Ins and Outs of Self-Publishing

Sonia Marsh spent seven years working on her book, Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family?s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island, and she admits to making plenty of errors along the way. She?s willing to share her hard-won expertise, so others can avoid the mistakes she made.

Marsh hired an editor after finishing what she thought was her first draft. ?I had the feeling I was done,? she says wryly. Editor and author Deborah Ginsberg set her straight. ?I realized my book was in its infancy,? Marsh says. ?I had been keeping a journal and hoping it would be a memoir.?

Ginsberg added focus, getting Marsh to identify the message in her story. ?Every memoir has to have a message,? a wiser Marsh says now. Her message is that everyone has to take risks in life. It became her tagline: ?Life is too short to play it safe.?

Next lesson: You need an audience. Marsh emulated Catherine Sanderson, a British blogger living in Paris who subsequently wrote the book Petite Anglais. She started a blog of her own, Gutsy Writer, which eventually evolved into Gutsy Living. She solicited ?gutsy? stories from others, building her following and giving her a break from writing all the blogs herself. The connections she made from her blog uncovered mentors to keep her going, sponsors for her monthly writing contests and hosts for a virtual blog tour following the August 2012 publication of her memoir.

?The best present I got was a rejection from a publisher,? Marsh says. Traditional publishers offer royalties of about 10 percent, or $1 to $2 per books sold. When you self-publish, you decide who prints your books, and your royalties are higher. Marsh receives 30 percent on her print books and 70 percent on Kindle books. However, Marsh cautions would-be authors, ?Don?t do it for the money. Write it because you have a message you want to share.?

Once you write the book, ?You have to think of it as your business. To be successful, you have to take on a full-time job promoting yourself: booking events, calling bookstores, emailing book groups for speaking opportunities, and contacting reporters to tell your story.? You also have to read newsletters and websites to develop relationships with people who can offer you advice. Marsh became a devotee of book designer Joel Friedlander and Jerry Simmons, a publishing industry retiree. Both offer free advice to help would-be authors publish and market their books.

Timing is crucial. ?Form relationships with other authors ahead of time,? Marsh says. Later, you can ask them for an endorsement. Travel writer Lan Sluder,? who has written three travel books about Belize, endorsed Freeways to Flip-Flops after Marsh posted a video review of his book, Living Abroad in Belize.

Marsh advises first-time writers to form a publishing company. ?You?re taken more seriously if you own your logo and your ISBN ( International Standard Book Number), Marsh says.

She also wanted a professional-looking cover, so she hired 1106design. When the agency came up with three potential book covers, Marsh trekked to various bookstores and asked people, ?Which of these covers would make you buy my book?? She also hired a copyeditor to polish her prose ((Full disclosure: I copyedited Marsh?s book.)

Allura Printing in Costa Mesa created 100 advance reader copies, all of which Marsh gave away for reviews, endorsements and virtual tour hosting. The hard work is paying off. Marsh has several media interviews and reviews to her credit. Freeways to Flip-Flop was dubbed ?A Hot Read? by Orange Coast magazine, and the book earned an honorable mention in the 2013 London Book Festival.

Marsh?s final bit of wisdom: She advises authors to work with both Lightning Source, which is part of Ingram Content Group, and Create Space, an Amazon company.

Marsh is looking ahead to another outrageous travel experience she can write about. In the meantime, her goal is to inspire others to try their own form of ?gutsy living.?

Source: http://www.womencentric.net/ins-and-outs-of-self-publishing/

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