I have always been of the opinion that everyone has a story to tell. That can be done in a number of ways, through music, art, passed down verbally through family history, but my preferred method is, unsurprisingly, writing.
I am an open book, literally.
So last year, when another local author approached me about doing a self-publishing workshop at the Brandon Township Public Library, I was on board. I went into journalism to help people tell their stories, so having another way to help people tell their stories is exciting.
And it went over so well that we wanted to host another one.
On March 5, 6:30-7:30 p.m., the Brandon Township Public Library will host Self-Publishing 101. A panel of local self-published authors, Jordan Schwarz, Dani Hays, and myself, will break down the whole process of self-publishing. From writing to cover design to marketing to the best platforms to use for self-publishing, we talk about it all.
I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me for advice or tips about self-publishing, because there are so many things people have questions about. It’s still a fairly new industry, in the grand scheme of publishing, and there are a lot of factors people might not think of. Things like where to buy ISBNs, how to format an e-book versus a paper-back, and what front matter is. I struggled through figuring it out so you don’t have to.
When I was looking to publish my first book, I actually attended a virtual book-launch event with my favorite author, Lisa Scottoline. The book she was promoting had been out for almost a year at that point, so she mostly discussed writing and opened the call for questions to the Zoom call of about 20 people.
Given the opportunity to ask advice from a woman I’d admired since I was in middle school, I asked her tips on writing and publishing.
She told us all the story about when she was starting as an author and was trying to reach out to publishers, she got one rejection letter that said something along the lines of ‘we’re not looking for new books right now, but even if we were, we wouldn’t pick yours.’
Ouch.
And then she said that self-publishing is an entirely valid avenue, and that one of the books she used to research Italy in WWII for her latest book was self-published.
Hearing her story made me want to pursue self-publishing for my own mental health and for my own time. It can take an incredibly long time to go through traditional publishing, and I didn’t want to wait that long and possibly hurt my self-esteem that much.
Writing is a passion of mine, and while some people want to write to make money or become a best-selling author, I write for myself and to tell my story the way I know how. So self-publishing made sense for me.
Since then, I’ve been able to talk to many incredible local authors, both traditionally published and self-published, and self-publishing has begun to really take off in the industry. It allows for authors to be fully in-control of their creative work and make the decisions they want to make.
Of course, that also means doing everything from cover design to marketing by yourself. There’s people you can hire for that, but all of the direction comes from you.
Luckily, that’s where we come in. It can seem daunting and scary, but as someone who has done literally every single thing for my own book (wrote it, formatted it, drew the cover, the whole nine yards), I’m here to say it can be done, you just need a plan.
And I think if you were to ask Schwarz and Hays, they would say the same thing. In fact, if you have questions about self-publishing, we would love to have you join us on March 5 for this free work-shop. The more the merrier.
To register, visit brandonlibrary.org or call 248-627-1473. We’d be happy to have you join us.