MASTER CLASS the self-publishing dream
SELF-PUBLISHING
The Dream
An insider's guide to publishing your own book - both physically and online
IT'S FUNNY TO THINK that the day our book My Little Geek went to print, I received the "no-go" from a publisher, and 10 months later, we've sold over 1,500 books. In the initial stages of writing My Little
Geek, we identified key companies that might sell our book. These were ThinkGeek (USA), Mighty Ape (NZ), and Dick Smiths. We thought about using our existing contacts through our Plethora App (80+ designer blogs). We also identified tech celebrities, who we wanted to feature in our book, as well as popular tech blog sites. We chose Edit Sliacka, from Prague, to
illustrate our book. In this world we live in talent is only an email away. We sketched up what we wanted and worked with her agency Illustopia.com. We initially commissioned the front cover and the inside page to test the market. It takes guts to test the market. Booksellers
are blunt and that is exactly what is needed. It is better to hear early on that our book is not going to sell, rather than spend a lot of money to discover the same thing. Although they liked My Little Geek, they told us it was not mainstream enough to be taken up by a publisher. However, we did send the front cover
and initial inside spread to ThinkGeek.com. The next day we received a pre-order of 500 books. Needless to say, we decided to go to print. We used a Singapore printer and shipped
our books to a distribution centre in the United States and to our spare room in New Zealand. We changed printers twice due to failing safety tests, or requiring full
payment before printing began. I needed to think quickly and believe the latest solution would provide the greatest outcome. Even though our printer was great, I still worked with them all hours to make sure the documentation was right prior to shipment, and most importantly on arrival. I believe it is polite to ask someone if
they would like a copy of My Little Geek before sending it to them. This way, if they are interested they expect, and hopefully look out for, our book to arrive. If not, then we are free to send our book to someone who is. We would often send an extra copy of our book to tech celebrities. We thought they may enjoy giving it away to a friend or follower. They may even Tweet, blog, Google+ or review the book, but we don't expect it. This was our way of networking in the tech industry, and is simply smart and savvy self-promotion. We thought it was important to have
an iPad app. We asked a leading kids app developer to partner with us and build Geek Memory for free. My husband, Andrew made our own iPad version of My Little Geek in March. We have found the free "lite" version to be the most popular, with over 2,000 downloads in the first two weeks. We have ideas to make our book into an educational series and then adapt the series into different markets. Right now we have three publishers looking at My Little Geek and considering our ideas. Let's face it, it would be so much easier if someone else did all this work for us! Sarah Spear www.mylittlegeek.com
SUCCESS
THE FIVE SECRETS TO OUR
Identifying the key sellers
Finding a talented illustrator
Testing the market
Being alert from print to stock
Promoting the book with dignity
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Jo Sutherland Photography
