Indie Publishing: The Journey Made Easy

By Andrew Sparke

The basics of what you need to know to produce, format and independently publish a manuscript in both paperback and eBook forms

• Language: English
• Publisher: APS Publications
• Release date: Dec 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9780957621138

Andrew Sparke

A lawyer and retired local government Chief Executive, Andrew Sparke has reinvented himself as a writer and indie publisher. He owns and manages APS Publications, a vehicle for fiction, poetry, food, travel, sport, erotica, music, photography, health and spirituality, which publishes other indie authors as well as his own work. News and more information is available online at andrew.sparke.com Two novels 'Abuse, Cocaine and Soft Furnishings' and 'Copper Trance & Motorways' are available. A third entitled 'Anger Limerence & Fault Lines' is in preparation.

Book preview

OTHER BOOKS FROM APS PUBLICATIONS

(see www.andrewsparke.com)

NON-FICTION:

War Shadows (Andrew Sparke)

Bella In The Wych-Elm (Andrew Sparke)

Rear Gunner(Andrew Sparke)

Piggery Jokery In Tonga (Andrew Sparke)

Stutthof (Andrew Sparke)

Indie Publishing: The Journey Made Easy (Andrew Sparke)

Istanbul: The Visitor Essentials (Andrew Sparke)

The Strange Free-Fall Of Fred Ryland (Helen Pitt)

Tithes & Offerings (Rebirtha Hart)

Changing Lives: The Leaps and Bounds Method (Horsfall & Sparke)

Croc Curry & Oil Wells: Surviving Nigeria (Paul Dickinson)

Your Kid and Crohn’s: A Parent’s Handbook (William Sparke)

FICTION

Abuse Cocaine & Soft Furnishings (Andrew Sparke)

Copper Trance & Motorways (Andrew Sparke)

Initiation (Pete Sears)

PHOTOGRAPHICS

Istanbul In Pictures (Andrew Sparke)

Images (Andrew Sparke)

VERSE

Gutter Verse & The Baboon Concerto (Andrew Sparke)

Jottings and Scribbles (Lee Benson)

Broken English (Andrew Sparke)

Fractured Time (Andrew Sparke)

Refracted Light (Andrew Sparke)

Silent Melodies (Andrew Sparke)

Vital Nonsense (Andrew Sparke)

Failing To Be Serious (Lee Benson)

Meandering With Intent (Lee Benson)

INDIE PUBLISHING: THE JOURNEY MADE EASY

––––––––

A lawyer and retired local government Chief Executive, Andrew Sparke has reinvented himself as a writer and indie publisher. He owns and manages APS Publications, a vehicle for fiction, poetry, food, travel, sport, erotica, music, photography, health and spirituality, which publishes other indie authors as well as his own work.

More information is available online at www.andrewsparke.com

Two novels 'Abuse, Cocaine and Soft Furnishings' and 'Copper Trance & Motorways' are available. A third entitled 'Anger Limerence & Fault Lines' is in preparation.

‘Indie Publishing: The Journey Made Easy’ is a summation of the things Andrew Sparke learned having chosen to publish his first novel himself.

Indie Publishing: The Journey Made Easy

Copyright ©2013 and 2016 APS Publications

All rights reserved.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of the publisher except that brief selections may be quoted or copied without permission, provided that full credit is given.

Cover design by Laura Kiteley

APS Publications

4 Oakleigh Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY8 2JX

www.andrewsparke.com

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Why indie publishing?

How to use this guide

Kindle or hard copy?

The Kindle app

Other e-readers

Initial preparations

Setting up your imprint

Registering with Nielsen

ISBN allocation

Writing tools

Writing

Front matter

Back matter

Title

Cover art

QR coding

Editing

Test readers

Formatting for Kindle

Formatting for other e-readers

Formatting for printing

Uploading on Kindle

Uploading on Smashwords

Printing hard copies

BIC categorisation

Title notification

Deposit copies

Pricing

Marketing options

Marketing through social media

Retail outlets

Distribution

Economics

Tax issues

US Withholding Tax issues

Checklist of actions

Further reading

Preface

This book was originally written with British authors in mind. However much of the information it contains on the processes of writing and publishing is of universal application, which is why the revised version of the book you are now holding exists. So far as possible, international elements are identified as we go along and a few sections will be inapplicable, depending upon where you reside; for example US citizens should already have an IRS Taxpayer Identification Number and won’t need to worry about US Withholding Tax.

The important thing is that this book should encourage every author to finish what they are working on and then