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Someone asked me a question today about getting their book published without spending hundreds of  Rand or Dollars. They are unable to find a Publisher willing to take on their book.

I am delighted to be able to assist with some great advice. Please feel free to send me your questions and I will do my best to help you.

If you are going to self-publish, the first thing is to get your manuscript typed. Use Microsoft Word and I suggest using the A5 page setup. (That’s half the size of the regular A4).  Use a nice font like Verdana, Bookman or Arial.  You will be able to see what your book looks like as you type. That will save you a lot of setup costs.

Next, get a stunning front cover. Contact Clive Thompson for a quote – email him at cliveleet@mweb.co.za. He does a really nice professional job.  Remember, the cover sells the book. Tell him the size of your book and the number of pages so he can get the spine right.

Next, turn your book into a PDF.  Here’s a link to some free software that will easily do that for you – www.pdfill.com. Upload your book and cover picture to a Print-On-Demand Publishing Service.

1.  If you live in South Africa and are wanting to print just a few copies and you are not too worried about “bookshop quality” – contact Molly Ferreira of Digital Image Printing -  ids@lithotech.co.za.  You pay approx. ZAR twelve cents per page (or thereabouts) for a black-and-white interior and a full colour cover. The cost is the same whether you print one copy or one hundred copies. This is great for short runs.There are POD companies in the USA, but it costs quite a bit to get the books to South Africa. This is your cheapest option.

2. If you want a quality book, sign up with www.createspace.com in the USA. They are an Amazon.com company. Just upload your PDFs to their system (they will help you do that) and the company will prepare your book for sale.  They will also put it in the Amazon.com database so folk can buy it. They handle all sales, posting, finance (but not marketing)  and give you a 50% royalty. You set the price of the book upfront. This will give you a nice quality paperback, which you can import to South Africa at quite a good price.  The only cost to you is the initial copy you have to buy in order to authorise the publication. That will set you back about USA $12. Visit their site and take a look. They even give you a template for the cover, which you can send to your cover designer.

There are other companies that do similar work and a search on Google will help you find them. However, I work with these two and highly recommend them.

The sky is the limit!

From His Eye Is On The Sparrow
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