The self-publishing market is coming of age and there.s a good selection of conventionally published books and self-published ‘how-to’ titles. The Naked Author by Baverstock was reviewed here. Although it had the ‘across the pond’ perspective (she.s based out of the UK), 95% of the information transfers over. As the title suggests, Self-Publishing In Canada: A Complete Guide to Designing, Printing and Selling Your Book by Suzanne Anderson is much closer to home. In fact, Anderson is based out of Duncan, BC, which is 45 minutes north of Victoria. Here.s how the book looks:

A no-nonsence approach to cover illustration.

As diligent readers have come to expect, here.s the back blurb:

DO YOU DREAM OF BEING A PUBLISHED AUTHOR? It is hard to get a book published the traditional way. Today more writers are turning to self-publishing to get their books into the hands of readers quickly. They are also taking control over their book and making money with the first book they sell. Self Publishing in Canada makes the process easy to understand as you are guided step-by-step to publishing your own book. This new edition gives current information for today’s self-publisher to help you get started right away.

The power words with which prospective readers are lured in are: ‘quickly’, ‘control’, and ‘making money’: Anderson has identified the motivations which drive authors to self-publish. By mentioning them on the back blurb, she sells the book to prospective authors. ‘Step-by-step’ is a nice power word as well: the process of self-publishing must appear to aspiring writers like a maze–after all, if it were so easy, why would the behemoth of the publishing industry exist?

Below the back blurb are recommendations from Anderson.s peers (other successful self-published authors) and a reminder to any doubters that this is the book you want: ‘The first edition was the winner of a Writer’s Digest International Self-Published book award’. Good work!

Anderson.s ‘About the Author’ also appears on the back cover:

Suzanne Anderson is an author, publisher and book coach. She is considered to be Canada’s foremost expert in self-publishing. Visit her website at www.selfpublishing.ca

The ‘About the Author’ is a convenient spot to put a website address.

The book itself is as advertised. It covers everything from conception to writing, and from writing to editing and marketing. It is laid out in a series of chapters that flows like a timeline: the beginning chapters covers the gestative aspects of writing and the latter chapters describe how the author sets up the self-publishing business: marketing, incorporation, invoicing, and so on. Anderson writes in a a deliberate, no-nonsense style. She focuses on the structure of the items that she discusses. So ‘book design’ would be broken down into front cover, prelims, text, and back matter. Each of these structures is in turn reduced into finer structures. So ‘back matter’ gets split into: appendix, index, glossary, and bibliography. The analytic approach breaks down the units of the self-publishing experience into manageable pieces.

I Love Checklists

The best thing about Anderson.s book is the checklist at the end. It takes the kernel of the whole book and condenses it into a two page checklist. Here.s how it looks:

What a terrific idea! Each row on the checklist corresponds to a section in the book. So as the reader goes through the book, decisions can be made as to how far to plan ahead. And once more and more rows are ticked off, you know that the project is getting closer to the happy day!