Ever since I self-published my children's book, ‘Button Thief', I have had countless people approach me and reveal that they have always cherished a dream to write their own book also. I think that seeing a book with your name on it is an ambition shared by many people around the world, but the maze of publishing seems far too complicated to navigate through on your own.

I agree that it is! That's why, after writing my story and investigating the options available, I decided to take the self-publishing route. Some benefits I love to share with other aspiring authors are:

• You have control. No publisher or agent is going to make the decisions on how your book is presented, formatted, and distributed – you get the final say and can develop it just how you want it.
• There is no rigmarole of sending away manuscripts and anxiously awaiting the almost inevitable rejection slip.
• If you want to publish a book mainly for family, friends, and as a precious gift for your children, then you have the ability to print as many or few copies as you like.
• Self-publishing is an incredible learning experience! I found that it took me many places I had never expected to go, and opened lots of doors to the writing world.

Here are a few important steps to the self-publishing process (assuming that your story is already written, edited, and proofread – I will cover these topics in another article) that I would have found helpful to know from the outset:

1. Determine your target market. What is the ultimate purpose of your story, and who is it intended to reach? I wanted to produce a book that was somewhat ‘quirky' and relevant for both craft loving ladies and their daughters, one of the reasons why I thought a mainstream publisher might not look twice at my manuscript as it didn't fit with popular market trends.
2. The illustrations. If you are blessed with artistic talents or photography skills, then you might want to be both author and artist. I can't draw stick people successfully, so I enlisted the help of a budding illustrator. Consider approaching a local Polytech or University. Design students might welcome the chance to work on a real illustration project that will help get their name out there, and you can negotiate a profit split after sales if you don't want to pay upfront for their services.
3. Length of the story. The usual rule of thumb is for a children's story to always paginate to a number divisible by 8; the most common length being 32 pages.
4. Formatting. It is possible to work with the printing company you select, and for an additional fee they can handle the design/formatting aspect of your story. Or, you might want to take the path that I did and use software like InDesign so the printer produces the book directly from your file.
5. Binding. Depending on the thickness of your book, various binding options will be available to you; the cheapest and easiest one I found was staple binding. Perfect binding, (with a spine) looks perhaps more professional, or you could choose coils or thread stitching. Your printing company will be able to talk these over with you to determine which would best suit your book.
6. Marketing. How will you promote your book? Some easy ways I found effective were holding book launches at local libraries, volunteering to speak at primary schools, and contacting local newspapers for publicity pieces. I also discovered that walking into bookstores and gift shops with a copy of my book was the best way to get them to stock it – phone calls and letters are usually less successful but still worth doing if you don't have time for the direct approach. I set up a basic website to promote and sell my book (www.buttonbooks.com), and creating a Facebook page is a great free way to make sure people looking for info about your story can find it.

There are a few other details which make up the self-publishing journey, but I may have to cover these in other articles to avoid an information overload!

I'd like to affirm that it IS possible to see your book in a special little person's hands, and the feeling you get from achieving this dream is truly outstanding. So don't hesitate to investigate self-publishing – and enjoy the process!