The Five Steps
A Beginner’s Guide to Writing and Publishing an eBook
By Roger Brett
Copyright Roger Brett 2011
Smashwords Edition
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase another copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.
This book is dedicated to my daughter, Carol, who has been threatening to write and publish a book of her own for years. Now she should have no excuse for not doing so.
STOP!
Before you read any further.
Pour yourself a glass of your favourite drink, like the one on the cover, which presumably is what encouraged you to open this book in the first place.
Sit down in a comfy chair.
By the time you have finished your drink, you should also have finished reading this book.
You should then be in a position to write and publish your own book, just like this one.
Start now, following “The Five Steps”.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I’ve heard it said that there’s a book in everyone, and whilst that may or may not be true, I think it’s fair to say that almost everyone would like to write a little story and get it published in a form that everyone can see. Well now with the advent of e-books everyone can, and at very little cost or in some cases absolutely no cost to themselves, except the investment of a little time.
If you’re reading these words then presumably you are a complete newcomer to publishing but like me you would like to produce your very own masterpiece and then see your writing out there for the entire world to see.
I am seriously thinking about my autobiography and I think Smashwords is a smashing place to start in order to get a few short stories in print and to give me encouragement and discipline to continue writing and get some of my life story out there too. That book is still to come, once I have got a few other short stories in print to test the water so to speak and also when I have overcome, in my mind at least, the consequences of the numerous libel suits it will possibly attract!
If you know anything at all about writing or publishing then this book is probably not for you. It is designed to aid the complete newcomer who would like to learn how to get into print for the first time. Publishing is quite new to me, as it may be to you, but I have done quite a lot of research on the subject over the years.
So why have I written this little offering about publishing??
Well the reasons are twofold. Firstly according to Smashwords, a publishing company which I will talk about in greater detail later, the more books you write the better your chances of getting any of them read, so this is one more book on my path to becoming hopefully a successful author. Secondly I actually believe that I can convince – you – as a newcomer to writing and publishing, that by following the five steps outlined in the last chapter that you can actually write about something that interests you, and then get it converted into a readable book for little or no cost at all.
Over the years I have toyed with the idea of writing my autobiography. I bought lots of books on writing and publishing. I contacted various ghost writers and possible agents and spent hours wondering how, after writing my story; I would ever get it into print.
It eventually became clear that there was absolutely no way it would happen unless I self- published, at considerable cost to myself, and with no guarantee of any return at all.
All that suddenly changed when I read an article in The Daily Mail entitled “How you can make a million writing your own e-book” by Andrew Wilson.
If you’re serious about writing then I do suggest you read his very informative article. You can find it at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2040044/Kindle-How-make-million-writing-e-book.html.
Here I learnt that with very little effort you can get your thoughts into print and very quickly too.
It all sounded too easy, not to make a million that is, but at least to publish a book. But believe me it really is too easy. If I can do it then anyone can and that’s a fact!
‘The big problem with the explosion in e-publishing is that the vast majority of books that are being self-published are just plain awful – badly written, badly edited, badly formatted.’
‘Most of the so-called “indie” writers, who previously would have been described as “unpublished”, rush to get their work online and frankly most of them are wasting their time. A badly written book isn’t going to sell, no matter how cheap it is,’ says former journalist Stephen Leather.
This book will not tell you how to write your book nor will it go into detail about the ins and outs of formatting your book, marketing it, or any of the many other requirements. There are lots of books out there which will explain all that in great detail, many of them free, and of the others most of them are very cheap (like this one!) and if you have the time and the inclination then I suggest you download a few samples which you can do for free, and then buy a couple that take your fancy.
What this book does aim to tell you, is how simple the whole process of writing something and then getting it published actually is, and how, without reference to any other books, and at very little cost, you can quickly get your offering out there.
If you’re prepared to make an effort and design your own cover and also invest some time ensuring your book is correctly formatted then you can do it absolutely for free, but as a first timer I would not recommend this. The costs involved in getting someone else to carry out these tasks for you is so small, in the case of my two books under £15, that in order to get your book published for the first time I think it is well worth the small outlay.
Writing the Book
Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not capable of writing a book because I am living proof that anyone can do it. My only qualifications, if you can call them that, for being able to write, are a couple of medium grade “O” levels in English Language and English Literature.
As long as you’re not completely illiterate and can type with one or two fingers, then with the help available in today’s word processing programs, believe me you can do it.
I used to watch my son, who taught himself to touch type while still at school, and think I could never write a book because I could never type like he does. Well I have proved that I can, it just took me longer than it would have taken him.
I have also played around with a couple of the dictation programs which are available (there’s a free one built into Windows 7) but as yet I’ve not found them to be much quicker than my two fingered typing, if you take into account the time taken to correct the inevitable mistakes.
I use Microsoft Word because Smashwords, and that is the publishing platform I suggest you use, want my draft in that form. You can use other programs but by all accounts it makes things a lot more difficult, so my advice is to do as they say. If you haven’t got Microsoft Word then you can download the latest version, Word 2010, from the Microsoft site for a 60 day free trial, which should be more than enough time for you to write and publish the short book which I suggest you write to begin with. If you insist on using some other word processor then do get it converted into Word before you submit it for publication.
My first book was about the German Shepherd Dogs that I had owned and I wrote it because basically it was something easy to start with. You can find it on the Smashwords website, It’s called “My Four Dogs plus One”.
While I was writing it, I came across an article in a supplement to The Daily Mail, about Edwina Currie, who it said, had a German Shepherd Dog of the same name and age as my current dog. What a coincidence I thought. I wonder if I could get in touch with her.
I managed to find her email address and I sent her a copy of the draft, asking what she thought of it. I never expected to get even a reply but much to my amazement, within a few hours I received not only a reply, but a list of suggestions and helpful comments, and I was also able to include a short endorsement attributable to her at the front of my book. What a coup!
Edwina said I should ditch the exclamation marks, which she said were the sure sign of an inexperienced writer and which I had plenty in my draft, and that I did, but I still can’t resist putting in a few .
The point about all of this, is that there is no doubt in my mind that it is absolutely essential to get your book copy edited and proof read by someone who knows what they are doing, and then if possible, endorsed by someone who is well known and respected by the public at large. Edwina if you are reading this then I do hope you appreciate that last comment – another exclamation mark!
Copy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the style and accuracy of text and to ensure that it flows freely. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication. Copy editing is done before proofreading, the latter being the last step in the editorial cycle.
Besides an excellent command of language, copy editors need broad general knowledge for spotting factual errors; good critical thinking skills in order to recognize inconsistencies or vagaries; interpersonal skills for dealing with writers, other editors and designers; attention to detail; and a sense of style. Also, they must establish priorities and balance a desire for perfection with the necessity to follow deadlines.
Professional copy editors usually have a degree, often in journalism, the language the text is written in, or communications, so choose yours carefully.
Proofreading is the reading of a text to detect and correct errors of the text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication so again, choose yours with care.
Once I had my book finished in draft form I sent it to a friend of mine, Maria Golden, who I knew, was an avid book collector and also a reseller. She is also a retired school teacher and so in my view admirably fitted the bill to copy edit a proofread my draft.
I decided to use the services of Maria for both copy editing and proof reading because I happen to know her personally. Sometimes you may be better off getting two different people to do the separate tasks.
Once Andrew Wilson’s article had got me excited about the possibility of getting a book published for free, I did quite a lot of research on-line as to the various methods available. I read lots of articles about the requirements for publishing direct to Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc., but I decided to go with Smashwords because they promise to publish to everyone and convert your book into all the various formats required.
If you do a Google search for Smashwords, then apart from the website itself, www.smashwords.com, you will find lots of relevant reading matter; some saying it’s the best thing since sliced bread and others saying that it definitely is not, and that it has lots of drawbacks.
All I can say is that with my very limited experience I found that if you want a book published quickly, and to see it on a virtual bookshelf, as I did, then Smashwords fulfilled that requirement admirably.
I uploaded it to their site and within a couple of minutes, yes really, only a couple of minutes; it had gone through what they call their meatgrinder conversion program and was there ready to download as a proper book in virtually any format you wanted.
In my case I wanted to surprise my wife with her new iPad 2 by showing her my book in her ibooks store, and so I immediately downloaded it in ePub format to her iPad (you get a list of options as to which format you wish to download the book depending on which platform you intend to read it). I opened it in ibooks and there it was, alongside the Kama Sutra ready for her to read. Wonderful!