However, self publishing is becoming a more and more attractive option for a lot of people. As well as providing an environment for the author to have complete control over the whole process, from creation to distribution, it also offers the opportunity for a higher percentage of the profit to actually make its way back to the author themselves. Once the work is produced, the only one who owns the rights is you. Conversely, you also take on all the risk.
Often, the perception of self published work has been that it is of a lower standard and quality than works published by an established publishing house. While this is unfortunately sometimes the case, especially with ebooks where the ease with which an author can put their work into the public domain could mean releasing it before it is ready, the good news is that this can be improved.
With a reliable proof reader to review your work and a printer who you trust to produce a quality product, aspiring authors who choose the self publishing route, are now able to produce books that live up to a readers high standards.
We recently worked with a client who made just this choice. He came to us with a manuscript of his novel and first of all, sat down with our design team to discuss his ideas for the front cover artwork. He gave us character descriptions and plot outlines and we designed the book cover with these things in mind. We started with images and layout concepts that the client had used when writing the book, and built on these.
He had a very specific book size in mind and we were able to set up a bespoke print run of exactly these dimensions.
The inner text pages were supplied to us as a word document and required re-formatting and typesetting to fit the client’s preferred book specifications.
In order for the client to be issued with an ISBN, he required the title page and the title page verso, so we created these first, for him to use.
Once he had received his ISBN and supplied us with the information, we generated a corresponding barcode and incorporated it into the cover artwork.
The final product is a smart and professional looking novel that he is looking forward to begin distribution on and we are excited to follow his progress as he navigates the ever changing publishing world.
Are you considering self publishing for your own work? Give us a call and ask us what we can do to help you.