Published Today: How to Publish an Indie Book: An Asymmetrical Guide
Shawn MihalikWe started Asymmetrical with a few guiding principles in mind.
The first was that we wanted to build a company that kept authors in control. They take the majority of the profits from their work, they have final cut on editing, covers, and anything else that has their name on it, and they are also in control of (and responsible for) the growth of their audience, platforms, and brand.
The second was that we wanted to be able to experiment within the publishing space and see what we could push or bend, and what we could change completely. We’ve been able to dabble in this area so far—especially in ensuring our authors are able to be multidisciplinarians with their craft, while still improving their mastery over a core focus—and have engaged in a multitude of small experiments thus far, with slightly larger ones just over the horizon.
And finally, we wanted to build a company that would sustain itself as a business, but also allow us to invest in the publishing community as a whole. This was a tricky principle to fulfill, but we’ve built a decent-sized (and thriving) Community of publishers and authors, which has proven to be a hot-bed for ideas and inspiration as to what we should do next.
More than anything else, we’ve had people asking for a cohesive overview of how to publish a book. They might understand how to write, but not how to produce an ebook file from their work. Or maybe they have the file, but don’t have a cover. Or know how to convert their ebook to a print book. Or know how to build an audience. Or understand how they get paid.
It’s a complicated world, publishing, and especially difficult for authors and would-be authors who don’t have the time to spend doing an immense amount of research and engage in the (sometimes troubling) amount of trial-and-error required to really understand the subtleties of the process.
To that end, we decided to write down everything we could think of that might be worth knowing. We wanted to share our entire process, and to make it as accessible, actionable, and comprehensive as possible. We shared it as a blog series, each (sometimes massive) post focusing on a different step in the indie publishing process. And with each post we recorded an accompanying podcast episode of 20-30 minutes where we expand upon that part of the process, sharing our personal experiences with it, and other tidbits that it might help to understand beyond the write-up.
We wrote that blog series over a year ago, and since then we’ve wanted to take that blog series, take what we learned about publishing an indie book, and share it, aptly, as a book. That book is now available.
You can, of course, still read the original blog series, for free, here. But the new book version, which rings in at a comprehensive 130 pages, has been thoroughly updated with new information that reflects the evolutions in indie publishing in the last couple years.
This book includes six chapters:
1. How to Write a Book
2. How to Edit and Proofread Your Book
3. How to Create a Book Cover, Author Bio, and Synopsis for Your Book
4. How to Format Your Book for Print, Ebook, and Audiobook
5. How to Distribute Your Book via Various Sales Channel
6. How to Successfully Promote Your Book to an Audience
By purchasing How to Publish an Indie Book, you’re helping support a community of independent creators and artists, and you’re also helping support indie publishing as a whole.
Purchase How to Publish an Indie Book
Print ($10): Amazon
Ebook ($5): Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | Google Play
Want us to sign your copy of How to Publish an Indie Book? Join us at one of our upcoming WordTasting Tour stops.