The Wonderful World of Self-Publishing

Thanks to some amazing and supportive friends, I've officially entered the realm of self publishing. I say officially, because I got my ISBN number and bar code this week, so that must make it real!

My book is called The 100% Factor: Living Your Capacity and I'll fill you in on the progress as I go along. I'll also give you a snippet of the book in the next post so you can start spreading the word for me. Watch for the website as soon as the cover is designed, too!

If it weren't for the fabulous help and support from Maryanna Young, one of the masterminds behind Don't Miss Your Boat, the book which I co-authored, I would never have taken this leap.

If you're at all interested in becoming an author, you need to check out Maryanna's latest project: Blank to Book: From Idea to Amazon in 150 Days. It was through this resource, as well as another book she gave me called The Publishing Game, that I was able to even consider getting my own idea into an actual book.

So here's where it stands right now: I've got most of the manuscript completed (will be meeting with one of my readers/editors this afternoon), have sent it to a couple of people to ask for their endorsement (I'll let you know how that goes), I've got the domain name reserved, the cover and inside are being designed even as I write this, and I've sent the specs out for printing bids, and am just waiting for all of them to come back.

Speaking of printing bids, Maryanna also turned me on to Printellectual where I was able to submit the specs one time and am supposed to receive 16 bids. So far I've gotten 4 back, and they're all pretty consistent.

Phil Gerbyshak also told me about a couple of other options for self-publishing, including Dog Ear and Lulu. Lulu is great if you're just planning on printing a couple of books. The cool thing about Lulu is that you send people to their website to purchase your book and they print and ship it for you. They keep 20% and you keep 80%. It might be an option if my book becomes wildly successful ... but of course by then I'll have a publisher seek me out, right? :)

Stay tuned for further updates!