The first step after making the decision to self-publish is to decide which company you’d like to go through and on what channels and in what formats you’d like your book to be available. This was the easy part for me; my husband works at Ingram, so IngramSpark was the natural choice for us. But there are several companies who will facilitate self-publishing and they provide a wide array of options and involvement, so the process generally starts with a lot of research into which company and which package you’d like to use. 

Once you’ve made that decision, you move on to the hands-on logistics of preparing your book. Each company has their own requirements for interior setup (things like page numbering, margins, spacing, etc.) and cover art (dimensions, bleed, color formatting, dpi, etc.). There are ways to format your own interior and cover, but we elected to outsource those jobs to limit both time and stress. IngramSpark has a list of recommended vendors for each of these, so we chose from these lists. 

For the interior, I sent the word document of the final draft to the formatting company and chose from their list of fonts, formats, and special features. They sent back sample pages for me to approve, and once I had signed off on that, they started work on the full draft. There were a few minor changes I asked for on the full draft before approval, which they fixed for me. Once the print interior had been approved, they started work on the ebook, which is where I am now in the process. I’m hoping to have that back for approval in the next week or so.

The other thing we outsourced was the cover art. While I could probably have formatted the interior if I’d wanted to (even though it would have taken a lot of time and effort), the cover art was beyond my skill level. I’m decent when it comes to art, and I am relatively proficient at PhotoShop, but I do not have the wherewithal to design and create a book cover— at least one that looks professional. The process for getting the design was both fun and incredibly stressful. The company we chose to work with allows you to submit a design brief explaining a bit about your book, what sort of colors and imagery you were picturing for your design, as well as example covers you like and the overall feel and parameters you are looking for. You select your preferred price point, which influences the level and number of designers who will submit work to your contest. Then designers from all over the world can submit their cover drafts for you to review. You give notes to people regarding what you like or don’t like about their submissions, and they make changes and updates to their designs. Once you have a handful of favorite designs, you name your finalists and continue to work with them to refine the designs until you make a final selection. At that point, you award a winner and work with them to get the design in the dimensions and requirements you need for your print and/or ebook. Then they transfer all rights and licences to you and you fully own that piece of work.

As exciting as it was to see loads of people submitting their design interpretation of my book, I definitely found myself experiencing a fair amount of anxiety during those weeks. I’ve never been particularly good at making decisions, and I had so many wonderful options that I was honestly worried that I was going to make the wrong decision. At the end of the day, I asked for input from some trusted friends and, based both on their feedback and my gut instinct, finally made a decision, and I could not be happier with it! I signed off on the final design about two weeks ago, so I now have a beautiful cover design that I own all rights to, and it’s formatted for both my print and ebook. 

Once you have both the interior and the cover art, you are ready to setup your title with your company of choice. Since I have the cover art and the interior of the print version, I was able to set that title up with IngramSpark this weekend. There are a few steps left before it’s ready for purchase, but I’m getting really close to having my first book out there in the world. I feel an equal mix of excitement and nausea. 

The cover art and interior formatting have been approved by IngramSpark, and I’ve submitted approval on the eproof they provided. All that’s left is for me to approve my print sample. The sample request has been submitted, and now I’m just waiting for that to be printed and shipped to me. It’s really exciting to know that I will be holding my book baby in my hands next month. The formatting on the ebook should be finished about the same time, and can then be setup on IngramSpark as well. The approval process will look the same on that, but I obviously won’t need to approve a print copy of that version. 

And that will be that. Once the print book is fully approved and the ebook is setup and approved, it will be ready for global distribution. At that point, anyone and everyone will be able to buy a print or ebook version of The Key for their very own. I anticipate this being a week or two before Christmas. I’ll be posting the purchase links for both versions on my website and my Instagram as soon as they’re available. And if you buy a print copy, I’d be happy to sign it for you; at least for those of you who live in or visit Nashville. 

I’m planning on posting the cover art to my website and my Instagram once I get my print proof, so be on the lookout for that.

I’m really excited to see how things go for my little book baby out in the world. If all goes well, I’m planning to publish my other two books as well. Both are sequels to The Key. One has been written already and is in the editing process, and the other has been fully outlined and is just waiting to be written.

If you have any other questions about self-publishing or my experience with it, my books or my writing, or anything at all really, feel free to reach out!