5/24/2023 0 Comments Publish free ebookFind at least two or three covers that you like, and write fifty to a hundred words explaining why these covers look good to you. Some authors are able to put together their own cover designs using tools such as Canva, but since your cover is often the number-one marketing tool for your book, hiring a professional designer is wise.īefore you hire a cover designer, I recommend doing some research and studying bestselling books similar to your own in genre, theme, or audience. Designĭepending on your project, you’ll have several stages of book design.įront cover design. While the manuscript is being copyedited, you can begin on the cover design. Authors should give themselves at least a week, if not two, to review and make changes after the copyedit is returned. While much depends on what level of editing your manuscript has already undergone, for most authors, I recommend seeking a formal copyedit: you send the manuscript to a professional freelance copyeditor, who will focus on style, grammar, and consistency issues-and might possibly do light fact-checking if needed (very useful for nonfiction).Ī typical copyedit for an 80,000-word manuscript takes two weeks, but good copyeditors usually need to be booked a month (or more) in advance. My checklist begins at the point where you have a reasonably final manuscript that does not require higher level editing or significant revision. This process can be broken down into roughly three stages: My goal is to help you understand some of the assumptions I’ve made about the publishing process (which follows a traditional model), as well as where you can save time and expense. I’ve created both a downloadable PDF handout and an interactive worksheet that you can customize for your book project.īelow I detail the distinct stages of the editorial, production, and sales/distribution process. Whether you’re completely new to the publishing process or an old pro, it can be helpful to have a to-do list to guide your self-publishing project to completion, to ensure you don’t miss any important steps, and also to help you plan well enough to hit your target pub date.
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