Publishing Your Stories For Free
I AM A MINIMALIST and simplicity is my north star. I have been a writer for about three years, and in that time I have self-published two books and published about 100 stories and articles online without spending a dime (other than money spent purchasing author copies of my books). Below are a few things I have learned along the way.
Website
I have a free website that I designed myself on Weebly. Many other writers use WordPress and/or Wix, and those seem to be fine alternatives. But I found Weebly to be the easiest way to design a free website, and I am quite fond of the design features they offer.
If you pay a monthly fee, Weebly will allow you to have a website with your own domain name. But if you have a free website like me, the word “weebly” is tacked onto the end of your web address. For me, that’s no big deal and I think my website and web address look just fine. Also, if you pay a monthly fee, there are additional design features such as color options and different fonts, etc. I am personally satisfied with the simple layout of my website (and best of all it’s free!).
Having a free website saves me about $70 each year.
Blog
I have a free blog/website with WordPress. Again, if you pay a monthly fee, WordPress will allow you to have a website address with a name you choose that has not already been taken. But if you want a FREE blog/website, the word “wordpress” will be attached to the end of your address. Surprisingly, I have found a large audience for my fiction stories and articles on WordPress. Sometimes the amount of readers on WordPress exceed the amount of readers I get on Medium.
Having a free blog saves me about $65 each year.
Medium
Medium has become the home for most of my short stories and articles. I have always had a free account with Medium, which allows me to read and comment on an unlimited number of stories that are not behind a pay wall, and five stories each month that are behind the pay wall.
If I were to pay $5 per month, however, Medium would give me unlimited access to as many stories (pay wall or not) as I please. But as a lifestyle choice, I spend a very limited amount of time on the Internet. My life revolves around books, not a computer. I usually don’t even carry a phone. As such, a free Medium account is a perfect fit and it saves me $60 each year.
Books
My first two paperback books were self-published on Amazon/KDP, and so far, I have been satisfied with the process. Opening an account on Amazon/KDP is free, and it is also free to start designing your book there. I design my own simple book covers. Personally, I am not a fan of the current mass-market, over-the-top, way-too-busy book covers. I think many contemporary commercial fiction book covers look absolutely ridiculous. I treasure simplicity and minimalism, so it is easy for me to design covers that I think are just right for my books. If you want to hire someone to design a book cover for you, it may cost $500 or more.
Concerning the formatting of my books, I do that myself using Amazon paperback templates that are available for free online. All I have to do is decide in advance what size I want my book to be (e.g. 5" x 8" or 6" x 9"), choose that template, and start writing my book directly into the template. I recently changed my mind about the size of a new book, and it was not a problem at all. I simply cut and pasted the text out of the old template and into the new sized template, did a little bit of reformatting, then continued on my way. Paying a professional to format your book for you can cost $600 or more.
Every published book requires an ISBN number. Purchasing your own ISBN number costs about $125 per book. For my first two books, I obtained a free ISBN number from Amazon. The free Amazon ISBN number will only work for selling my books on Amazon, however. But for my little cottage industry, this suits me just fine.
Many independent authors insist that paying for your own ISBN number is the only way to go. Part of the concern is that when you use the free ISBN number provided by Amazon, your book is listed as being “independently published.” Alternatively, if you purchase your own ISBN number, you can choose a name for your “publishing company,” and the name of that “publisher” will appear for the online profile of your book.
I am going to have to be a bit of a contrarian, here. You see, my books are independently published — I’m a literary one-man band. I don’t see any reason to be ashamed of that or to hide that fact. I actually wear it as a badge of honor that I not only write my own books, but edit them myself and design my own book covers. If others don’t respect that, then that’s their problem, isn’t it? I don’t see the point in trying to pretend that I am something that I am not (e.g. an author with a high brow publishing deal). I have learned in life and in business that potential customers, and people in general, appreciate authenticity. The only truly important thing about my books is the quality of the stories that reside between the front and back covers.
Bottom Line
So, here’s the low down, folks. When you factor in a professionally designed cover, professional formatting, an editor, and an ISBN number, a writer could easily spend $2,500 or more self-publishing a single book. The only money I spend is for the purchase of “author copies” of my books, which I give to friends and family as gifts. Those copies cost me about $5.50 each (shipping included).
I would not advise anyone to spend thousands of dollars self-publishing a book unless they are confident they can recover such expenses with impressive book sales. Don’t lose sight of what’s most important — leaving behind a solid body of work and having some fun along the way.
Best of luck!
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