Authorship

Publishing Your Book On Your Own
by Owen Jones
Non Fiction – General

Reviewed by Ioana Marza for Readers’ Favorite

Owen Jones has written and self-published more than 110 books, hence his guide Authorship: Publishing Your Book on Your Own covers a tried and tested path for writers to get their books from the manuscript stage to the final product, published, and distributed by the major names in the market.

There are also some useful tips for authors on how to stay focused on the book in progress, how to deal with self doubt, as well as managing expectations around how long it takes to write a book (I thought that would be impossible to quantify), what is the typical set-up of a publishing house, and what are the pros and cons of self-publishing against the traditional route of finding a publisher. However, most of Authorship is what the name says – a step by step guide on how to do everything from editing, formatting, what electronic tools to use and how to use them, to what are the pitfalls of choosing each format or distributor, to how to make your cover and even how to price your book.

In parts the information is so detailed that it sounds like a software book of instruction but written by the lay user, hence accessible to everybody. While this is useful for any writer who wants all the information in one place, it is also susceptible to becoming obsolete once modern technology moves on. Though I haven’t had the chance to test if it works yet, it was an eye opener on the massive challenge ahead of any author who wants to self-publish. Writing a book is the easiest part; publishing and doing all one can to market it is time consuming, requires a lot of ingenuity and all in all is a monumental task. This book should go a long way in helping you try.