Complete Guide to Self Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote, and Sell Your Own Book (Self-Publishing 4th Edition) (Paperback)

by Tom Ross (Author), Marilyn Ross (Author) "Self-publishingthe act of privately producing and marketing your own work is an American tradition as old as the thirteen colonies..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, United States, Publishers Weekly (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Self-publishing," say authors Tom and Marilyn Ross, "is a perfect example of the American dream." The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, then, is an aspiring self-publisher's dream. "This isn't a book of fancy theory," as the authors put it; "it's a practical handbook of state-of-the-art specifics." In 521 pages, it lays out everything you need to know to publish your own books, from start-up considerations to the possibility of selling to a big publisher: how to choose a name for your press, how to get an ISBN, what cover designs cost, how to find a reliable printer, how to price your book, where to find lighter-weight shipping envelopes, how to generate working capital. The authors' encyclopedic grasp of the ins and outs of self-publishing is matched by their natural good sense about self-promotion. Turn your signings into events, they recommend; get your books into a variety of venues; use the books as fundraisers for organizations; get online and get reviewed online. The price of this book is negligible considering the cost of proper self-publishing (between $12,000 and $25,000), and, oh, the headaches it will spare you! --Jane Steinberg

Review
"The most readable guide to self-publishing … loaded with resources for e-publishing, on-demand publishing, ... What a great resource!” -- John Kremer, author, 1,001 Ways to Market Your Books

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Product Details

• Paperback: 521 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; 4 edition (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582970912
• ISBN-13: 978-1582970912
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #91,948 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice beginning book, but needs more., September 1, 2003

By	Robert H. Westerman "Skypacer" (Sunman, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I first saw the title of this book, I thought the subject matter had to do with publishing your book through a POD publisher or a vanity press. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a basic instruction book on how to become your own publisher and the cost-effective means of publishing your book. (In fact, Tom & Marilyn Ross devote only a few pages to PODs and vanity presses, saying that if you are looking to sell your book to the general public, these options may not be the best choices.)

This book takes you from the beginning of setting up your own publishing business (which is needed even if you plan on publishing only you own works), the different requirements for publishing a book (like obtaining an ISBN and EAN as well as copyright and Library of Congress registration), finding and selecting a book printer, how to go about distributing you books (which you can do yourself or by going through traditional distributers), and even how to market your book.

While a good starter book that whets you appitite about the book publishing industry, it falls far short of providing you everything that you need to know in order to do this properly. The authors constantly make reference to the Literary Market Place; a book that, while it is available here on Amazon, comes with a hefty ($) price tag. And while they do provide some inforamative lists, they admit that the lists is not complete and refer you back to the LMP.

The book does discuss e-publishing, but only in a scratching-the-surface kind of way. I had to look at other areas to find the information about e-publishing only to discover that I may not want to bother with that at this time.

The most disappointing aspect of the book that I found was that most of it (about 70%) is dedicated to trade or self-help publishing. If the book you are planning to publish is a fictional novel, this is going to be of little help to you. When I realized that a topic being discussed was geared for trade publications, I just skipped the topic to save me time.

To summarize, this is a great book if you are a beginner and want to explore the publishing world. It's even a great book if you are planning to publish a trade publication. However, I would recommend that if you have any knowledge or if you are seriously pursuing self-publishing you may want to look at other books in this topic to supplement this one, especially if you are planing on publishing works of fictions.

As of January 29, 2004: I had previously rated this book at three stars. After reading a number of other books, I have since upgraded this to 4 stars. The reason for this is that this book has been more complete compared to the other books that I have read, plus Tom and Marilyn Ross continue to provide assistance to others online. I am still withholding a star because I think they should have addressed fictional works as much as they did trade books.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overrated, July 21, 2004

By	Thomas Reiter (Washington DC, DC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Given the solid-five star rating in the Amazon reviews, I expected this book to be a real gem. Instead, while this book has some helpful tips, much of the book is composed of:
-common sense advice;
-self-promotion by the authors, including references to other books or organizations affiliated with the authors;
-no-brainers such as "use the internet for research", "try a search engine called 'Google'", etc.; and
-home-spun "witticisms" or "words of wisdom" in the form of quotes from various authors & publishers.

To wrap up, this book is decent, and probably worth the money and time to buy it and read it, but you need to wade through a bunch of verbiage to find the parts that are interesting and relevant to you.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone considering self-publishing!, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book (3rd edition) (Hardcover)

I've just self-published my first book, Why Struggle? life istoo short to wear tight shoes. I would never have considered thisoption if I didn't this treasure of a book to reference. My favorite section is the outline in the back of the book that details what to do in each phase of the process. Tom and Marilyn have created an amazing book that covers everything imaginable for self-publishers. I've only implemented some of their suggestions and I've sold over 300 books in less that two months. Because of this book,my dream has because a reality and it wasn't a painful process.