How to Self-Publish a Book

What it means to self-publish a book

Self-publishing means you act as the publisher. Instead of selling the rights to a publishing house that pays you royalties and handles production, you make every publishing decision yourself: who edits the book, what the cover looks like, which formats exist, where it is sold, what it costs and when it launches. You pay the production costs up front and receive the publisher's share of each sale.

That control is the main attraction, along with speed. The trade-off is that quality is entirely your responsibility, and so is getting the book noticed. Be careful with companies that sell expensive publishing packages, sometimes called vanity or assisted publishing. Some provide real services; others charge for things you could buy separately for less, or take rights you would rather keep. Read the contract before you pay. If you are still choosing a route, our comparison of traditional and self-publishing sets out the trade-offs.

How to self-publish a book, step by step

Work backward from a target publication date and give each step its own deadline, with a buffer around every job other people do for you. Good editors and designers are often booked weeks ahead, and each round of corrections to a typeset file or a cover takes longer than you expect. Some platforms let you open ebook preorders before the final file is ready; only do that when the end is genuinely in sight, and read the platform's terms on missed deadlines first.

The order matters, because later steps depend on earlier ones. The cover's spine width, for example, depends on the final page count, which you will not know until the interior is typeset. A workable sequence:

1. 1Finish and revise the manuscript, including feedback from readers in your target audience.
2. 2Get it professionally edited: structural feedback first, then a copyedit.
3. 3Decide your formats: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook.
4. 4Choose a publishing name or imprint and obtain ISBNs for each format that needs one.
5. 5Commission the cover design and typeset the interior, then have the typeset pages proofread.
6. 6Write the metadata: title, subtitle, description, author bio, categories and keywords.
7. 7Upload files to your chosen retailers or distributor, set prices and order printed proof copies.
8. 8Check the proofs, fix errors, set a publication date and run your launch plan.

Pay for the right kind of editing

“Editing” covers three distinct jobs, and hiring the wrong one at the wrong time wastes money. A proofreader cannot fix a book whose chapters are in the wrong order, and a developmental edit on a manuscript you are about to restructure anyway is premature. Our guide to revising a nonfiction manuscript in passes covers what you can do yourself before you hire anyone.

Choose formats: ebook, print and audio

An ebook is usually the cheapest format to produce. EPUB is the standard ebook file format and is widely accepted by retailers. Most books use a reflowable layout, where text adapts to the reader's screen; heavily illustrated books such as cookbooks or children's picture books may need a fixed layout instead, which is more work and displays well on fewer devices.

Print-on-demand lets you sell paperbacks and hardcovers without holding stock: a copy is printed when someone orders it. The cost per copy is higher than a large offset print run, but you avoid storage and unsold inventory. Offset printing makes sense when you know you will sell many copies directly, for example at talks or to organizations. Audiobooks need narration, by you or a hired narrator, plus editing and mastering, so they are the most expensive format to produce; many authors add one later, once the book has proved itself.

Design a cover and interior that look professional

Readers judge a self-published book by its cover before anything else, and the cover has to work at the size of a small thumbnail on a retailer's page. Study the covers of successful recent books in your category and brief a designer on those conventions: a business book should look like a business book. For print, the designer needs a full wrap with front, spine and back, and the spine width depends on your final page count and paper choice.

The interior matters as much. Professional typesetting means readable type, sensible margins, running heads, consistent headings and no stranded single lines at the top or bottom of pages. A nonfiction book also needs front matter, such as a title page, copyright page and contents, and often back matter: notes, a bibliography and, for reference-heavy books, an index. Have a proofreader read the typeset pages, not only the manuscript, because typesetting introduces its own errors.

Distribution, metadata and pricing

You can upload directly to large retailers' self-publishing platforms, such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, or use a distributor or aggregator that sends your book to many stores and library services in exchange for a share of each sale. Reaching bookstores in print usually means a wholesale listing; stores expect a trade discount and often the ability to return unsold copies, so check those settings carefully. Some retailers offer extra promotion if your ebook is exclusive to them for a set period, which you should weigh against being available everywhere. If you use ISBNs, each format needs its own, issued by the national ISBN agency for your country; check its rules and prices before you buy.

Metadata decides whether anyone finds the book. For nonfiction, the subtitle should state the promise plainly. Choose subject categories precisely, write a description that names the reader's problem and what the book does about it, and price by looking at comparable titles. A print price must cover the printing cost plus the retailer's share, so run the numbers per format, then see how to market a nonfiction book for the launch.

Mistakes that cost self-published authors most

Most self-publishing problems are avoidable with planning, and nearly all of them come from rushing a step or doing steps out of order. These are the ones that show up again and again:

• Skipping professional editing, or hiring a proofreader when the book needed a developmental edit.
• Designing the cover yourself without studying what works in your category, or choosing a design that is unreadable as a thumbnail.
• Paying for a bundled package before checking what each service would cost on its own and what rights the contract takes.
• Accepting a free ISBN without understanding who it names as publisher and where it can be used.
• Pricing by guesswork: a print price that barely covers printing costs, or an ebook price far out of line with comparable books.
• Approving files without ordering and reading a printed proof copy.
• Launching to no one: building an email list or audience only after the book is out.