If you are about to publish your first book, congratulations! Regardless of whether your book becomes a best-seller or if only your friends and family buy copies, you have accomplished a lifetime goal that many people will never achieve.
Every industry, no matter how exciting, has less-than-intriguing aspects involved. The same is true in the publishing world. Here are three things to know before you publish your first book.
Get an ISBN Number
If you look at the back cover of a book, you will find a 13-digit number, usually beneath a bar code. This is called the International Standard Book Number, or ISBN. This universal identification system reveals a book's publisher, geographic location of the publisher, title specifics, and check digit. The check digit is only used to detect errors in the rest of the number.
If you are publishing a book, your publisher will assign your book an ISBN number. Once your book has an ISBN number, your publisher can sell your book all around the world. You will need a unique ISBN number for every published format, like hardcover and softcover. Each unique ISBN number costs money, so keep this in mind when choosing formats and updating editions.
Learn About Copyright Protection
From the moment that you finish writing, copyright law protects your book. This means that you have rights to your book that no one else has, such as selling your work, reproducing it, and creating works derived from your story.
Even though your work is automatically protected under copyright law, register it with the United States Copyright Office. This gives you the right to sue if someone infringes on your copyright rights.
Before you commit to a publisher, make sure you understand your copyright rights and whether they will change after publication. You might be contractually obligated to license certain rights to the publisher. This lets your publisher reproduce your book.
If someone else is paying you to write your book, your finished product is potentially a "work for hire." In this situation, the person who hired you to write the book holds the copyrights to it, not you.
Learn How to Use Social Media
Every year, between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books are published in the United States. One of the best ways to help your book stand out from the crowd is social media promotion.
Almost every social media platform can be turned into a promotional powerhouse if you do it right. Social media sites give you a unique opportunity to market your book--for free. This kind of opportunity did not exist for aspiring writers in the pre-internet age. If you do not already have accounts on the major social media sites, create them today and start cultivating your online relationships.
For more tips on the process of publishing your book, contact affordable book printing companies in your area.
Share18 March 2015
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