book publishing


Do it yourself O


Graeme Bowman on how to get a book into print without using a publisher


K, you’ve written your bestseller – what next? You can hand it over to a publisher who’ll design your book


cover, get it printed and deal with marketing, promo, distribution etc – but they’ll also take most of your revenue. Or you can self-publish and retain all


your rights and revenue – but you’ll have to deal with all the sales and production stuff yourself which will leave precious little time to crack on with your next bestseller. And great writers aren’t always great booksellers. I never wanted to self-publish. I


wanted to hand my masterpiece (Empire First: Churchill’s War Against D-Day) over to a publisher who’d sort out all the tedious admin while I soaked up the acclaim. But my ‘reputable’ publisher turned out to be something very different and that experience forced me to self-publish. On reflection, this suited my old school DIY sensibility perfectly. I want to encourage NUJ members to bypass publishers and retain control of their rights and revenue so here’s a selection of top tips gleaned from my own self-publishing experience. These are based on self-publishing a 520- page non-fiction paperback on a commercial basis: different rules might apply to different books. Font: Your font says a lot about you


and your book so play around till you find something suitable. I opted for Gill Sans MT because its minimal, uncluttered look suited a serious book on the Second World War and it’s nice and thick in bold (great for chapter titles). Font size: This is another crucial


early decision because you must strike a balance between cost and readability. Big fonts are easy to read but need more pages (which will eat into your profits). I opted for size 11 Gill Sans


because it strikes a nice balance between readability, number of pages and printing costs. Book format: Another crucial early


decision. Look at other books in your genre and adopt a similar format. Most history books are A5 or royal – I tried A5 but royal makes more of a statement. Page formatting: Normal Word documents are fine for tweaking drafts but the document you send to a printer must be formatted with differently sized right and left margins on alternate pages to accommodate the gutter that runs down the middle of every printed book. A friendly printer gave me a template to use for Empire Software packages, such as Vellum.com. You’ll also need to set the size of your top and bottom margins and decide where your page numbers sit (I put mine at the top to avoid cluttering my footnotes). Printing: Shop around – a local


printer might reduce delivery charges. Most printers’ websites offer free online quotes, but to use this, you need to know your book format, number of pages, preferred paper quality, whether you want a matte or gloss cover etc. Request


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I wanted a publisher to do all the tedious admin. But my ‘reputable’ publisher turned out to be something very different


a proof copy before placing your order (to make sure everything’s tickety-boo). Finally, you’ll need to balance the size of your print run against potential sales. Big print runs mean lower unit costs and more profit… but will your book sell? ISBN and bar code: You’ll need an ISBN to sell your book commercially in stores and through wholesalers. This is a three-step process: buy your ISBN: https://nielsenisbnstore.com; generate an ISBN barcode: https://www. nielsenisbnstore.com/home/barcodes; register your ISBN with Nielsen title editor: https://www.nielsentitleeditor. com/titleeditor. Website: You’ll need a website to sell


your book – shop around to get a good deal and use someone who understands ecommerce. My website cost £500 but I was quoted £1500 and £2800 for the same job. Your book and website should - ideally – be identically titled so buy your domain name early. Book cover: We live in an image-


driven society so you really need to get this right. I’ll close by showing you my two covers and ask you three questions: which cover do you prefer? Which will sell better? Why am I changing covers? Good luck with your writing and


shaping your own future. And I haven’t even mentioned ebooks, spine size, working with Amazon/KDP or targeted Facebook ads…


Empire First: Churchill’s War Against D-Day is available via www.empirefirst.org (£15 + p&p paperback, £9.99 ebook)


theJournalist | 08


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