Are you still wondering for a guide of, How to Publish a book in India? Stop your search and start reading this. If you have a manuscript ready to be made available to readers, this is a step-by-step guide introducing you to how to successfully publish a book into the market- where to start from, what procedures to follow? This article teaches you the A to Z of How to publish a book in India.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Applying for ISBN number
International Standard Book Number or more commonly, ISBN is the barcode with a series of numbers you find on the back covers of books. An ISBN is a unique thirteen digit number that allows you to find a specific title or edition in a particular format within their output around the globe. It is used by publishers, booksellers and librarians for ordering, listing and inventory maintaining purposes. In India, the Raja Rammohun Roy National Agency for ISBN, a government-mandated website is where a book is registered.
Here is a step-by-step procedure to apply for an ISBN number.
Step 2: Editing of the book
Once you submit your manuscript, the Booksloveme publishers have a dedicated team of experienced editors who work on making the books commercially viable. An editor’s job is to research the genre and sub-category of the book decided by the authors and ensure that the manuscript fits in the chosen category.
Editors also suggest changes refining the finer details in plots. These include but are not limited to plot development, story pacing, inconsistency in characters, plot holes and coherence.
The editors also decide upon book titles, overall cover design and book layout. Lastly- editors edit the manuscript. Each book goes through a minimum of 3 rounds of editing and revisions.
Step 3: Designing the book cover
With a number of books coming out every week, publishing a book is not enough. The Cover Page of the book is the first impression you leave on a potential reader. We want to make sure this impression is lasting and provides a better choice kind of feeling. A team of experienced designers make different creative copies of book covers (including the front, back and spine cover) for the author to choose from. Also, if you want any changes to the cover page, you can reach out to the dedicated publishing manager and make it happen.
A designer works on the following parameters to design any book’s cover.
- What is the author’s brand image or expected brand image.
- Genre of the book and the category’s pre-established cover design styles which allow a particular book to be automatically categorize in the intended genre in readers minds. For example, romance novel covers traditionally feature a couple, helping readers recognize a romance book in a single glance.
- Platforms where the book is projected to be sold and the book format. Designing book cover will vary vastly from an e-book, thumbnail on website, paperback and hardcovers.
A designer further takes into consideration the content like book flaps, graphics, the font style and size, where to lay emphasis and the writer/ editor’s direction of what the book cover should look like.
Step 4: Layout designing
A book layout is what eases the reading experience of your book to the readers. This includes deciding the ‘book block’ which is where the entire test is enclosed. A published book has a very specific way of formatting for it to differentiate from a journal or say brochures. It includes editing on some parameters. These are:
- Page numbering: Includes how will the chapters be compiled, traditionally new chapters consistently begin from an even/odd page number.
- Margins: The white space enclosing the book block. Publishers ensure they are unfirm and leave space for the pages to be bound together.
- Alignment: Adjustment to spacing of different elements on a page (headings, sub-headings, images, graphics) and continuity maintained between every single page in the book.
- Widow and orphan lines: First line of a paragraph as the last line of a page, last line of the paraph as first line of a page- both pauses a reader. While designing a book, a book designer gets rid of such orphan and widow lines to maintain coherence.
- Paragraph spacing: Imagine if this article was written with no linebreaks or spaces differentiating different headings or ideas? Would you have read this far? The answer is likely a no. In other cases, a mis-placed break in paragraph or indentation may leave you confused and offput. Paragraph spacing is what makes the book coherent while reading by differentiating between new ideas introduced or change od scene/act/speaker.
- Line Spacing: Refers to how close together are the line placed. Too little and the lines become uncomfortable to read and too much will increase page-count driving up the printing costs.
Step 5: Interior designing of the book
If book designers increase readability, Interior designing is for enhancing the overall appearance of a book. A Booksloveme publisher and the author decides the book cover together. Not only manuscript, Page size, Images to include, but also the preferred fonts as a base for the interior designing of a novel; everything is decided collectively. The designer then works on a consistent format of elements like chapter headers, running head and end-of-chapter, paragraph styles. Also, the designer optimizes all the images as per the resolution that fit for printing.
Step 6: Proofreading
Proofreading is essential after the final copy of a novel is completed with a typeset. In this stage, the book is minutely revised for every single detail. A proofreader ensures a book is factually and grammatically correct, the formatting is readable and no other errors have sneaked past the editors.
Step 7: Printing
The printing quantity of a book is calculated by expected audience demographic, initially projected sales as well as on the establishment of the author. Books can be bulk printed which reduces the cost of printing per book but raises the inventory upkeep and risks of high unsold volume for publishers and authors. You can avail the service of Print on demand if you are a new author starting out or want to eliminate inventory upkeep. The books are printed only after a customer places the order.
Step 8: Distribution
The distribution of books depends upon the platform and format of the box. The book is made available to various distribution channels like bookstores, libraries, warehouses and independent book sellers and various online e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Kobo, etc.
Step 9: Marketing
Before the book is published, a proper marketing strategy is established to make the published books be familiarized with the target audience. Good marketing begins months before the actual publishing of the book. Buzz is created in the market with early access to pre-published copies, social media marketing etc. Right after the book is published, publicity events like book signing events, author interviews, social media and offline advertisement campaigns are run. Book reviewer and blogging communities active in the particular genre niche are engaged to provide reviews with collaborations. The advertisement campaigns are constantly monitored and updated for a few months after publishing to maintain audience interests.
Conclusion:
This process seems simple but is complicated when it comes to operating. But, you need not worry about a single issue. What you need to do is fill the form and we will contact you to discuss your book and the vision you have for your book. It’s time to be a published author. What are you waiting for?
