Step Two - Book Registration (Part I)
© Donna Murphy
This approach can be extremely intimidating and frustrating, particularly for the self-publisher. The more user-friendly, acceptable approach to self-publishing; without creating your own company, is to work with a publishing consultant. Publishing consultants can take the form of a small, independent publisher or an individual consultant. These people know the industry and most likely have self-published themselves. They have access to all the necessary components required to get your book published. The primary benefit to using a publishing consultant is that they generally do not have the rights to your product other than the ones that you have paid for. Meaning, the end product (i.e., the book) is all yours!
If you do plan on establishing yourself as a business, you will want to do some preliminary business preparations. These preparations will include the following:
The Book Registration Process
After you have decided to make this a business or NOT and your manuscript is complete, you will need to get your book registered. There is a trade registration process that you need to go through to get your book as part of the "big database" in the sky. Without these identification numbers, your book will not be recognized by the industry. This is a very important step in making your book competitive and marketable. These registration items will be listed below and briefly discussed. The ones that are required for all your books include:
ABI Form - Advanced Book Information Form
An ABI Form is submitted in order to request an ISBN block of numbers. This is the first and foremost item that needs to be completed. You can now access the ABI form on-line. The current process is to print the form, fill it out and then return it to the address below. They are working on providing publishers with the option to submit their ABI information on-line. We can't wait for that feature!
