Experts’ self-publishing tips

Bathurst Book Fair speakers share on influence of technology

Atalk on adventures (and misadventures) in selfpublishing was the first event held at the Bathurst Book Fair on Sunday in the Historic Pig & Whistle lounge.

The three speakers of this panel discussion included emeritus professor of sociology at Rhodes University and author of the Bernie Bernard series of crime novels Monty Roodt, Frank Nunan of Write-On Publishing and Chirag Patel of Forged on the Frontier & Lamplight Publishing.

Nunan is a Port Alfred-based publishing facilitator who has assisted authors to publish more than 100 books and has worked with over 60 authors to date.

He started the talk on independent authors and how technology has enabled printon-demand on sales platforms such as Amazon and Takealot, adding that print-on-demand had reduced the financial risks of publishing as well.

The publisher explained how self-publishing gave one total control over the content, cover, and distribution of your work, including total ownership of the rights of your book.

“You’ve got to do the marketing, ” he said when mentioning the cons of selfpublishing, which also included doing our own distribution.

Nunan also mentioned the need to be adept at online marketing by making use of ebooks and audiobooks to reach a wider audience and meet the current market.

He explained that for a selfpublished author to be successful, they had to be more than a writer.

“You need to be an entrepreneur, you need to be a businessperson,” Nunan said

He said there were a number of important steps when it came to self-publishing. These include:

● Idea and concept

● Writing

● Rewriting

● Story editing

● More rewriting

● Copy editing

● Layout and typesetting

● Cover design

● Purchase an ISBN

● Select platform(s)

● Choose price

● Choose distribution channel(s) ● Upload

● Marketing and promotion

Nunan wrapped up his presentation by explaining his role as a publishing facilitator by “assisting the self-publishing author with all the technical aspects of the process, and to help him or her to get a quality product out there”.

Chirag Patel explained selfpublishing as “being able to tell stories to the world” and spoke about the conversion of paperback copies to audiobook, which he said had a wider audience because it was more accessible. “Audio is one of the very few ways of making selfpublishing make more money,” he said.

Monty Roodt noted how self-publishing had now become a big business, but identified that one of the problems with self-publishing was getting a conventional commercial publisher.

Roodt highlighted the importance of editing and proof-reading and advised on hiring professionals.

“You cannot edit your own work,” he said.

He also mentioned online editing tools that writters could make use of, such as Prowritingaid and Grammarly.