Self PublishingWriting a Book

How to Self-Publish Your Book: An Overview by Bookmundo

So, you’ve started thinking about how to go about becoming a published author? Or perhaps you’ve got a manuscript finished, and have already decided that you want to self-publish your book? Either way, good for you! Writing and publishing a book is one of the most challenging and fulfilling activities we as humans can undertake. In other words, you’re in for quite the adventure, and we’re going to do what we can to help you along the way.

Becoming a published author has never been easier than it is today. In this blog post, we’ll be talking about how to self-publish a book. Where do you start? What does the process look like? How do you decide what to charge for your book? These are the things we’re going to cover (pun intended). First, we’ll set about introducing self-publishing and presenting its core characteristics. Then, we discuss whether self-publishing is suitable for everyone or not. Finally, we’ll go into more detail about the process of self-publishing your book on Bookmundo.

What is Self-Publishing?

Self-publishing is the process of publishing your own book without the involvement of an established publisher (such as Penguin Random House or HarperCollins). Until recently, the only way for you as an author to get published was to hire a literary agent to pitch your books to publishers and hope for an offer. If you did manage to get a publishing contract, it would unfortunately also mean relinquishing some of your own control, creative freedom, and most of your profits to the publisher. Today, the publishing landscape is a bit more varied, thanks to the rise of self-publishing.

Self-publishing platforms like Bookmundo allow you to publish your book in different formats (paperback, hardback, and eBook) without an agent or any other up-front costs. Yes, you did read that right – self-publishing your book can be completely free. For instance, at Bookmundo, we don’t charge anything for publishing your book and selling it via your own website or social media. We only charge a small commission for each book sold – in other words, we don’t make money if you don’t. Now you might be thinking that this sounds like a very unsustainable business model – but it’s actually not. The reason for this is that we work primarily by offering our authors the Print on Demand (POD) option. This means we only print as many copies of your book as you sell – meaning there’s no need to invest in printing lots of stock.

Another intriguing aspect of self-publishing is that authors are free to determine the sales price of their own book. Although Bookmundo charges a small commission fee on each book sold, the author keeps most of the profit and can tailor their margins to their liking. Moreover, the author keeps the rights to the book and is not bound to keep the book on the platform. In other words, should your book become a worldwide bestseller, you’re free to sell the rights to someone else if you wish. Of course, we’d love for you to stay, but the entire philosophy behind our platform is that of creative freedom.

To summarize, the core characteristics of self-publishing are:

–       No agent is required.

–       The author has full control over the publishing process.

–       While the author bears the initial costs, he/she also keeps all future profits.

–       The author retains the rights to the book.

–       The author is responsible for all marketing activities.

Is Self-Publishing for Everyone?

Although self-publishing platforms like Bookmundo are available to anyone who has written a book and wants to get it published, self-publishing is not for everyone.

Self-publishing requires authors to do most of the work on their book. As an author, you’ll be responsible for writing and editing your own book, designing the cover, and marketing it to your readers. It’s a lot of work, to be sure, but it also means total control over the end product. If you’re confident that you can do it all by yourself, then self-publishing might just be the best choice for you! The aforementioned activities can actually prove to be fun and engaging challenges in their own right, and might just let you develop some new skill sets. It’s also very common for self-published authors to hire their own editors, illustrators, and marketers. It all depends on whether you see yourself as a writer, an ‘authorpreneur’, or something in between.

Of course, you might not be in it for the money. Many people simply want to see their book printed, and maybe give out a few copies to their friends and family. Naturally, we can accommodate this as well; you can print a single copy of your book if you want!

How to Self-Publish Your Book on Bookmundo?

Self-publishing your book with our online self-publishing platform is simple, and unless you choose to purchase an ISBN for your book, it’s also completely free. After creating an account, you’re only 7 simple steps away from publishing your own book. These steps are the following:

1. Basic setup:


First of all, you’ll need to decide on the format of your book (you can choose between paperback, hardcover, and eBook formats), its size, the cover finish (matte or gloss), the type of paper used, and whether the book will be in black & white or full colour. Most of these options have an effect on the final cost of printing your book.

2. ISBN:


The second step is an optional one, in which you can choose to purchase an ISBN. This is not needed to self-publish a book and sell it on Bookmundo and/or via your own site, but it is required if you want to sell it via retail channels such as Amazon, Kindle, Kobo, and Apple Books.

3. Upload manuscript:


Thirdly, you’ll be uploading your manuscript in .doc, PDF, or ePub format. The Bookmundo platform will then take care of the conversion of the file into a printable document. We’ll then send it to our professional printers to be produced. A digital proof copy of the book will be available to download for free. In short, we take care of all the technical stuff, so you can spend more time writing

4. Publication info:

In the next step, you’ll need to fill in all the information about your book. This includes its subject matter, the genre, relevant keywords, the date of publication, and a synopsis. This makes it easier for people to find your book, wherever you choose to put it up for sale.

5. Design or upload the book cover:

The age-old idiom warning us not to judge a book by its cover is widespread, but let’s face it – we do exactly that. Therefore, you should put some real effort into creating a good cover for your book in order to make as good a first impression as possible. You can either design the book cover yourself using the free design tool provided by Bookmundo, or upload a custom design. We’ve also written an article on book cover design for self-publishers which you should definitely check out!

6. Pricing:

This is an important step, which may require some research beforehand. The higher the price of the book, the higher the margin for the author. However, you also don’t want to scare off potential customers with a price tag that’s too hefty. Simultaneously, you should take care not to set an excessively low price for your book. This might cause customers to perceive the book as being of low quality, leading them to spend their hard-earned money elsewhere. Hence, it can be beneficial to check out books similar to yours and see what they’re going for.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the sale of a book is accompanied by certain fixed costs. These include book printing and shipping fees, which go to various third parties. Naturally, this also means that you’ll see a substantially higher margin on Ebook sales, as they don’t need to be printed or shipped. Use our price calculator to get an estimate of the total printing costs and your final margin before starting the publishing process.

Sales Channels

One last thing to be aware of in this step of the process is the sales channels. As you can see when consulting the aforementioned price calculator, there are several different sales channels available. If you’re making a print book, you can choose to sell it on Amazon and/or in the Bookmundo store, whereas you can sell ebooks in the Kindle or Bookmundo stores, as well as on Apple and Google books. In addition, you can buy and print your own books to sell them directly to your customers in person.

Furthermore, the price calculator will show you your profit margin for each of these different sales channels. You’ll notice that your margins will be significantly higher in the Bookmundo store. This is due to the fact that all third-party retailers will claim part of the profits for using their platform to sell your books, meaning that the money will be split three ways instead of two. However, the vastly increased reach and exposure that comes with huge retailers like Amazon can make this a compromise worth making.

We recommend making your book available through all the available sales channels, to maximize potential sales. However, it’s also worth considering where you want to encourage your sales and create an appropriate strategy to do so. In the end, you’re going to be the main driving force when it comes to making people buy your book. Recognizable names like Amazon can help cement your legitimacy as an author, which you can then use to encourage people to buy your book in the Bookmundo store, where you’ll be making more per sold copy.

7. Final check and publishing:


This is the final step in the process of self-publishing a book on Bookmundo. This is your last chance to review all the files and information you’ve uploaded. Make sure everything is correct because what you see here will be used on the back cover and in our webshop.

So what next?

Once you’ve gone through these steps, your book will be published and ready for sale! Regardless of your ultimate goals, take a moment to give yourself some credit for putting your thoughts on paper and making them publicly available. That kind of creativity takes guts. This marks the beginning of a different challenge – spreading the word. Our modern age is filled to the brim with distractions, so you have to continuously guide readers to your work. It’s not going to happen overnight – it’s a process more akin to a marathon than a sprint. Stick with it, keep telling people about your book, and stay tuned for more articles on this particular topic.

In this article, we’ve attempted to give you an overview of what it means to self-publish your book on Bookmundo. Hopefully, it has given you a better idea of what to expect when moving forward with your writing ambitions. Make sure to check out our article on writing a manuscript for more detailed tips to help you along!

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