Self-publishing Your Novel
Got a manuscript you’re ready to share with the world and keen to self-publish?
There are a lot of options out there these days, but it’s hard to know where to start. Two self-published authors – who went down two very different paths – are coming together for an informal Q&A session so you can pick their brains.
Sean Guy published physical copies of his novel Malediction: The Cursed Play. Mel A Rowe embraced the new route many authors are going down – the digital world. We had a chat with them about their different approaches.
What self-publishing format have you used and why?
SG: Malediction: The Cursed Play is primarily self-published in paperback through CDU UniPrint. I used this format because I’m a big fan of books that I can hold – which I suppose makes me a bit of an “old-school” book guy.
MR: Publishing is all about offering the reader choices. It’s why I use various e-book formats tailored for international online retailers, aggregators, libraries – including print on demand (POD) – specifically geared for the global marketplace.
What do you wish you knew before you began the self-publishing process?
SG: Having worked in a bookshop for years, I was lucky enough to have watched many people go through the self-publishing process and learned from them. There are a few things I wish I had known, particularly in regards to formatting.
MR: Marketing – 10 years earlier to self-promote as an author, twenty years before I wrote my first words... In pre-school.
Do you read more physical books or digital?
SG: I’m almost embarrassed to say that I have never read a digital book. I realise how many advantages there are to e-books but working in a bookshop (and constantly visiting libraries) I have never found any obstacles to getting print books – apart from the ever-increasing size of my home library!
MR: I’m evenly divided between both formats. E-books are convenient, instantly accessible, offering endless choices, and they’re cheaper than print. But I still love cracking open the spine on a new novel.
What are you reading at the moment?
SG: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and Black Leopard Red Wolf, the African-mythology-inspired fantasy by Marlon James.
MR: I’ve just finished Trent Denton’s stylised coming of age story, set in the 1980s gritty back-suburbs of Brisbane, Boy Swallows Universe.
