This is my story of self-publishing but I did not achieve the result, an official publication, without the help of many individuals. I am forever grateful to those whom I reached out to for guidance in generously sharing their experiences.
Do something.
After receiving encouragement to “do something” with a collection of poetry I had written as a result of homework assignments during a course: On The Matter of Race: White People Committed to Beginning the Journey Together, Level 1, I decided to self-publish the work. An experienced Virtual Assistant (VA), I consider myself fairly savvy and enjoy fact-finding and discovery. A goal for the book was to donate a portion of the proceeds so minimizing expenses was paramount for this project.
Before beginning, I had never heard of Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com’s e-book self-publishing platform. Navigating through the KDP steps was a journey that felt like a pinball being bumped around and knocked back to the start to reset and plunge ahead to the next wicket. Hitting “publish” on both the Kindle and Paperback versions of:
Home Work A Collection of Poems Sparked by One White Woman’s Journey on the Matter of Race
in the end was like winning a bonus round!
Timeline.
Having a specific launch date in mind, amidst a chaotic household move, and other Q1 business-related activities, I pushed through the process in under three months.
Considerations.
Copyright
Format
Packaging
Photos
Pricing
Retail Sales Tax
Shipping
Resources.
I reached out to:
Authors
Beta readers
Graphic designers
Webmaster for eCommerce
Quickbooks Pro for product set up and sales
YouTube authorities on KDP
