Self-publishing with Sweek: A step by step guide

Have you always wanted to publish your own book? With Sweek Publishing, self-publishing your own book is easier than ever! Sweek Publishing is already live in the Netherlands, Germany, France, UK, and India. Very soon, we are going to go live in Brazil and Latin America.

We can imagine the process of publishing your book seems daunting and time-consuming at first but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This blog post will inform you about everything you need to know when it comes to self-publishing with Sweek.

As you’re responsible for the design and the marketing, you have a lot of freedom in self-publishing your book. There are also many other benefits that come with self-publishing, especially with Sweek Publishing. You do not have to find a publishing house that is willing to let you publish your book. Anyone can publish a book for free with Sweek Publishing. There is no minimum order quantity so you can even print just one copy if you prefer. You can also use our platform to publish a photo book, a yearbook, or even a book about your family heritage. We work on a print-on-demand basis so the printing occurs only after the book has been ordered. But don’t worry, this does not slow down the delivery process as we aim to get the book to the reader as soon as possible!

For each copy that you sell, you earn a good profit as well. You can sell via the Sweek webshop, but also via Amazon, Flipkart, iBooks and more! So there’s really nothing to lose, just a new adventure to embark on!

To start with, you have to create your own account on Sweek Publishing. After you have created your own account, follow these 7 simple steps and your book is ready to publish!

General:

After writing your book, you can choose whether you want to publish it as a paperback or as an e-book. Of course, you can choose to publish both, a print book and an e-book. If you have completed the process once, you simply have to copy it and change step 1 alone.

Add the title and subtitle of the book along with some information about yourself. At this point, you can also fill in other specifications such as the size, cover finish (matte or glossy), paper (cream paper or white paper), and the interior colour (B&W or colour).

ISBN:

The next step is to obtain an ISBN. You can skip this step if you want to sell your book on the Sweek webshop or on your own website. However, if you want to sell your book on other sales channels (Amazon, Kindle, iBooks, etc) this step is mandatory.

With Sweek, you can obtain an ISBN for 12.75 euros and we’ll do the registration for you. In some countries, obtaining an ISBN is free and in others, you have to pay a small amount to obtain the ISBN. If you can’t decide whether you want an ISBN or not, you can also continue without ISBN and come back to this step later on!

Manuscript:

It’s time to upload your manuscript. You can upload it in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format. Check the book thoroughly before you upload it in order to avoid any mishaps during the publishing process. Check out this blog post for some tips on how you can proofread your book before publishing.

Information:

After you have uploaded the manuscript, you have to provide more details about your book. You can provide the subject, the category, some relevant keywords, and a short and long description for the book. This information helps buyers find your book easily on web shops and search engines.

Cover Design:

Let’s admit that we all judge a book by its cover! And that’s why we think that designing a book cover is the most exciting step in this entire process. You can design the cover by yourself or use the cover designer provided by Sweek on the Cover Design page. Check out this blog post to learn how you can design your own cover. 

Pricing:

Hold on, you are almost done! In this step, you get to determine the price of your book. Once you set the retail price, you can see how much profit you would make per copy sold. Set the right price for your audience, you don’t want to set it too low and not earn much profit or set it too high and scare buyers away.

There are certain fixed costs (eg. shipping and printing costs) that come with publishing a book and this can affect your sales margin. Therefore, you can gain a higher profit by selling an e-book. You can also choose which sales channels you would like to sell your book on. What’s more, you don’t have to restrict selling your book to just your country –  you can also select which countries you want to sell your book in.

Final Check:

You’re only one step away from self-publishing your own book. In this final step, you can review all the information about your book. If you want to change something, you can go back to the relevant step. If you are satisfied with everything, tick the boxes and press the publish button.

We told you, self-publishing is easier than it seems! Once you have published your book, spread the word to your family and friends so that they can buy your book. We also provide you with some promotion and marketing tools so feel free to use them to expand your audience!

Good luck and don’t hesitate to contact us if there are any problems along the way!