Introduction
Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors, 4th Edition: Your roadmap to creating, publishing, promoting, and selling your books is written by Carla King. It is a comprehensive guide for authors interested in self-publishing their work. The book strives to be up to date with current information. This is the fourth edition and Carla King updates the consumer’s guide section periodically through her website, so to use this book to its fullest effect, authors should seek out and use the updates to the consumer’s guide by subscribing to her reader’s list.
Summary
Self-Publishing Boot Camp is divided into seven sections which cover her advice on all aspects of becoming a self-publisher because self-publishing is a business and authors must understand what they want to achieve by self-publishing. There are certain tasks to self-publishing that can be completed by hiring the work out based on the project’s budget and the author’s ability to complete certain tasks.
These are the seven sections in the book.
- Prepare for success by using beta readers (she uses Word to write the book and BetaBooks to distribute to beta readers), beta publishing (she uses LeanPub), self-edit your work (she uses ProWriting Aid, MasterWriter, and Fictionary), and hiring a professional editor.
- Create a publishing business by developing a business plan, creating your publishing imprint, and buying at least ten ISBN for all your book formats.
- Good book design is important to make your book look as close as possible to the mainstream publishers. Book Design involves the interior design and most critically the book cover. It is important to hire out this task to a professional. Create the book with a PDF for printing and an e-book.
- Distribute your book using Amazon KDP for Amazon ebooks (MOBI book format), Smashwords for all other ebooks (EPUB book format), Amazon Kindle Print for Amazon POD (Print on demand with PDF book format), and IngramSpark for all other POD (PDF book format).
- Selling your book direct by your website and through other means. (She uses WordPress and GoDaddy.com for her websites. She uses Gumroad for direct orders.)
- Book marketing and promotion through your website and social media.
- This section is the consumer’s guide for self-publishers where the available vendors are reviewed, and recommendations are made. This section is updated and if you subscribe to her reader’s list, then Carla King will email you the updates in a separate web book. This is the link to the subscription page. https://selfpubbootcamp.com/readers/
Recommendation
This book has all the knowledge you need to decide if self-publishing is the right way to release your book. It seems like a daunting task, but Carla King takes each necessary step of the process and explains what to do clearly and simply. The consumer’s guide gives options for help in producing a self-published book. Let Carla guide you on your journey of self-publishing. That’s my plan and I will update this post to show my progress.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Self-Publishing Boot Camp by Carla King.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39091803-self-publishing-boot-camp-guide-for-authors-4th-edition
These are other writing books I have read and reviewed like Self Publishing Boot Camp.
This is the link to my review of How to Write Best Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz.
This is the link to my review of Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys to Writing an Outstanding Story by K. M. Weiland.