The Road to Self-Publishing

By Lynda Barness, MWP™, I DO Wedding Consulting, PhiladelphiaWriting a book is an act of love. It takes time and effort,concentration and perseverance. Here are a few tips I learned on my road to self-publishing I Do: A Wedding Planner Tells Tales.1. Journal and take notes.Writing isn’t a trip down memory lane. It takes time and preparation. If you’re interested in writing a book, get started now by keeping a journal. I couldn’t have written my book retrospectively, as I could not have remembered the details from more than a decade of wedding planning. Instead, I kept jotting down my experiences along the way. But, having the copy is only the beginning.2. Have a plan.Years later, after extensive journaling, I had 450 double-spaced typed pages. From time to time, I would revisit something but didn’t have a grand plan. Then, one evening, on my way to another event, I stopped at a National Association of Women Business Owners networking event. And serendipity played its hand. The first woman I recognized was someone I had met a few times but didn’t know well. She knew I was a wedding planner but had no idea about my writings. The first thing she said to me was that she was organizing a seminar about writing a book. She suggested that I write one about wedding planning and attend her meeting. 3. Learn about the writing and publishing process.The seminar was just the spark I needed. After, I condensed the tales by half. Then, a little more serendipity came my way. The woman who led the seminar was having a mastermind group meeting, at which 10 women got together to discuss their businesses. One of the participants had written several books and used an online publisher she recommended highly. Then, my work began in earnest. 4. Hire a professional editor.Just as brides and grooms hire professional planners and other professional industry pros to get the wedding of their dreams, writers also should hire editors to get the book of their dreams. Network and find an editor to develop and refine your work. Good editors retain your voice but tighten up the language, suggest spots where additional writing will enhance or clarify the message, and, overall, make the book a better reading experience. Prior to hiring an editor, I never would have believed the difference one could make in the end product. It is invaluable, and it made me more confident in my work. 5. Hire a proofreader or copyeditor.Next, hire a professional proofreader or copyeditor. This is different than the editor who helps develop or refine the copy and is another vital step. Authors write and revise and review the copy so many times that it’s hard to see errors. Though the computer’s spellcheck helps, it is not enough. What’s more, professional proofreaders and copyeditors look for things like split infinitives, parallelism, consistency in terminology and expression, and other elements they have received training to see. 6. Create a title and cover that grab the reader.One of the most agonizing aspects of self-publishing is creating a title for your book. The title drives sales. It’s the hook that gets someone to pick up your book and maybe buy it. Ask for suggestions. Sometimes, the right title comes from where you least expect it. For me, it was from one of my sons-in-law who said, “Since this book is about your business, why not call it what it is?” And I DO: A Wedding Planner Tells Tales became the title. From there, I had to find a photo and create attention-grabbing copy for the back cover. Make sure you hire a professional graphic designer to do the cover. 7. Find the rightself-publisher.The final piece, of course, is locating a publisher. Each offers different, tiered packages from which you will need to select. Some include marketing. As an author, I had to give input about the dimensions of the book, color of the paper, font, and more. There were several proofs in the process along with an interior mock-up (including pages breaks, dingbats, and other issues). And then there were decisions about how to describe the book for online sales. The publisher secured the copyright registration and the Library of Congress Control Number. Finding a great publisher with whom to work makes the process easier.In the end, there were more details that went into getting a book published than I’d ever considered. But the best feeling of all was holding the finished book in my hands! ••