Whoops, when I posted the OpenOffice Tutorial on formatting text, I forgot to link to the text file and the finished pdf. I’ve fixed those links now.
You know how your book is #2,345,654 in Books?
You’ve seen how a lot of books are ranked for something more specific?
Do you want yours to rank for categories other than “Books”? Are you pretty sure you’d be topping the fiction > horror > supernatural > pirate > romance category, if only your book was listed there?
You have two options.
1. Be incredibly popular. Someone at Amazon will sort your book.
2. Ask nicely. When trying to figure out how to do this for my novel, I contacted Amazon Author Central. So the first thing is to get an Amazon Author Central account. After that, just follow the instructions they sent me. (pasted below)
Hello,
The “Browse Subjects” feature is designed to find the best-selling titles in a particular subject area. If you’d like to update the Browse Category for your title, please take a moment to search through the “Browse Subjects” section of our Books store. Click on each main category to see a list of sub-categories. Clicking on one of the sub-categories will bring you another sub-category list and so on.
The browse categories you choose must relate to your title. For instance, if the item in question is a book, only those browse categories that are related to books can be assigned to it. It is not possible to select browse categories related to Office Products for your book.
Once you’ve identified one or two “browse paths” appropriate to your book, write back to us by clicking the link below. In your e-mail, include the ISBN of the book, as well as your desired browse categories.
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us
We can’t currently add new categories to our browsing lists, but feel free to check back from time to time. These classifications do expand and change as our bookstore grows.
The browse paths will appear on the book’s catalog page once they’ve been assigned. Your title will only appear on the “Browse Subjects” bestseller lists if it is one of the top sellers in that particular category.
Pretty easy stuff, huh? Of course, things won’t get changed overnight, but they’ll get to it.
At some point before you publish, you are going to need to write a book. The writing of the book is not the focus of this site, so I will defer this instruction to more capable hands.
For Fiction
Online
Here are a few of the online articles that have made the biggest difference in my fiction writing.
Randy Ingermanson -
- Writing the Perfect Scene – online article
- The Snowflake Method of Writing a Novel – online article
Jim Butcher -
- Introduction
- Story Craft
- Conflict, Logical Response and Point of View
- Story Skeletons
- Characters
- The Great Swampy Middle
- Scenes
- Sequels
- Story Climax
- Putting It all Together
Larry Brooks – story structure series.
- Story Structure — Just Possibly the Holy Grail of Storytelling
- Story Structure Series: #1 — Introducing the Four Parts of Story
- Story Structure Series: #2 – Milestones Along the 4-Part Storytelling Road
- Story Structure Series: #3 – Five Missions for the Set-up (Part 1) of Your Story
- Story Structure Series: #4 – The Most Important Moment in Your Story: The First Plot Point
- Story Structure Series: #5 — Part 2 of Your Story… The Response
- Story Structure Series: #6 — Wrapping Your Head Around the Mid-Point Milestone
- Story Structure Series: #7… the Part 3 Attack
- Story Structure Series: #8 – The Second Plot Point
- Story Structure Series: #9 – Pinch Points
- Story Structure Series: #10 — Part 4… the Final Act
- Story Structure Series: Epilogue… the Fine Print
- The Single Most Powerful Writing Tool You’ll Ever See That Fits On One Page
Books on Writing Fiction
Characters and Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card
Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight V. Swain
Non-Fiction
Actually, I’d still suggest a variation on snowflake method. Other than that, I don’t really have any advice yet.
This tutorial will cover using OpenOffice.org to produce a pdf of your book interior. You’ll be able to take that pdf (depending on the page size you choose) and upload it to places like CreateSpace, Lulu, or UniBook.
Why?
Most of the self published books I’ve read look completely unprofessional on the inside. No headers, bizarre margins, and funky spacing are not only common, but seem to be the standard. Fortunately, it’s easy to format things in a way so that it doesn’t detract from your work. Yes, you may get a little extra something if you pay the $10 a page (or $500 flat rate) some people charge. However, You can do pretty well by yourself with free tools.
The Plan
We are going to take a plain text file (this short story by Mark Twain) and turn it into this pdf. Of course you can use your own work. This method is by no means the only way to do this, and you’re pretty flexible as far as fonts/sizes go. We won’t be working with graphics for this tutorial, but it’s not that hard.
Before We Start
If you want to follow along with this tutorial, you need to go download and install OpenOffice.org.
Here we go.
Part 1 – set up the file
Part 2 – insert the text
Part 3 – export/upload/profit
Conclusion
Pretty easy, huh? If you have any questions or comments, just leave a comment below.
Here’s a list of places where you can get an author page, as well as a listing for your book(s). Getting yourself into as many databases as possible can be a good way to make yourself findable. I may eventually put descriptions and/or instructions for each of these places on the list, but in general it is very easy as long as you look around the site and can follow directions. Always make sure to link back to your website, your book’s website, and to where people can buy your work. I believe that you can list yoursef and books for free on all the listed sites.
- FiledBy.com – Just click on the “authors” link at the top to get started. Here’s my author page so you can see what one looks like. I’m just a free member there.
- GoodReads.com – It’s like facebook, but for books and reading only. Here’s my GoodReads page.
- LibraryThing.com
- AuthorsDen.com
- Nothing Binding
If you know of any other place to list yourself or your book for free, please let me know in the comments.
I’d suggest getting just a couple of business ducks in a row before you put your work on the market.
1. Legal organization
You have several choices here. Also, I am not a tax attorney, so don’t go acting like I am.
Your Name – You just do everything as yourself. Checks get made out to you, you deposit them in your account, you include payments you receive on your personal taxes.
Your Name Here, incorporated. – You can incorporate and get an “inc” after your name. This removes risk from you personally. You do have to be wary of double taxation, meaning your corporation pays income taxes, and then you pay income taxes on the money your corporation gives you. There’s plenty of info on the web about incorporating a business.
DBA - This is just like using your personal name for tax purposes – everything goes on your personal return. Only with a DBA, you get to pick another name that folks can write checks to, like “Best Books Ever”.
LLC - This is how I structure my writing business. It’s a good way to form a company without the rigamarole of forming a corporation. If you are the only member of an LLC, the taxes are pretty easy, too, as the LLC doesn’t get taxed, all the income just passes through to you personally. You register your LLC with your state, and your state divition of business or commerce or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods probably have detailed instructions on how to do this. For example, my state does.
Having a legitimate LLC or Corporation will most likely allow you to actually deduct stuff that furthers your writing carrier. If you advertise your book on your car, you may be able to deduct it. If you have a computer that you use to do all your writing, you may be able to deduct it. Again, I’m not a tax attorney, so you should consult one or do your own research before attempting to deduct stuff.
You can find lots more information on the Small Business Administration website.
2. EIN
This is a number similar to your personal social security number. You’ll need one if you will be receiving payments sent to your LLC or corporation. This is free and easy to get. You just ask the IRS for one, and they give it to you. You will need some info that you received while setting up your LLC or corporation. I did this via phone and got my LLC’s EIN immediately.
3. Banking
Unless you are already an accounting wizard, you should get a separate banking account your your writing/self publishing transactions. You’ll have to get a separate account if you’ve organized a formal business (LLC or inc) You’ll need your EIN to set up a business account. Shop around and find yourself a free account for now. You don’t need bells and whistles, you just need a place to stick money.
You’ll probably want a business Paypal, account, too. You’ll need your EIN, and banking information for the business bank account you just set up.
4. Accounting
Get a software package and keep track of the royalties that will be pouring in. Quickbooks is a great way to go if you’ve had any accounting or bookkeeping experience. Quicken has a version for small businesses that is a little easier to use. There’s also plenty of free accounting software out there you can check out.
Once you’ve got that stuff set up, you’re ready to dig in and get self-publishing.
I’ve got some templates you may use with OpenOffice.org. Feel free to use these, modify these, pass them along, whatever. If you find them useful, of course I’d appreciate a link, but it’s not necessary.
- Cram – cram example pdf
- Dexter – dexter example pdf
- Modern – modern example pdf
- Textbook – textbook example pdf
Download OpenOffice.org Book Templates – zip file containing all the templates (.odt format)
Here how to use them.
- Download OpenOffice.org (it’s free, but a large download) and just open up and take a look at the templates.
- Pick the one you like best, and replace The book title, author, and copyright information.
- If you use the template with the Table of contents, you don’t need to mess with it, you can automatically generate it when you’re done by right clicking on the table and selecting ‘Update Index/Table’ .
- Chapter by chapter add the text. Every time you insert a chapter, use Insert>manual break>page break then click ok.
- Select the text that is the name or number of the chapter (whatever the author uses) and then in the little box in the upper left hand corner, change the selection from “Text Body” or “default Text” to “Heading 1″.
- Insert any images.
- Export to a pdf.
- Upload to the self-publishing site of your choice.
Note: If you ever have a problem formatting a piece of text (like the url on the copyright page) select the text, then go here:
And select “Clear formatting” and then reformat that portion of text.
Here are some of the companies you could use to self publish your book.
Distribution/Sales Reach: product sales page + book goes on Amazon.
Cost: You have to pay for a proof copy to be printed and shipped to you. You can also pay $39 to upgrade to the PRO plan, which means printing costs go down a little for you. If you sell more than about 20 copies or so (depending on the number of pages in your book), it works out in your favor to upgrade.
What you have to do: Layout your own text. You can design your own cover, or you can use their cover designer.
Notes: See my article CreateSpace vs. Lulu
Distribution: Inclusion in the Lulu online store. You can pay a fee to get more distribution: Amazon.com
Cost: Free to get your book ready to be ordered. You pay more to get the various distribution channels.
What you have to do: Layout your text. You have the option of designing your cover from scratch, or using their online cover designer thing.
Notes: Bulk pricing is generally not as good as getting a print run done with a standard offset printer. See my article CreateSpace vs. Lulu
Distribution/Sales Reach: Unibook.com online bookstore. I couldn’t find any other distribution options.
Cost: Free to set up your book.
What you have to do: Layout text, front cover.
Notes: Great pricing for printing hardcovers. It’s a little restrictive as far as book cover design goes, also, you don’t get an author discount when you purchase copes. If it is possible, I couldn’t find out how. Of course you still end up getting paid your royalty on the sale. I yhink it would be easier for the author to take the discount on the front end. See my UniBook review.
Lightning Source – If you want go all the way and become a publisher, then you can use lightning source to print your books POD.
BookSurge – CreateSpace’s big brother.
What other companies should I add to this list? Is there a good review I can link to? Is there a review you’d like to post here?
There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself before you start down the road of self-publishing.
Why Do You Want To Self Publish?
Are you looking for a way to start a writing career? Are you just looking to get a few copies of your memoir for friends and family? You need to nail down your purpose for self publishing. This is generally pretty easy to do, and it will help guide the rest of your decisions.
How Much Are You Willing To Do Yourself?
- Editing. Do you want to take on all the responsibility for making sure your work has no grammatical errors, that it is coherent, and that it reads well? Can you recruit a few friends to read through your book to look for errors? Would you be better off paying a couple hundred dollars for a professional editor?
- Cover Design. Are you artistically inclined? Are you good at learning software by following tutorials on the internet? How intricate of a cover does your work need?
- Text Layout. How complicated is the layout going to be for your text? Are you willing to spend $5-$10 a page to get your work laid out exactly the way you want? Can you learn to use free tools to do it yourself? For novels, the layout is usually simple, for non-fiction how to books, it can get complicated. I’ll be honest, I’m of the opinion that if you’ve got a novel and you’re wanting to self publish your book, you can lay it out very easily.
- Marketing. How much time are you willing to spend marketing your book? Can you produce or can you learn to produce graphics or videos to promote your book?
Do You Want A Large Print Run or POD?
If you find a printing house or self publishing company that does large runs (say 1000+ copies), you can bring the cost per copy of your book way, way down. Of course, because you’ll be buying in bulk, you’ll still need to come up with a big chink of cash right from the get go. And then you’ll have to bother with warehousing, shipping, billing, and distributing. There are some services that can help you with each of those steps. For example , the Amazon Advantage program allows you to send copies to their warehouse and then they list, sell and ship your book to customers.
With POD publishing, you usually don’t have to come up with any money to publish, except maybe a pittance to print a proof copy. The cost to produce one copy of your book will always be greater, though. The good news is that production costs come out of the book sale, so you never have to come up with the money yourself (unless you’re buying copies for your friends.)
What Self-Publishing Company Should You Use?
There are pros and cons to using any Self Publishing company. Once you know what amount of work you are willing to do, though, it makes your choice a little easier. You just check out a bunch of companies, and then pick the one that works best for you.
I reviewed two of the larger POD companies a while ago on my blog. Choosing a “free” POD publisher: Lulu vs Createspace
Directory of Self Publishing Companies
Should You Get Your Own ISBN?
An ISBN is a unique number that identifies your book. If you are publishing via createspace or lulu, they can assign one to your book. However, if they assign the number, they own it. You can’t take that number with you if you move to a different publishing company. This may or may not be a big deal to you. For my first novel, I didn’t care. For my next books, I think I may buy my own ISBNs.
For more information about ISBNs, you can read this Wikipedia article: ISBN
If you want to buy ISBNs and you are in the U.S. you need to go to the US ISBN Agency.
Just a note – when you buy ISBNs, they will generally try to sell you generated barcodes for your images. There is a free online generator that you can try though. ISBN Barcode Generator