Nine steps, in this order: edit the manuscript, get a cover, format the interior, sort out ISBNs and your publisher name, choose where to sell, write the metadata, set the price, upload and proof, then launch. The first three are where the money goes. The middle four are decisions, and most of them are free. The last two take an afternoon and a few weeks respectively.
Self-publishing skips the gatekeeper, not the editing. At minimum the book needs a proofread; most need a copy edit as well, and a developmental edit if the structure isn't working. What each level costs is in how much it costs to self-publish. The course module Preparing the Book covers how to tell when a book is ready enough.
The cover is the one thing every potential reader sees, so it is usually the best money in the budget. An ebook needs a front cover only. A paperback needs a full wrap (back, spine and front), sized once the page count is final, so commission it to be finished after formatting. See Visuals, Legal, Identity.
An ebook is a reflowable file; a paperback is a fixed page layout with a chosen trim size. Free tools handle simple fiction well. Books with images, tables or complex layouts are where paying a formatter earns its fee.
Decide whether to buy your own ISBNs or take the free ones platforms offer. The free ones cost nothing but don't carry your imprint and don't move between printers. Read do I need an ISBN? and how to get an ISBN before you upload anything. Switching later is costly: on IngramSpark, moving from its free ISBN to your own means republishing the book as a new title. If you publish under a pen name, decide that now too: see can I publish under a pen name?
There are three common routes for the ebook:
For print, a common setup is KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for bookshops and libraries; KDP vs IngramSpark explains the split.
Title and subtitle, book description, keywords and categories. This is what decides whether readers find the book at all, and it is free to get right. What is book metadata? covers each field, and which categories to choose covers the one most authors guess at.
Price against comparable books in your genre, then check the royalty rules, because they are cliffs rather than slopes. On Amazon, Kindle ebooks earn 70% inside the $2.99–$12.99 band, 35% outside it. Print royalties come after printing costs, so check them per format. The arithmetic is in how much Amazon takes from a book sale.
Upload each format, page through the previewer, and order a physical proof of the paperback before you approve it. On KDP a new book goes live in up to 72 hours on Amazon.com, up to 5 days for print in other marketplaces, and up to 6 days for print from an account with no previous book. The full walkthrough is in how to self-publish on Amazon KDP.
A launch is a few weeks of concentrated effort: early reviews, your mailing list, maybe a price promotion. It is not a single day. After it, what sells a book over time is the next book. The course module Launch Without Losing Your Mind has an eight-week timeline, and getting reviews ethically covers what Amazon allows.
Verified 15 October 2026. The full process, step by step, is the free AuthorAZ Publishing Course.
Publishing Course
Publishing Database
Author Answer