How do I self publish?

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Hi Joe,

I'm an author and I have self-published about 20 books, with many more to come. Writing is an obsession for me.

You have received good advice here already, but I will let you see my process to turn a manuscript into a book:

1) I write in LibreOffice. I saw you already have that covered, but you'll have to get your handwritten books into a file, probably by typing it. (There are ways to dictate it, but they are a bit iffy and take a lot of correction.)

2) I self-edit. Yes, I know that's considered a no-no in self-publishing, but I use Asperger hyperfocus to catch most typos. I also read a story out loud to myself in a final pass to catch all strange sentences. I have beta-readers to help me with the plot and the flow of my books.

3) I use a dedicated software to format my books called Atticus. They are not cheap, but affordable - and much cheaper than hiring someone to format your books in the long run. They let you create an ebook file you can upload to Amazon and other vendors, and they let you create a print PDF that you can upload to Amazon for creating paperbacks.

4) I do hire someone to create covers for my books. I'm not good enough to make them myself.

5) I upload my books to Amazon, Google Play and Draft2Digital (and through them to Apple, Kobo, Tolino and others). I have accounts there.

That is the technical process.

Now, you need to make your books readable and enjoyable. That's where friends and family come in - if they test-read a book for you, they are often called beta-readers. You have to ask them for honest feedback. You might also have to hire an editor until you learn how to make a book a good book. This is a learning curve.

Try to read books that are similar to yours and learn from them - observe how they present their lives and experiences. That will give you a lot of information to use for your books.

Wishing you all the best!

Joe90, if your books are autobiographical, then you might be interested in contacting the Jessica Kingsley publishing house (https://uk.jkp.com/). They are based in the UK, and they specialise in books about autism and neurodiversity. I know of several people on the spectrum who have published autobiographies through them.

Budding authors can submit book proposals via their website here: https://jkp.submittable.com/submit

They say they aim to reply to people within 8 weeks.

On the other hand, you might decide that a publishing house that specialises in autism-related issues is too niche for you.

Amazon KDP self-publishing is another good option (I see someone has already mentioned that one on this thread).

My books aren't really about autism, as I don't look at autism as who I am. My books are about me wimping my way through life and coming into contact with both good and bad people and having to go with the flow with whatever life throws (or threw) at me. It will probably be more interesting for teenage audiences, although adults will enjoy them too.

My first book is about 10-year-old me, and explores the close relationships I had with my cousins and my thoughts and feelings about childhood life and growing up.

My second book (which I'm halfway through writing) is about starting secondary school and other big experiences such as summer camp, and my biggest fears, such as fires, detentions and old creepy buildings, and more.

My third book (which I think is my favourite) is about when I was 13 and dealing with all the stuff teenagers go through, such as puberty, friendships, love and hate, and lots of different changes. It also explores how I dealt with my same-age cousins growing apart from me and me feeling jealous. There's quite a lot of twists in this book.

My forth book is about family matters that happened when I was 17, and was also the year I left school and started college and how I dealt with branching out and meeting new people, whilst being there for my emotional family at the same time. Quite an interesting and busy time of my life.

My fifth book is when I was 19 and out in the big wide world, looking for work, volunteering, becoming independent, and having crushes on men that got me into trouble. I was finding out what I wanted to do, which sort of people I wanted to make friends with, and dealing with unpleasant people and situations.

And my sixth book I haven't started yet, but will be when I was 23, in my first job, being more settled into adult life, and making my own choices.

While my life was rather boring, it's the sort of book to read if you're into realistic drama. No fantasy, no action, just real life situations that most of us (Aspie or not) experience in the years between the ages of 10-23 (I did also through some creepy parts in, as well as comedy). As a non-stereotypical and non-obvious Aspie, I'll let the readers be the judge of what I am. My stories are very similar to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, as I was a wimpy kid and adult and I relate so much to Greg. I see Greg as an undiagnosed Aspie but there's no proof of that. So my books will be the same; lots of neurodiverse (not just autistic) people will relate to me in my books.