By: Ashley Duncan
When people think of publishing a book or any piece of writing, they see the process as very difficult. In reality, the process can be a lot easier if they want it to be. Jeff Deitering, a self-publisher, explains this process.
Deitering has written four books in his Hook and Patch series, a nonfiction collection of short stories, and a haiku, which are all published through Amazon. “I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. I don’t like how big they are but then again, they’re really big so if you want the widest audience, they’re the easiest by far to get everything out there,” said Deitering.
Publishing to Amazon is easy because everything is web based said Deitering. Everything is put into a PDF format and from there the author formats to Amazon’s specifications. The cover of the book is almost the same process; put the front, spine, and back as one image in a PDF format.
“Then [Amazon] will put the book together or send you a proof copy so that you can make sure that everything looks okay and then if it looks okay to you, they make it available and then they print them as people buy them,” said Deitering. That is basically the simple process of self-publishing a book to Amazon.
When Deitering writes his books he does have copy editors look them over and then a professional editor. He also has a graphic designer to help with the cover of his books, not everybody needs these things to self-publish.
Since he is a self-publisher, that means he is his own advertiser as well. All the ads that are posted to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or anywhere else; they were all created by him. It is his job or anybody’s job as a self-publisher to promote their work.
Self-publishing is an easier route than the traditional route, but as Deitering said, “It’s harder than it sounds. I’ve found that it is something once people can write, lots of people do write, but finishing a book is the hard part and I think a lot of people get discouraged with it.”
The reason Deitering self-published is because he had time sensitive parts in his first book of the Hook and Patch series. The traditional route would have taken too long and so he took matters into his own hands.
Self-publishing and traditional publishing are unique to themselves and it is personal preference on which route an author decides to take with their books.
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