What if you could be a published author in 6 months?

How children's author Amulya VV did it

When Amulya Veldanda Vadali was young, she had a frightening experience with a dog. From then on, she was afraid of them. No matter how gentle, she just couldn’t get beyond her anxiety over dogs.

She even skipped trick-or-treating because she was fearful that she’d meet a dog at someone’s door.

But that changed when her family adopted a puppy. Amulya felt it might be less intimidating if she saw a puppy grow into an adult dog. So Cosmo entered her life.

He just turned 10.

Amulya’s children’s book, “Cosmo Faces the Forest of Fear,” is an idea she had in high school. So the writing part didn’t take long. But from editing to publishing, it wasn’t too long of a journey either — which was rare, especially in comparison to the traditional publishing world, which is known to crawl along at a snail’s pace.

That's because Amulya decided to self-publish. People are often intimidated by self-publishing, but just as her book sheds light on facing fears with courage, Amulya’s publishing journey has a similar message.

Be brave.

If you don’t want to wait three, four, even 10 years for a traditional book contract, it is possible to DIY it in a way that is professional, marketable, and profitable.

Here are the first five steps she followed.

5 Self-Publishing Steps for a Beginner’s Journey

1. She researched to find an illustrator for her children’s book. Using Google and asking in author Facebook groups, she asked for advice and learned from others. Amulya chose Fiverr to find her illustrator.

2. She also researched and asked tons of questions of each possible illustrator, requesting to see samples of their style until she found the right one.

3. Amulya had her book edited by an actual editor. This too took research.

4. Another research-based decision that Amulya made was to choose a publishing platform. She researched Ingram Sparks and Amazon KDP. Her end decision was to go with Amazon.

5. Next up? She chose a trim size and got her illustrations done in that trim size.

What roadblocks did Amulya face?

1. She chose the wrong trim size and had all of her illustrations done before confirming that it was available on her publishing platform. (She had to get her illustrator to re-do several illustrations because the trim size didn’t match what Amazon KDP offered.)

2. She formatted the book herself using Word. She had to learn and take time to decide how she wanted her font boxes to look, which words should go on which page, etc. While it was doable, Amulya did say it took quite a long time to do it herself. She advised that if you know Word, you can do it. But some authors choose to hire someone to professionally format their books. It took her several weeks, every evening after work, to finish the formatting process. She also said it is a very detailed process, so if you are not a detailed person, that step may be something you decide to hire out.

3. Amulya estimated that she uploaded her book to KDP at least 30 times before she felt the formatting was professional looking and ready to be printed. Her willingness to keep working at it, late nights and on weekends, was something she had to continue to fight for. She experienced a great deal of frustration, but she also sees that for her next book — which is in the illustration phase right now — it will be easier because she has learned so much.

“Perfecting it is what takes time and making sure it’s what you want the world to see.”

How much does a self-published picture book cost to put together?

Amulya also shared that you can self-publish for a range of amounts. If you want to get an illustrator, copyright your work, and make sure to have an ISBN number for your book, it will run you more money. She estimated that just to publish the book, which doesn’t include marketing, the range would be a few thousand dollars if you want the paid ISBN number and need a copyright.

She did say that money-saving tips include putting in the work yourself (such as formatting the book on your own), skipping the copyright and getting a free ISBN number.

What is involved in marketing and promoting a self-published book?

There are different schools of thought on marketing and promoting. Some will tell you they’re different things; others will say it’s the same skill set.

Amulya approached the idea of marketing as something she would do online and the idea of promotion as something she would do in person.

1. She set up strategies for her online marketing to-do items.

2. She also set up a separate strategy for what she could do in-person to promote her book.

For her online marketing strategy, she posted in Facebook groups, did interviews (like this one!), made friends in online author groups, and shared her book all over social media platforms. She said that Facebook groups were very helpful because of her target audience. For example, because her book is about a dog, she joined pet-lover groups and found a willing audience in grandparents. They want to buy the book their grandchildren.

In real life, she partnered with dog bakeries, pet supermarkets, veterinarians, festivals, and local schools. She called local schools and requested to share her book and speak to students at assemblies — including where she grew up and attended school — and she attended local festivals and set up booths; asked if she could share her book at local pet boutiques; and even got a plush version of Cosmo produced so that she could sell the stuffed animal and the book together at live events.

Many of her real-life events also circled back to social media. When Amulya shared an event online where she spoke, for instance, at a particular school, usually other teachers would request that she come speak to their class. She also encouraged the teachers where she spoke to share pictures with their social media followers, which then garnered more in-person visits, and ultimately, sales and word-of-mouth promotion.

Other means of online promotion include asking children’s book bloggers to write a review of the book, submitting the book for awards, and promoting it through outlets such as Goodreads.com.

How did she design a plushie, and what was that process like?

You can probably guess what the first step was: research.

Amulya researched and called many nationwide outlets that produce custom products. However, they were beyond her budget. (If you are wondering, they usually wanted at least $20 per stuffed animal or she had to order in excess of 3,000 stuffed animals to get the price within her budget.) So she ended up sourcing through Alibaba, where she said the only down side was how long the shipping of the products took.

Otherwise, she was very happy with the production quality and has been able to allow parents to purchase book-and-plush sets on her website.

What character traits help an author determine if self-publishing will work for him or her?

There are certain character traits that make the difference between a successful self-published book and an unsuccessful one.

You can probably guess that one of the biggest ones is perseverance, a refusal to give up when you face obstacles, and courage.

Amulya said that persistence and patience are two qualities that she believes have helped her come so far.

“Usually you think, ‘Okay, you just write the story and then you get the illustrations and then you’re done,’” said Amulya, “but a lot of work has to go into the formatting of the book, thinking of what will appeal to kids but also appeal to parents, and also a lot of social media, networking with other authors. I think a huge part is going to come after publishing the book, to get word out that this book is out there.  I’ve learned that the writing, the illustrating part is such a small piece of self-publishing. There’s so much more that goes into it.”

If you are looking for an editor to work through manuscript details with you, send me an email at turbowordsconsulting@gmail.com or go to my website and take my 5-question quiz to help you determine what kind of editing you need. You can also tell me more about your project here.