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,