’t charge much.

Yes, but how much?

How long is a piece of string? Well here goes.

Basic editing costs, as a rough rule of thumb, £10 – £20 per 1,000 words.
If your book needs a structural edit and major rewriting then it will be more because that is a separate stage. For more on editing see here.

Formatting is something you can do yourself, but if you don’t want to learn how, we can format a typical digital manuscript in ‘Word’ for about £100 (for a straightforward novel). Things like illustrations and indexing can push the cost up.

For cover design, again, most people can do this themselves, but if you can’t or don’t want to, you can spend anything from £10 for a plain one-colour cover with the title and author name, to several thousand pounds on a fancy production from a famous cover designer. We would suggest you don’t spend more than about £500 though. You need to consider how you are going to make your money back.

Printing; of course you don’t have to do a print run at all. You can use a Print on Demand (PoD) service, such as Ingram Spark and or Amazon KDP. We like to do a print run if we can though because the unit cost per book works out cheaper; sometimes a lot cheaper.

UK book parameters.

How big should your book be? What type of paper? Which font should you use? These are all questions that plague new self-publishing authors. The problem is there is no single correct answer to any of these type of questions, but there are at least a few possible guidelines you might want to follow.

Size matters

One option is to take a ruler into a bookshop and measure books similar to the one you have written. I did that. I felt stupid.

Novels

If you are talking about a novel, there is one best size for UK distribution. It’s 198mm x 129mm (we also produce some books in 195 x 125 for cost reasons of which more later) Other sizes can be used, but this is the size of most paperbacks you can buy in bookshops.

While on the subject of novels, there is a lot of dispute about how many words constitutes a novel. NaNoWriMo accepts 50,000 words as a full length novel and I’m going to accept that, although a great many novels are from 85-100k words these days. I think that fewer than 50k is a novella, and 10k is a short story. But the most important thing is to tell your story. However many words that takes is correct.

Non-fiction

There are a range of sizes in non-fiction which can include the standard novel size, mentioned above. This is ideal for memoirs and narrative non-fiction for example. Other sizes, such as A4, A5, 9″ x 6″, 10″ x 8″ etc. are also common. A lot will depend on things like how and where you expect people to read the book. A coffee table book will want a large format, whereas a pocket guide to cheese will need to be, well, pocket sized. Who you choose to do your printing may also be a factor in your choice. This would be a whole blog post in itself.

Children’s Books

With younger children’s books (3-7+ years) all bets are off. They can be all sorts of sizes. That said, a square format 8″ x 8″ is a good starting point. 8″ x 10″ in either landscape or portrait can also work, as can A4 or A5.

Novels for older children (6+ years) will usually fall into the same category as novels for adults. Rules for children’s non-fiction are equally reflected in those for adults.

Paper quality

If you use a PoD publisher like KDP then you don’t get much choice. (you get more with IngramSpark now) ~~You can’t usually print hardback editions either~~. You can now! If you use a printer you have far more parameters. It’s a minefield of options for different purposes, but the first and biggest choice you have to make is whether to use white paper or cream (or beige or whatever they call it). The choice is relatively simple.

Novel? Cream
Non-fiction? White
Kids’ picture book? White

The paper will typically be between 70gsm and 90gsm and honestly there are too many qualities to choose from. It is probably best here to ask the printer to send you some swatches and give you their recommendation. It may not be worth a few pence extra per book for a slightly nicer paper, since readers don’t really seem to mind.

For younger children’s books I tend to prefer a heavier paper. Little hands are more likely to tear pages by accident. The heaviest I have used is 150gsm with a 350gsm cover. But that’s maybe too much. Again, asking the printer is usually a good idea. They are the experts.

Fonts

This begins to fall under formatting, which is a whole separate subject in itself. As a very rough guide, print books for regular readers should use a “serif” font. I use Garamond for adults and young adult books or Century Schoolbook for children’s books, although others, such as Times New Roman, Georgia, or Palatino are just as good. Note that different fonts look larger or smaller than each other for a given size. Of these Garamond is the smallest, which is why I usually use it at 12pt. Century schoolbook is the largest of those shown here, and I tend to use 12pt for older children (8-12) and 14 point for younger readers (6-10).

For very young children, beginner readers, I prefer to use a simple sans serif font with ‘single story’ A, and G etc. however, following the golden rule of never using ‘Comic Sans’ I searched for alternatives.

Please don’t imagine there are any hard and fast rules for children’s books, but I like to try and give them a fighting chance of reading for themselves by using a familiar and fairly regular font which resembles how they are first taught to write. That said, many of the best selling picture book use a serif font so whatever people say there’s no one correct answer.

If you want to get creative, do it in the headings.

Fonts for reading are clean and simple. It is never a good idea to use any fancy font for the main body text. If you want to use a fancy font on the cover, or in the chapter headings go for it. But even then, don’t go too crazy.

Alliance of Independent Authors

I signed up (as Oliver Tooley) for ALLi which is the Alliance of Independent Authors. It has been highly recommended to me for some time now by various people and I’ve been putting it off, but I think it will be a useful tool in the long run.

Actually, I must confess I haven’t yet really seen how useful it might be but I have high hopes. I’ll let you know in future if it works out.

Meanwhile, if you’re planning on joining yourself, I’ve posted a link below. (sponsored) You can join if you are planning to self publish, or have already self-published a novel. You can also join if you are a professional author with 50,000 + sales a year, or if you provide author services. (I didn’t think Blue Poppy was quite ready for that side of things yet).

BBC Radio Devon interview with David Fitzgerald – “Fitz”

Dateline: Friday 5th October
Time: 12:09 – 12:19 approx

Well yesterday was an experience and tremendously interesting, and fun.

David Fitzgerald is a lovely bloke who managed to sound interested in my maundering nonsense. I just hope I didn’t send all his listeners to sleep.

I got in touch with the show with considerable trepidation, fearing that I would either be ignored, or worse, rejected as not sufficiently interesting. (n.b. this is why I self-published in the first place, because I dread rejection far too much)

Contrary to my worst fears, Elsa got back to me almost immediately and, to my huge surprise, offered me an interview the very next day!

So there’s me driving down to Plymouth (I had thought the BBC Radio Devon studios were in Exeter) on Friday morning, and waiting in reception, then being brought through by the delightful Elsa and introduced to Fitz.

I knew I wouldn’t have long, and I tried to splurge as much information as I could in an incoherent stream. Fitz managed things with utter professionalism and natural charm, bringing out some of the important points I had glossed over, and making sure I could plug the website.

You can listen again using the BBCs own iPlayer app, This requires an account and you have to be signed in. My interview is at approx 2:09 into the three hour programme.

If you live abroad, or if you can’t bring yourself to sign up for an account, then I have made a recording of the specific bit for you to listen to.

I left thinking of a hundred things I wanted to say but didn’t but listening back over the interview I got about ten minutes and covered almost everything I could have hoped for. Thank you Fitz, and BBC Radio Devon.

Until next time.

The Dreaded Facebook Jail

Getting booted off social media for no good reason SUCKS.

Link to Ian Nathaniel Cohen’s website See below for story.

Authors need to promote their work, so they use social media like Facebook and Twitter etc. to try and encourage punters to visit their website.

Then for sometimes seemingly arbitrary reasons, Facebook takes it upon themselves to lock your account.

“You seem to be posting spam. Please complete this Capcha to prove you are not a bot.” is just a gentle one.

I got forced to change my password because I posted a comment on a school’s Facebook page thanking them for making one of my books a ‘set book’ for their year 4. – Huh?

They let me back in when I assured them that my post was not spam. Yeah, they actually took my word for it. Bless!

But you don’t have to get booted off completely for it to be a right royal pain. Pity this poor author who has been banned from linking to his own website, even though there is literally nothing wrong with it.

See for yourself. https://iannathanielcohen.weebly.com/

Ian Nathaniel Cohen is such a regular Joe from Miami FLA who has written a umber of academic works and what looks like a rip-roaring pirate adventure The Brotherhood of the Black Flag. Go check him out and show him some love.

A few formatting golden rules for self publishing a novel in the UK

This is a quite specific list for UK novels

This is only about formatting a fiction novel for the UK market.

Some different rules apply for the USA, and for non-fiction, but this is what I have learned so far and I am going to break it down into a simple checklist.

Obviously others will have their opinions, which may be just as valid, but I reckon this list is a good starting point, and I have made enough mistakes, by now, to be a bit of an expert.

Book size 7.8″ x 5″* which is 198mm x 129mm – Portrait (obviously)
Paperback cover weight – 250gsm-300gsm is normal
Interior paper (typically) 80gsm-90 gsm cream, or other off white colour (not white)
Font – Garamond 10pt or 11pt (11 is just a little easier on tired eyes like mine)
Font for younger readers – Century Schoolbook 12 or 14 point
Single line spacing. 6pt space between paragraphs
Justified both sides. Nice neat straight lines down left and right
Mirror margins and a gutter to stop the text disappearing down the spine
Start each chapter partway down the first page. (maybe add an image above)
Get the header and footer formatting right. (e.g. page 1 is the first page of the story, not the book.)

I think that’s all, but I will add others as and when I think of them or people point them out.

On Createspace it is 5.06″ x 7.81″ but to be honest, six hundredths of an inch really don’t make that much difference to a book on a bookshelf.

Learning from mistakes in self-publishing.

Worst self-published print book ever?

The first book I began to write was “Children of the Wise Oak” but that stalled because I decided the original idea was terrible and I didn’t know how to proceed with it. The very first book I finished was a short story called “Time Tunnel to Londinium.”

I had no intention of trying to find a traditional publisher. Not because I didn’t want one, but because I felt that the entire industry is geared up to a “rejection” process rather than a “selection” process. I knew my shallow ego could not face rejection. I also felt that publishers were only interested in books by celebrities. While this may not be strictly true, it was enough to put me off.

But at that time, I came across a company called “Blurb” who are still going. They offer a self-publishing service for any number of books from a single copy to hundreds. They have a variety of options including their own software for creating the book interiors and covers, and a huge range of book sizes and formats. They even offer hardcover options.

What they don’t do, at least not for free, is tell you how to make sure your books looks professional. Nobody does, and boy is it easy to make mistakes. See here for help to avoid some of those mistakes.

Book size
Paper choice
Font
Font size
Gutters
Justifying
Line spacing
Cover design
Blurb
Editing
?????

There are so many little things to consider, and if you get any one of them wrong it sends a signal to prospective readers “this is an amateur book”. They might not even know why!

So how bad was my first effort? – Pretty terrible, but don’t take my word for it; I still have plenty of copies left.

Let’s start with the front cover. Well ok, it could have been worse, but I mocked it up using images from the internet without bothering to check if they were available for reuse. (This is a serious mistake and nobody should ever do this, although I fear huge numbers of people do) If you cannot find an image you like which is officially available for commercial reuse and modification then you should not touch it with a barge pole. Take a photograph yourself, get a photographer, or artist, or a professional cover designer to help you. Rather use a WYSIWYG cover designer like on Amazon Kindle than leave yourself open to a copyright suit in the future.

Then there is the size issue. These books were a standard size offered by Blurb, but paperbacks in the USA are a different set of sizes from those in the UK. Almost all my market is the UK so I should have used a standard UK paperback size. That size is 198mm x 129mm (I just typed that from memory and then double checked) (It is actually 7.8 inches by 5 inches but who uses inches these days?)

Let’s just reiterate that
UK standard paperback size for a novel is 198mm x 129mm
If that is the only size you know you will be fine for some time to come.

So what about the interior? How badly did I mess up that can of worms? Well…

Have you spotted it yet?

Comic Sans!

That’s not all, but it is enough. I wanted to make it easy to read for young readers. I personally dislike double story “a” even now. Nobody writes an “a” like it is printed. But that is no excuse for using Comic Sans in any book aimed at children over the age of about five.

Now it turns out I was worrying over nothing much. Most junior school children can comprehend the difference between a double-decker serif “a” and the letter “a” they write with their pen or pencil. It might be an issue for Aspies like me who spent ages fretting about this little detail but not for “normal” children. (there’s a whole world of things you can do to help those with dyslexia, but that’s an article in itself)

I now tend to use Century Schoolbook 12 or 14 point (the larger for younger readers 6-18 smaller for 8-10) and Garamond 11 point for YA.

I also got it printed on white paper because I naively thought that looked more expensive. Alas it also makes it less readable, especially to dyslexics apparently.

Blurb saved me from making some of the other classic mistakes, for example page numbering and titles in headers being incorrectly formatted, not having gutters (the words disappear into the book spine without them) and mirrored margins; but it did allow me to use “left justified” instead of “both justified”. In books you do not want a ragged margin on either side of the page.

So I had one hundred copies of this book printed (the more you print the cheaper it is per book) I sent out copies to people who bought them, but now I refuse to sell any more because I know how awful they are. I keep them as a warning to myself and others of the perils of not doing proper research.