Can you publish a book online

She decided to go with indie publishing because she felt her writing style would not be appreciated by the more staid publishing houses.

Experienced self-publishers all agree that the best place to start is online. There is a great deal of information now available to help guide the new self-publisher though the challenges of editing, promotion, and so on, much of it excellent. There are groups on Facebook and other social networks, and a variety of books and blogs that can give you a start such as those written by Aukes and Gaughran.

Face-to-face contact also helps. And be serious about your goals as an author. A lot of people are not very good at catching all those little errors. There are a number of tools available. Two that seem most often cited by experienced indie publishers are Vellum , Mac software that helps you format and produce both ebooks and print books, and Draft2Digital , an ebook distributor that offers free formatting.

And as with editing, you can also hire someone to do the formatting for you. That can get you into a lot of trouble. Aukes tried creating her own covers when she first started, and soon gave up. So how do you find editors and cover artists?

A good place to start is to ask around among your contacts in online self-publishing groups, conventions, and meetups. There is the Editorial Freelancers Association , which offers both lists of freelancers and advice on rates and other hiring considerations. There are also sites that offer access to vetted lists of professionals, such as Reedsy. Aggregators can also get ebooks into channels that authors cannot approach directly; e.

Some aggregators, like Lulu and Bookbaby, even distribute and retail print books. The list of companies below follows no particular order. You can choose to publish with one or more of them. Owned by Amazon, KDP publishes and retails ebooks that can be read on Kindle devices or on devices that have installed the Kindle app.

If you are willing to grant Amazon exclusive distribution of your ebook for a day period, you can enroll into KDP Select, a marketing program that helps authors promote books largely through discounts and countdown deals. If KDP Select works well for you and discounting is an effective way to promote sales—as the success of book promotional services like Bookbub shows , you can re-enroll into the program as many times as you want. Participation in KDP Select also makes your book available to subscribers of Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners Lending Library for Amazon Prime members, and you will receive additional payments depending on the number of pages subscribers read.

Kindle ebooks use the. MOBI format, unlike most other publishers who use. If you have created your ebook in Word, you can convert it to. MOBI using free conversion software like Calibre.

Books published with CreateSpace retail exclusively on Amazon, unless the author has opted into their Expanded Distribution program. Start there. Depending on your budget, you can either hire a professional book editor or hire a more budget-friendly editor from Upwork. But be careful and always check references and portfolios of work.

As a Self-Publishing School student, we will also provide you with a Rolodex of approved and vetted book editors who all do a great job, as you can see in the example below. Make sure the editor is interested in the subject matter , that they can get your whole book edited in 3. Find a friend or professional editor who can make sure your book is error-free, and start working with them sooner rather than later! When it comes to self-publishing, a high-quality book cover is one of the most important elements that will get your book to convert into sales!

The reason is that your book cover design is what readers see first and will immediately determine whether they want to read your book or not. The hard truth is that everyone judges a book by its cover whether they realize it or not. So you must make sure that it is created professionally and that it will stand apart from the rest of the books in your genre or category.

Prices will vary depending on what type of service you want, but the end result will be well worth the spend.

Find a book designer with any of these sites and your book will stand apart from the rest of its competition! Amazon has a self-publishing service called Kindle Direct Publishing where you can create and manage your Kindle eBook, paperback, and audiobooks. This means you can now offer print books to your audience. Follow these steps to create your KDP account! With this platform, you can figure out how to publish your book within minutes and soon have it appear worldwide!

You can start by looking at Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing forums where there are plenty of discussions on book formatting. Formatting can be a frustrating experience for the uninitiated though, so if you have a few bucks to spare, you might consider paying someone to help you.

Also keep in mind that formatting will look different for fiction versus nonfiction books. Make sure your book is formatted properly by using the free online resource above or hiring someone who can handle the formatting process for you. When you feel confident your book is ready for the public, you can create a KDP account and upload your book.

Amazon also allows you to select 7 keywords or keyword phrases to make sure your intended audience can find your book when searching on Amazon.

To select keywords and categories, look at other best-selling books in your niche and notice what keywords and categories those authors chose.

Once Amazon finishes uploading your file, a confirmation message will be sent and you can preview the uploaded file to check for any errors. Create your Amazon author central account after uploading your book. Include a bio, photo, and link to your website or blog to help you stand out among authors. Afterward, you should be ready to publish your book! One of the most important decisions when it comes to self-publishing a book is how to price it.

Then I would set the price to 2. Once you see a sales dip, that will determine the exact price of your book that will guarantee book sales. Find the perfect price by using this strategy that will attract your readers and best drive long-term success. In days past, self-publishing a book involved getting a print run and paying up-front for thousands of copies. You pretty much always ended up with copies that you couldn't sell. Thankfully, modern publishing has provided simple solutions to this problem!

If you're looking for the simplest solution, here it is: just publish your book with KDP. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing is an author platform that lets you upload your book and list it for free. Readers can then buy the ebook or have a print version created for them at the click of a mouse. No need to understand how the sausage is made: Amazon has simplified the process. However, if you want to dig a bit deeper and explore your options, carry on reading With POD print on demand , authors can upload their book files to a printing service.

This service will churn out individual copies as, and when, they are purchased. The cost-per-unit is higher than with printing methods of traditional publishers, but the lack of risk still makes this the preferred option of self-publishing authors.

However, it's worth investigating the options to see which one makes more sense for you and your book. After all, KDP offers the highest percentage royalty, and ebooks are usually priced lower than print books.

Additionally, once the book is on an e-reader, the quality of the product is virtually indistinguishable from something that a big publisher puts out. Take our 1-minute quiz below to find out. Anybody can get their book onto the Amazon store and therefore the ubiquitous Amazon Kindle for free.

Yet few people know how to do it properly. For instance, when uploading your title, there are certain things you can do to increase visibility with your readers. Then there's the matter of getting the people who find your book to buy it. To succeed here, you need to turn yourself into a bit of an Amazon expert. Fortunately, we have everything you need to do so! Apart from writing a great book, all of the other steps above can be realized through an afternoon of research and work.

But when it comes to marketing in self-publishing, things start to get a little more involved. The good news is that there are tried-and-tested methods for promoting your title, including automated mailing lists, price promotions, and online advertising.

Here are some articles on marketing and ads for self-published authors. To give yourself the best chance at thriving on Amazon and other platforms, your title must accumulate a healthy dose of book sales and reviews soon after its release. With that in mind, a lot of work needs to go into preparing your book launch. You now have enough knowledge to actually go and self publish your book. Assuming that your finances are in place, that is Money is an obstacle that nearly all self-publishing authors will face.

At this point, you are solely responsible for funding everything to do with your book. However, that doesn't mean you need to empty your savings account in order to publish it! Read on to find out the facts about financing your book. Here are two excellent resources that can help you determine your costs and find alternate ways to cover them:.

The upside to all this, as we hinted at earlier, is that by bearing most of the costs, the self-publishing author also gets to enjoy most of the spoils. This massive disparity is one of the reasons why J. Rowling has dipped her toes into self-publishing. Clever, eh?

There's plenty more to learn when it comes to becoming a smart and efficient publisher, so as a send-off, here are a few additional resources to help you make your way to the top of the bestseller charts:. The journey to publishing a book can be treacherous, but if you prepare yourself adequately and surround yourself with the right people, it can also be one of the most satisfying experiences of your life.

I've spent the past few hours being inspired I saw the cute typewriter graphic in the banner, and just HAD to try and make my own! Great banner design deserves a shout-out too!