by Jonathan on July 17, 2022
I’m not gonna lie, this is probably the step that will take me the most time. My full time job is as a software engineer, and I have a decent bit of experience as a graphic designer from when I was a solo web developer, doing all the graphics for all of my own products.
As such, I feel like I can make the cover myself – but I’m also absolutely sure I’m not the first author to self-publish who believes that, and the current state of the market is such that you can’t fly by with a mediocre, noticeably sub-par book cover. So, I’m taking my time to do market research, see what covers are like in my genre (man, I love local libraries and online bookstores). This provides two benefits – I can see what readers expect a book cover to look like in my genre, and I have base material with which to, as objectively as possible, compare my design efforts to ensure they are up to snuff.
I’m taking this on while my editor is going through the copyedit of my manuscript, and my optimistic self is hoping I can have the cover done (or close) by the time the edit is done at the end of this month.
by Jonathan on June 24, 2022
Now that the final self-edit is complete, I’ve moved on to actually figuring out how to get that massive bit of text compiled and formatted into what you, Dear Reader, expect when you’re reading an book on your phone/Kindle/paperback/whatever.
Since I’m using Scrivener (and have been since 2006 or so), compiling the book into various formats appears to be as easy using the “Compile for Export or Print” option. This pops up a modal where you can select various formats, and hopefully that ends up getting me most of the way there.
But, I also have hope that this book will make it into print, and that means I need an ISBN. This is a Brave New World for me, so recently I’ve been digging into how ISBNs are used, where to get them, and how much they cost.
One important factor to note, you can get a free ISBN from Amazon or DraftToDigital, but there are strings attached I’d rather not have to mess with, so I’ll be paying for a block of ISBNs to use as I see fit.
Once I’m comfortable with the process of formatting my novel, and happy with the results, with relevant ISBNs associated with the various formats I’ll be making available (PDF, ePub, mobi, etc) then it will be on to…
Cover design! Onward and upward~