This step-by-step guide on how to self-publish a book will take you from beginning to end on the self-publishing route and how to succeed.

One of the things that scared me most about self-publishing was that I had no idea what to do. I knew I couldn’t just upload it to Amazon and call it good. After researching, I found that a lot of unnecessary time, money, and energy sometimes goes into self-publishing. This list is for anyone who wants to self-publish right but simple. 1. Editing I cannot stress enough just how important a good editor is. Of all the things you absolutely cannot do yourself, of all the things that are worth spending money on, and editor is it. You can find editors for lower prices on sites like Upwork, Reedsy, or just by searching for a freelance editor. Freelancers are a great option because the money you pay them goes directly to them, and you aren’t paying the company they work for. 2. Book Cover I’ve said before that you can totally do your own book cover as lit my as you have software experience, a good idea, some time, and a lot of confidence. I’ve made all of my book covers with no regrets, especially since I’ve been asked by other authors who my cover designer is *score!* But if you aren’t confident enough to design your own cover, you can also find freelance designers on Upwork, Reedsy, or get a premade cover here. They have some pretty great covers if you look enough. And the prices are fairly low. I’m even considering making some covers to sell on the site for spare cash. 3. Formatting This is something not a lot of people think about in the beginning. I sure didn’t. But, you can’t just take your regular old word doc and upload it to Amazon. You have to make sure the page size is right, he margins work, so chapter headings, it’s very tedious. You can definitely do this yourself, but if you don’t have the time or energy, you can find a freelancer for this too. There are also several companies that do this for a larger fee. But, from what I’ve seen it’s not outrageous. 4. Distributor When people think of self-publishing, Amazon is often the first thought coming to mind. That, or vanity publishers. But, Amazon isn’t the only distributor. You can also use Ingram Spark or Smashwords to distribute your books. Ingram Spark has upfront fees, but none that aren’t worth it. 5. Promotion Plan One of my biggest failures in self, publishing was not having a plan for promotion. And not just that, I didn’t have a budget for it either. A promotion plan can be as simple as plans for tweets, Instagram uploads, and Facebook posts, or as complicated as a full publicist and book tour. It all depends on your budget and how much time you’re willing to put in. Either way, having some sort of plan is important. 6. Author Platform It took a long time before I knew what this even was, and my platform is still incredibly poor. But, I’m working on it. I suggest getting started right away making pages for your writing career on social media. Make friends not foes. Join blogs and forums. Become active. Talk to people about your books, and not just to family. I hope this has been simple enough to get you started on your self-publishing journey. My biggest suggestion for other blogs to read is The Creative Penn. Joanna knows more about publishing than half the publishing houses combined! Good luck! Xoxo, Ellie,

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Hey Maverick! I thought I want to do something a little bit different! I want to share some kindle-tastic kindle publishing tips with you! Everday I receive emails and messages asking me how I build my website, publish books, run my Instagram, Pinterest etc Truthfully, I’m not that confident that everything I do actually…

This step-by-step guide on how to self-publish a book will take you from beginning to end on the self-publishing route and how to succeed.

Formatting your book correctly for self-publishing on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is important because it can affect the overall quality and professional appearance of your book. Proper f…

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Are you like me? I resisted self-publishing for years. I thought self-publishing was like giving up. I thought it wouldn't mean that I had "made it" or become "successful." And honestly, I was just too afraid to try because I didn't know how! Here it is, fellow writers! Here's how to self-publish with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for both Kindle and paperback!

Want to become self-published author and make money selling your books? Use this 5 step guide to learn how to publish a book on Amazon.

This step-by-step guide on how to self-publish a book will take you from beginning to end on the self-publishing route and how to succeed.

Need to know how to publish a book on Amazon? Discover all the steps for publishing your book on Amazon in this quick start guide!

We help you secure legal rights and profits from sales: ISBN number ownership, managing upload accounts + more. Paper Raven Books: Where writers become published authors.

Have you make any mistakes in MKDP? Here I share 5 of my low content publishing mistakes via kindle direct publishing. Share some of yours with me!

If you’ve read my post about why I self-published, then you probably know that despite my lack of monumental success, I have no regrets. Having control over my books and not having to depend on the preferences of a literary agent was everything to me. I follow so many authors who talk about querying for 10 years before getting their first book deal. The idea of waiting that long, having that much disappointment, probably would have just made me throw in the towel. I’m glad I chose to self-publish. I do, however, wish I’d done a tad bit more research before hand. So, here are five things I wish I’d known before I self-published. An Professional Editor is Important. When I published my first book, I decided to let my mom do the editing. My mom has an English degree, and she had always dreamed of being an editor at a major publishing house. I thought I could help us both reach our dreams in one fell swoop. But, as it turned out, my mom was super busy. And, while she put forth an amazing effort, there were a lot of things she didn’t know about editing books. I love her for trying, but I wish I’d just let her be my number one fan. You Need High Quality Photos For Your Cover When it comes to publishing, you should try your best to make everything as professional as possible. Just because your book is self-published doesn’t mean it has to look self-published. That being said, when I published my book, I used a photo of a friend that I took with a cheap camera in a coffee shop. I didn’t have quality editing software, and I knew basically nothing about editing book covers. Not even my author photo on the back was professional! I wish I’d taken the time to get a stock photo. Or asked a friend with a better camera to take the photo for me. In the end, I had to redo the entire cover to match the quality that I wanted for book two. Formatting Takes Forever I’m not exaggerating. It took me a solid month when formatting my first novel to get everything just right. And, I’m still pretty sure my eBooks are a little rough. While hiring someone to format can seem like a big cost, it’s totally worth it if you don’t know what you’re doing. And hiring someone else gives you more time to focus on marketing. Marketing is Almost More Important Than Editing Almost. I totally agree with most authors. You can’t sell a poor product. That just leads to equally poor reviews. But, you also can’t sell a product that no one knows about. So, market market market. And then market some more. Ask for reviews, do a blog tour, promote, ask for editorial reviews, submit to contests if you can afford it. Because, all of those things get your book out there in front of readers. When I first published, I thought people would just find my book because it was there. And, I truly believe my lack of marketing skills killed the launch. You Need Reviews When I first published, I had no idea how much reviews meant. And I didn’t make any effort to get them until long after I’d published. I was young, and while I did a lot of research on self-publishing, I must have skipped the part where people talked about how important reviews are. It’s not a want or a hope. You need reviews. Good, bad, ugly (hopefully not ugly). Without reviews, your book won’t show up in ranking. You can’t hope to be seen among all the other books with the same title, which happens a lot. There are plenty of ways to get more reviews. I have a post about it here. Of the books I have published, the books with the most reviews have sold the best. I wish you happy self-publishing,xoxoEllie,

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Hey Maverick! I thought I want to do something a little bit different! I want to share some kindle-tastic kindle publishing tips with you! Everday I receive emails and messages asking me how I build my website, publish books, run my Instagram, Pinterest etc Truthfully, I’m not that confident that everything I do actually…

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“Look, I still get a hundred dollar check from Amazon after so many years!” My dad-in-law shouted in excitement. It’s not a BIG check. But wait… he has done nothing over the past four years except putting up a book on Amazon. No promotion. No paid advertisement. No writing. Nothing. And…

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Looking to take your book marketing and writing game to the next level? AI is the way to go! Check out our blog post, "AI for Authors: How ChatGPT and Other Tools Can Transform Your Writing & Book Marketing" to learn about using AI for market research, writing, revising, editing, and even marketing and book sales. We promise you'll come away feeling encouraged and inspired to try AI to help with authorship.

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Condense the meaning of your book into one visual design. Understand how we judge book covers. Think like a reader. Take creative control. Paper Raven Books: Your team publisher.

Self-publishing is when an author prints and distributes their own work themselves—usually through a self-publishing platform. An easy guide to self-publishing.

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We push methods that work: self publishing + agents that specialize in your book's niche and will shop your proposal to publishers. Paper Raven Books: editing, design, self publishing.

*furiously takes notes*

Learn how to sell a self-published book, including who to sell your book to and how to have steady sales even after launch is over.

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My first Q4 Amazon Self Publishing. It was just over a year ago that I properly started self publishing low content books on KDP! Here are my results - then vs today!