Is it worth it to start a Christian self-publishing company? We are a Christian family self-publishing company. We focus on self-publishing Christian children’s books about salvation and Christian living for children. This is our story of how and why we started the journey of self-publishing. We hope it is an encouragement and a boost of faith for others to take this self-publishing journey as well. Check out our webpage for more helps for Christian Self-Publishing and other Biblical topics!
My family and I have recently become self-publishers of my mama’s children’s book, Today I Played With The Wind. Mama passed away in 2019. One of her greatest desires was to publish the children’s books she wrote during the 11 plus years she worked in Kindergarten as a teacher’s aid before getting her own Bachelor of Arts degree and full clad teachers credentials. As we cleaned our house, and sorted through her things after she passed away, I (Mary) came across her stories, and commented to Daddy, “I wish Mama could have seen her books published. Maybe we could somehow find a way to publish them now.” Daddy agreed. So I began the tedious job of searching for a publisher. I must say that at this time we didn’t have a lot of money. We, in some ways, were just “getting by” month to month. So as I looked into publishers who wanted a minimum of $400 or more upfront payment, I through my hands in the air about the whole publishing idea. But God was persistent in my heart to keep going.
Mama had passed away only three months prior to the journey of publishing her books, so besides learning about something completely new to me, I also was still going through heavy grieving. I had gotten very close to Mama especially during the last two years of taking care of her. I had been out of school for three or four years, as well. My brain at the time felt like an old rusted machine, and I literately felt like the gears in my brain were straining to move forward. It was a really hard time for me learning all that I did about publishing, but I’m glad for all the work I went through.
So what did I learn in all of the studying I processed? In one of my searches about publishing, I came across “self-publishing”. I hadn’t heard of this concept before, so I dug more into it. I began to get excited. I felt like I had finally hit the road I was suppose to be on. When Mama originally looked into publishing there was only the “traditional” way. Within the last 5- 10 years a door opened for self- publishing. I found this to be the only way were going to be able to publish Mama’s book at this time in our lives.
Why was self publishing the only way we were going to publish Mama’s books at this time? Well, the traditional way for publishing required an expensive upfront cost, we didn’t know if a publisher would take us (and it could be 6months to a year to find out if or when a publisher would take us), and we wouldn’t get much say in what the over all book would have turned out to be. With self publishing we started with lower costs, we knew we would be published, and we could work at our own pace.
Ok. So let’s look in closer to what self publishing is. Remember earlier I mentioned what a publisher can do? Well, now we get to do these things, but it’s not as hard as it may seem. Lets break it down.
So for starters, we must find a company who prints books. Specifically “print on demand” books. Print on demand will be the key to keeping the cost down. The only books that are printed are the books that are ordered. There is no upfront cost to purchase a bunch of books like with so many other publishing companies. We started with IngramSparks. We chose them because they created better quality books in hardback in the size we wanted, and their print on demand was at our price range. The reason you want to know the printer you are working with upfront is so you will know the page sizes and file type your final pages need to be in, especially for children’s picture books. When I got the final page set up, I found myself in a hard spot because the pages I created in my drawing program were several inches out of ratio to the size my final page needed to be. I had a lot of editing to do with each page after I had finished designing them before I could turn them in.
Now you have an idea who you are printing with, start your book if you haven’t already started it! Write your story, draw your pictures. Do any research about your topic that’s needed. Have fun! It’s a lot of work, but if you’re not having some kind of enjoyment out of the process, maybe you are needing a new perspective.
Next, your book needs to be edited. You may be the best essay writer in school, but even the best of us needs someone to check our work. Run-on sentences, wrong use of words, confusing description, and so many other ways of writing that a spellcheck, grammar program, or ourselves won’t notice. For ourselves we are too familiar with the work to notice the differences. We need someone who is new and fresh on the scene. This is where we get to be a bit vulnerable. We now get to open up and share our baby with someone. We have been taking detailed care of this bit of work, so we need to be wise who we share this new book with. As Christians we have Holy Spirit to direct us. Ask Jesus who we should share our book with to be edited. (Editing includes the written work, and the illustrated/photographed work.)
I shared my work with my dad and my sister. They were both articulate enough to give constructive feedback to improve the work I had done without being crude or unproductive. You will want to share with someone who is not going to speak derogatorily or gossip about your work; someone who will give more feed back than “good job”; someone who has knowledge in writing and art; and someone who you feel comfortable with.
Next we copyright our work. This can be a process. In this step we want to get an ISBN number (best to get in bulk). I went through a copyright agent that was suggested through the place I got the ISBN number. The reason I decided to pay a bit extra for an agent is because the legal wording on the copyright document form can be confusing. Just when I had thought I had filled everything out properly, some questions got sent back to me that I had to correct or clarify. When all that was done. I waited. I waited about two and half to three months. Then I got an email saying I needed to call the copyright place to see what the progress is with my copyright. I found out it was done! Wahoo! Because of covid I wasn’t going to get my document any time soon, but all I needed was the long copyright number to put in the book. Done.
After getting the copyright number, I completed the copyright page for the book. I did a final edit check on the story and pictures before I finalized the page documents to send into the printers. Wow. It was surreal at this point in the journey. I couldn’t believe I was sending a “print ready” file in. The final step to getting Mama’s book published. Of course I had some complications at this point as well that took the surreal feeling away quickly for a time, but it came back when all the lights were green for go.
I soon learned this was not the final step of publishing a book. (Keep in mind that I am learning a step at a time what to do next.) I waited for a few weeks for my proofing book, but soon discovered that I had to buy my proofing book. It got to me the same week or a day before Mama’s book was released to the public. IngramSparks has a catalog they send out to companies, book stores, and libraries for them to choose to put your book on sale. This is their way of helping you to advertise your book. This “help” is about $82 for each catalog you chose to advertise in. There are some specific guidelines to keep in mind when preparing your information for these catalogs. I go over these in another blog post.
Ok. The book was published. I was holding one in my hand. I ordered a case of 36 books. Hazzah! (This creating and publishing process took me about a year and a half. It seemed like three years, yet it wasn’t that long at all for publishing a book.) So now what? Advertise. I was now left on my own to market the book. I actually took a break from the book at this point. I had 36 books I needed to sign, and handout or mail to family and friends. That took time and energy to do. I was still processing through grieving for my mama at that point, and I needed a break. During my several month break the Lord showed me how to advertise. This way of advertising may be how you came across this article. He showed me the need to write a blog, build a name brand, and create digital products like audiobooks and ebooks. We named our publishing company “The George Family Library Publishing Company” because Daddy and Mama were the head of the George family, and we are starting publishing with Mama’s books; and we have a library of books we are getting ready to publish from everyone in the family.
Final thoughts…
Remember to document your process. You may have no desire to share a blog with anyone about your publishing process (like I did), but there may be a time later on that you will. Looking back, I wish I had documented my process to better help others. A book is created to share information with others, or to collect information for yourself. Either way, documenting the process is beneficial to helping you and others.
-The George Family Library Publishing Company
