Out Today! Self-Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing by Catherine Ryan Howard

Let me introduce to you Catherine Ryan Howard: saviour of self-publishing authors everywhere! I came across Catherine’s work while googling using images in ebooks; formatting for Amazon KDP; formatting for Smashwords; and formatting for create space (print on demand service). So, she’s been pretty much my guru, my guiding light, and my saviour for the last 3 months. Not only that, she’s written some very funny books about her travels.

Last month she requested questions for her “Self Printed Splash” to celebrate the release of version 3 of her book “Self-Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing” and the first question that sprang to my mind was:

Q: How do you do all the formatting required for all the different distributors without wanting to smash your head off a wall?

Happily, Cahterine actually answered this slightly tongue-in-cheek question and although it is too late for “Fall In Love With LIfe“, next time I’ll be taking her advice!

A: You don’t.

Let’s get one thing clear: formatting your MS Word doc for upload/conversion to Amazon KDP is actually relatively easy. No head-smashing-off-a-wall required, and that’s the way it should be, considering that KDP only needs to convert your document into one format, i.e. mobi for Kindle. Smashwords is what causes the problem, because they’re going to take your file and convert into multiple formats to be sold on multiple platforms, and that’s where we find a good wall and the head smashing begins.

What I do now – and what I’d recommend you do – is work smarter, not harder. I do my KDP MS Word formatting myself and then I sent my book to eBookPartnership to take care of the rest. The reasonable fees they charge are totally worth it AND not only do you save yourself headaches, but you end up with a much more professional-looking product. If you don’t have the cash to splash, why not just go with Kindle for a little while (or even 90 days so you can take advantage of the KDP Select programme?) and then reinvest the royalties you earn in that period into getting your non-Kindle e-book done professionally by a conversion service, as opposed to you uploading a MS Word doc and hoping for the best.

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Catherine Ryan Howard is a writer, self-publisher and caffeine enthusiast from Cork, Ireland. SELF-PRINTED: THE SANE PERSON’S GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING (3rd edition) is out now in paperback and e-book and available from Amazon. Follow the #selfprintedsplash on Twitter today (Friday 24th) and/or visit www.catherineryanhoward.com for chance to win an amazing prize that will get your self-publishing adventure started!

“SELF-PRINTED is my self-publishing bible. It taught me how to format, create and upload my e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks. It showed me practical things such as how to build a website/blog and how to promote my books. More importantly, it taught me how to compete with the professionals. Just look at the results – The Estate Series has sold nearly 100,000 copies and following that I got a traditional book deal with Thomas & Mercer too, so I’m now a hybrid author. Jam-packed full of hints and tips all in one place, I’m always referring back to it. In a word, it’s priceless.” – Mel Sherratt, author of The Estate Series and DS Allie Shenton Series

I highly recommend checking Catherine’s work out, whether you’re self-publishing, promoting a book or just like to read about travelling adventures from the comfort of your own couch!

Love

Donnax