I have to say that I understand what it means to truly love what you do! I
find all I want to do is create activity books.
Self-publishing is an endless learning curve. I spend a ton of time
listening to "Guru" training on YouTube and investigating products and
services to make the process easier.
If you're a self-publisher, I thought I'd share some must-have
tools.
1. ISBN Barcode Generator
If you are using your own ISBN numbers
(the number that goes on the back of your book, on the pricing barcode),
you'll need to generate a barcode to put on the back of your
book.
My favorite free service is Bookow - here is the link to
Bookow.
The service is free, but they do offer an opportunity to make a donation if
you so choose.
There are many other free barcode generator services online, but Bookow is
my favorite.
2. KDP Cover Calculator:
If you're self-publishing books through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing),
Amazon's self-publishing service, you'll want to keep the KDP Cover
Calculator page saved for easy access.
To ensure the cover's margins are correctly allocated, you'll want to
create a template you can save and bring over to the design platform you're
using to make your cover.
You'll need to know how many pages your book is, so don't bother creating
your cover until you do!
KDP Cover Calculator is easy - simply fill in the blanks and download the
cover template.
Here's the link to
KDP Cover Calculator.
3. Canva for Professional Cover and Interior Designs:
Canva offers a free version; however, I've recently switched to the paid
version.
The free version works perfectly fine, and if you're just starting your
self-publishing journey, go with the free version to start. That's what I
did.
There's a learning curve with Canva; however, it's worth it! In 2019 I
published
my first book
and had no idea how to create my own cover from scratch. Eventually, I was
able to use KDP's cover creator and import my own front page.
For a while now, I've been able to fully design my own covers with my own
ISBN numbers and barcodes. I was baffled and intimidated about all of this a
few years ago! After much practice and reading, it is much less daunting
today.
Once you get the swing of it, you'll be able to create some gorgeous covers
using Canva.
This lady
on YouTube has an excellent beginner tutorial on Canva.
You can check out
Canva.com here.
My newest self-publishing book is a Gratitude Journal Happy Planner; you
can
find it on Amazon here. The full
Author Page is here.
Additional Self-Publishing Articles:
- Basic Tips for the Newbie Self-Publisher
- Matte or Glossy Book Covers
- Confessions of a Newbie Self-Publisher
- 5 Helpful Self-Publishing Tools
- 3 Tips for a Newbie Self-Publisher
- How to Get Started on Your First eBook
- 5 Handy FREE Tools for Self-Publishing
- Newbie TikTok for Business
- ISBN Numbers and Imprints
Love your gratitude journal, Barbara. Congratulations on your latest accomplishment. The tips for writers and self-publishers are very helpful. I have been passing them on to my son who is currently working on his second self-published book.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ms. Elf. Wishing your son great success with his books.
DeleteYou are so thoughtful to share the tools, information and advice for self publishing. You make others self-publishing journey so much easier and save hours of searching for help. Just from what you have written, I know self publishing can be tedious. All the little things that must be done (bar codes, covers, ISBN numbers, etc) when all a writer wants to do is write. Your help would be priceless to a self publisher!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right in your assessment! All the little things are as time consuming, and are actually big things, when self-publishing. I think that's what I love most about it. It's not just one thing - it's a collection of many tasks and specialties so it's never dull or repetitive. When I want to switch gears from writing to creative art, I can do that. I often think about 'what if I had a publisher' and all I did was the writing - some days I think YES that would be amazing - but then other days I think about how much I would miss the creative arts aspect.
DeleteThank you for sharing these self publishing tools. It must be a complete maze trying to self publish. There is so much that needs to be done and sorted in addition to writing! So I imagine your guides are invaluable for anyone on that journey. Congratulations on your latest Gratitude Journal Happy Planner, it's lovely.
ReplyDeleteIt's a maze for sure! There is so much to learn, and many conflicting pieces of advice - I'm learning how to filter through the best pieces of advice - I have my favorite gurus - I'm planning on doing on article on them too lol
DeleteBarbara, your self-taught, self-publishing journey is so impressive! I am thrilled that you have found something that you love to do and makes you look forward to doing each day. What a blessing! Your generosity in sharing your hard-earned knowledge is greatly appreciated, my friend.
ReplyDeleteMargaret thank you so much. You are so right, it truly is a blessing to wake up everyday and only want to do this! But it's a curse too because I have to force myself to switch gears - we women are masters at switching gears though aren't we lol. I often talk about "if I won a gazzilion bucks" would I wake up and still do this - so far, my answer is heck yes!
DeleteThis is so full of really good information and your experiences with these platforms makes me believe that your recommendations will be so useful to anyone who is thinking of Publishing something! Thank you for your step by step ways to make this journey easier for those who are attempting this avenue. Great Reviews for all of these different things you need to know!
ReplyDelete