Methods of Self-Publication?

I'd love to get some feedback from anybody experienced in the area of self-publication. I live in Xinjiang, a part of China that gets very little attention from major travel publications. Even looking around the web it's hard for those interested in visiting to get reliable historical or travel info.

I've lived here for a few years and traveled extensively throughout the region. I've decided to try to dabble in self-publishing a one-city travel guide (Kashgar) to see how it would be received. I've already begun the writing process, compiling many of my old blog posts and adding historical material, and I'm excited about where it's going.

Here's my question: What method should I use to publish this material? I'm not planning on selling it (at least at first), instead maybe offering it as a free e-book from my personal website. Has anybody worked with good e-book software or know of a better way to get something like this published?

I would also be interested to know what other travel writers think about this idea. I don't see many people do it, but I feel that's because most people live in areas that already have plenty written about them.

Any feedback is very much welcome. Thanks!

Tags: publishing, self-publishing, travel, writing

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Permalink Reply by Robert Downes on May 1, 2009 at 2:47pm

Hi Josh,

I set up my own publishing company, The Wandering Press, and self-published my book, 'Planet Backpacker,' in November.
I can only tell you that publishing a book is the easy part -- check out Dan Poynter's 'Self Publishing Manual' for the nuts and bolts of it -- he's all over the internet. THE HARD PART is distribution! It's very difficult to get bookstores interested in a self-published book, even if you have many reader accolades. Check out my site for some creative ideas on how to get the word out: www.planetbackpacker.net

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Permalink Reply by Nerd's Eye View on May 9, 2009 at 11:34am

Hi Josh,

Robert's answer is pretty good, I'll second that. I used Lulu to create my "publish on demand" book, Baked Insanity and I went on to sell a whopping, what, 16 copies, half of which were to my mom. Publishing is really easy these days, you upload a manuscript, and voila, you're done. And if you've got Acrobat, hell, you can make your own PDF, you don't need to use anything else. Even MS word saves as Microsoft's "PDF" format. Taking the production hurdles out of the loop is easy, getting your work in the hands of readers is hard.

But I'd still encourage you to go ahead. I'm reading a self published travel memoir now, the writer sent out printed review copies and someone one ended up with me. I'm on the shelf about e-book formats -- I don't have a kindle and if it's truly a book format, I still like to read print. The big question is how to find people who are going to Kashgar and how to get your work in front of them. I have no easy answers.

I don't agree with your assessment that folks don't do this because most are in places that are already covered. I think it's apparent from this forum and dozens of other places that we can't really shut up about our travels, never mind that hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe have been there before us. I write about Hawaii, man, is that place extensively covered, but hey, NOT BY ME! So naturally, I'm subject to the extreme vanity that my take on Hawaii is better/different/more readable/blah blah blah than anyone else. I think we don't do it because, like I said, publishing is easy. Distribution is hard.

Pam

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Permalink Reply by Craig Martin on June 5, 2009 at 4:49am

We invested in a professional designer to have our ebook "designed" -- after we had got to the final manuscript stage, of course.

We're selling the ebook/audiobook through our sites and going to relaunch a store (alongside a magazine and some clothing/merch) later this year. It does take time and consistent marketing effort to keep sales ticking along though.

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Permalink Reply by JoAnna Haugen on June 5, 2009 at 11:50am

Hi Josh,

I have never done any self-publishing, but I follow @thecreativepenn (http://www.thecreativepenn.com/) on Twitter and she is a wealth of information on self-publishing and e-books. If you are thinking about going this route, you may want to spend some time on her site and see what she has to say about the process.

Good luck!
JoAnna