Digital self-publishing for creatives

In PUBLISHING
10 February 2022
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Before the Internet age, publishing was a closed world to most people. Printing, binding and distributing books, magazines and newspapers required expensive equipment and resources. As a result, publishing your work meant getting approval from editors and accountants. Although “do-it-yourself” publishing became a little simpler with copy shops, digital tools really allowed self-publishing to take off.

Since we’re big fans of creatives making independent work, we put together this guide to getting started with self-publishing. Writers, designers, editors, reporters and artists will all find tips on how to prepare their material to publish online.

  1. What is digital self-publishing?
  2. How to publish a book online
  3. How to publish a digital portfolio
  4. Why make a flipbook resume
  5. How to create a magazine
  6. How to start a newspaper
  7. Optimizing self-publishing for social media
  8. Understanding your digital self-publishing audience

What is digital self-publishing?

Self-publishing is producing and distributing original creative work outside the traditional publishing establishment. In other words, self-published authors write, produce and distribute their books without the input and assistance of a publishing house’s staff. Even though self-publishing includes print formats, the industry’s explosive growth is mostly driven by online options.

One amazing benefit of self-publishing is that it makes expressing yourself easier than ever. Instead of being chosen by gatekeepers, creative voices are empowered to take charge of their own work. But if you’re not a novelist, don’t worry—online self-publishing is a perfect fit for all kinds of genres and media. Check out our tips for books, portfolios and résumés, magazines and newspapers below. Then, get inspired to self-publish your next great idea on Calaméo!

How to publish a book online

All over the world, lots of people dream about becoming authors. According to surveys, more than 80% of Americans feel they have something to write about. In France, over half of adults have written or want to write a book. If you’re an aspiring author, there are plenty of reasons to pursue your passion. Thanks to digital self-publishing platforms, sharing your work is simple and quick.

Writing

Of course, the first step is to write your book—and that might take a while! Whether it’s fiction, essays, poetry or research, give yourself the time you need to write a book you’re proud of.

Editing

Next, edit your work. There are two main kinds of editing. To edit for content, re-read your entire text and make notes about areas you’d like to change. This can involve small changes, like using a different word here or there. Or your editing might reveal big changes, like chapters to restructure. Either way, you may have to edit your book for content several times until you are happy with it.

Then it’s time for the second type of editing: copy editing. That means going over your text with a fine-toothed comb and fixing all of the grammar and spelling mistakes which snuck in while you were writing. And unfortunately, a run through spell-checking software isn’t reliable enough to produce error-free results. Despite being much more straightforward than editing for content, many people find copy editing challenging. It requires close attention to detail and good knowledge of language rules. Therefore, you may want to have another person help you copy-edit your text.

Formatting

Finally, consider how to format your book for digital self-publishing. In part, the right format depends on where you plan to publish your book online. For example, Amazon’s popular Kindle Direct Publishing service specifies different file formats for different types of content and access. On the other hand, Calaméo accepts a wide range of document formats. This is also when you should think about the cover for your book. Since the cover is the first thing audiences will see, it’s important to pick the design carefully. Bold illustration, eye-catching color and strong fonts are all fun ways to stand out!

Once you’ve finished writing, editing and formatting your book, you’re ready to publish. Log on to the platform of your choice and upload your masterpiece for readers to enjoy!

How to publish a digital portfolio

If you’re not sure that a digital portfolio sounds like self-publishing, think again. Creating and sharing a browsable selection of your work is a powerful way to represent yourself online. With some SEO basics and smart decisions, your portfolio can be the top result when people search for you on the Internet. Here’s how:

  • Select your best work.
    To put together a great portfolio, curation is key. In short, your most important job is to be critical about your own work. Because your portfolio shouldn’t include everything you’ve ever produced, focus on choosing the best. This might be pieces that have won prizes, received high marks, gotten positive feedback—or are just your personal favorites.
  • Set up a structure.
    Now that you’ve made a selection of pieces to go in your portfolio, find a way to organize them that makes sense to you. For instance, you could separate works by medium and have sections for photography, painting and graphic design. Or you could display everything in chronological order. Whichever organization you choose, be sure to make it clear to the reader with section breaks or a table of contents.
  • Add links.
    Using free tools like Canva or professional software like InDesign, you can save your finished portfolio in a PDF file format for digital self-publishing. Calaméo’s platform is free, simple to use and converts your PDF portfolio into an HTML5 flipbook in under a minute. Plus, you can easily add links that help readers learn more about your work. Point them towards your website, social media accounts or store.
  • Publish and share.
    Congratulations—your portfolio is published online and looking good! Next, you’ll want to share it to build an audience for your work. For best results, Email the link, post to social media or embed on your own website.

And there you have it: a searchable, interactive online portfolio designed for browsing and optimized for follow-ups. Thanks to digital self-publishing, showing off your creative skills is a snap.

Why make a flipbook resume

Today, a digital resume is an absolute must for job-hunters. Indeed, the days of printing off a stack of resumes and hitting the pavement are a thing of the past. Almost all hiring is now done either through personal networks or online. As a result, creative candidates are finding ways to make their CVs and portfolios stand out from the crowd.

So why not join them and create a self-published digital resume for recruiters to consult? Rich media like interactive flipbooks can improve the quality of online communication. Plus, it only takes a minute to upload the PDF of your resume to Calaméo’s digital publishing platform. If you’re not ready to share with the world, publish privately and send the URL to selected viewers. For an all-in-one professional publication, combine your CV and portfolio into a single flipbook.

TIP: A contact button inside your portfolio lets people connect with you right away. Opt for an email button or voice call on mobile devices.

How to create a magazine

At Calaméo, we love magazines—and we love giving people our best advice on how to start a new magazine from scratch! To find everything you need to go from idea to launch, check out our detailed breakdown here. It’s full of lessons we learned when starting our own CALAMEO Magazine, which has been an amazing adventure for over three years now.

But in case you’re looking for just the main takeaways, these are the four essential tips to know about starting a magazine:

Be clear about goals

Be clear about goals. Creating a brand-new magazine is a big job and it can be difficult to resist getting sidetracked by all the decisions that need to be made. When you have clear goals from day one, those decisions become simpler. Before you begin thinking about deadlines and bylines, answer the following questions:

  • Why do I want to launch a magazine? What do I want to achieve?
  • What will my magazine be about?
  • How often will I publish my magazine?
  • Who do I want to work with to produce my magazine?
  • How will I measure the success of my magazine?

Most importantly, remember that the answers should reflect your real goals. For example, getting lots of views might matter less than making new connections in your community. Write down your goals and refer back to them often!

Define team roles and schedule

Since you’ve already decided how many issues of your magazine to publish, the next step is to make a schedule. Although it doesn’t need to be exact, you should have an idea of the time you’ll have to create an issue. Then, communicate the schedule to the members of your team. We suggest having a dedicated Editor, Lead writer and Designer. But as long as you define what each contributor’s responsibilities are, you can set up your magazine’s creative team however you prefer!

Respect deadlines

We’ll be honest: this tip isn’t the most fun part of starting a magazine. However, it is key to making sure the vision becomes a reality. Especially for your first issue, keep yourself and your teammates on track by setting deadlines. And don’t be afraid to provide reminders when deadlines are coming up. Without a schedule, organizing the content, design and publication of your magazine will be much harder than it has to be.

Publish online

Luckily for everyone, there are now easier ways of distributing your magazine than making photocopies for the local newsstand. Online self-publishing platforms help you to create a home for your magazine on the web. In fact, readers can discover and browse issues from anywhere—at home or on the go. Better yet, a digital magazine means big savings compared to print.

Have you been inspired by an independent magazine self-published on Calaméo? Let us know on Twitter @calameo. Or tweet us about your own magazine so we can check out the launch ourselves!

How to start a newspaper

Out of all the self-publishing formats, a newspaper is one of the most ambitious projects to start. Of course, there are thousands of independently published newspapers around the world that serve as an example. From city weekly papers to high-school extracurriculars, journalists everywhere produce their own newspapers.

Producing a newspaper is complex, but success depends on many of the same steps as for a magazine. In particular, a lot of hard work happens before writing and reporting begin. Similarly to magazines, decisions about goals, schedules and roles form the base for smooth teamwork. But unlike most magazines, newspapers usually publish at a faster pace. To create daily or weekly editions requires strong commitment and organization.

Also, self-published newspapers benefit from some specific tools. For example, creating newspaper layouts is much faster with dedicated software. While some options can be on the expensive side, there are a number of free online services to try, such as ARTHR. Whether you choose to print or to keep things digital-only, these tools will generate a high-quality PDF file for each new edition of your paper.

Finally, consider how to manage the archives for your newspaper. Obviously, the total number of issues and pages will vary according to how often you publish. To maintain an online edition, be sure to find a digital publishing platform that meets your storage and content management needs. Features like folders to group archives by month or year, virtual library widgets to create browsable archives and generous storage limits can help your newspaper thrive online.

Optimizing self-publishing for social media

Social media networks are a great place to share your self-published work online and find new audiences. When you’ve published on Calaméo, there are a few quick boxes to tick so that your posts look their best. But in general, key points to remember include:

  • Match your content to the network. Professional publications might get the most response on LinkedIn, while lifestyle magazines are right at home on Pinterest.
  • Offer a preview. For longer work, try creating a separate publication with just a few pages to share on social media.
  • Focus on the visual. Your publication’s cover will be a big part of your post, so go for bold, bright design. If possible, preview to check that everything displays correctly.
  • Write a great caption. It doesn’t have to be long, but your post’s text should be intriguing enough to make readers click!

Looking for in-depth pointers about social media? Our Digital Publisher’s Guide to Social Media has strategy ideas for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.

Understanding your digital self-publishing audience

A great reason to choose a digital platform for your self-published work is the access to audience statistics they can provide. Or to put it another way, online self-publishing means knowing more about who is seeing and interacting with your creations!

For a map to getting the most out of viewership statistics, check out our full guide to Analytics made easy. But to start with the basics, here are three ways that data can help you understand your self-publishing audience.

  • Views.
    Simple but important: how many times have your publications been viewed? Get more detail by looking at the Page views, which show how much of a publication your audience views.
  • Location.
    Thanks to digital platforms, access to self-published content is greater than ever. Because people worldwide can log on and discover your work, location data tells you the countries where your views are coming from. The results might surprise you!
  • Time.
    Reading time metrics give you insight into your audience’s engagement with your publications. The more time viewers spend with your content, the more it’s holding their attention! Plus, dive into which pages boast the highest reading times.

Now that you’ve learned all about digital self-publishing, all that’s left to do is to start creating! When your work is ready to share, you can publish it for free on Calaméo. Sign up for your account and self-publish your book, magazine, portfolio or newspaper online in just a few clicks.

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PUBLISHING

What content can you publish with Calaméo?

In PUBLISHING
9 September 2021

Although you may think that digital publishing is only reserved for the world of books or magazines, this is not the case. On the contrary: the possibilities for digital publishing are endless! There is something for every field or area of interest. And the use of Calaméo is not limited to professionals; individuals can also take advantage of digital publishing for personal projects.

From homework to marketing brochures to your company’s internal newsletter, there are so many options for content that you can publish with Calaméo:

  1. Education
  2. Marketing
  3. Publishing
  4. Business
  5. Freelance
  6. Creativity
  7. Conclusion

Education

Until recently, education has mostly taken place in person and has not been very digital-oriented. The education industry as a whole has had to adapt to the current situation by sharing and distributing of all kinds of learning materials via the Internet.

🔎 EXAMPLE FROM L’ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE: this university brochure with information about a course shows one of the possible uses of digital publishing.

Lesson plans

If you’re a teacher, you can post your lessons directly on Calaméo so your students can access them from anywhere, anytime. Studying made simple!

If you’re a student, you can upload all the notes you’ve taken during your classes (online or in person) to share with your classmates or so you can consult them quickly and easily.

Activities

For clear assignment instructions that don’t get lost in backpacks, put them online so your students can find them easily. You could even create an online workbook with instructions and due dates that you update regularly throughout the school year.

💡 TIP: No need to create a new publication each time you make a change in your document. You can update it with Calaméo by uploading a new version!

Homework and answer keys

You can post old homework assignments and answer keys online for your students to use for studying. If your students send you their assignments in a virtual format, you can also make the papers available as private publications so that everyone can see their own corrected papers.

💡 TIP: so only your students can access your content, we suggest that you use our “Subscribers” feature.

Marketing

Marketing is particularly well suited for the Internet and its wide reach. So it’s not surprising to see that many brands have already taken advantage of digital publishing for their marketing needs.

🔎 EXAMPLE FROM LANCEL: a catalog with shopping links that send the reader directly to the product page.

Infographics

Post your infographics and visuals on Calaméo, then share them via social media, embed them on your website, or even on your blog. Digital publishing makes sharing easy! You can also add clickable links to send your readers to resources and articles that supplement the information in your infographic.

Brochures

Calaméo simplifies the purchasing process. Thanks to shopping links, your readers can see your product and then buy it in just a few clicks. Internet users see the article on the online catalog and click directly on it to land on the product page on your site where they can order it.

💡 TIP: don’t hesitate to use shopping links in your brochures and catalogs.

Slideshows

Publish your slideshow presentations online and easily embed them in your site . No need to make your prospects download several PDFs; they can read all your documents in the viewer directly on your website.

💡 TIP: thanks to detailed statistics on your Calaméo account, you can track your publications’ performance and refine your marketing strategies.

White papers

Show your expertise by publishing white papers on your line of business. Enrich these documents with enhanced media: videos, GIFs, and more. Make it a unique experience that will win over your prospects!

💡 TIP: take a look at our article “5 ways to use digital publishing in your content marketing strategy“.

Publishing

Publishing houses (and the “traditional” publishing world in general) are avid users of digital publishing. Here are some examples of how publishing houses use Calaméo:

🔎 EXAMPLE FROM SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS: an excerpt from a recently published book.

Magazines

Certainly, the most classic use of digital publishing is posting magazines online. You can find several examples of magazines on Calaméo for inspiration, starting with the Calaméo Magazine.

💡 TIP: Find all the keys to successfully launching your own magazine in our article ‘How to start a magazine: A practical guide‘.

Excerpts

Publishing excerpts is a fantastic way to entice readers to continue reading and buy the whole book! This also allows the publisher to gauge the future popularity of a book (if the excerpt is published in advance) and makes sharing easy.

Complete works

Make entire works accessible to everybody (or only your subscribers) by publishing them on Calaméo and offering unique experiences like read alongs or a book club, for example.

Goodies

Enrich the world around a book or publication by offering exclusive experiences to fans of your literary series: a publication with explanatory maps, a behind-the-scenes publication with videos with the author and publisher, etc.

💡 TIP: use our Editor to turn your publications into unique multimedia experiences!

Business

Using digital publishing for your business enables you to do so much, whether it be for internal communication, your sales division, or marketing.

🔎 EXAMPLE: You can find our guided tours, which are examples of useful sales tools, in several languages on our Calaméo profile.

Reports

What’s better than an annual report? An online annual report! With added interactivity (external links, internal links, videos, etc.), easy sharing, and compatibility with your medium of choice (tablet, smartphone, computer), your reports will be entirely unique!

Presentations

Put your presentations online so that your employees can access them at any time and from anywhere. Your documents will always be ready to go for your meetings.

Internal communication

You can improve your company’s internal newsletter by adding interactive elements like videos and external links. It will definitely liven up your internal communications!

Sales materials

As shown in the above example, publishing sales materials on Calaméo is an undeniable asset. First, because it enables you to send and share your sales materials with your prospects; and second, because it allows you to always be ready to present your sales pitch, wherever you may be! In fact, a smartphone is all you need to access your publications!

💡 TIP: don’t hesitate to create Folders so that you can easily organize your publications.

Freelance

Whether you’re looking for a job or looking for clients, digital publishing has major advantages to offer.

🔎 EXAMPLE: a portfolio that presents a freelancer’s work.

Resumes or CVs

Give your CV a boost by making it interactive: add a clickable link so that recruiters can reach you directly, include a video presentation or external links to your previous employers’ websites, etc. The result: recruiters will take notice and remember you!

Portfolios

Gather all your work in one interactive publication that you can access from anywhere. It’s a simple way to show potential clients the scope of your talent.

💡 TIP: consult our article ‘How digital portfolios work harder for grads‘.

Proposals

Publish your tests and proposals privately and share them with your clients to receive feedback easily and simply; they will be able to see your publication from all their digital devices (smartphones, PC, tablets), from anywhere, at any time.

Administration

To always know where your documents are, consolidate them in a folder on your Calaméo account; whether it’s an Excel file that groups your job search data or another document that has to do with your activity.

💡 TIP: Take care to make these documents private when you upload them to your account in case you don’t want to share them with the world!

Creativity

You don’t need to be a professional to use Calaméo. There are numerous uses for our platform and the possibilities are infinite! Here are a few examples for inspiration:

🔎 EXAMPLE: fan fiction written for a competition.

Photo albums

Gather all your photos in a document and transform it into a beautiful flipbook publication! Share the link to your publication with you whole family so everyone can enjoy it.

Personal documents

Upload your favorite recipes, your assignments, or any other personal document to find it and access it whenever you want. You no longer need to dig through your drawers: your documents are waiting for you on your Calaméo account!

💡 TIP: if you want to use Calaméo for personal documents, make sure that you are only using private publications so that your documents are not accessible to anyone else.

Fan fiction

How about letting your creativity flow? Compose short stories, start writing a book – even better if you finish it – and share your writing with the whole world!

In conclusion…

Here is a publication that compiles all the ways that you can use Calaméo. Feel free to download it and keep it for reference and inspiration if you need more ideas.

So we have outlined some great ideas about what content you can publish with a Calaméo account. But it doesn’t end there! We are sure there are more uses that can be dreamed up, and you can make our digital publishing tools your own. In the meantime, if you don’t know where to start, feel free to browse our article ‘The ultimate guide to digital publishing‘.

PUBLISHING

Digital publishing for today’s students

In PUBLISHING
10 August 2023

What do “digital natives” have to learn about digital skills? The generation of children in school today have grown up in a connected world. Smartphones, social networks and internet culture have been part of life for many as long as they can remember. These young digital natives are defined by their comfort with technology and use digital tools intuitively. Unlike their older “digital immigrant” teachers, today’s students do not need to be taught how to log on.

Given this digital intuition, it makes sense that technology has found a central place in the classroom. Teachers increasingly use connected computers, tablets and even smartphones in lessons around the world. Students might be asked to research, work together with classmates on a group project or turn in homework online.

Digital publishing offers practical tools for students to share their work while also learning valuable digital skills. These skills go beyond the simple use of technology to help build students’ awareness of some of the biggest issues in our information society: accessibility, media literacy, digital community and understanding code. Read on to find out how digital publishing sharpens these key skills in the modern classroom.

Paperless pros

Although the future is probably not 100% paperless, plenty of everyday life has moved to the screen. Digital natives are more likely to expect experiences like shopping, banking and entertainment to be accessible online and reading is no exception. That’s why many publishers make a wide variety of titles aimed at younger readers available on Calaméo for parents and kids to sample.

As digital natives head off to school, digitally published textbooks can represent an important source of information. Online course material meets students where they are: on their phones, using Google to research their homework. By publishing textbooks digitally, educational publishers can ensure that digital natives find reliable facts through search and maybe even remind them of the paper copy sitting in their backpack.

Publishers can also offer convenience to students at ease with digital books, which are searchable, downloadable and impossible to forget in their rooms. With college textbook prices in particular at an all-time high, online editions can be an especially attractive option for today’s students. Since these publications live in the cloud, course information is accessible in and out of the classroom. Instead of staying buried deep in the clunky platforms of enterprise education applications, learning material can be consulted anywhere, anytime.

Critical thinkers

The enormous amount of information available on the web may seem particularly amazing to those old enough to remember starting homework assignments with a stack of library books. All of this information poses new risks to digital natives. In the age of fake news, 91% of teachers think that evaluating the quality of information online is an “essential” skill for students to learn.

Digital publishing platforms can be a great tool for teaching media literacy, or the ability to understand how information is communicated. While researching online, students need to know how to consider more than just the search results. Factors such as the format, the publisher and the source of information are essential to judging its quality: newspaper article or wiki? Amateur or expert? Facts or opinion? Digital publications are a rich medium for students to explore and analyze, providing diverse materials published on a huge range of topics.

Learning to think critically about sources matters not only when reading, but also when writing. One study found that a third of high school students admitted to copying from the Internet in their homework. Tools like Calaméo’s Editor let students add external links to their digitally published presentations, reports and projects to cite their sources.

Learning communities

Digital publishing is also an opportunity for today’s students to become part of a type of online community different from those than they may already belong to. Internet users younger than 25 are more concerned than older users about privacy on the web. But unlike social media networks, digital publishing platforms do not restrict interaction to friends only. This openness can teach students valuable lessons about being part of a global community.

Once a digital native becomes a digital publisher, she adds her own voice to the vast resources available online. Students publishing on Calaméo also have the option of creating private publications, which are not indexed for search. Since how to approach online privacy is in the news and on the minds of young people, students should decide carefully when to publish privately and when they want to join a worldwide conversation.

Whether public or private, digital publications are the site of innovation in teaching and learning. From educators publishing lesson plans to student newspapers distributing online editions, digital publishing brings both local and global communities together. Some inspired teachers are even using digital publishing to grade assignments, reviewing the homework that individual students publish and leaving comments with feedback.

Future developers

Although digital publishing is a great tool for teaching in almost any subject, one of the ways it is most useful is for students who are beginning to learn coding skills. Digital natives may feel immediately comfortable with technology, but comfort does not mean an ability to code or even understand what’s happening behind the user interface. By 2020, an estimated 1.4 million software development jobs will go unfilled in the US alone because there are not enough qualified candidates.

Students everywhere can benefit from reviewing the technical basics of digital publishing. Uploading different file types to Calaméo is simple, but today’s students need to know what it means to publish in HTML5 and what that allows you to do. Studying up on the differences between a PDF, digital publishing and file sharing services is a good place to start.

To gain practical skills, beginner students can try their hands at development activities using digital publishing. Embedding a publication in a student-created webpage is a perfect project for learning about Iframes, a key building block of many websites, while creating a fully responsive Library widget display may be appropriate for more advanced students. Students interested in design can take advantage of Calaméo’s uniquely adaptable viewer by coding their own viewer Themes.

Final marks

Digital publishing makes it easy for students to access course materials and offers teachers many possibilities for encouraging them to develop media literacy, participate in an online information community and improve tech know-how. When it comes to helping digital natives strengthen important digital skills, Calaméo is at the top of the class.