The RD Entrepreneur Symposium

Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Be Your Own Publisher

with Arielle “Dani” Lebovitz, MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE

Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Be Your Own Publisher

Arielle “Dani” Lebovitz, MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE

Arielle “Dani” Lebovitz MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, author, and experience-based educator dedicated to Growing Adventurous Eaters® through her whole food guidebook series. She is the author of “Where Do Bananas Come From? A Book of Fruits” and “Where Does Broccoli Come From? A Book of Vegetables,” that tells the story of food from farm to fork, while encouraging STEAM activities for food exploration. Dani holds a Masters’ Degree in Health Communications as well as a certification in diabetes education and sports nutrition.

What we’ll cover:

The 12 steps to bring your book to life

Maximizing profit while minimizing fear and confusing

Additional considerations before publications

 

Highlights:

Maximize profit while minimizing fear and confusing

Quick and painless process

12 steps to bring your book to life

  1. Goals and motivation
  2. Market research
  3. Write, edit, rewrite
  4. What’s right for me
  5. Publishing options
  6. Book design
  7. Publishing imprint
  8. Book metadata
  9. Book upload
  10. Copyright
  11. Professionalism
  12. Marketing

 

6:04  What is your goal? (income, speaking, authority). Market research.

Write – edit – rewrite

8:27 Which form of publishing is right for me? Benefits to self publishing.

14:04 Publishing options – 2 most common: Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon) + Ingram Spark

Print on Demand: print when ordered, no inventory

16:38 Look at platforms

21:16 Book design. Canva may need specializing for certain images.

Formatting affects reader experience

Common costs associated with self publishing.

26:28 Creating a publishing imprint (displayed as “publisher”)

27:47 Book metadata – details you want someone to know about your book

10 substeps

Assigning an ISBN (don’t need for ebook) LIke a license plate for a book.Myidentifiers.com

40:12 BISAC: standard subject codes, Thema subject codes

47:00 Reviews through advanced review copies (ARC) 2-8 reviews, 50 words each

Keywords – help retailers connect your book with potential buyers, minimum 7, 10-20 recommended

Book description

55:45 Print information (trim size, color, paper, binding, cover)

1:01:00 Pricing strategically – money, copies, readers

Retail price, wholesale discount, print cost, publisher compensation

1:15:00 print release date (publication date, on sale date)

1:21:05 Copyright: authors and contributors, copyright claimant, limitation of claim

1:29:30 Additional considerations before publication date

Website domain, Amazon author’s page, Goodreads profile, send out ARC

1:31:52 Marketing (readings, samples, social media, network, ads, testimonials, vidoes)

1:32:02 Key takeaways for success

Self Publishing Worksheet

Let this fillable handout keep you organized as you gather all the details you need for self-publishing success. Once completed, you will be able to register an ISBN with ease, upload a book with all the necessary details to your printer of choice, and protect your intellectual-property by registering your book copyright with the Library of Congress. Lastly, all the helpful websites referenced in the presentation are linked on the last two pages of the document.