Week One: Preliminary Research

I spent this week researching self-publishing to decide whether I want to focus on it contra traditional publishing, which I do.

I began by reading David Gaughran’s “Ten Steps for Self-Publishing,” which helped me better understand the basic processes involved in successfully creating and publishing a book independently. I also purchased Gaughran’s Let’s Get Digital, the first of four self-publishing guidebooks, which I intend to read for my literature review.

To inform myself about industry trends, I also read “Self-Publishing Is Thriving” by Jim Milliot in Publishers Weekly, from which I learned statistics substantiating self-publishing’s increasing popularity and viability as an alternative to traditional publishing. Similarly, I signed up for Jane Friedman’s newsletter, a reputable source of self-publishing knowledge.

Joanna Penn’s Creative Penn project has also been another valuable resource for learning about self-publishing. She has hundreds of podcasts with self-publishing luminaries in which they discuss various informative topics; I have so far watched her “Self-Publishing With Print on Demand” video, in which she recommends print-on-demand services like CreateSpace and Lightning Source and outsourcing graphic design tasks like designing the book’s cover.

My current plan for the near future is to research self-publishing’s genesis to provide my deliverable and final presentation with background information before examining AI’s influence and usage. I will begin working on my deliverable using the aforementioned research once I have completed it.

I will also begin scheduling interviews with self-published authors and several people working in traditional publishing to gain more background information for my deliverable