Here’s another interesting article that I stumbled across today, this one about the effort required for those wishing to self-publish. Australian authors Hazel Edwards, Tony Park and Khyiah Angel discuss the need to work hard at distribution, marketing and getting involved online, to try to build your profile and increase the number of readers interested in your book. Writing guest posts on blogs, maintaining a website and learning ebook technology are just some of the things required of self-publishers.
Kids' Book Assessments
Questions if I may, I’ve been reading various web sites about pro’s con’s on self publishing. If my intention for publishing is for my own family and friends , would I really need to consider distribution and marketing? Is it worth it to publish or just go to the local print shop and print without ISBN?
Hi Zac,
If you’re just publishing for family and friends, distribution and marketing aren’t relevant. You only need to worry about that if you’re going to try to get your book out into bookshops and other readers’ hands.
The choice of whether to go to a local print shop or use another option like print-on-demand really depends on how many pages your book is, how many copies you want to produce and what kind of quality you’re looking for. What kind of book are you producing? Is it a picture book, or a novel? If it’s only a few copies and the quality doesn’t have to be top-notch, it might be worth getting a few quotes from local print shops. If you have a lot of copies to produce, or it’s a full-colour book and you want a higher-quality finish, you might consider getting some quotes for a print-on-demand option from a book printer.
An ISBN and a barcode (the barcode is found on the back cover of a book, and incorporates the ISBN number in its code) are required for books published in Australia so that organisations such as booksellers, libraries etc can identify your book and can obtain a copy of it if they want to. If you’re producing your book for family and friends only, and don’t intend to put it out into the world, then you don’t really need one. If you think you might want to try to sell it one day, you’re probably safer to get one now. If you want to send it to the National Library of Australia and your state library for their records, you will need an ISBN.
Does this help? Let me know if I can help further.
Brooke
Many thanks again!