The Making of a Book: So many decisions...
- Ashley Bodette
- Apr 17, 2016
- 2 min read
As some of you know, I'm working on publishing my first book. It's scary enough to be putting my words out into the ether for anyone to read. And I thought between all the work I've done to help others self-publish, and studying my masters in publishing, I knew all of the work that was ahead of me when I decided to publish.
But what I hadn't learned from all of that 'outsider' experience was just how many decisions there were to be made when you are doing everything by yourself.
For example, the other day I went to the CreateSpace website and registered my account. First they ask you for your title information. No problem, I already know the title of my book, I know my name, I know my editor's name, it's not a part of a series, and it's in English. Woohoo.
But then I came to the next page: ISBN. I thought this was pretty self-explanatory...until I realized that I had to decide if I wanted a free ISBN through CreateSpace, which would then have CreateSpace as its imprint, or purchase an individual ISBN and put it under my own imprint. At first glance, this doesn't seem like such a big deal, but when I started asking around about what other people did, I realized this decision could have some repercussions later if I didn't make the right decision for me. Like if I go with the first option, I don't have to pay for my ISBN (yay!). But if I ever want to see my book on library shelves, having it listed under the CreateSpace imprint could be a problem. Then I look at the second option and think, "Okay, the individual ISBN only costs $10. I just have to pick a name for my imprint." Except that means I HAVE TO PICK A NAME. I wasn't sure if I should just name my imprint with my own name, or something else. And if it was something else, what?
Luckily I have lots of people willing to answer my noob questions, and decided to buy the ISBN, and create my own imprint name, which is NOT my own name. Based on what my first book is about, with a tiny play on my own name as well as one of my main character's names, I decided to go with From the Ashes Press. I also figure this gives me an imprint name that works if I ever decided to co-author something, or be a part of an anthology that I help put together, or help someone else to publish their books in a big way.
Anyway, I have a lot more decisions ahead of me, and I promise to share my experiences as I go in the hopes that maybe it will help someone else.
