Guest Blog: Lessons I Learned From Publishing My First Book

Hi! My name is Katherine Wheeler. I’m a writer and a self-publisher currently selling my third book, The History Between Us, a community anthology for the charity Micro Rainbow.
 
Things have changed since I published my first book. I’ve learnt a lot through experience and feedback from readers, but back when I started I had no idea how my writing could be pitched to an audience or even produced in the first place!
 
I’m onto my third book launch this month with a publication quadruple the size of my first and five times the amount of sales from just the first day, all made using advice and lessons I picked up from others on my journey.  For that crucial first book though, I wish I had the quality I do now. Proving myself early would have set me up for success from the very start and given me the confidence to market a higher quality product.
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Don’t Use Pub​lisher

Take it from me, don’t limp through DIY-ing a layout in Microsoft Publisher. If you don’t have a designer’s eye, there are parts of page design that might be bewildering, such as how to work with margin and trim lines. This can be made even worse by not having the right software, like me in 2020 trying to wrangle 30,000 words into one long Publisher document!
 
With software such as Adobe Creative Suite now charging a per month subscription, taking on a  layout as an amateur is expensive and can cause much deadline anxiety. I’m not an Adobe expert, but resorting to Publisher? Unforgivable.

If you’re finding formatting a struggle, or don’t even know where to start with it, speak to a Rowanvale Publishing Advisor. They’ll be able to point you in the right direction, to services that would help.
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Learn How to eBook

Did you know? Retailers can reject your eBook based on the number words per page.
 
It is important to understand the value of the eBook in the post-pandemic world; if readers can’t visit a bookstore or would simply prefer the convenience of a digital title, they simply won’t take physical only publications into consideration.

Non-physical editions of my latest publication make up around 20% of sales. Since there’s a very small production cost, a larger proportion of money is left for paying other costs. At the end of sales, it also allows me to give more to charity (what would be profit in a commercial sale).
 
So, my advice to myself and to you? If you’re not confident preparing an eBook, invest in a professional to maximise your gain further down the line. There are many things a retailer will point to when rejecting your book: spacing, sizing, file specification, even its code. There are several invisible barriers to getting your eBook accepted that you may miss that an industry professional can easily fix. Rowanvale’s eBook publishing service  also comes with DRM protection, meaning you can control how others access and use your content, from sharing to printing.

​Book Smell is Real

If you’re a bookworm, one of the first things you do when you enter a bookshop is to sniff the air. Book smell is real, says Colorado Boulder University, and different print materials can conjure different scents. Either way, a good book smell is intoxicating, and it’s a sign that a good read is within reach. Putting together my books has been a series of trials and errors, and finding the right materials has been frustrating at times. I knew that my book had to look like a book and smell like one, but that if it didn’t feel like one then I would get nowhere.
 
For me, my favourite type of book is a hardback. You avoid the anxiety of spine breakage, get a sturdy body that doesn’t bend and the classic bookshop smell accompanying it. Learning how a paperback is made was a lesson I learnt from my first book, though hardbacks still escape my understanding.​ As a writer, you focus on how your words effect a reader, but the physical book is a whole sensory experience.

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There’s one easy way to get round all three things I’ve mentioned here.​ Rowanvale’s All Formats publishing package can help you take a tricky first book from manuscript to a fully manufactured eBook, paperback and hardback. As well as the expertise of professionals, the package also includes features such as ISBN assignment, database registration and Amazon Analysis that you may not have considered before. Start big and land a good first impression with your very first book.