Lots of companies offer self-publishing
services. I chose a
print-on-demand publisher called Lulu because their site looked simpler
and cleaner than the others, and because there were no up-front
charges.
You can play around on the Lulu website for free. You don't
pay unless you buy a copy of your finished book, and you can print a
single copy, or exit without publishing your project at all. I felt it
was a pretty risk-free way to dip my toe into the self-publishing pond.
The
downside, for this Canadian girl, is that the Lulu prices are in U.S.
dollars, and the books ship from the U.S. The upside is that it's fun.
Really fun. More fun than TV or shopping or playing Freecell. And
that's how I thought of it--as a delicious puzzle. A game. Here's how I worked out my solution:
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1.
Signed up for a Lulu account at www.lulu.com.
It's free.
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2.
Took the online tour and clicked around and learned a bunch of stuff,
and ordered a couple of Lulu-published titles so I could see how they
looked in real life.
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3.
Decided on the format of my book: 32 pages, paperback (you can't do
hardcover in this shape and size), saddle-stitched, full-colour, square
format (7.5" x 7.5")
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4.
Found the correct template on the Lulu website and downloaded it. It
was in Microsoft Word. Saved the file on my own computer under the name
of the book.
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5.
Cut and pasted the text and pictures from my manuscript into the Word
document. Twiddled and fiddled and puzzled and played until I got it
the way I wanted it. This took weeks.
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6.
Made a front cover and a back cover by cutting and pasting pictures,
inserting text, and saving the results as png files at 300 dpi.
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7.
Went back to the Lulu website and clicked Start New Project.
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8.
Stepped through the instructions. It was pretty easy. I wanted to
create my own pdf and upload
it, but in the end it was much easier to upload the Word document and
let the Lulu site convert it to a pdf.
The results were much better.
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9.
I previewed the pdf version
online and published it available
only to me.
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10.
Ordered two copies--one for me and one for the proofreader/editor I
hired to give me feedback.
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11.
She gave me wonderful feedback that really made the story work better.
I revised the Word document.
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12.
I applied
to Library and Archives Canada for an ISBN. It was free. I just
filled out an online form. I got to make up a name for my "publishing
company."
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13.
The ISBN arrived by e-mail a few days later. I used a
free online barcode-maker to turn the ISBN into a barcode for my book.
(I chose EAN-13 from the "symbology" drop-down menu.) I cut-and-pasted
the barcode onto the back cover of the book.
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14.
I applied to Library and Archives Canada for cataloguing-in-publication
(CIP) data. It was also free. I filled
out an online form, and the CIP data arrived by e-mail a few days
later. I cut-and-pasted it onto the back of the book's title page with
the name and address of my "publishing company" and the copyright
statement.
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15.
Finally the book was ready to be published!
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16.
I deleted the old version of the project from My Account in Lulu and started
fresh. I think there's a way to revise without doing this, but I kept
running into glitches and it just seemed cleaner and easier to treat
the revision as a new project. I followed the step-by-step process on
the Lulu website.
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17.
This time I clicked Publish...and
voila! A few seconds later, I searched the Lulu bookstore,
and there was my book--ready to be bought! Woohoo!
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It delights me to know that
anyone can do this. Kids. People writing family histories. People
writing about things they know and love. Experts in esoteric subjects.
YOU!
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