The City Zoo....published by a duck!

by George Comninos
(Sydney, NSW, Australia )

Self-publishing used to be a risky and financially draining exercise. NOT ANY MORE!!

Using print on demand services such as CreateSpace or Lulu.com you can get a full colour version of your book in your hands within the space of a couple of weeks. Sounds too easy? It will require a little computer knowledge and lots of time but for all this effort you get complete creative control of your book and the satisfaction of selling your own book. You can try traditional publishers but if all else fails get your creative efforts out into the world....and "share the love!!!"

After failing to get my children's picture book "The City Zoo" published I gave it to a number of children's book sites for free. One of the better ones was Light up your Brain. This site is set up by Chuck Brown who does professional voice over work. Chuck reads the story and even wrote a piano introduction for it. Thanks to this and other sites my story has appeared on sites around the world as a "learn English" resource and has been used by Kindy teachers as well. Being a teacher it's great to know my work is being enjoyed. I still wanted to see it in print though so what to do??

Here is a short version of what I did:-

I looked into getting my 18 Illustrations professionally scanned. This was quoted at anywhere from $350.00 to $750.00. Too rich for me so I took digital photo's and cleaned them up in Adobe Photoshop (cost zero...provided you have access to this program. if you don't perhaps you can find a friend to help?)

I didn't own or know how to use Adobe Illustrator so I used Microsoft Publisher to format my book as a square book 8.25x8.25". This software is easy to use and if you can find your way around Microsoft Word then this step should provide little hassle.

Most of the "Print on Demand (POD)" publishers need you to submit your file as a PDF file. Adobe makes software to accomplish this conversion but this is expensive and you have to learn to use the program. I downloaded a free program called Cute PDF writer and it did the job for me. You simply hit "Print" in Microsoft Publisher and then select "CutePDF" as your printer....seconds later (or minutes depending on your file size!) you are the proud owner of a PDF file.

I opted to use "Create Space" (part of the Amazon Group of companies) to print my masterpiece. Thanks to the exceptionally strong Aussie dollar I can get a 32 page full colour perfect bound book, from them for a unit price including shipping of about $6.00 Australian inclusive of shipping. All the local Australian printers were way above this price. I had locals quoting me $14 dollars per book!!! How will I ever make money on that?? Basically I'm not out to get rich but things need to be cost effective on some level! Cheaper to get books shipped from the US...sad but true! Another benefit with Create space is you get a free listing on Amazon automatically. Even better if you use your own ISBN number you can list yourself as the publisher and thus avoid the stigma of having "Create Space" listed as the publisher. After all I'm sure your book is great but there is a lot of very shoddy self published books out there! Don't get tarred with the same brush get an ISBN.

The ISBN is the unique code identifying your book and can be purchased at Bowkerlink. I got ten for $120.00 Aussie dollars. You can order a barcode for your ISBN for a fee but being stingy as I am I got mine for free by using free barcode generator. I will try and find the link for this but you should be able to "google stalk it". Ten ISBN seems a lot but they have no use by date on them and that was the minimum amount.....so I better write another book which I am in the process of doing anyway!!!

Next I got a web address. This cost me $36 dollars for 3 years. I built the site myself. I'm very proud of it as I have no web building experience at all!!! So please sign the guest book and let me know you visited! I didn't want to pay for hosting so I put it on 110MB a hosting site. They will let you use your own URL like I did or provide you with one for nothing!!! The service they provide is also AD FREE so your customers will not even know that you are being a cheapskate!

Ooooops forgot to tell you I got a CIP for my book. That's the cataloguing information that appears at the front of your book. You can apply for this at http://www.nla.gov.au/services/CIP.html.

Once I printed the book I ordered 30 copies to fill orders from Australian customers and used a "Paypal button" to process credit card payments. I also sent a copy to the NSW state library and one to the National Library Canberra (which is a legal requirement but has the advantage that your book will be kept there in perpetuity).

So how much has it all cost me??????

The princely sum of $450.00!!!! If you go and have a look at what the "Vanity publishers" are charging the cheapest you will find is probably double that and you won't be listed as the publisher.

So what are you waiting for get going and print that book.

Visit Kidzoo Publishing.