You’ve finished your book! Congratulations. Now put the champagne down because it’s really time to get to work. If you thought writing your book was hard, getting your book published can be a long daunting process. That’s why I wrote The End – Now What: 6 Steps To Take Your Manuscript To Marketplace In 6 Weeks. As President of BookBaby, I’ve talked to 100s of authors from all walks of life about their self publishing experiences. My book combines dozens of their success stories with some great tips and tricks from New York Times bestselling authors such as Hugh Howey and Dani Shapiro. The result is a step-by-step guide that breaks down the process down into six bite-size portions that any self published author can master.

You’ve finished your book! Congratulations. Now put the champagne down because it’s really time to get to work. If you thought writing your book was hard, getting your book published can be a long daunting process. That’s why I wrote The End – Now What: 6 Steps To Take Your Manuscript To Marketplace In 6 Weeks. As President of BookBaby, I’ve talked to 100s of authors from all walks of life about their self publishing experiences. My book combines dozens of their success stories with some great tips and tricks from New York Times bestselling authors such as Hugh Howey and Dani Shapiro. The result is a step-by-step guide that breaks down the process down into six bite-size portions that any self published author can master: Step One: Is it done yet? – Finishing strong is your goal, but how do you know when your books is really finished? The End – Now What offers various techniques and ideas to help you know when done IS done, including a few tricks from a New York Time’s best selling author. Step Two: Why Editing Is Essential – Not every writer is a good editor. Fewer still are good editors of their own work. The End – Now What makes the case why professional third-party editing of your book is essential. Finding an editor is easy; but finding the editor that’s right for you might be a challenge. We’ll explore where and how to look for your partner in writing crime, even if you don’t have a budget for it. Step Three: Picking Your Publishing Pathway – Do you chase your dream of pursuing the traditional “book deal” and all the trappings? Or do you take your career into your own hands and self publish? The End – Now What lays out all the pros and cons so that each self published author can choose their own path. Step Four: Book Marketing Musts – Authors love to write but marketing? Not so much. But it’s an evil that is necessary and The End – Now What looks at book marketing in a different way. While book promotion usually gets all the attention we’ll spend time in areas that are often overlooked in the marketing mix. Step Five: Creating the Killer Cover – You’ve spend months – maybe even years – crafting words into your book. Now it needs the perfect packaging – an eye-catching book cover. The End – Now What helps you with some design basics and recommendations for that all visual statement of your book. Step Six: Picking your product – Will it be old school printed books? Or new school eBooks? Or perhaps both? The End – Now What helps finish out your publishing journey with a comparison between the formats, along with some file formatting basics to help your project go smoother. It’s a forced march to be sure, but it’s one that any motivated author can finish. Depending on the path you choose you can be seeing your eBook up for sale at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and other stores in a few short weeks from today.

Steven Spatz is a writer, marketer and the President of BookBaby.com, that nation’s leading self publishing service provider and distributor. Spatz’s professional writing career began at age 13, paid by the word to bang out little league baseball game stories on an ancient manual typewriter for southern Oregon weekly newspapers. His journalism career continued after graduation from the University of Oregon at several daily news papers in Oregon. When his family took over a direct marketing food business, Spatz redirected his writing and design skills into producing catalogs. The Pinnacle Orchards catalog was named Best Food Catalog among dozens of other national awards, and the business grew into one of the nation’s largest gourmet fruit gift businesses. After the company was sold, Spatz continued his direct marketing career with Fortune 500 companies including Mattel and Hasbro. He joined AVL Digital in 2004 to lead the direct to consumer marketing teams for music industry leading brands Disc Makers, Oasis and CD Baby. After serving as Chief Marketing Officer, Spatz was tabbed to lead the company’s new publishing division in late 2014. BookBaby has offices in Portland, OR and Philadelphia to meet the printed and eBook needs for thousands of authors around the globe. Spatz lives in Newtown, PA with his two children, demented cat and well used bicycle.