Options for self-publishing your book
- M.J. Sahanaja
- 5 dagen geleden
- 4 minuten om te lezen
There are so many ways to self-publish your book! I really had no idea. I am happy to share my knowledge with you. Welcome to the world of self-publishing!
Where should you publish your book?
I was excited to find out how many options there are for self-publishers. And I am happy to share what I have learned.
Self-publishing options in the Netherlands
Option 1: Traditional printing
Find a traditional printing company such as New Energy Printing. Print at least 250 copies of the book and send 100 of them to Centraal Boekhuis (CB). You have to purchase your ISBN and then you can publish the book via a company like Pumbo.nl who has a connection with CB.
How does this work?
Pumbo is connected to CB, the book distributor for the Netherlands, Flanders and Luxembourg. Pumbo pays for this connection. You pay Pumbo an annual fee, which is much cheaper for you.
Which platform will your book be published on?
What are the benefits?
Swift distribution
As the book is stocked at CB, bookshops can order it to be delivered to their store.
On line shops can deliver the next day after ordering.
Lower costs
Printing the book in large quantities is cheaper, meaning you will make more profit from sales.
Better quality
A book printed with a press produces a higher quality result than a book printed with a printer.
What's the downside?
Mistakes in the design
If you make a mistake in the design, it cannot be undone in the 250 printed copies. Therefore, be extremely careful before giving the printer the go-ahead to print the 250 copies.
Option 2: POD or Printing On Demand
Join a self-publishing platform such as Pumbo.nl or 24bookprints.com and publish your book using print-on-demand technology.
How does it work?
There is no physical copy of the book. The book will only be printed and send directly to the buyer once it has been ordered and paid for.
Which platform will your book be published on?
What are the benefits?
You don't have to invest in a large quantity of books all at once.
Design mistakes can be altered at any stage. Provided that fewer than 10% of the book's content is changed, a different ISBN number is not required.
What are the disadvantages?
The book is printed using a printer rather than a press, as in option 1. The quality is different to that of an old-fashioned pressed book.
Profit will be less because the costs for printing-on-demand is higher.
Options for worldwide publication
As an author, you have the opportunity to share your book with the world. You can sell your printed book on Amazon.
Create an account and make annual payments to Amazon for selling and distributing your book. You can send a number of books to the Amazon distribution centre nearest to your country. However, this will cost you, and your profit margin will be low. However, it is possible.
Alternatively, you can sell the books via Amazon but choose to distribute the books yourself. You will need to purchase everything required to send your books. This will also be expensive. Distributing your book to other countries is not cheap.
For example, if you live in Europe and want to distribute your book to the US, it will be costly. It will also take weeks to arrive with the buyer.
There are other ways to get your book out there.
Option 1: Amazon KDP
Create an Amazon KDP account as an author. You can then upload the cover and content of your book. Then, set the price and sell the book worldwide.
You can sell ebooks, paperbacks and hardbacks. Bookstores in the US and the UK can purchase the book. Readers from all countries can purchase the book too.
Option 2: Rakuten Kobo
Create a Rakuten Kobo account. Here, you can sell your e-book worldwide. It is very easy in use. Just upload your book cover and a word file with the interior of your book. The system will convert it into an EPUB.
Option 3: Ingramsparks
Here, you can also publish your book via print-on-demand (POD) and the best part is that bookshops like Barnes & Noble can purchase your book via Ingramsparks. The only downside is that you must follow their guidelines for creating a book cover and designing the interior of your book. The designing of the interior is not the most difficult thing. It's the book cover that is really tricky. Even using their own book cover calculator does not always work.
Option 4: Lulu
Here, you can publish your book via print-on-demand.
It's very easy to use. However, it is more expensive than Amazon and IngramSpark to print a book. You will need to set the book price higher if you want to make a profit. Selling through Lulu's bookstore is the most profitable way.
Option 5: Barnes and Noble
Unfortunately, this is not an option for writers from the Netherlands. They only sell books in the US and you must have an address in the US.
Option 6: Streetlib
On Streetlib you can create a free Basic account and publish your ebook. The ebook will be published on Rakuten Kobo, Amazon Kindle and more. You can also publish your audio book on Streetlib but than you must choose a different a Pro Plan.
Did you find this post interesting? I hope you did. If you notice any incorrect information in the text, please let me know. We all make mistakes sometimes, and I'm no exception.
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