Are You Ready to Self-Publish

In 2019, my daughter asked me if she could write a book and have it published.

My response was, “Of course!”

I thought she was just asking me a general question, I didn’t know that she actually wanted to publish a book she was working on.

Publishing is not my area of expertise.  However, I was also working on developing my workbooks with the intention to publish them in the future.  My plan was to focus on Ebooks.  When my daughter expressed interest again, that’s when we had a conversation about her goals and objectives.

She wanted to write a book based on a reoccurring dream.  At the time, I didn’t have the availability to research how to go about self-publishing a novel, so I reached out to a consultant.

The consultant walked us through every step: formatting, editing, copyright, building the website, and every step in between.  I took the information I learned from her to copyright my classroom material and my workbooks.  Once my daughter’s book was published, I received messages from other inspiring authors that wanted to self-publish.  Again, this is not my area of expertise.  I now know a little bit, but I wouldn’t want to lead someone along the wrong path. Plus, I prefer teaching about things I am well-versed in.  I would refer everyone to the consultant my daughter worked with; but she is no longer providing consultation as she is following a new journey in her life.

Recently, I spoke with a woman that has her own publishing company and she provides consultations to individuals that want to take the path to self-publishing.  The purpose of our call was to discuss having my daughter featured on her website [insert], and in the spirit of collaboration over competition, I mentioned that parents reached out to me about self-publishing after their children took my writing courses.  I decided I would send them her way as this is her area of expertise.

With that being said, meet Amirya, mother of her very own self-published author.  Visit her website, www.thatmommyjoy.com and reach out to her if you are ready to self-publish.  I plan on working with her as Jayla and I have started working on our children’s book series about homeschooled siblings.

Jayla’s tip for self-publishing:

Just write and don’t give up.

My tips:

Write, edit, revise, and edit again!

Make sure you copyright, get your ISBN, and network.

As a sole-published author, my daughter doesn’t have a marketing team, there is no promotion for her book.  You can write a book, but you also want to make sure people know tat you have a book.  We send out emails and call bookstores to have her book carried, I network, I talk to other self-published authors, and I reach out to platforms that showcase self-published authors.

While I don’t provide consultations for self-publishing, I do provide consultations for developing online courses which will be available once again in May.