In 2017, while I was studying a Bachelor of Business, I decided to add to my workload by writing a book. I felt that there was a need for this type of book that wasn’t currently being filled. I also reflected that I had enough knowledge of the subject matter to be somewhat of an expert in the field. So, in between studying, working, and parenting my four children, I would write passages here and there, and in time they started to resemble a nonfiction manuscript.
It wasn’t until I finished university and had the life-changing experience of losing a parent to cancer that I really knuckled down and finished my initial draft. I admit that the first draft was rather poor compared to what the book looks like now. It has definitely changed with each revision, and having someone else read over it has been a good investment of time. They managed to pick up on words and phrases that really needed refining.
Meanwhile, I was spending hours researching how to self-publish a book in Australia. There is a plethora of information available and sifting through it took some time. I managed to discover a few things along the way though. I’m sharing them here so that other newbie self-publishers can avoid spending hours trawling the interwebs for useful information:
- ISBNs and barcodes can be purchased through Thorpe Bowker.
- The National Library of Australia provides a free prepublication service that enables Australian publishers and self-publishers to have the details of their upcoming books made available to Australian libraries.
- There are several print-on-demand services now including Ingram Spark and Lulu.
- If you have a bit of design skill you can make your own book covers in Canva or similar platforms.
- Your book interior can be made using Microsoft Word but it requires a lot of skill, or you could try DIY Book Formats as I did.
- Self-publishing, whilst relatively inexpensive, also means that you are entirely responsible for marketing and distributing your book.
After months of writing, editing, and waiting, the day came when I finally received a printed copy of my first book. Managing a FIFO Family was a book that I felt I needed to write. After being a DIDO wife for over seven years and parenting on my own for more than half the time I felt that I had a decent amount of knowledge on how to handle the ups and downs of the FIFO lifestyle. So why not share it all in a book?
To say self-publishing isn’t easy is an understatement. Sure anyone can write a word document and upload it to Amazon but I wanted it to look like a book people would actually read so there were a few things to consider:
- Cover design. I wanted the book to stand out so I chose a bold background colour and used a silhouette to showcase the subject matter. It was a process of trial and error to see which font style, size, and colour suited the layout. One evening after I’d been working on it for a few hours I was getting fed up so I decided to just leave it and headed to bed. The next morning the cover design as it is now was produced. Sometimes projects need to be looked at with a fresh perspective.
- Interior – if you do not have a good handle on the ins and outs of Microsoft Word then my suggestion is to outsource this step. Given that my book had many chapters and sections it was quite a difficult process to format it. Ingram Spark, the company I chose as the printer, required the manuscript to be uploaded in pdf format but it needed to be independently converted rather than just saved as a pdf in Word. Just when I thought I’d got the formatting on point, I would convert it to pdf and it would go awry. It took a lot of patience.
- Uploading it to Amazon was a fairly straightforward process. I researched the best commission structure to use and priced the book according to what I thought its worth was given the amount of research, writing, and editing that went into producing a book packed with so much useful information.
- Uploading the manuscript to the printer was also a fairly straightforward process. However, I will admit that I was incredibly nervous that the book wouldn’t turn out. Had I formatted it correctly? Did I choose the right font? I remember the moment I opened the package during a coffee date with my Mum and my oldest child. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. It was an incredible feeling to be holding an actual real-life copy of my first book.
The next step is probably one of the hardest for any self-publisher – marketing. I used a mixture of online, social media, and traditional marketing techniques to promote the book. I wrote media releases and sent them off to all and sundry and was lucky enough to have them picked up by a local radio station and newspaper.
It wasn’t a bestseller but it was a fantastic opportunity to learn new skills and gain experience that will hopefully leave me in good stead for the future.