So you want to self-publish some of your own work, huh? Well, in this article I will detail my own experience as a first-time Author and I will go over a few credible publishers to work with. Everyone that writes, at some point or another, gets this undeniable urge to publish some of their work. Whether that be in an online article, a magazine feature, or even a guest post on someone's blog/website. For years I had wanted to publish my work somewhere, mainly being poetry. I first began writing poetry in high school, and fast forward 10 years and I have my own book!

Now, being that it was a book of poetry I never had the intention of going to an editor or publisher to see if they would accept my work. I think a lot of us (writers) have our own fears and insecurities about letting others see our hard work. Even more, letting people openly criticize it can be a nightmare in and of itself. That is when I first found out about self-publishing.

How self-publishing works

Self-publishing basically Works through an online process where you, the author, attach a copy of your manuscript and fill out surveys detailing how and what you want the overall product to look like. I should preface this by saying you must first call one of these self-publishing companies to speak with a sales agent, which will allow you to go over what kind of package deal you would like to have for your book.

Once that initial phone call is done, and you have paid for the services of the said publisher, you use your online account on the publisher's website and fill out various surveys that go over things like editing, marketing, interior design, and the front and back covers. At all times you have access to what your team is doing in regards to fulfilling your wishes with the book.

There is a constant flow of communication between team members and you so that everyone is on the same page and your creative control is not overlooked. With each service, you initially paid for there are timeframes you are given when to check back to see the progress. Editing, for example, took about one week in my experience before the initial round was fully completed.

Files are constantly sent back and forth in regards to your covers, what you want and do not want, various versions of your manuscript, and of course how to market your book with online stores like Amazon.

Once that service is completed, such as editing, for example, you have the option of purchasing more editing if need be or moving your book along to the next stage. Generally, you are also sent a survey to explain your satisfaction with each individual service, and how the company can improve for future authors. Lastly, you are probably wondering about the costs of this type of venture. Well, you need to have a specific budget in mind for a project like this because it is definitely a monetary investment.

The easiest way I can describe the costs is based solely on how many words your original manuscript contains. The sales agent you speak to on the phone will base your pricing off of the services you want and also the word count of your manuscript.

My recommendations for publishers

Now, like I said earlier, I have only written/published one book, but I do know of a few different publishers that I can at least vouch for. I personally went with CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon, because it was recommended to me by another author. Plus, it was refreshing knowing that Amazon owned this company, especially since that is where the book would be sold, mostly. Another good publisher to go with is called Lulu.

I am not super familiar with how they operate their publishing process, however, I imagine it is pretty similar to how CreateSpace works. I have also heard good things about publishing through Lulu, so give it a try and let me know what you think if you do! I know that is a short list, but I feel comfortable vouching for those two companies as far as publishers go. Hopefully, this article will help you out on your journey to becoming a published author!
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