Eliminating the Self-Publishing Stigma for Good
The most frequent question I receive from authors looking to self-publish their book is, “Will my book look self-published?” This question has many factors and is the biggest reason why self-publishing has a stigma associated with it. The answer to this question is simple: It won’t look self-published from a printing and quality standpoint.
Books that look self-published look that way because of how they are originally designed. This can either be attributed to the designer or the author themselves, but either way that is where it starts anyways. After all, it is the author that writes the book and designs the cover. Anybody that says “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover” obviously has never published a book. The cover is the most important part of your book, besides the content of course. Most authors don’t know what 300 D.P.I. means or the differences between CMYK and RGB. While I fully understand that most people don’t understand what that means, the point is the quality of your book will suffer from not knowing. The good news is most cover designers do fully understand this, but not all do believe it or not. When making decisions like this it is better to refer to vendors who have been around a long time and come highly recommended.
Self-Publishing fell into this trap because major publishing houses use good vendors and do understand these concepts. Publishers books always come out looking good and have mass appeal for bookstores and Amazon. These are books that we have on our bookshelves and have read to our grandchildren. Here is the one point that is missing from the argument though and most people do not talk about. Publishers use printers, like us, to print their books for their authors. What does this mean? Luckily for you as the self-publisher, it means you get to have your books printed at the same place Fifth-Avenue PUBLISHERS use to print their books that go into bookstores and onto Amazon. Publishing houses don’t have printing equipment and an IT department, they contract with graphic designers and printers.
So what does this all mean? For starters, it means that an author can receive the exact same book from a printer that they would receive from a major publisher. The only way to completely eliminate this stigma is to educate authors before they write their book. Most traditional books are a finished size of 5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9, but are typed on Microsoft Word in the standard 8.5 x 11 size. Obviously this presents a problem. If you can fit 257 words in the 8.5 x 11 page, the problem becomes all of these words will not fit onto a 5.5 x 8.5 page. In my opinion this is the main source of where the stigma came from surrounding self-publishing. Microsoft Word and Publisher do not do any favors to authors trying to self-publish to be sure. Microsoft Publisher does not even ask you, as a book publisher, what size you want your finished book to be on the bookshelf so you can start typing that way to begin with. Once you have typed an entire 350 page memoir in 8.5 x 11 format, you now have a huge struggle ahead of you and this is where your book may look self-published.
When an author attempts to change their book to the desired finished size, 99 times out of 100 the words will re-flow and move from one page to another. The spacing will change, the sentence structure will change, your Table of Contents page will now be all out of order, and the margins will all be out of wack. This really adds up to a messy situation and a problem that the “average” book printer can’t fix. Most book printers just don’t say anything and print up 1000 copies for an author. Magnify this by 1,000 and that is where the self-publishing stigma came from. Slap a cover on top of it which is only 100 D.P.I. created in Microsoft Word and you have your answer. So what can be done to prevent this?
The best way to make sure your book looks professional is to prepare it correctly from the start. Understanding Microsoft Word is important, but for the most part it is fairly easy to navigate. The first step is to determine what size you want your book to be printed. Once you know this you would set your page size to this in the file and type on each page accordingly. This can be done by clicking on File at the top left, then click on the Paper Size tab for the box that pops up, and then fill in the size that you want the pages to be. For instance, a 6×9 book would be defined as 6 inches for width and 9 inches for length. Once the numbers are typed in, just hit the Apply to ALL button and wallaa. This simple step applied before you start typing the manuscript will save you hundreds of dollars as well as hours trying to fix it later. From there, in that same box you can click on the Margins tab and set your margins uniform throughout. My advice is to set your margins at .625 of an inch all the way around. This ensures that the type will not fall too far into the gutter or be too close to the edge of the page. These 2 steps are a MAJOR defense against looking self-published. Author’s can also add Headers and Footers, page numbers, a Table of Contents, Title Page, Copyright pages, pictures, and specialized fonts. Another helpful suggestion is to add page breaks when finished with each page. Instead of hitting the space bar or return a bunch of times to get to the next page, just simply go to Insert and click on Page Break. This will easily take you to the next blank page and will prevent a re-flowing of words later.
Finally you are left with the cover. Unless you have design experience or just want something very simple, my advice is to hire an expert. The cover is such a vital part of your book and many factors go into making sure it doesn’t look self-published. The software itself which is used to design covers can cost thousands of dollars. Even with the software, it can be very tricky to work with and most people who use this have taken courses on graphic design. For less than 500.00 a beautiful cover can be designed that will add shelf appeal and take all of the hard work out of the process. Most importantly, publishers and potential book buyers will have no idea that you self-published your book. Goodbye stigma and hello to the future of publishing.
Very helpful information. I decided to go ahead with 8.5 x 11 for my book size and avoided some of the problems mentioned. Good to know though.
JLogan Nicholson
Jst asking. I am an Auhtor of 2 books. I got tired of the company a couple of years ago taking the profits while i got stuck with the mere 8% for me. I want to try to self publish my own booms from now on. I am just a truck driver on the side and don’t make a ton of money to be ablke to pay 2 or 3,000 dollars to print a milliomn books you know? I just want 50 or 200 to start off with. Is this a good company for this? My books were 81/2 by 51/2 and 200 to 225 pages but I can go smaller like 51/2 by 8 inches. Is this a good business for that? and how much would something like that run with a glossy cover at 50 copies or 100? Sorry I’m just frustrated and need answers.
I agree with this blog. I self-published a book recently and had it printed by A & A Printing and it is a success. I did have a very competent graphic artist and great editor.
One of the great strengths of America lies in the fact that anyone can write and publish his or her own work. While so many other countries require “prior consent” of the government, the United States has a thriving, growing, independent press.
That is particularly true when we consider the fact that we don’t have to wait for a major press to publish us. And, indeed, we could wait all our lives–rejected–and never see our work in print if we did not have the alternative–of self-publishing.
The bias, as much as anything proliferated by the major presses, is that self-published work, by definition, is substandard. That is nonsense, of course. Without alternative publications and presses there would be no outlet for much art and experimentation; minority points of view and special needs would not be served.
But the major presses often can find fuel for their criticism of alternative publications because the authors who follow that route are not always careful. Thus, it is very important that authors publishing their own work take special care–much as outlined in this article.
A book that is self-published still should meet professional criteria. It should be grammatical, free of typos, properly vetted for its effect on its intended audience. It should also “look like a book.” If you are going the alternative press route, find a major press format to follow. Quite likely the biggest failings of self-publication are self-inflicted: books that are full of noticeable errors.
If you are not able to do the desktop publishing job yourself, find a savvy assistant. A&A Printing knows people who can help. I am, Dr. David B. Axelrod, author of 20 books which, quite fortunately, have all been published by a marvelous array of small presses. I am also the publisher of a small press that has produced nearly 50 books of work by other authors.
For many years now, A&A Printing has assisted me in printing and done a great service in layout and design. I am fortunate to have good friends and editors who check my work–and the work of the other authors I publish–to assure it is ready for publication. But I rely on A&A to produce books that do look truly professional. I recommend this company emphatically for your alternative press needs. And, indulge me:
Please don’t call self-publication “vanity” publication. Don’t call it “small press” publication either. Call it what it is, alternative press publication–the alternative to living in a land where only the rich and powerful have a say in what sees print.
Contact me, if you wish, at my own websites: www.poetrydoctor.org or www.writersunlimited.org
very well said David. Thank you for the kind words
Hooray for Alternative Publishing and A & A Printing! I had two books published by a major house some years ago. They did no promotion. At the same time, my agent (who told me not to do any self-promotion because the publisher would take care of all that) sold the overseas rights to my books and kept all the $$$. I wouldn’t have known about this except he’s a technophobe … I’m not. I received fan email from a translator in Estonia who read the Russian versions of my books. He agreed to trade me those for copies of my books in English. When I called my agent and told him I’d been pirated … that my books were out in Russian, he told me they’d sold but he just hadn’t gotten around to sending me the contracts. (Yeah, right!) So when I got the contracts and a paltry few dollars, I fired my agent.
Ten-plus years passed while I continued to write, but couldn’t find a agent or publisher because it seems my track record wasn’t good enough (Gee, I wonder why …). So now I self-publish and do my own promotion, and my writing career is taking off again (Hooray!). It helps that I can do my own webpages and covers (I have multiple degrees including two in art). And as well as knowing EXACTLY what’s happening in the distribution end of the business, I get to keep 40 to 60% of the $$$. A number of “professionally” published authors are switching to self-publishing for just these reasons.
I couldn’t do any of this without a quality printer such as A & A Printing. Their prices are the best I’ve found. In fact, no one comes near … and they offer a lot more services than other printers. I belong to a writers’ group, and we all use A & A. One last point … the cover for my book, The CITY OF THREE MOONS, has some subtle colors in the painting. A & A got all of them … the fidelity was most excellent! I was delighted when I saw that. I can’t wait to get my new book … The LADY AND THE PIRATE. It’s already been nominated for a major award!
So, thank you, A & A!!!
Thank you Johanna. We appreciate your business
I just self puiblished my first book which was printed by A & A and sincerely, I have no reason to complain. The staff was professional, friendly and I was guided through from the beginning to the end. The product came out beautifully and was launched mid September 2011.
I’ve self published two books and A&A has printed both. They were integral to the process and even recommended the graphic artist who designed both book covers. As a first time author, there were many things I didn’t know. A&A was very helpful in providing technical insights and highly responsive when I had questions.