One of the decisions which one faces as a self published author is whether to use the services of a self publishing company or, alternatively to do everything (or most things) oneself. I am currently mulling over this question. My collection of short stories, The First Time was published using the services of a self publishing company. For a little under £400 the company formatted my manuscript, sent the book to various ebook retailers and designed a book cover.
Using the services of the company relieved me of the chore of having to format the book for the various retailers which would, I imagine have taken up a considerable chunk of my time. Again I lack the necessary expertise to design a book cover. However £400 is a considerable chunk of money especially when one considers that it is possible to format your own manuscript and send it to ebook retailers completely free of charge. I am in the process of writing another book, Samantha and I’m considering doing the formatting and distribution myself this time around. I know that this will entail formatting the manuscript to comply with the requirements of the various retailers, however so far as I have been able to ascertain most distributors provide their titles in epub format and Amazon does, for example format the manuscript on the author’s behalf (this does not relieve the writer of the obligation to check for typographical errors etc prior to submitting their work).
If I go down the do-it-yourself route for Samantha I’m still left with the issue of whether to pay someone to design a cover. Amazon and other ebook retailers will provide a generic cover for your book (if you don’t supply your own) and this would mean that my book could be published free of charge. However although you should not judge a book by it’s cover the fact is that an eye catching cover can assist in attracting the attention of purchasers so, on this basis I may pay for the design of a cover.
I would be interested to hear your views.
K Morris - Poet 
Reblogged this on Self Publishing.
Many thanks for reblogging this post
This package does seem a little high for what you get.
Re your question about getting a cover done for your next book.
I do strongly suggest looking into books that are similar to yours and seeing what kinds of covers they have, then looking to get something with a similar “look” as the rest of the genre. This is important because people *do* judge books by their covers, often in unconscious ways. When you see a book with flowing script, a woman and a man locked in embrace, and long flowing clothing and hair, most people know it’s historical romance. A solitary woman gazing off into the water as she stands on a beach, her hair blowing in the wind, signals women’s fiction. And so on. Readers who like/don’t like those books will be unconsciously sorting the books they see on Amazon etc. based on these semi-conscious indicators that are built into the cover.
Once the book is written, getting it formatted and uploaded for the e-tailers is the work of an evening or two. The real challenge is connecting with the people who might read the kind of book you have written. And for that, you need to understand 1) what kind of book you’ve written and 2) what other books in the same genre look like. That’s part of why I go with cover artists and budget for that–because the cover actually tells a potential reader a lot about the kind of book it is. They usually ask for guidelines as to what kind of cover you want. I try to be very specific, and have been happy with the results (the covers are on my blog, so if you pop back there, you’ll see what I mean by different looks for different genres. The silhouette cutouts covers are for a single story and a story anthology of post-apocalyptic sf.f; the covers with the women in high-waisted gowns are Regency era historical novels [same period as Jane Austen]; the cover with the flames and the woman is historical fantasy…).
Good luck with your endeavour!
Kat, many thanks for your comments and your helpful suggestions. I’ll certainly check out the covers on your site. Kind regards, Kevin
Upon self-publishing, it’s a self-generated hype machine that gets it sold, right? Or did they help you out at all with publicity? I’ve always wanted to self-publish but haven’t got anything of great length finished just yet and I worry about its reach unless you go for the high end premium. So for the £400, what have you been given?
Thanks for your comment. For £400 I got my book formatted, the book sent to up to 200 ebook retailers and a cover designed. I had the option to pay extra for proof reading and the production of a press release, however I chose not to pay for either of these. Next time around I may well do it myself, however I will, almost certainly pay for the design of a book cover as I don’t possess the ability to design one myself. Good luck with your writing. I look forward to seeing your published book.