What is Indie Publishing?

I recently added a new page to my blog specifically for authors/writers. To aid in that page, I have decided to write up a couple of posts with some questions readers and authors alike may have. The first question is:

What is Indie Publishing and how is it different from Traditional Publishing?

Authors who are independently published are often asked this question. It’s not an easy question to answer, either, but I’ll give it a try.

Some Differences:

Indie authors have to do their own writing, editing, proofreading, cover art, formatting, and marketing. Traditional authors do their own writing and some editing (with the possible exception of marketing).

Indie authors get a higher percentage of their royalty whereas traditional authors usually get more exposure due to the “big name” of their publishing house.

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Self-Publishing: How to Choose What’s Right, pt. 3

This is the last post in my self-publishing series. I hope you enjoy it. My apologies for the accidental posting yesterday. I somehow accidentally scheduled it for yesterday instead of today. Enjoy the guest post about Interior Formatting!

The Art of the Interior

Greetings, fellow writers and readers! I’m Aubrey Hansen, a newlywed living in south Chicagoland. My list of credits includes owning three cats and a snake, being a self-published speculative YA author, being Faith’s friend, and co-owning Penoaks Publishing. Through Penoaks my husband and I make our living helping other indie authors get their books ready for publication. Our specialty is interior formatting.

Wait, what’s interior formatting?

Sadly, many authors don’t understand what is involved in interior formatting, which causes disasters for indie publishers because interior formatting is such an essential step of the book production process. Interior formatting, often referred to as “layout” or “interior design,” is the art of arranging the body of the book for printing. Pick up any paperback book and look at the chapter titles, page numbers, etc.; all of that had to be styled by hand from the author’s original manuscript. Even ebooks need interior formatting to ensure the text shows up properly on your Kindle screen. Some layouts are more elaborate (like a cookbook with pictures) and some are simple (like a mass-market paperback), but every book needs to be formatted before it can be printed.

Self-Publishing: How to Choose What’s Right, pt. 2

Today’s Self-Publishing post is part 2 of 3 in the “How to Choose What’s Right” posts. Today I will concentrate on editing and proofreading, as well as a few marketing tips I have learned. As always, feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Editing and Proofreading-What’s the difference?

When I first got into publishing I thought that editing and proofreading were pretty much the same. Then I heard other terms being bandied about: Line editing, copy editing, content editing, and proofreading. So, what is the difference and why are some more expensive than others?

Self-Publishing: How to Choose What’s Right, pt. 1

Today is the third post in my Self-Publishing blog series. If you missed the first two posts find them here and here. Today’s post is the first part of three discussions on what to pay for and what to do for yourself.

How to Choose What’s Right pt. 1

AKA: What to do for yourself and what to pay for?

ISBN numbers- free or paid? For ebook only people, this is irrelevant since ebooks have ASIN numbers rather than ISBN numbers. However, if you do a hard copy of your book, you will need to have an ISBN number. Createspace (Amazon’s affiliate for self-publishing your hard copies) offers a free Createspace assigned ISBN. This is personally what I have used for each of mine. You can also choose Createspace’s $10 Custom ISBN option which allows you to use your imprint name. If you want to have yourself listed as the publisher rather than Createspace, the $10 option would be the way to go.

Self-Publishing: How to Get Started

Welcome to the second week of my Self-publishing series. Last week I talked about what some of the differences between traditional and independent publishing are and why I chose the indie route. This week I’ll share some of the first steps on how to get started on publishing your book.

What are the first steps?

With everything, there is always a place you should start. So, when your getting published (indie or traditional), what is the first step?

I’m so glad you asked!

Step #1

My answer is write. Write, write, write, and write some more until you are TIRED of writing, and your characters, and your writer’s block, and everything else, and your story has come to an end, then you can stop.

Self-Publishing: My Journey

Today begins a five-week blog series on independent publishing how-tos and tips. Today, I will start with my reasons for choosing the independently publishing route vs. the traditionally publishing route as well as share a little bit of my journey along the way.

Indie vs. Traditional

The indie publishing and the traditional publishing worlds have both changed a lot even since I first seriously looked into getting published in January 2013. For one thing, indie publishing is much more popular and for another, it isn’t that much different than traditional publishing anymore.