Self-publishing ,
My self-publishing story – and the lessons I’ve learned so far
By L M West
Hi, I’m Laina, and I write historical fiction as L M West. I’d been researching a woman accused of witchcraft here in Suffolk in 1645, and was just wondering what to do with everything I’d found out when lockdown hit. I’d thought of writing a leaflet for our local museum, but everything was on hold. So I thought I’d have a go at writing a novel: a childhood dream!
I was 66 years old, with no idea where to start – just a story in my head. I enrolled for two short online courses with Curtis Brown Creative, and at the same time joined Jericho Writers and watched a lot of their ‘How to’ videos. All this was invaluable, but when my first book was written, I had to decide what to do.
I’d assumed I’d take the traditional publishing route, but the more I read about that, the more I realised it was not for me. I didn’t want the pressure of deadlines, possible title changes, major editorial changes and someone else doing the cover art.
I watched all the Jericho Writers videos on self-publishing, which helped me to understand that it’s not for the faint-hearted. There is a huge amount to learn, particularly about things like layout, formatting, cover design and editing. Naively, I thought that writing a book was the hardest bit – how wrong I was!
Four years later, I have self-published four novels. The fifth is being edited at the moment. My books sell steadily, and I am very happy with my chosen path to publication. I sometimes wish I could hand the novels over to someone else and let them sort them out, but I get a huge sense of achievement and satisfaction from doing it myself.
Based on my experiences so far, here are my top tips for anyone else considering self-publishing.
Be realistic #1 – If you are not tech-savvy, it will make life harder.
You may need help, and you will have to pay for this.
Get your book professionally formatted.
You can employ people to do it for you, but I compared costs and decided to invest in Vellum. I’ve been very pleased with it. You put a Word file into it, and it sorts the layout for you. It was expensive, but I worked out that if I wrote two or more books, I’d have recouped the cost. I’m now quids in!
This is the big one…
Get a professional editorial report.
You need it, your book needs it, and your readers will thank you for it. I have used Jericho Writers editorial services for every book I’ve written, and they’ve been invaluable. It can be gutting – my first report suggested that I lose the first fifteen chapters of my novel as the action didn’t get started until chapter sixteen! I cried, threatened to give up, swore I was no good at writing, that it had all been a waste of time… but I came back to it a month later, chopped off the initial chapters as suggested, and started from there. And you know what? My editor was absolutely right! It was a much better book for it.
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By L M West
About the author
L M West lives in Suffolk with her husband. It is a watery place, full of mystery, and tales of strangeness and magic. There is a real sense of history, of time, in this place, a sense of ‘otherness’, and this is what she tries to evoke in her writing. She also believes that women’s voices, so long buried, should be heard. We need to know what our forebears thought and did, and how they were treated, because they are in us all. They are part of who we are. You can follow L M West on Facebook and Instragram for news and updates about her books.