Book Review: The Indie Author Revolution: An Insider’s Guide to Self-Publishing by Dara M. Beeves

Self-publishing has come such a long way in such a short time. It used to be that authors had only two choices for publishing: Send off manuscripts and wait and wait to see if a publisher would accept it, only to often receive multiple rejections and see their book wait for months and years to reach print, or publish through the dreaded “Vanity Press,” which was looked down upon by everybody because for a price, you could publish anything.

But now, self-publishing is a respected alternative for many authors. Whether an author chooses to publish through a printer or through print-on-demand, the writer now has the ability to determine when the book goes to print, how it looks, and everything else about it. It is possible to get a book into print very quickly.

With this ability, however, comes much more responsibility for making your book a success, and that is where The Indie Author Revolution comes in. 

Self-publishers have a lot to learn and Dara Beeves provides, in this book, a wealth of very important and necessary information. I wish the book had been available when I published my first books, in fact. Beeves stresses the importance of editing, copyreading, proper formatting, and more. She explains the necessity of having a vision and making a plan, and the importance of marketing your book once it is written. It’s not enough to have information to share or a story to tell. It has to be presented properly and marketed well. Books do not sell themselves.

Beeves discusses the pros and cons of working with professionals versus doing everything yourself. She offers practical advice for finding experts to work with and resources and tips for doing it yourself. She stresses the need for professional editing, and that is very important advice indeed.She discusses both print books and e-books.

The advice here and the resources provided will be invaluable for those just beginning the adventure of publishing a book, and also provide a lot of really useful information for those who already have been through the process a time or two.

If you are thinking of self-publishing, you definitely need to read this book. It will save you a lot of potentially costly learning time and make the whole process so much more likely to live up to and even surpass your expectations.