Answering the question of "How do I publish a book?" can be intimidating if it's your first time. Truth be told, the most difficult part of book creation and publishing a book is the writing.
I assume you have completed the hardest task and have a completed book manuscript you'd like to publish. I'm sure you would like to publish your book as fast and at the lowest cost as possible.
I'm quite sure that you do not want to learn the ins and outs of the book production industry and would prefer a user friendly book publishing interface that would handle the "Under The Hood" problems for you at a click of a mouse.
Keeping all of the above in mind, we at TheBookPatch have created that user-friendly book publishing platform designed to bring your dream to fruition, for the least amount of dough with fast turnaround. Nobody wants to run into problems when publishing a book for the first time and we're here to ensure that doesn't happen.
Are you ready to publish your book?
The first step in publishing a book is to transform your manuscript into book format. You decide on the dimensions you want your book to be, (we offer 21 sizes) the two most popular being 6" x 9" and 5.5" x 8.5".
Once the size is established you need to convert your manuscript to that size and save it as a PDF.
To assist you with the formatting (that's what changing the page size and making the manuscript look like a book, including font size, margins, paragraphs page numbering and all that jazz) you can download a free book template from our Print On Demand page and use it in your text editor.
The template has all the above already set up for you. If however you don't think you can accomplish that task - and we do recommend you at least try - we can provide that service for a fee (click for more details).
Once your PDF is ready, click the Print on Demand link on the navigation bar at the top of the page and on the Print On Demand page click the "Click to Get Started" button.
You will be asked to fill out a short book detail form that includes the book title, the size of the book, the type of binding you want and the category and sub category you want your book to be listed under. With the form filled, you will click the upload PDF book text button and upload your PDF.
Next comes the cover create/upload, you can use our cover generator to create a cover on the fly or upload an existing cover, the cover you will upload will need to be an image file such as JPEG, TIF or PNG and NOT a PDF.
Once the cover is in place and you verify it fits properly, you will be prompted to confirm your cover and text PDF.
At this point you are about ready to order your first copy (you can order one) just to see what a real book feels and looks like. Even though this freshly printed book in your hand feels more like a baby than a collection of pages, you may still find flaws in it. Since making changes to your book on TheBookPatch entails no cost, you can continue making changes any time an error comes to light.
Now that you have completed the production side of your task as a self-published author it’s time to plan the most important part of a book publishing effort and that is getting your book out there into the hands of the readers.
You are welcome to use our no fee bookstore making your book available without having to spend money on inventory. A reader orders a book, we print and ship the book. The reader pays the retail price for the book and the shipping, we keep the printing cost and fork over to you 100% of whatever markup you placed on your book.
You can now promote your book through social media and your own website and we will provide a Buy Now button to make selling your book from your website even essayer, did we mention that's free as well.
With the technical part of your book production in place, contact your local bookstores and see if they will allow you to have a book signing event in their store. Remember it's in their best interest to do so as they will make money on the books sold and having a book signing party at a bookstore is always good for business.
Contact your local radio station, the talk shows are always on the lookout for interesting guests, and what could be more interesting than a local author. Ok I hope I got your creative juices flowing, there is much more to do but you get the drift.
If you have any ideas you would like to share or advice for your fellow authors please drop us a line to info@TheBookPatch.com and we will be sure to pass it on.