Let’s Get Digital: How to Self-Publish, And Why You Should is a new book by David Gaughran that describes and documents the processes any writer, be they old or new, needs to know to become a self-published phenomenon. The book is divided into three sections, each dealing with a different aspect of self-publishing, including: Digital Revolution, Digital Self-publishing, and Success Stories, then ends with some additional topics to completely round out the informational package.
In Digital Revolution, the author does a fine job of walking readers through the major forces driving publishing into the digital age with e-books and why you, as a writer should consider it when it comes time to releasing your own work. If you’re been following any site where conversations about self-publishing are going on, then none of the topics will be new to you. However, seeing them in one place certainly provides the new writer with all the information on the new digital publishing world for them to make a decision. David doesn’t recommend any particular solution, leaving that up to you, but he does emphasize, as do many others that you should do what’s best for you at the time. What’s best for you will certainly change over time as the industry is far from settled yet; so being flexible is one of the major traits to practice.
In Digital Self-publishing, you’re walked though a series of reproducible steps that anyone can use to get their work into digital bookstores. Each section provides a high-level goal that writers will need to address at some point in order to turn their writing efforts into a successful product. David emphasizes writing the best story you can, designing great covers, editing, formatting, pricing, publicizing, handling reviews, and other means of getting the word out there to make your book just as professional and successful as possible. As the market is changing so fast, providing hard and fast rules that might be outdated in a few months would make no sense, but if you can follow the general principles outlined in these chapters you’ll be one step ahead of the game.
Next up are the Success Stories, 33 authors who’d entered the digital battlefield and done well, including Consuelo Saah Baehr, Terri Reid, N. Gemini Sasson, Katie Klein, and many more. Written in their own words it’s a nice cross-section of stories that show how anyone of courage, some business sense, and a desire to publish their work can triumph in online ebook sales. I found this to be the best section of the book, simply because it had real authors with great stories about how they came to self-publishing. Most simply couldn’t get their work to the public via the big publisher route through no fault of their own. Instead, most came hesitantly into self-publishing and have done better than they ever imagined, in the positive feedback from thousands of new readers, to monetary, and critical success. To know so many have successfully followed the self-publishing path is encouraging and inspirational.
The author also ends with some advice on the resurgence of short stories for busy readers, accessing the international market with your work, some practical considerations to keep in mind like copyrights, foreign sales, and a host of resource links to aid you in finding help on your way to self-publishing success, from editing, to covers, to publicizing, to well, almost anything a writer may need help with.
If you’re a new writer, or an old writer looking into this new fangled self-publishing thing, having all this information in one place can save you hours of web surfing time. One thing I hope David addresses is simply to add or update the information in this guide as new information becomes available. The publishing industry is changing and the processes and methods that work today may not tomorrow. Also, be sure to check out David’s blog where he covers the changing self-publishing landscape often and in detail.
