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How to self-publish a work of non-fiction; pitfalls and handy tips Part 2


Computer Screen

That first book The Scar that won’t Heal, was in 2015, then I wrote another ‘The World Within’ in 2017 and it’s now January 2018, and I’m in the process of updating that first book to improve the formatting (I was still learning how to use Word properly for long manuscripts having only ever used it for general documents before), and, now to add an index (see pic to left). Now, this is no easy task!

As I hinted in the first blog, if you add a Reference list to your work (which most non-fiction books have, and is probably necessary if you want to be taken seriously), you will have used the Word function (in References tab) called Endnotes. Now, this is a great tool but it does what it says on the tin, It puts them at the end. Absolutely. So nothing can come after. You can’t add a page break, a full stop. Nothing. But as you all probably know an index should come at the end of the book. So, how do you get round this?

Well I tried and tried to no avail, but eventually turned to Dr Google to find the answer and came up with this page by Chris Page (how apt!) which was the first one I found which made it comprehensible. I tried it and I worked! So finally it’s coming together..

My plan is to get this, some new information, grammar changes (found when I began reading it aloud for the Audiobook recording (see below)  and new formatting in place by the end of the month and then upload the new revised version for 2018.

Audiobook recording

Creating an audiobook is no easy task. Firstly you need to decide whether you’re going to do the narration yourself or you will hire someone to do it for you. Luckily both options are availablel at ACX which is Amazon’s digital audiobook imprint company.

I’ve chosen to do it myself as I’ve done some radio work and have been told I have a pleasing voice and intonation. Then you have to find someone to help you record it. with great fortune, I bumped into a local composer, musician and sound recordist, Dale Sumner, who goes under the name of Opus Melodica. He and I have been working to record the book together, and are making good progress. I have been vlogging about this on my Alchemy Therapies Facebook page. The main thing I found was how hard it is to read aloud consistently getting the right intonation for every sentence and yet still sounding natural.

It’s really hard!

But, I hope you’ll like the results – I’ll be posting the links here and elsewhere when it’s completed. Success is not guaranteed as even when recorded and mastered the sound submisssion requirements at ACX are very stringent because it’s the main supplier to Audible – the biggest audiobook company in the world and they have to maintain consistency. So, if you read that it’s possible to do this yourself in a home studio, read with caution. My experience is that noise creeps in, and will cause rejection which is very hard to get rid of post-recording (some noise can be edited out) but you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear as they say!

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