How To Make A Book Come To Life

Hello Hedge School<br/><br/>Welcome to part two of my self publishing journey. Part one is the hard part. Climbing that mountain requires consistency and plenty of will. Part two, although easier, was completely uncharted territory for me. Writing and editing writing is familiar. Understanding the process required to take that edited piece and bring it to the world was challenging. Hopefully this helps provide a little light for you on your own journey. I will share with full transparency the whole process. It is not the only way to get a book into the world, it is just the path I walked this time. Be sure to check out Part 1 to help set the scene.<br/><br/>Set up<br/><br/>To begin, every book needs an IBSN. IBSN is an abbreviation for International Book Standard Number. This is your book's unique identifier. It contains all the essential information about your book and increases the likelihood that it will be found and purchased. This is essential if you have dreams about your book being in a bookstore or library some day. <br/><br/>In Australia, <a href="https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/">Thorpe-Bowker</a> is the place to purchase. Internationally, <a href="https://www.bowker.com/">Bowker</a> is the place to go. A one-off set up fee of $55AUD is required to set you up. After that, you can purchase IBSNs individually or in bulk. Individually they are extortionate, coming in at $44AUD for one. Luckily, the bulk order of ten is much more budget friendly, coming in at $88AUD for ten. <br/><br/>As well as your IBSN, you will want to purchase a barcode with your IBSN embedded. This is really only needed if you wish to be in physical bookstores. It allows your book to be easily scanned for purchasing. Individual barcodes are $45AUD or cheaper if you purchase six or more. <br/><br/>Book builders<br/><br/>I wrote the bulk of my book in Roam and then moved to Google docs for the editing process and final draft. How the book looked in a word processor was completely different to how it ended up looking. To help with this,