Self-publishing your book

Editing Design & Production

BriarsBooks has clients all over New Zealand

BriarsBooks is a book & e-book design and production agency based in Lower Hutt. If you are wanting to produce a book but don't know how to go about it, BriarsBooks can help you. Briar handles everything from simple booklets to complex academic books, from editing, cover design and layout, through to delivery of the finished book to your door. Briar is professional and experienced and is herself an internationally published author. She will work with you to make your book look as good as you want it to.

NB: BriarsBooks does NOT arrange publicity or distribution of your book.

BriarsBooks also produces e-books.

To view some of the books Briar has designed and produced, go

Digital books/e-books

E-book stands for electronic book. Usually people get their books printed first and then wonder about an e-book as well. It simply means that your book can also be made available on the Internet to an international readership using laptops, tablets, smartphones, or special e-book readers - like the kindle.

Usually people put their e-book on an online bookstore, like Amazon - the largest and most popular digital bookstore. But if you're wanting a professional result don't do it yourself. There is quite a learning curve and to do a good job you really need some web-coding skills. But you don't need to use a digital bookstore; you may want to put your book on a website as a pdf or an epub document. Potentially you will get better international exposure for your digital book on a website - as long as your website is google-friendly.

Self-publishing
- the Pros & Cons

There was a time when traditional publishing was the only way to find readers for your book and people who tried to publish and distribute their own books were viewed as second-rate authors whose books really weren't worth reading.

But the publishing world and people's expectations have changed. Digital printing presses in your own city mean printers can now offer short affordable print runs. Internet bookstores will take your e-book and potentially bring international readership to your back door. Now anyone with something worth saying can produce a book and get it out to readers

Self-publishing
- the Hows

So, you have gathered your material: your photos, stories, poems, facts, family genealogy - and you want to turn it into a book. You've decided a traditional publisher wouldn't be interested but you're not sure what to do next.

You need to get one thing clear at the outset: are you wanting to be an independent (indie) author or not? That is, are you wanting to build a career for yourself as an author of your own books, or are you just wanting to get 50 - 1000 copies of a printed edition out there and give an e-book edition a try as well?

Costs

A GENERAL GUIDE: Prices for preparing a book for print may range from NZ$500 to $1000s depending on the complexity and size of the book. E-books will cost extra. NB: Printer's costs are separate again and depend on numbers of books printed. If there are no issues, a simple 130 page book (for print AND e-book) consisting mainly of text and a designed cover may cost about NZ$750 +GST all up - excluding account setup and uploading to Kindle. Books of 300+ pages with complex diagrams, charts, tables, photographs (needing editing), captions, footnotes/endnotes, bibliographies, indices, can take weeks to prepare and will cost much more. Good quality raw material provided in digital form will bring costs down. Obviously each book will need to be evaluated before costs can be known. BriarsBooks is often praised for work of high quality. Briar does not exploit her clients, who find her professional, friendly, honest, careful, and trustworthy. Cheaper prices may be around, but the work may be sub-standard.