I’m interested in independently publishing my book. Where do I start?

Typical route for INDEPENDENT/SELF-PUBLISHING

Please note that I have a sizable list of resources for topics discussed below on my Resources page and via PDF, available for free download/print at the bottom of this page and elsewhere through the SGA Books site.

1. Write the book, or at least get started writing it. A lot of these tasks can be done concurrently, and almost must be to stay ahead of the curve.

2. Start looking for a cover designer. Do not design your own cover unless you have a real talent for this. Buyers will destroy you in the reviews and the book won’t sell. We DO judge books by their covers!

3. Start looking for an editor to work with you on your book. Yup, you need an editor, and preferably not your high school English teacher or your neighbor who is good with commas. You need someone who specializes in fiction for a living. There are a ton of great editors out there (see my Resources page or scroll down to the bottom and click on the Resources PDF button) to help you start with the search. (Click through for a discussion of WHAT KIND OF EDITOR YOU NEED.)

4. Start building your email list! There are lots of PAID courses on this, but there are some great ones that are free, too, at least for the first few videos. I’ve compiled a list of some of the trusted newsletter/email companies widely used by the publishing industry for you as well. Also, start recruiting trusted readers who would be interested in either beta reading (wherein they read early drafts of the book to provide feedback) or ARC reading (you provide them with an ARC, or advance reader copy, of the not-quite-finished book with the hope they will write a review to help you sell the book when it’s released).

5. Spend time listening to podcasts and maybe looking into courses on marketing and sales, if you can afford it. And podcasts are FREE! YouTube is always a great source for education, but check out my Resources page or the PDF below for a thorough list of courses, podcasts, and educators within the indie community. SO many people are here to help!

6. When the book is done, send it to your editor and get busy on these other tasks. If you can, start writing the next book! 

7. Once your book has a COVER, add it to Goodreads and encourage your readers, friends, followers, and fans to add it to their bookshelves.

8. When the book comes back from the editor, REVISE and/or REWRITE IT. Writing is rewriting. If you throw a half-baked book onto Amazon, the reviewers will definitely let you know.

9. This step is optional, depending on your budget and time frame: Once the rewrite is done, you *might* want to send it for another round of editing. Again, totally optional. HOWEVER, a word of advice—if you think you might want multiple rounds of editing with the same editor, talk about this up front so the editor can book space for you. I am a freelance editor, and I can’t tell you how many times writers have booked me for a single round of editing and then decided they want another round, but I’m booked solid for months out, and they get mad because I can’t squeeze them in. Something to think about.

10. Hire a copy editor and/or proofreader to get those annoying, last-minute fixes in there. Readers will definitely let you know in the reviews if the book is riddled with errors! Also? No book is 100% error-free. It’s just the nature of the typo beast. It’s also tempting to hire someone who only charges $300 for a 100,000-word manuscript, but you get what you pay for. Do not cheap out when it comes to editing your book. A thorough copy or line edit and proofread is painstaking work and should not be rushed or skimped upon.

11. Look into ISBNs (international standard book numbers) to determine for yourself if you think you need one. I always get ISBNs for my books; they are free in Canada for Canadian writers. In the US and elsewhere, they are distributed via Bowker. Again, see my Resources page for a links so you can do a deeper dive into ISBNs. Also: You need a separate ISBN for every format of the book. A paperback needs its own ISBN, as does an e-book, hardcover, audiobook, and/or large-print book. (Please note that as of June 2021, Amazon KDP transitioned to ePUB formats instead of the prior proprietary MOBI format for their e-books.)

12. You can hire a formatter to make your e-book for you to put up on the online retailers (Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, Nook, etc.), OR you can use a program called Vellum, which is a gorgeous, user-friendly system that can create both e-books and paperback books. Note, however, that Vellum is Mac only. See this article for more in-depth info (from Dec. 2022): https://kindlepreneur.com/vellum-software-review/

Speaking of Kindlepreneur, another terrific formatting program is called Atticus, offered by Dave Chesson. See the Resources PDF for great online e-book converters via PublishDrive, Draft2Digital, Reedsy, and more. E-books come in the ePUB format for all e-retailer platforms. (You can also create a PDF, and you will need a PDF format for paperback. If you’re handy with InDesign, Photoshop, or Canva, have at it!) The Amazon system changed in 2021. Read up on accepted file formats here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634390

13. If you decide to make the book yourself, you might want to do both an e-book for online retailers as well as a paperback to sell at in-person events and to sign for fans (YES, paperbacks can also be made available for sale in the online retailers). Some folks just do NOT like e-readers, so they can buy your paperback book (a “real” book, they’ll say, which is a bit annoying, but folks are slow to adapt so you can correct them with “you mean a physical book”... LOL). IngramSpark does hardcover and large-print physical books, and Amazon KDP does hardcover editions. (The formatting for the cover design for paperback and hardcover are different, so make sure you talk to your cover designer when negotiating the contract for the files you will require.)

14. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is the platform you will use for Amazon. Even if you hate Amazon, this is where the MAJORITY of book sales happens.  

15. In terms of PAPERBACKS and other physical books: KDP Print and IngramSpark are two of the most popular print-on-demand (POD) platforms. (There are others, such as BookBaby, Blurb, and Lulu, but I have only used KDP, Ingram, and a local company called Island Blue Printworks.) POD means you can order one book at a time instead of having to shell out thousands of dollars for a huge print run that you then have to store in your garage. (This is what vanity publishers will do.)

Be very cautious of publishers who want $$$$ to print your book. There is a HUGE difference between “vanity” and indie publishing.

KDP Print distributes your paperback book via Amazon channels globally. Ingram is actually a massive, worldwide book distributor that services all the major bookstore chains, so uploading your book via IngramSpark means you have access to a MUCH wider distribution channel, i.e., your paperback book (or hardcover or large print, which Amazon does not offer at this time) can be made available to bookstores all over the world. (Just be sure to opt out of Amazon for the paperback distribution on your IngramSpark distribution dashboard.) Both KDP Print and IngramSpark provide templates to build physical books; you will need a PDF of your book for a paperback or hardcover. Your cover designer should be intimately familiar with how this all works. If you’ve hired them for a paperback, they will ask the final page count of the book, the trim size (which is the actual size of the physical book), as well as which paper you’re choosing (cream vs. white, as there are minute differences in paper weight).

16. In terms of distributing your FINISHED E-BOOK, you have a few options: 

     a. You can GO WIDE with distribution and upload yourself directly to Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP); you can upload your book directly via Kobo Writing Life. You can also upload directly to Nook via Barnes & Noble Press, to Apple Books for Authors, and to the Google Play store.

     b. You can go EXCLUSIVE with Amazon in a program called KDP Select. This will enroll your book in Kindle Unlimited (more info here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200798990). Do your research on this. Kindle Unlimited (KU) is a system where the book is exclusive to Amazon for at least 90 days (which means you cannot have it anywhere else, i.e., Nook, Kobo, etc. Amazon is VERY MILITANT about this, and you could get banned from their platform for life if you breach these terms). You get paid PER PAGE READ, rather than per purchase of the entire book, since readers don’t have to pay outright for the book; they get it for “free” as part of their Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription. At the end of the month, your page reads are paid from a communal pot, so you will get a percentage of that month’s pot based on how many pages readers finished of your book(s).

There are plenty of discussions out there about what’s better, KU vs. wide distribution, so make sure to read up and determine what’s best for your personal goals.

     c. You can use an AGGREGATOR or DISTRIBUTOR, such as PublishDrive or Draft2Digital (which acquired Smashwords in 2022). These are legitimate companies that have been around for a long time, and they are experts at what they do. You submit your book to them, and you can choose an expanded distribution so that the book is also available on a ton of marketplaces worldwide. 

Be aware, however, that they either take a percentage of sales OR they charge a monthly flat fee. Though their services are not free, they DO offer a huge convenience in distribution so you don’t have to deal with every single channel. Think about if you want to run a sales promotion on your book. If you are direct at every single platform, you have to log in to Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google, etc., and change the price of your book for the duration of the sale. What a pain! Going with a distributor means you go to your dashboard, change the price, and poof! It’s handled. Definitely something to consider. Time is money!

17. In terms of PRICING: As an indie author, you have TOTAL CONTROL over the price of your books. There’s lots of debate out there about $0.99 or even free e-books to generate interest (they call these “reader magnets,” and a lot of authors give away free books in exchange for people signing up for their newsletter/email lists), but ultimately, pricing has to come down to what YOU want out of this.

Most e-books will sell at $5.99 and under, and likely safer at $3.99 for a debut author. Readers can be notoriously frugal when it comes to e-books, and they’re very nervous about spending much more than five bucks on an author they’ve never read before. With the Amazon royalty structure, you earn either a 35% or 70% royalty, depending on the price of your book. Here’s their detailed page about the royalty structure: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200644210. Also visit the Barnes & Noble Press site and look at their royalty structure: https://press.barnesandnoble.com/. B&N Press also has a ton of resources on their site to help you make a gorgeous book.

Do some reading about the pros and cons of $0.99 or free first books in a series. If you do decide to give away one of your books (and this is really only a recommended strategy for those writers who have a series), there are online apps you can use, such as BookFunnel and InstaFreebie, so that you’re not sending people the actual book files.

18. Accept that book piracy is a thing, for ALL OF PUBLISHING, even the Big Five. Piracy costs the publishing industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Best you don’t help out pirates by emailing out PDFs or MOBI/ePUB files. You can chase the pirates all you want (and there are services who will do this for you, for a fee), but it’s like digging sand out of a hole. Infuriating, but part of our digital landscape. (There is a thing called “DRM,” or Digital Rights Management, that “locks” your e-book files, but sentiment steers away from using DRM as it’s super easy to crack and can actually punish consumers. Google “DRM on my books” and do some research. Further, look up your rights via the DMCA and talk to an attorney specializing in intellectual property for clarification.)

19. This is probably a no-brainer, but you’re going to need AT THE VERY LEAST some social media accounts to start getting the word out. And YES, YOU NEED A WEBSITE. Again, check out the comprehensive Resources page or the PDF at the bottom of this page! Also, refer to #17 in the Traditional Publishing route list for some ideas on how to market your book babies. This is an entirely new topic of conversation and study all by itself!

20. Copyright registration: If you are in Canada, register your book’s copyright online via the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. They will send you a lovely certificate in the mail with your book’s information on it. If you register your ISBN through the Library and Archives Canada, you will be asked to send copies of your digital and paper books to the legal deposit program.

If you are in the United States, register your copyright online. Follow the copyright office’s instructions for submitting physical and digital materials. (Apologies for not providing links for other countries.)