Please feel free to copy/paste all wording on this page into your word processor to serve as your template for designing your book.
STEP FIVE: INTERIOR BOOK DESIGN
Interior Design Guides
Perfect Pages by Aaron Shepard
POD Like a Pro by Heather Justesen
Interior Book Designers
Scribe Freelance (Daniel Middleton)
Setting Page Size
Microsoft Word (2010)
1. Go to Page Layout
2. Select Size tab to select size
3. Select Margins tab to set margins
Open office
1. Click Format
2. Select Page from dropdown menu
3. Select Page tab from pop to adjust page size and margins.
STEP SIX : DESIGNING THE BOOK COVER
Book Cover Research
Write down details of book covers that catch your eye in your genre. Thoroughly research other covers and make notes about how you can make your cover stand out among the others. If you aren't an artist and plan to hire an artist to design the cover, make sure to write a detailed description of what you envision to hand to the artist before they start the project.
Book Cover Template Generator
The following are links to help you figure out how to design a cover for print and digital versions of your book:
Lulu template (once you choose your book size you can download both the interior and cover template)
CreateSpace online cover design
Book Cover Designers
STEP SEVEN:BOOK CONVERSIONS
Book Conversion Services
Book Formatting Guides
Full list of Kindle Conversion books on Amazon
Full list5 of Epub Conversion books on Amazon
STEP EIGHT: PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK
* I suggest copying/pasting Step Eight into another document to keep track of important notes which you can add to the file.
STEPS TO STARTING YOUR PUBLISHING COMPANY
1. Choose a Business Name-
(PUT NAME HERE)
Online Company Name Search
To do a basic search for a company name, go to uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp. Select the link “Search Marks” and choose to do a basic search. The search will pull up an entire list of companies using similar names. Unless there is another publishing company using the exact name, your name should be fine.
Next, go to a domain broker site like Godaddy or Vendera Domains to search for an available web domain for “yourcompanyname.com”.
Online Legal Services
2. Assigning a Tax I.D. Number
Filing an EIN
You can file for an EIN through an online step-by-step process that you can perform by filling out an online form. The direct link as of this writing to the application here.
Or, go to irs.gov and click on Businesses, then under Business Topics in the left column, click Employer ID numbers, then click Apply for an EIN Online.
Legal Resource Guides
Books for Setting up a Business
3. Opening a Bank Account
Tax Guides for Publishers
Tax Guide books for publishers
*Remember to have your EIN with you when setting up your business bank account.
4. Opening a Merchant Account
Merchant Account
Paypal- Most known online payment solution center to date
To set up your own business PayPal account:
Visit PayPal.com.
Click Setup Business PayPal Account.
Scroll down, and then click Sign up Today.
Click PayPal Business Account.
Choose your country.
Click Continue.
Fill in all of your information.
Click Continue.
I only listed the prevsious because I use Paypal. To learn more, visit Paypal's Help Center.
Clickbank- Another well-known and trusted site for online payment solutions. Refer to their Help Page to learn all you can do with ClickBank including setting up and affiliate service.
Square- New credit card processing service that turns your smart phone into a creit card processing machine. 2.75% per swipr, no additional fees. Accept payments on the go.
5. Purchase ISBN Numbers
ISBN Setup
To purchase an ISBN go to isbn.org and complete the application process. As of now, you can purchase ISBN numbers as follows:
Single ISBN $125.00
10 ISBNs $250.00
100 ISBNs $575.00
1000 ISBNs $1000.00
If you plan to function as an independent publishing company, and publish several titles, I suggest purchasing one hundred ISBN numbers, because the first eleven digits are your publisher prefix and they will change every time you buy a new block. The last two digits relate to each book. By having one hundred numbers, your prefix will stay the same, which will make you seem as if you are a larger publisher.
There’s nothing wrong with starting out with one or ten numbers. When you are ready to purchase, follow the guidelines below:
1. Visit Isbn.org.
2. Scroll down to US ISBN Agency
3. Under Order ISBNs, select English Language Forms.
4. Choose the appropriate application (new publisher or existing publisher applying for additional prefixes Choose the number of ISBNs you wish to purchase (1,10,100) At last glance, the price tag is around a thousand dollars.
5. Fill out the appropriate form.
6. Follow the instructions for submittal and payment.
7. Bowker will mail your ISBN list to you. (isbn.org is owned by Bowker, the leading US publishing company).
Remember, if you are planning to publish more books, you’ll save money buying blocks. If one ISBN costs $125.00 and a block of ten costs $255.00, every ISBN in a block of ten only costs $27.50! Would you rather pay $27.50 or $125.00 per ISBN?
If you own the previous ten-digit number, click here, use the conversion tool on the right hand side, enter your ten-digit number and click Convert.
6. Creating POD and Digital Content Accounts
POD Companies
I use LSI (Lightning Source) because they are owned by Ingram Content group Inc. In other words, your book will appear on all the big Internet book sites, like Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, just as soon as it is ready to print. This will take off the pressure of you personally having to push your book in order to sell it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. LSI takes care of this hassle so you don’t have to. They also have many options for digital distribution. You can also review your payments received, edit and update your book material as often as needed, maintain a list of customers, submit updated meta-tags and descriptions for your books and handle ebook distribution.
Go to Lighting Source, click Register and sign up for a publisher account. You can register as an author or publisher, but don’t bother with registering as an author. LSI truly prefers to work with publishing companies. To make use of all of their publishing services and benefits, you’ll have to sign up for a publishing account, period. It’s an easy to follow fill in the blanks form. Make sure you’ve started a new business bank account beforehand to allow you to have an “on account” option for ordering books through LSI and paying once every thirty days as well as allowing LSI to directly deposit any compensation you’ve received for books sold through websites such as Amazon.
Create Space- Follow the resources on the homepage of the site for setting up an account.
Lulu- Follow the guidelines on the Services link to choose the right package for you and release your book.
Digital Content Companies
Go to Amazon KDP to setup your own KDP account.
Pubit Barnes & Noble ebook platform for Nook
7. Submit Your First Book
POD Upload Guidelines
LSI book submission:
Login to lightningsource.com using your brand new username and password and then select My Library.
From the dropdown box select Setup a New Title.
On the Print on Demand options, select Title for Full Distribution Services. The options include Wholesale US/UK/EU Distribution as well as Publisher Direct Distribution. (You may also want to choose to submit an ebook through LSI, but you can add it later after we discuss ebooks in the next chapter.)
Input the general information including:
ISBN number. Choose a number from your block. Start at the top of your list. Make sure to keep track of which ISBN you assign to each title you author.
Title of the book. Simply add the title.
Select the language the book is written in.
You’ll also want to make sure to add to the “subjects” boxes. You choices help place your book in the correct category. To help select the correct categories, click Find Subjects. For this book, I used keywords such as writing, publishing and marketing. I chose the following appropriate categories: Reference: writing skills for writing/ Computers: Electronic Publishing and Business & Economics for publishing/ E commerce-Internet Marketing for marketing. You might have to get creative with your keywords to find the correct subjects for your book.
Next, you’ll need to list one to three contributors for your book, such as yourself as author and whomever else you wish to mention, including contributors like, the Editor, the Interior designer, the Photographer, name of Contributing Author, Forward by, etc.
Once you have filled in all information, click the Save button. The next page should be filled out as follows:
Choose whether or not you’d like to have your book displayed in the Ingram Advanced Catalog. This service that allows your book to be displayed for three to four months with a summary of your book and a black & white cover image. This can help promote your book in the beginning, but is not necessary. It is your choice. There is a one-time fee.
Content type. Choose either B&W or Color depending on whether the interior is B&W or contains color graphics/pictures.
Choose the Paper Type. I always choose white, but that is up to you.
Next is binding type. This is based on book size and type of binding you’d prefer. I chose 5.5” X 8.5” Perfect Bound on White for this book.
Cloth spine text is only required for hardcover so you can skip this one. I would only publish in paperback.
The Publication date is up to you. Most authors typically roll the publishing date forward to the next year when the date is past August, to allow the book to appear fresh on the market. This is the smart thing to do but not necessary. This date has nothing to do with the actual date it is available for purchase. Just choose a date that feels appropriate to you.
Add the page count. You won’t know this until you actually have your PDF, which you better have before submitting to LSI. Sometimes you will have some blank pages in the back because LSI requires that total page count be divisible by four for binding purposes.LSI also requires that the last page be entirely blank for the barcode stamp. This includes no page numbers.
Before pricing your book, review my book pricing notes from 11 Simple Steps. I originally had my book at a discount of 55% but an online book company was selling my first book for a third less than list price. They could easily afford to discount because of the millions of titles they were carrying. However, this tactic affects an author’s personal website sales and I think it is unfair. I know authors who play around with 20%- 60% discounts. Like I said, it’s a numbers game. Once you’ve released that first book, you can begin to change your discount and see if it puts more money in your pocket or hurts our sales. If it seems to stifle sales, change the discount.
The only downside I can see to offering a smaller discount is that an online store like Amazon might quit promoting your book in the “Customers who bought this item also bought…” section. Amazon is in this to make a profit as well; their system is designed to specifically promote the most profitable choices. Amazon marketing is always changing, so I’ll leave this decision up to you. Play around with the discount until you find a happy medium.
The last step in the book submission process is uploading your content, which includes the interior and cover. Simply follow the directions. Once your content is uploaded, you must choose whether to order a proof. First timer submittals are required to order a proof.
My suggestion is that you should always order a proof to review for errors before releasing your book to the world. It will be the best thirty-five bucks you’ve ever spent! I had to re-edit Mindset three times before I caught all of the errors…and I had already released it as a title for sale…and I guarantee we’ve still missed a few typos. Don’t make my mistakes. Order a proof and triple check your manuscript!
Now all you have to do is wait for LSI to approve your book. Once your book is approved, you’ll receive a confirmation email from LSI congratulating your approval and notifying you that you can now go login to the site and accept the title. Once you’ve reviewed your proof, login to lightningsource.com and click on My Library, and then click on Proof Acceptance. I believe that congratulations truly are in order because YOU ARE NOW A PUBLISHED AUTHOR!!!
Note: Don't forget to set up international accounts through LSI, including Canada, UK, Autralia, etc.. If you want to sell your books overseas, using an international account will save shipping fees and taxes.
*If you use another company for printing, refer to the website file submission guidelines.
Digital Content Upload Guidelines
8. Updating Book Information
Setting Up My Title at Bowkerlink
Go to myidentifiers, then:
1. Click ADD TITLE
2. Fill in all information, including ISBN, page count, number of illustrations, etc. Search for two subjects that explain your title from the dropdown menus. List the contributors to the book including author, cover designer editor, etc. Title will be an active record and in stock if using a POD company. Don't forget to add a copy of the book cover set to proper dimension as suggestion on the MyIdentifiers website.
*You can also signup for the online catalog to track your ISBNs at a cost of $25.00 per year, but it isn’t necessary unless you have hundreds of titles. You can track them yourself on your computer and it is free to go in and update.
PCN Setup
Go to the PCN website to open an account.
Copywriting Your Book
Go to the Copyright Office wesbite.
Click Forms.
Scroll down to Literary Work and click on Form TX w/Instructions.
Download this form and read the instructions.
Fill out the application.
As of this writing, the fee is $45.00 paid to the “Register of Copyright” for a literary work, which is to be mailed, along with Form TX and a copy of your book to:
Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
You will eventually receive a certificate of registration via mail from the US copyright office notifying you of your copyright registration.
