Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we collect together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.

This week: Entrepreneur runs a how-to piece on self-publishing, LJ Ross sets up a publishing imprint, and Margaret Atwood passingly mentions self-publishing.

How to Self-Publish

Most people reading this probably already know how to self-publish, or at least have gleaned an idea of how through the SPF Facebook Community. However, if you’re still learning the ropes, Entrepreneur have put together a decent how-to guide that tackles the basics of everything to do with self-publishing – from ebooks, to print, to audio.

Nothing in there will come as a revelation, but it’s a good place to start.

LJ Ross Launches Her Own Imprint

Hot on the heels of Mark Dawson announcing his new print deal with Carlton Books (in which he retains all of his ebook rights, but Carlton Books will handle print, therefore giving his physical books greater distribution), LJ Ross has set up her own imprint in order to get her books into libraries and bookstores.

Dark Skies Publishing will make 18 of Ross’ books available through Gardner and Booksource, starting with her latest book, Imposter. “Fairly large” print runs have been commissioned.

It’s a different approach to promoting print copies than Mark’s (and one that probably requires a fairly high degree of existing self-publishing success to pull off), but also another great example of the freedom indie authors have to shape their own career models.

You can read all about it here.

Margaret Atwood Mentions Self-Publishing

Well, okay. This one’s a bit of a stretch.

It turns out that two-time Man Booker Prize winner, Margaret Atwood, actually self-published her first piece of work – a book of poetry she wrote as an undergraduate, called Double Persephone. Of course, she didn’t have access to KDP in the 1950s, so that meant printing copies herself and then selling them to local bookstores for 50 cents.

Her words: “It taught me that you could make things, and there are still these entry points that involve a certain amount of self-publication.”

So there you go. No matter which publishing route you choose, you’re going to have to do some of the work yourself. Even if you’re Margaret Atwood.

You can read more about Atwood here.

Tom Ashford

Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.

He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.