Writing 101: I Have A Story! Now What? // The Publishing Stage

Good morning, evening, afternoon or whatever else it may be wherever you are! Today, I am concluding my first ever writing series, Writing 101: I Have a Story! Now What? It’s been so much fun, and I thank you all for joining me! Without further ado, let jump in!

Okay, so let me first say, if you are a writer seeking professional publication, do not read further. I am self-published or an Indie Author, so I know NOTHING about the traditional publishing format. For info on that, see Books and Such Literary Society’s blog, Between the Lines, as they have many helpful articles on that. There are many other sites you can check out with this in mind as well.

So, with that being said, I will explain to you what my personal set up looks like. I don’t use Internet platforms like Kindle or Create Space (which are effective. I have friends who use them. I’m just too busy at this time to get into all of that…). Here’s what I do to get ready for Publication…
 
Read through my book one more time and make sure I am fully satisfied with it.

Finish making my copyrights page, extra information in the back of the book, and formatting. Formatting includes…

Chapter Headings

Scene separators (I use stars in my Battle for Heritage Series)

Making sure the first letter in every chapter is larger than the others (It just looks nice and professional)

Checking the Contents page so that page numbers line up correctly

And checking to make sure all my font sizes are consistent throughout the book

Make my cover! I design the covers for my Battle for Heritage Series. Originally, I made the covers in Microsoft Word, but with The Rivers of Sorrow, I used Canva. They are super easy to use, and I am working on switching all the covers over to that program. My older sister made my Coffee Shop Christmas cover using Adobe Photoshop Elements.  I try to make sure every book reflects the tone of my story. My sister really captured the essence of my book, Coffee Shop Christmas, very well! It’s got the snow, the warm coffee cup and mittens…blues of all the wintery shades and a nice police light going across the top, setting the tone very well I think 😉

Taking it to the Press.

Well, we have a local printer, who prints and binds my books for me (actually, a friend helps them out with the binding, but they will have their own bindery soon!) They take care of several very important details for me.
          ISBN. This is like your Books id number. You can type in the number of any of my books online and find them. This costs $50.00. I could do this myself, but they offer the service and I love not dealing with all the hassle!
          Barcode. They use my ISBN to generate a barcode for me (so kind of them!).
          Cover sizing. I have no idea how to size a book spine (I am still learning; there are always things to learn in the Self-publishing community!) so the printers are so kind to do this for me 😉.
          The actual Printing! Yes, shocker, haha, they print my books for me! It take between two to three weeks usually for me to get my books back from them, so yeah, it’s a great set up! This is also why I haven’t been able to set a release date ahead of time; neither of us knows exactly when they will be done! That’s mostly because of the binder, so, maybe that will change in the future!
 
So that, my friends, is the conclusion of my Writing 101: I have a Story! Now What? Series! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! But stay tuned…some of you have given me so dangerously great ideas for new Writing Series… and who knows what 2019 will bring…😉

Have a Blessed Day!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22