Self-publishing step-by-step

  • First- write the book! Then find the money to print the book. and illustrate it, if you're doing children's picture books like me.

  • Apply to the company in the UK called Nielsen to get your ISBN number, as you need to have that number on the back of the book if you want to sell it in the shops.

  • Print it, get a mock-up done, check it out, edit it, edit it, edit it. Then you get it printed. . But don't go mad printing a huge amount of books, as you can always do a reprint if it sells.

  • Submit it to Easons and Argosy to see if they'll distribute it, that will take at least 8-10 weeks.

  • Have a big launch if you can have one and invite lots of people, because if you sold 70-80 books you'd have a nice chunk of your money back.

  • Get yourself a website, because how else people find out anything about you, and put an online shop on it too if you can.

  • Register the book with the libraries. The libraries are excellent and they do buy in the books.

    You could sell it at fairs and functions, and set up a Facebook account and a Twitter account. Make sure the newspapers know about it.

  • What's most important is to have the stamina, that bit of determination and not to be afraid.

    • Remember:

    It’s hard work

    “I'm a bit driven now I have to say and it is not for the faint-hearted. There's an awful lot of work in it. But at my age I have plenty of time. For a young woman or man with another job trying to self-publish it would be very daunting, you really would want to have nothing else to do.”

    Be brave

    “I hadn’t a clue how to go about doing a reading but I told the libraries I would do it. I brought a little empty beehive and I had a bee suit and I suited up and I told the children about bees and pollination. I'm still reading that book to this day, six years on, and it's never gone out of print.”

    Look for opportunities

    “I got a grant from Foras na Gaelige to translate my second book, Jenny The Little Brown Hen, into Irish. I also made a little recipe book called Beelicious Recipe Books with Honey, which are my grandchildren's favourite recipes and kids seem to like it. I’m meeting a Galway woman today and she’s going to sell it on her website of bee books. The books are also for sale on my own website, www.doloreskeaveney.com and on www.childrensbooks.ie.

    Read our premium interview with three Irish authors here.