Self-Publishing in Australia // Step One: Re-Write the Book
- Makayla Wood
- Mar 26, 2022
- 4 min read
Okay, this might be obvious, or it might not be. Sure, you have to write a book that you want to publish. But that's not the story I'm talking about. You've finished it? Wrote those two words on that last page that make you feel like you finally reached the summit?
You need to leave that story alone. For at least 2 months. That's right, 2 months. Give yourself a break from it - a good break - and write something else. Start planning/writing your next book. Are you writing a series? Start drafting or outlining the second one now. Taking the time away from your book (for the rest of the blog series, I am going to refer to this as your draft) is one of the most important things you can do for it, in my opinion. Take the time away, and then return to it with fresh eyes.
And re-write the whole thing.
Unless you are a meticulous plotter, and you worked out every single wrinkle or plot hole in your WIP, then your first draft probably looks like a dumpster fire. And it should! You just wrote how many thousands of words and spent so many long days and late nights writing them. But that is the reason it's called the first draft. Because there usually needs to be more than one.
After you have given yourself a break from your draft, give it a read through. I recommend that you give it a general read through first, do not make any changes yet, but you will need a notebook and a pen. Read through it, and really absorb the story. Are there inconsistencies you notice? Do any of the character names or places sound too similar to one another? Is there any part where you were confused, even though you were the one who wrote it? Be honest with yourself, and make notes.
Personally, I found that having my draft printed into a physical format made it a lot easier to pick up the mistakes I made. When I read it in a physical format, my eyes and my brain picked up things much easier. This is totally optional (if you can't afford to have it printed, then I recommend downloading it into a PDF format and loading that onto your Kindle or Kindle app on your phone), but I strongly recommend it.
If you do wish to have it printed, you have 3 options.
You can print it from home - this can be kind of expensive, and your printer probably won't love you for it, but it's much more convenient for some. It is not as easy to hold together, unless you hole punch every page, and organize it into a ring binder
You can print it at Officeworks. Officeworks can print as well as bind your draft. This can be an easier option because the binding it sturdier, but it can be a little pricey. I have attached a copy of the Print & Copy Pricing Sheet for Officeworks to give you an idea of the prices you might be looking at (you can find the document at the bottom of the post)
3. You can order a 'Proof' copy through Kindle Direct Publishing - this is the option that I went with because it ended up being a lot cheaper. I made a mock-up cover and uploaded it to KDP, and all I had to pay for was the shipping cost, as well as the printing cost. This price can come at any range, depending on the size you have it printed in, as well as the number of pages. I did a very basic format for my document (as formatting and the look of the book wasn't the point of this proof copy), and it was delivered to me within 2 weeks of my ordering it (I didn't get express shipping, and I live on the Gold Coast).
You won't need to re-write the entire thing. But just because you finished your first draft doesn't mean your book is ready for Beta Readers (yes, you need those! Don't even consider skipping that step! But more will come on them later) or an editor. Save them (and yourself, from a financial standpoint) the trouble, and give your book a good clean up. Because let me set this straight - if you send your first draft to an editor, they are going to groan (and maybe even cry), and they will have to charge you a a lot more than you would be anticipating to clean it up.
Editors can be expensive enough as it is (I will be discussing them during this series), so you don't want to put yourself any more out of pocket just because you got lazy and didn't want to fix your first draft. Trust me, your wallet will not be thanking you if you skip this step...
That's all I have on this topic. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment, or send me a message using my 'Contact' page.
Mak x
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