The Self Publishing Process
Introduction |
Writing | Editing and Critical Assessment | Copy
editing |
Typesetting | Text and Cover Design | ISBN
Registration | Printing |
Bibliographic / Copyright Registration
| Publicity | Marketing
|
Repping, Sales and Customer Invoicing |
Distribution / Warehousing |
eBooks
Introduction
So you've written your book, or perhaps you have a book
concept that you think is unique. The only problem is,
how do you get that idea and turn it into an actual volume
on a bookshop shelf?
You enjoy the writing, you know your subject but you
don't have the time or the inclination to learn the publishing
business to ensure that you get the results that you want.
At Matador we've been helping people get their books
into print for over 10 years, and it can be cheaper than
you think, with prices starting from only £400.
We also offer a personal service -- we allocate a named
contact at Matador to each of our authors, so there's
no being passed from department to department.
So, turn to Matador, and we'll turn your manuscript into
a book...
Writing
This is the bit that you as the author have to do! We can't write your book for you, nor take your notes and turn them into a book. For those of you who need help in actually writing your book, we'd recommend a reputable ghost writer. Try Susannah Quinn (www.copywritingcompany.co.uk) or Helen Parker (www.ghostwriter.uk.com).
Editing and Critical Assessment
It takes skill and experience to read and critically assess a new manuscript, and it is a time consuming process. To ensure that critical assessments are entirely unbiased and of a suitably high quality, we do not carry them out ourselves. As an author you thus have the assurance that we are not going to tell you how fantastic your manuscript is just so that you will publish it with us.
In-depth editing also takes skill and time, and invariably an editor working closely with an author will improve a manuscript for publication. Editing can be time-consuming, and thus costly, and is best undertaken by an experienced literary editor.
We recommend that authors wanting a good quality critical assessment or who wish to work with an editor in depth should contact one of four companies that we know carry out good quality critical assessments and editorial work at a reasonable cost. All of these companies will also offer you a discount on their usual fees if you mention that you have come to them from Matador:
- The Writers' Workshop uses experienced authors and editors to evaluate and comment upon manuscripts, and we have no hesitation in recommending them to prospective self publishing authors. For details, please view the attached Writers' Workshop offer.
- The Oxford Literary Consultancy is a well known company that offers in-depth editorial assistance to authors looking to publish or self-publish.
- Bubblecow: work with mainstream and self-publishing authors to improve manuscripts ready for publication.
- Addison and Cole: provide a professional editorial service for unpublished writers and act as scouts for literary agents. For further information, see Addison & Cole's information.
- Cornerstones Literary Consultancy offers editing and critical assessment services, and also act as scouts for agents. For further details click here.
- Words Worth Reading offer a range of editorial services to writes. For details of their special offer to Matador authors, click here.
Copy Editing
You've written the best book you can, checked your facts
and double checked your spelling. Yet there will be lots
of mistakes! Particularly when you've lived with a project
for a long time, you can become 'blind' to such mistakes,
not spotting them until they're in print. The wrong caption,
the wrong picture, inconsistent spelling, poor grammar,
lack of punctuation... The copy editing process involves
an independent party checking through your manuscript
to look for such things and correct them. This ensures
that your manuscript is of the highest quality (and you
also get to approve any changes made before publication).
Typesetting
First impressions count and you want your book to look
good, inside and out. Matador can typeset your book to
give that fantastic first impression. The typesetting
process involves taking a manuscript and converting it
into the way it will look in the book. We will use your
text (from disk) and apply a typographical design to the
book, placing photographs and graphics, choosing colours,
page size, type size, etc. This will give the book a certain
'feel' and style, that will be carried through to the
cover design. Once this process has been completed, you
will be sent typeset proofs to check (proof read).
Text and Cover
Design
Take a look at any two books on your shelf and you'll
notice how the appearance of their text is different.
How do you decide what font to use, what weight, how large
should the pages be (and what's the most economical size),
what will make the page pleasing to the eye...? Textual
design is an art form which should not be overlooked.
The best book can be ruined by poor typographical design,
and if it's not easy to read, by and large people won't
read it. We'll design your book and ensure that you're
happy with that design before typesetting begins.
Cover design is arguably even more important, as it's
often the cover that sells a book. How often have you
seen 'home produced' books with terrible covers on the
local bookshop shelf? We can design your book's jacket
from scratch, using either your own artwork or supplying
professional quality photographs or illustrations. We
also ensure that your book cover includes a bar code -
a necessity for stocking in bookshops.
ISBN Registration
There is no legal requirement to give your book an ISBN
number. However, without an ISBN number, a book cannot
be ordered through any bookshop (physical or online)
as the books ordering systems all work using the unique
ISBN number, not a book's title. The ISBN number is unique
to every book, and it enables a book shop to identify
the book's publisher, and thus be able to order it. Without
an ISBN number on your book, you are effectively limiting
yourself just to private sales. We can supply ISBN numbers
under our Matador imprint for books published in the
UK, or we can source ISBN numbers for you if you wish
to publish under your own imprint.
Printing
The process of printing can be a minefield that Matador
can lead you safely through. Printers vary in equipment,
the systems that they use and the price that they'll quote
for the same job. How do you know exactly which quote
will work out to be the best?
The printing industry has its own conventions and standards
and if you don't know what these are you may not get the
final product that you hoped for. There are also different
printing processes -- lithographic or digital? What are
the differences? Which would be appropriate for your book?
How do I know a good printer from a poor one? How many
copies should be printed? What will reprints cost?
At Matador we regularly use a wide range of printers
nationwide, each with their own strengths, so we can take
over that lengthy hunt for the right printer at the right
price for your book.
Bibliographic and
Copyright Registration
How do booksellers know your book is available? They use various bibliographic databases run by companies such as Bowkers and Book Data. These companies supply data to the high street and online bookstores, so you need to register with the databases so that your book appears on the stores' computer... invaluable when a customer wants to order it!
In addition, on publication you are required by law to
send one copy of your book to the five Copyright Libraries
in the UK, via the Copyright Receipt Office. We arrange
registration for authors as a matter of course, and ensure
the Deposit Libaries get their copies on your behalf.
We make no charge for these services.
Publicity
Publicity and Marketing are two different - though related
- activities. Both aim to achieve the best possible exposure
of your book to the market. Publicity is the process of
making the world aware that your book has been published,
and this is where your in depth knowledge of your subject
area can be invaluable. Publicity involves placing stories
in your local paper, in specialist magazines, on the Internet
in newsgroups, on the radio or TV. Data Sheets are also
produced on all our books and sent to relevant bookshops,
book chains and wholesalers.
It can be difficult to gauge the effectiveness of publicity
activities as there is no way of measuring the effect
they have on sales. But without publicity, your sales
will certainly be diminished.
We can help you identify suitable places to publicise
your book, and to prepare publicity materials such as
press releases.
To view some recent press coverage for Matador self published titles, click here.
Marketing
Marketing and publicity is that part of publishing a book that many authors overlook; perhaps they are daunted by the prospect of "selling" their book, or perhaps they simply don't know how. The books trade undoubtedly has complex distribution and sales systems which can appear to be impenetrable from the outside. Yet if you're serious about getting your book onto the shelves and selling more than a few copies, it's this part of the process that should demand your attention, even before the book has been printed.
Marketing is so important that we have devoted a completely separate section of this web site to it. We give details of the services that we offer to authors, and there's news of Matador self published titles in the media. For authors who do sign up with Matador, we also offer a password-protected section that gives information on marketing, self promotion, prizes, where to find information on bookshops, and much more.
In brief, for books that we feel have a good chance of being taken up by such outlets, we will market your book to the major book chains, ensure your book is listed in The Bookseller magazine (read by all bookshops), notify local and national press and radio, the specialist press and interested professional associations. Your book will also become available online via Amazon.co.uk and The Internet Bookshop (Troubador is an Amazon and WH Smith associate company). In addition, your book will become available through any bookshop in the UK via Teleordering.
What we (or anyone else) cannot do is guarantee sales of your book, we may be selling your book, but by the same measure, someone also has to buy! We will be as realistic about the chances of your book reaching a wider market before we agree to undertake the marketing of your book.
To find out more about Marketing, click here.
Repping, Sales and Customer Invoicing
We can act as your sales agent, taking orders and fulfilling them on your behalf. We then send you a payment every three months (minus 15% to cover our costs), and authors can check their book's sales through our website on a day-to-day basis.
Whether you are publishing your book using "print on demand" or you're printing larger numbers for wider retail sale, we can get your books out there into a crowded market so that they stand a chance of selling.
Many of our books are also represented by Star Book Sales to the books trade. Star have a team of sales reps who sell books into independent, national and online retailers on a one-to-one basis. To take advantage of this, an author needs to print at least 500 copies of a book, so that we have enough stock to actually place with the retailers. More information on having your book repped into retailers can be found in our Factsheet.
Distribution and
Warehousing
We can store bulk copies (>300 copies) of your book
for a nominal monthly charge of £20 for a two year
period following publication. Smaller quantities are
stored free of charge for a period of two years. Alternatively,
your books can be delivered in bulk direct to you. Most
authors opt to take delivery of a percentage of their
books, leaving the rest with us to sell on their behalf.
We have appointed Orca Book Services (in Poole) as our distributor, plus we also handle some distribution inhouse. We have warehouse facilities in Ipswich, where we can store bulk copies for you.
eBooks
Once we have created your print ready files for your book, we can then also publish your book as an ebook. Further information on this is available here.
Contact Us!
Contact us for an informal discussion about your book's
publication - advice is always freely given, and there's
no obligation at all.
Tel: 0116 2792299
Fax: 0116 2792277
If you have Skype you can contact us by clicking here:
