Self publishing

[UnagiForLife]

I’ve written a book for my children, its almost like an autobiography and it’s very personal, I only want them to read it. They’re so young so not yet but I would like to self publish it and give it to them when they’re older. When you self publish is there a chance anyone else will read it during the publishing process and will a copy of it be kept anywhere?

If it's just for them then ask a printer shop to run off a few copies.

Will it look like a real book though if I do that?

I think you mean you want to get copies printed rather than have the book published?

If you use a printing service the digital files will be kept on the company's system but it's unlikely any of its employees would read it. They'll probably delete the copy after printing if you request it, though there's no need to worry.

What is your concern?

Yes I basically want two copies of a real looking book. It’s just very personal stuff I’m writing about.

If you actually publish it via Amazon for example, you need to send copies to the British library and the regional libraries (Wales, Scotland etc)

I think a local printer would be better

Seriously? I know people who self-publish, and I don't think they do that.
It's very unlikely anyone at Amazon would read it. You can just publish it, buy a few copies at a discount and then unpublish it. Alternatively, you can put it on Amazon as a draft, so no-one can actually buy it, and buy a few draft copies (these are like normal books but have a grey band across them, so not pretty). Then just delete the book without publishing.

I was chased up last week as I had sent a copy of my latest book, published in Feb, to the British Library but had forgotten the regionals, so had to order another 5 author copies to be delivered.

Have you thought about how you’re going to get a professional looking cover op?

I don't think so! For self-published books?

Who exactly chased you up?

Yes for self published books

www.bl.uk/help/how-to-deposit-your-print-publications

Print publications you need to deposit

The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 applies to any person who publishes in the United Kingdom. In the case of works published in print, it covers the following categories:

books (including pamphlets, magazines or newspapers)
sheets of letterpress or music
maps, plans, charts or tables
parts of any such works.

It doesn’t apply to ebooks

The email came from the
Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries

How do these libraries know you've published? And that you've published in the UK? You might just be selling books in the US.

I guess through the ISBN?

You are talking about printing rather than publishing?

I could print it at home, but I wanted it to look like a real book. I don’t mind a basic cover with just text on but the look and feel of a real book rather than printed pieces of paper binders together to look like an essay or something. Maybe it’s not possible. I certainly don’t want it to be available for anyone else to read, it’s going to be like printing my diary.

Avoid publishing tools as actually publishing — making it available to the public — is the opposite of what you want to do.
Photobook applications would be ideal for this. We did this with an elderly relative’s war memories, mostly text, with a couple of photos. The books looked great and lasted well.
If you don’t want a glossy type book, you can set up a paperback format in Microsoft Word and export a file for a printer to run off. You’d need a cover though (you could use Canva for this).

Try blurb, which allows you to print up your own books.

It’s absolutely possible. I’ve done tons of these for people in a prior job.

A local printing company will help you. They’ll usually have someone who can format the text for you to make it into a book. They won’t be that interested in reading it but they will see the words on screen from your files when you submit them, there’s really no way round that unless you are technologically savvy enough to prepare it properly, and most people are not.

They will print as many or as few copies as you like. Printing just 2 will be more expensive than you probably imagine, but it is quite possible. They will print it digitally, then bind it for you (an A5 paperback is a cost effective size). The binding is called ‘perfect bound’. It will look like a regular paperback book. You can have a simple text-based cover design and a decent printer will sort this for you too.

If you do not have an ISBN, and therefore do not intend to sell the book commercially, there is no issue about library copies etc. You can literally print it and that’s it.

This is also a decent and low-cost option, via a photo books site.

If you go with the printer option, don’t make the cover in Canva though - most printers will curse you! You’ll get a more polished result if you keep it simple and ask them just to make a typographical cover in a plain coloured background.

If you set up the cover correctly in Canva, there’s no reason a printer would curse you. There are plenty of books being sold with Canva covers on them. It’s not necessarily advisable if you want a book to sell well, but could work for a project where the only need is to have a decent looking hard copy.

Oh I agree Lego - but the devil is in the “set up correctly” detail and in my experience no one ever does, if they’re not using it frequently, so the printer would probably prefer to start from scratch.

Thanks for all your advice, blurb looks like just what I was looking for.

Glad it helps! We've used it a few times as DH can pull together a 'super-brochure' to showcase work-related stuff.