This course is the complete Publishing Manual, free and online. It is not a course you sit through in order and finish — it is an operating reference you enter at the decision you are currently facing.
Reading Strategy
Four ways to use it
- First read — end to end, to understand the landscape before making any decisions
- Reference use — jump straight to a lesson when you hit the decision it covers
- Path-specific — skip whole modules that do not match your assigned path. You do not need all of it
- Ongoing — update your approach as circumstances change. This is a living reference, not a fixed roadmap
How the Course Is Structured
Twelve modules. The first four are the foundation — choosing a path, preparing the book, legal and identity, distribution and metadata. The next three are the ongoing work: reviews, launch, and the promotion loop.
The remaining modules cover parallel paths, financial reality, the operating system that holds it together, and the questions nobody asks out loud. The final module is working reference — checklists, worksheets, trackers and scripts to copy and use directly.
Start With the Path Router
Before reading anything else, work through the Path Router. It assigns you a base path — KU-First, Wide-First, Query-Parallel, or Do Nothing Yet — and that assignment determines which lessons are immediately relevant to you and which can wait.
"You don't need to read every lesson before you act. You need to read your lesson — and act immediately."
What the Action Items Mean
Each module ends with Action Items split into three horizons: Immediate (do right now), This Week, and This Month. These are not aspirational lists. They are operational sequences: complete Immediate before moving to This Week.
Tracking Your Progress
Every lesson has a "Mark as complete" button, and the checklists and worksheets throughout remember what you ticked and typed. All of it is stored in your browser and nowhere else — there is no account, nothing is sent to AuthorAZ, and clearing your site data clears it.