Good Day All,

I am plugging away at a novel that I have been working on for about 3 years, and I feel like I will finally have a complete draft within the next few months.  That said, I would like to start preparing myself in advance for the self-publishing process, and would like to start gathering information on costs, materials, distribution, etc. I am very much a newbie to this process, so I need resources that will help me along every step of the way.

Does anyone have any good links or places they can point me to, or experience they would like to share on this process, from start to finish? Even a basic timeline would be helpful.  I have written most of the novel in Word, but I've also started using a program called Write It Now to try to organize it better. However, learning the software is taking up a lot of time, which I'd rather put into other things. Does anyone have any suggestions for a program that formats work into a book? What about printing and paper quality? Etc.

Also, as an aside, I have already hired an illustrator who has completed 4 images for me, however, the images do not capture my character's Blackness or the essence of her plight enough for me, so I'm thinking I may want to go with another illustrator, if affordable. So the incorporation of the images will also be a factor in this. If any illustrators are reading this, I would love to discuss more what I'm looking for and prices.

Any advice would be eternally appreciated!