One thing you’ll need to decide on is if you want to buy your own ISBN and if you want to create your own imprint. They kind of go hand in hand because if you want your own imprint you’ll need to purchase your own ISBN number. But let’s back up a second. If you know me at all, you know I always, or at least, TRY to give credit where credit is due. I read primarily two books when I was researching self-publishing before I tried it. The first was A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Book Sellers by Chris McMullen. You can look at it here. He runs a wonderful blog about self-publishing as well. The other, a friend gave to me, and it’s called APE: How to Publish a Book. Author Publisher Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch. You can find it here. Both of these were self-published. Both of these contain out-of-date information which I learned the hard way.  I fully get behind researching anything new you want to do and there are more up-to-date books out there to read, but these two will play a significant role in the information you’re going to need, so I encourage you to check them out. Anyway, I did learn a few things from these books, and I’ll cut out the information you don’t need, or has changed since these books have been published.

Let’s do . . . imprints. If you decide to have one, it will take a little bit to make one. An imprint is that little logo you see on books. You know what I’m talking about, but let me find some:

Penguin has the cute little penguin, Pocketbooks has the kangaroo reading, you get the idea. Indie authors can do this too. This is mine. My good friend @DRWillisBooks designed the mug and my son did the rest. It took a long time to figure out what I wanted and I had to Google my ideas to make sure no one was using it. I went through three ideas before I found Coffee and Kisses Press. David’s top choices were taken too, so we’re sharing this one. That can be a great idea if you’re close to someone. Later on, when you publish more books, you can create a website for your books under that imprint, like my friend Thomas Jast. This is Tom’s imprint. He has a website that goes along with it, and you can check it out here. Choose an idea that is close to you and there’s less of a chance that someone is using it. Chris McMullen didn’t use an imprint. Guy Kawasaki did, and he said in his book he used the first letters of his kids’ names. I like mine; I adore coffee and I write primarily Romance. David loves coffee too, and his books contain a hint of romance, but what he has published and what he’s working on are mystery/thrillers. His books aren’t so happily ever after, but well, coffee. If you don’t want to go through the hassle, it’s up to you, but I think it makes your book look a bit more professional. My imprint is on the spine and on the title page of my paperback.

Another thing about an imprint is when you publish your book with an imprint, the logo and name you chose is your publisher. These are my product details for my book on Amazon. You can see it says Coffee and Kisses Press in the Publisher line. This will say CreateSpace if you do not choose an imprint.

It’s up to you and what you want to do. It’s costly to add an imprint because you can only do it if you buy your ISBN number for your paperback book, and I wanted you to be aware. 🙂

I think I’ll stop there and go into ISBNs another time. I do have things to do and will be out of town for a little bit, but when I get back I’ll write what I know about ISBNs and what a pain they are. 🙂

Have a great weekend!!