Write and publish your short story

There are numerous advantages to self-publishing on Calaméo. Maybe you have the beginning of a novel lying dormant on your computer that you don’t know what to do with. Or perhaps you’ve just finished a collection of poems that you’d like to share with the world. We will give you 5 great reasons why self-publishing your work on Calaméo is the solution.

What is self-publishing?

Self-publishing means that there is no middleman. You are the one making all the decisions. No matter the subject or the form of your stories, self-publishing allows you to share all your original manuscripts without restriction.

You also decide when your work is ready to be read and shared. There’s no need to reach a certain number of pages, to have an impeccable vocabulary, or to confine yourself to one writing style or genre in particular. You publish what you want, when you want.

Self-publishing presents many advantages for amateur or aspiring authors (who want to gain some popularity before they venture into selling their publications, for example).

Why self-publish with Calaméo?

1. It’s fast and easy

Create your Calaméo account in just a few clicks. Then, all you need to do is click on the “Publish” button and choose which file to upload to the platform. Yes, it’s really that easy! There is only one upload step, and your document is published.

2. As many corrections as you want

No need to start from scratch each time you make a change in your novel: you can simply upload a new version. You can update your publication, and the URL and other enhancements (videos, links, etc.) stay the same.

3. Enrich your stories with multimedia

Digital publishing’s main advantage over paper? The possibility of enriching your writing and turning your publications into real multimedia experiences! Adding internal or external links, images, videos, GIFs…it’s incredibly easy with Calaméo’s Editor tool.

4. Sharing and visibility

By publishing your manuscripts online, you are making them visible and easy to share. With Calaméo, you can embed your publications directly on your website or blog. In addition, if you share the URL of your publication on social media, people can read it directly on your social media post. A great way to generate some buzz!

5. And best of all: it’s free!

Because your writing will be free to read, you probably don’t want to spend anything to put it online. Start your self-publishing adventure by creating a BASIC account on Calaméo; it’s completely free! You can always choose to upgrade your account if you want to take advantage of even more features.

Finally, self-publishing could lead to publishing houses discovering your work. And who knows? You could become a published author after all!

Did you know? Over half of Brits would like to write a book! Luckily for them, and all other aspiring writers, it has never been easier to write, self-publish, and share your literary creations thanks to digital publishing platforms like Calaméo. Today, we will share our quick guide on how to write and publish your first novel with Calaméo.

How to write a novel

Writing a novel is similar to writing a novella or short story, the main steps are the same. However, it will require even more preparation, writing and proofreading time.

The main steps for writing your novel

To write your novel, you need to follow a few major steps. As you will see, it’s not the writing that will take the most time, but rather the preparation and proofreading that will be the most time-consuming tasks.

Preparation

• Choosing the genre of the novel (crime, historical, fantasy, etc.)
• Reflecting on the narrative
• Character sheets
• Detailed chronological plan of the different scenes and actions
• Researching places, dates, events
• Reflecting on the main themes to be addressed

Writing

• Writing each scene

Proofreading

• Initial proofreading (several times)
• Corrections
• Rewriting scenes
• Final proofreading

Our tips

The process of writing a novel can look very different depending on the author. Here are a few general tips that may help you:

• Think carefully about the type of narrator and point of view (first person, second person, third person, etc.)
• Base your imaginary locations on real locations (use photos as inspiration)
• Make sure to respect the different characters: their choices and reactions must correspond to them
• When writing the first draft of your novel, never go backwards. Always go forward and do not correct or rewrite anything. Save it for the rewriting stage. Otherwise, you may never finish!

How to self-publish your novel with Calaméo

Publishing your content on Calaméo requires only a few steps and offers many advantages.

Page layout

In your word processor, make sure you choose a layout that is comfortable for your readers to read. Think of your design as a real book: the font must be legible. Avoid serif fonts and ensure that the font size is large enough to read on a screen (including mobile!).

💡 TIP: Make sure you export your document in a format accepted by Calameo.

Uploading to Calaméo

Putting your novel online is quick and easy on Calameo: it’s just one click away! Thanks to our unique technology, your documents are transformed in just a few seconds into superb flipbooks suitable for reading everywhere.

Enrichments

Our Editor tool enables you to enrich your publications with multimedia. Easily add videos, audio tracks, images, and both internal and external links to turn your novel into a unique reading experience!

Sharing

Once your novel is published on Calaméo, you can share it with the entire world. Embed it in your website or blog, create a digital library, share it on your social media pages, send it via email…you have so many choices!

Share all your literary creations with the world today by creating your free Calaméo account!