The Publishing Process for Charm Wars

Charm Wars is the first book I wrote, and the publishing process was all new to me. Initially, I thought about writing the novel using Microsoft Word, but then I decided to do more research to find the best book-writing tool. That’s when I discovered Scrivener. Using Scrivener, I could write my novel chapter by chapter. Then, when I’m finished writing the book, I could print it out with Scrivener.

After writing the novel, I needed to have it edited. Of course, I knew nothing about how to select an editor. So I asked a writer friend of mine if she could recommend one. She suggested that I use her editor, which I did. I’m glad she made the recommendation because the editor is marvelous.

After Charm Wars was edited, I needed to format both the paperback and e-book versions. I purchased a book template to format the paperback version and used Draft2Digital to format the e-book version.

CHAPTER 1

Cougar’s Lair

THE RAYS OF THE midmorning sun shining through needle-studded pine branches and naked ash and birch limbs created a patchwork of light and dark on the forest floor. Birds fluttered from tree to tree, and somewhere in the distance an owl hooted.

Rill Larkin paused by the edge of a green-and-brown thicket, his broadhead arrow nocked and his longbow half drawn. The chill, early Awakening season wind attacked his bones through the coarse wool of his heavy, dark-brown cloak. He suppressed a shiver, not from the cold but from excitement mingled with apprehension. He eyed the cougar’s tracks that disappeared into the thicket of brownish bushes and scrubby, leafless trees that grew on the base of the mountain. A narrow, well-worn trail showed the cougar had come and gone that way many times before.

Jedd Euland lowered his yew longbow. “We can’t use our bows in there.” His words, spoken low, held a note of fear. “We should of brought hunting spears.”

Both the paperback and e-book versions needed a pair of maps to go at the beginning of the book. So my wonderful graphic designer created them for me. The two paperback versions—one for Amazon and the other for IngramSpark—had different map requirements. So my designer created two maps for paperback versions .

The next challenge I faced was creating two cover spreads for the paperback versions because Amazon and IngramSpark have different requirements. I was fortunate because my wife, who runs a museum, uses a fantastic designer for her exhibits. So I contacted the designer. She was thrilled to take on the work because she considered creating the cover spreads an exciting challenge. She ended up doing a wonderful job.

I still needed to create a front cover for the three e-books, which don’t require a spine or back cover. Since all three e-books are the same, my designer needed to make only one front cover. So my designer created the same front cover she used for the paperback version.

Getting ISBN numbers came next. What’s an ISBN number? ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. Publishers, including independent authors like me, assign ISBNs to their books. Each version—hardcover, paperback, and e-book—must have a different ISBN. If you’re publishing two or three versions of the same book, such as a paperback through Amazon and other distributors, you can use the same ISBN number. If you’re publishing through Amazon, though, you don’t really need to assign an ISBN to your book because Amazon assigns its own ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) to it. I include an ISBN number to the book anyway.

Some publishers offer you free ISBNs. You should be careful about accepting one, though, because then your publisher—not you—will own the ISBN. Why is that? It’s because whoever owns the ISBN also owns the book.

How can you obtain an ISBN? You can get them through Bowker at MyIdentifiers.com.

Once your finished writing your book, your next step is to publish it. I must say, it’s always a wonderful feeling to see your book in print.