How To Self Publish Your Book

If you’re looking to write and publish a book on your own, whether it's fiction, a memoir, a "how to" or a directory about the best Turkish food in Delaware, this article is for you -- an all-in-one breakdown of how to get it done.

In researching how to self-publish my first novel, Be Home By Dinner, I found many articles about different methods of each stage along the way. But I didn’t find articles that captured the full process from start to finish. There’s multiple avenues to go about the self-publishing process. This post explains the route I chose utilizing 8 unique online tools.

Although many consider it less prestigious than traditional publishing, there are benefits to self-publishing, including:

• Creative control
• Print on demand (kill less trees – no waste)
• Retain rights for adaptations
• Better royalties
• Longer shelf life
• Deadlines and schedules are yours to determine
• No agents needed (or months trying to find one)

1. Google Docs

If you have a GMAIL or other Google account, Google Docs provides a simple way to write wherever you have an internet connection. There’s also an offline mode as well. Google Docs continually saves as you write. Spelling and grammar checkers are included so you can see typos as they happen. (Of course, intent is not known by Google Docs or any software. This can cause headaches down the line, which I’ll explain.)

No need to click Ctrl S to save your work. Just keep on writing.

As your digital manuscript gets lengthy, there are chapter bookmarklet tools that add a Table Of Contents for hyperlinking to specific chapters. My novel was just over 87,000 words with 60 punchy short chapters, so this came in handy to hop around the book. This is also essential if you don’t write in chronological order.

Although Google Docs continually saved my progress, I saved copies of the document after each session. This may have been overkill, but provided insurance in case the master file got corrupted.

Google Docs Cost: Free

2. Google Sheets

I used Google Sheets to create a quick snapshot of each chapter via a spreadsheet. This included:

• Date Range
• Age Of Protagonist (as my story spanned 15 years)
• Chapter Number
• Chapter Title
• Characters Introduced
• Settings Introduced
• Chapter Highlights / Synopsis

No math formulas here. Just text.

I also color coded the backgrounds to emphasize which chapters had non-adjacent chapters of connected plot lines. As the story took place over a 15-year period, this spreadsheet was essential to piece the novel together and view the entirety of it at a singular glance. It served as a personal CliffsNotes.

Google Sheets Cost: Free

3. Pro Writing Aid

After the final draft was completed, I imported the manuscript into Pro Writing Aid. This tool identifies issues and recommendations for:

• Spelling
• Grammar
• Diction
• Accidental Homonyms
• Overused Phrases
• Cliche Use
• Sticky Sentences (that may slow down a reader)
• Overused Pronouns (which create a boring read)
• Alliteration Verification
• Echoes (phrases used in close proximity)
• Pacing (identify slower readability)
• Sentence Length Gauge (pointing out if they are varied or not)

Pro Writing Aid home page.

Any of the above are flagged by unique colors over the text and can be altered immediately. Or, the recommendation can be denied and never appear again.  

Pro Writing Aid offers a Google Chrome plugin to add to your Google Doc, but I preferred using the native application. 

The one thing that it doesn’t sniff for is context. The first printed edition of Be Home By Dinner had 14 overlooked errors. For example, “cell phone” was stated where “cellophane” was supposed to be. And this was in a chapter that took place before cell phones were prevalent. (My apologies to anyone that purchased this edition.) But this is the great thing about the print-on-demand service that Amazon offers. I uploaded the new file within an hour and new shipments had the corrected version within a day.

You may chose to bypass using Pro Writing Aid or other similar software options, but it offers a wealth of insight into your writing habits and allows for quick adjustments.

Pro Writing Aid Cost: $60 for a full year

4. Photoshop

If you have experience with Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, Gimp (which is free) or any other graphic design software, you can create your own ebook and paperback cover. One ebook cover is all that you need for all digital channels.

For the paperback print cover, Amazon provides extensive guidelines and templates for the back and front covers. Based on the page length, the spine size is revealed via a calculator.

“Be Home By Dinner” layout of front cover, spine and back cover.

If you don’t have graphic design skills, you can outsource your cover design to a wealth of designers on Fiverr.com. Rates start at $10.

Photoshop Cost: $20.99 / month

5. Pressbooks

Once you’ve nailed down your final draft, the next step is to find a layout software that will export your book into the required file types:

• PDF (for Amazon Paperback)
• EPUB (Barnes & Noble NOOK, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo etc.)
• MOBI (Amazon Kindle)

With Pressbooks.com, layout options for your book include:

• 20 unique themes for chapter fonts, body fonts, author page, disclaimers, copyright info, chapter listing, front matter, back matter and others, each with particular look and feel.

I went with the "Leonard" theme. The bold chapter title with a typewriter style font was ideal for a suspense novel and the drop cap at each chapter’s beginning was a nice decorative touch.

If you’ve ever used WordPress for managing web site content, Pressbooks may be the best option, as it’s built with WordPress. The above layout and navigation should look familiar.

Pressbooks allows you to add the META information about your book into the EPUB and MOBI ebook files. This info includes copyright information, book genre, book categories, ISBN (if you already bought one), taglines and descriptions, keywords to aid with search, and more.

Pressbooks Cost: $99 per book (if you want paperback and ebook)

6. Draft2Digital

To distribute your book to all ebook outlets outside of Amazon, such as Barnes & Noble NOOK Books, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo and several others that you likely never heard of, you’ll need to choose an online ebook distributor.

I went with Draft2Digital because of its simplistic setup, easy dashboard and royalties payment method and free ISBN (International Standard Book Number) number. These required digits are unique to your book and used as a commercial identifier. They are typically around $125.00.

Even though I marketed the option of buying my book on these non-Amazon channels, only about 1% of sales came from these offerings after 90 days. The paperback and Kindle ebook were dominant, but this won't be the case for everyone.  

Draft2Digital provides other services as well: Author Pages, Universal Book Links (with direct links to all channels of purchase), buttons for you website and more.

Draft2Digital Setup Cost: Free

Draft2Digital Royalties

• Authors earn 85% of ebook price.

7. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)

Whether you loathe them or not, Amazon.com is the essential online store for self publishers. According to Bloomberg.com, Amazon captures 88.9% of ebook sales and 41% of the physical book market.

As with Draft2Digital.com, you get a free ISBN when you publish your book through Amazon's KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Amazon also has their own unique number, called ASIN.

Amazon also provides an option to join KDP Select, which allows for a few unique perks:

• 5 days of free Kindle downloads (good for exposure and gaining quick readership)
• Kindle Countdown Deals (good for creating exclusive limited time offers)
• Kindle Unlimited program – This is like a Netflix for Kindle books and allows subscribers to read as many books as they want. Authors are paid on per pages read.

Amazon KDP Setup Cost: Free

Ebook Royalties

• Books priced from $2.99 to $9.99, authors get 70%.
• For books priced outside of the above range, authors get 35%.

Paperback Royalties

• You get 60% minus the cost of print production. My 6″ x 9″ book of 346 pages with matte finish was $4.99 each to produce.

8. Copyright

Copyrights prevent others from replicating all or part of your work and then selling it without your consent. With copyright protections, nobody can legally reproduce, distribute, copy or display your work publicly without your consent. This protection exists the moment that you create the work and lasts for 70 years beyond your death. Authors in the U.S. need to register their work before they can bring a suit for infringement in court.

Copyrighting your work registers it with the U.S. Copyright Office. To get started with copyrighting, go to Copyright.gov and select "Register A Literary Work". Have a digital version of your work ready to upload.

You don't need to copyright before publishing. Putting "Copyright © 2019 by Author Name" can be included in your publication's disclaimer or copyright page before you register.

Copyright Fee: $35 if done online or $85 if submitted via mail.

Questions on any of this? Feel free to reach out! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading.