10 Things To Do Before Publishing A Novel

Self-publishing a novel is one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to do - and I’ve moved countries. 

Self-publishing a novel is a lot more than just slapping some words onto a document and hitting publish. 

You need to think and treat your work like it’s a product of a business. A business with a brand. That brand is you. 

Here are 10 things to do before hitting publish.

1. Write The Book. I’m not going to go into too much detail on this one, it’s self explanatory. Write the damn thing. Hit your word count goal. Make those characters come to life and type THE END.

           Once you’ve written the book, it’s time to:

2. Edit The Book. Once you’ve saved your work and celebrated your arse off, you need to sit your bum back down in that chair and start editing. Most authors will tell you the same thing:

Take at least 2 weeks of focusing on something other than your manuscript. Then go back to it and do a re-read. You may cry or scream or swear. These are all normal reactions, they are what you need to go through when you look at your hard work and realise it’s far from being a best-seller. Not yet anyway. Once you’ve gone through the cycle of grief, you need to focus. Re-read your work and make notes of EVERYTHING you think needs to be fixed. This will take time and this will be a lot. That’s okay. That’s normal.

Next, you want to look at the structure of the novel. What plot holes could you find? What didn’t make sense? What scenes felt out of place? 

The fix might be big. You might even have to start over. This is okay. This happens. Take a deep breath and remember, it’s all part of the process. 

The biggest and most important advice - save every version of your story on a separate document. You’ll want those past versions in the future.

Once you’ve solved all the plot holes and made everything make sense, it’s time to take another step.

Characters. Re-read your stories and make sure all your characters have drive. Do they have wants and needs? Do they have a goal they are trying to achieve? Is there conflict? Is their speech real? Go through and note down everything you think you can do better.

Now open another document and do better.

Next step. 

Did you think you were done? Crazy.

Read each scene individually. Does each scene flow? Is there a reason for this scene? Does the scene drive the plot forward? 

Make notes. Open new document. Fix it.

Now re-read your work. Line by line. 

Then word by word. 

Good job! Now start again. 

Keep going until you think you’ll end up in a hospital with a straight jacket. Once you start reality and imagination starts to merge, that’s when you bring in re-enforcements.

3. Find Beta Readers. Beta readers are magical angels. They are test readers who will read your work and point out anything that doesn’t make sense, doesn’t work, and what they don’t like. 

It sounds painful. And it is. 

But no matter how many times we edit our story, we’ll always be too close to pick up on certain details. Sometimes they’ll be big, but if you’ve edited your work over 100 times, there won’t be any massive changes (hopefully). And you get to learn how people who are not you view your story.

To find these beautiful humans, you can jump on Facebook. There are tons of groups where people are waiting for your story to pop up. Often Beta-readers are happy to do this service in exchange for a mention in the acknowledgements page of your book. Sometimes you can do a manuscript swap. I don’t believe you need to pay beta-readers, they are getting a free book and as long as you both lay out your expectations and come to a mutual agreement before the work begins, I don’t believe it’s fair for a beta-reader to then ask for money. If you do choose to pay a beta-reader, this should be discussed and agreed upon before you hand over your manuscript. 

You can find beta-readers on sites other than Facebook but I like to stick to what I know. 

How many betas should you have? As many as you can. The more feedback the better. 

When you receive feedback, write it all down, on something disposable. I choose post-its. They’re easy to see and easy to screw up and throw when you’re mad. Feedback - write it all down. Once everyone has gotten back to you (some will ghost, that’s just life) have three piles for your post it notes - Majority agree; 50/50; only one person said this. 

Go through every note in the majority pile and do your best to work on the changes suggested. Majority rules afterall. 

The 50/50 piles means the beta readers are evenly split. Go with your gut on this one - you are the deciding vote. 

When only one beta reader suggests something, unless you love what they’ve suggested, screw up those post-its and throw them as far as you can. It’s very cathartic.

Now implement those changes. 

4. Professional Edit Time! This is an equally fun and scary time. I believe you need this step whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing. This is someone who can objectively look at your manuscript and give their opinion based on what they’ve seen in the industry. They can discuss trends, genres, writing style. 

Hire a manuscript assessor to go over your manuscript and pick up everything that needs work for your book to succeed in the market. 

Their advice might feel similar to a beta-reader's, but this is someone who (hopefully) has worked on hundreds, if not thousands of books and watched them succeed. 

Now do the work and implement the edits they suggest - as long as you feel they fit with your story. As much as we love editors, at the end of the day your name will be on the cover, so make sure you are happy with every word in that manuscript.

5. Formatting. This is a tricky one most writers have a hard time wrapping their head around. Thankfully there are services that will do it for you. Reedsy does it automatically, which is a platform I love to use. And ChatGPT (I know we love to hate this guy but sometimes he’s useful), says this about standard book formatting:

Page Setup and Margins 

• Page Size: Use standard letter (8.5"x11") or A4 paper size.

• Margins: Set your page margins to 1 inch on all sides.

Font and Spacing

• Font: Choose a professional, readable font like Times New Roman. 

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• Font Size: Set the font size to 12-point. 

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• Line Spacing: Double-space your text for manuscript submissions. 

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• Paragraphs: Use a 0.5-inch (or 0.5") indentation for the first line of each paragraph. 

6. Cover design. We all judge a book by its cover. We use the design and the colours to determine if it’s in a genre we want to read. For example:

When we see a book cover that has a dagger dripping blood on it, we know it’s a cozy romance. Perhaps on a farm. 

Just kidding. 

We know it’s along the lines of horror or a dark fantasy romance. And if we like those genres, we’ll skim the blurb on the back. When we see a brightly coloured cover with a picture of a tuk tuk, we know it’ll be a fun travel story. Two people kissing, romance. Explosions of red and orange - thriller. Any type of magnifying glass - a mystery. We use these covers to get a first impression and decide if we’ll take a look at the blurb. 

Choose a cover designer wisely and make sure you get a sense of the story from the image on the front.

7. ISBN. This is a very important and legal step in the publishing process. This is how you identify the book and the type of book it is - ebook, hardback, pdf etc. This is a way for you to identify your story in a store, a warehouse, the library and online. This is a unique number that is given only to your book.

You do have to pay for this. But to have your book distributed to libraries and bookstores, you need one.

8. Assign ARC readers. ARC readers stands for Advanced Reader Copy readers. Similar to beta readers, these lovely human beings will get a free copy of your book before anyone else. In exchange, they leave a review. Of course, they’re not legally obligated to leave a review so you are working with a trust model, but that is the exchange. 

You can find these lovely people on Facebook but there are also specific sites set up to find ARC readers. Like beta readers, they are receiving a free book, I don’t think you need to pay them. But this is entirely up to you as long as what is being exchanged is agreed upon before handing over any book.

And like I said, some people will fall through but some angles will leave a review for you on release day. Sending your book to the top of the charts (hopefully).

9. Get a test copy. Send yourself a book in hardcover, paperback and ebook to see what it will look like for your readers. Maybe it’s perfect, maybe you need to adjust things slightly, or maybe you uploaded the wrong file. This step can be done before or after the ARC reader copies depending on how confident you are.

Seeing what readers will see when they buy the book is extremely important. You wouldn't buy a book with half the title missing, or a completely blank cover with water marks all over it. This is your name and your brand. Make it perfect.

10. Hit the publish button. Cross your fingers and take yourself out for a celebration.

What important steps have I missed? 

What do you consider essential before hitting publish?