Violet Liddell

a child 10,000 years ago left a handprint on a wall. they were fingerpainting. a viking climbs up a rock just to carve the words “this is very high” 10ft off the ground. somebody centuries… milennia… ago burned their dinner so thoroughly that they buried the ruined pot in the backyard rather than attempt to clean it. shakespeare got drunk and wrote dick jokes. tutankhamun was a little boy who liked ducks more than anything. a roman carves his name into a monument in another country saying “i was here”. a prisoner, centuries ago, in the tower of london scratches lines into the wall as a tally marking the days. a medieval monk scrawls in the margins bemoaning the boredom of his work.

but all of us, every one, has a deep primal need to persist. we leave handprints on the wall, scratch our names into stones, carve initials into a tree, mark our growth as children on a wall, bury little time capsules. write in the margins of a book. hide notes behind the wallpaper.

reaching out into the future to some unknown human long after we’re gone to say

Although self-publishing could technically be free, it will cost money to put a quality product out there. So, this list isn't going to tell you to forego an editor or anything like that. Instead, here are some tips for saving money while still publishing a high quality book.

1. Pre-made cover

Unless you are a graphic designer with experience in book covers, you shouldn't design your book cover yourself.

But, it can be VERY expensive to have a custom cover designed.

So, look through pre-made covers and purchase one that makes sense for your book. This won't always be possible, but it's worth trying.

Most covers are available for e-book, and designers are often open to creating a full spread for print for a small added fee.

thebookcoverdesigner.com is my favorite site for pre-made covers.

2. Learn to format

You can pay someone to do the interior formatting for your novel, but that's really expensive.

So, learn to do the formatting yourself.

For Mac users, Vellum is a great and easy tool.

For those of you with PCs, like me, you'll have to learn some more skills.

For epub and mobi, I love Reedsy. The free online software is easy to use. However, you can't use different fonts, which is a bit of a bummer.

For print books, you can actually do high-quality formatting on MS Word. It can take long and be frustrating, but I find it quite fun.

3. Use beta readers and critique partners

Okay, so I may be telling you to forego one type of edit: developmental.

This won't work for everyone. If your book has major plot problems or character development issues, you will need a developmental edit before publication.

But, it's always worth getting beta readers and critique partners first. They read your book and give feedback FOR FREE. And they focus on the story in the same way a developmental editor does.

This can be a great way to assess your plot and characters without paying for an editor.

If, during the process, you receive a lot of negative feedback and you're struggling to fix it on your own, you'll probably need a developmental editor.

But if you use multiple rounds of beta readers and critique partners and the feedback improves, and you fix the problems yourself, you don't, in my opinion, also have to pay for a developmental edit.

4. Don't create an audiobook (at first)

Many self-published authors want to debut with a bang. They want their first book to be available in every possible format.

I agree with this in most respects, but not when it comes to audiobooks.

I think the ROI is actually quite low, especially with Audible screwing over authors with their royalty system.

And it's very expensive to produce a high-quality audiobook - you can't just narrate it yourself.

So, if you publish the book and it does really well and you make enough profit, maybe consider releasing the audiobook a few years later.

5. Use free ISBNs

Each version of your book (ebook, paperback, hardback, audiobook etc.) needs its own unique ISBN.

Depending on the country you live in, you might need to buy ISBNs. Luckily, in South Africa, my country, the National Library issues free ISBNs.

However, Amazon KDP offers free ISBNs for you to use. The only snag is that Amazon will then be listed as the publisher, not you or your publishing company.

If that's something you don't mind, I would recommend using the free ones.

So, those are 5 ways to save money when self-publishing. I hope that this can be useful to you guys.

A short children’s story inspired by Dutch author (and legend) Toon Tellegen. Re-uploaded because I removed it on accident. It reads best if you read it out loud to yourself, with a soft voice, or even better if you read it to someone else you love <3 

Love, Katrielle.

The fox climbed out of her dark burrow into the cold and night and looked upwards.            “Hello stars,” said the fox.            “Hello fox,” said the stars. Under the moonlight, the fox climbed up the hill. A thousand lights smiled upon her. All the animals in the forest had lit their hearths. The fox sighed. It was a beautiful image, but the fox had seen this many times before.

The wind sent a shiver through the fox’ fur.            “Hello wind,” said the fox.            “Hello fox,” said the wind. What would it be like, the fox thought, to be as light as a summer breeze. The wind chuckled.            “I’ll show you, fox.” Carefully the wind embraced the fox and lifted her over the valleys. She looked down to see the forests and rivers fly past beneath her.

A robin descended and drifted next to the fox.            “What are you doing here, so high in the sky?” asked the robin.            “I don’t know,” said the fox. “I’m just floating around.” The robin frowned.            “You’re a very peculiar bird. Where are you going to sleep?” This the fox had not thought about yet.            “Then we will build you a house, here in the sky,” said the robin. The fox let the thought drift around through her mind.            “Isn’t that lonely, a house in the sky?” asked the fox.            “I don’t think so,” said the robin, “You can take a house in the sky wherever you want to go, so your house is actually everywhere.”

The robin went to work. Every bit of wood that was found was lifted into the sky.            “Will you come visit?” asked the fox.            “Of course,” said the robin. “Every morning I will look out of my window, and if I see your house hanging underneath the clouds, I will come visit you right away.”

aches from old injuries. finicky battle wounds, stiff joints from being restrained in captivity - things that their body never erased, pain that reminds them every day of what they went through. maybe it’s obvious, like a limp, or maybe it’s something that is only clear with early morning stretches and groans. maybe the aches grow worse in rainy weather, or when they think about the injury that caused the soreness.