How to self-publish your novel

Today’s print-on-demand technology allows you the option of printing one book or a thousand. | An on-demand book printer at the Internet Archive headquarters in San Francisco, California. Two large printers print the pages (left) and the cover (right) and feed them into the rest of the machine for collating and binding. Depending on the number of pages in a given book, it might take from 5 to 20 minutes to print. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday I attended a seminar on self-publishing with author/publisher Cornel Rosario at my local technical college. I have been doing a lot of research on publishing recently and wanted to see if there was anything new he could teach me that I hadn’t figured out yet on my own. I am glad I did. Prior to the class, I had learned a lot about ebook publishing, but the process of publishing actual books had been a bit of a mystery to me.

Much of the information Rosario covered in this three-hour session was old news to me, as far as ebooks go. But when it comes to printing actual books, he was a wealth of knowledge on both old-fashioned printing and print-on-demand. I also learned a lot about the costs associated with publishing your own book.

For a while now, I have been kicking around the idea of starting my own independent publishing company using print-on-demand technology. Not only do I want to publish my own books, but I am also interested in editing and publishing the work of others. With my combined business and writing/editing background, I believe I stand a good chance of making it successful.

As I explore this topic in more detail to determine whether it is, indeed, a viable option, I plan to share what I learn with you here on my blog. Hopefully you will learn a thing or two, or maybe even point out to me when I am on the wrong track.

I was amazed at how many people in my community showed up at this self-publishing seminar. There are a LOT of people out there writing books! We should find a way to connect on a regular basis to help each other out.

Have you ever attended a seminar or workshop at your local community college? If not, I recommend that you look into it, no matter what your level of experience in your preferred topic. I find that I always learn *something* and usually come away with a wealth of ideas that help me push ahead with whatever it is I am doing at the moment. Plus, these courses are usually relatively inexpensive (this one was only $24.20!!) which makes them well worth it even if all you get out of it is an evening spent with a group of people who share your interest in the topic.

~Amanda L. Webster, Writer/Publisher

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