How to publish a book, step by step

What are the steps to publish a book?

1. Finish and edit the manuscript. Check the length with the novel length checker.
2. Choose your formats and trim size. Paperback, ebook, hardcover or all three; compare sizes in the trim size guide.
3. Format the interior. Estimate the page count with word count to pages, then lay it out with a book interior template.
4. Design the cover. The spine width depends on the final page count; the KDP cover calculator gives the full wrap size and a template.
5. Get an ISBN if you need one. Paperbacks and hardcovers need one; ebooks do not.
6. Upload to a platform. KDP for Amazon, IngramSpark for bookstores and libraries, or both.
7. Set your price. Check what you earn with the royalty calculator.
8. Order a proof and publish. Then plan your launch with the book launch timeline.

Should you self publish or find a traditional publisher?

A traditional publisher buys the rights to your book, pays for editing, design and printing, and pays you an advance and royalties. Getting there usually means querying literary agents, and it can take a year or more before the book is even accepted. Self-publishing means you pay for or do that work yourself, keep the rights and the control, and can publish within days of finishing the files. Neither is free of effort; they spend different things.

Where should you self publish your book?

• KDP prints paperbacks and hardcovers on demand and sells them and Kindle ebooks on Amazon.
• IngramSpark distributes print and ebooks to bookstores, libraries and other online stores, and charges nothing to upload.
• Both: a common setup is KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for everywhere else, with your own ISBN.

For ebooks, KDP Select is optional: a 90-day program that adds your ebook to Kindle Unlimited in exchange for selling the ebook only on Amazon. Paperbacks are not affected.

How do you get the manuscript ready?

Finish the draft, then edit in layers: structure first, sentences next, typos last. A fresh reader or a professional editor catches what you no longer see. Count your words with the book word count checkerand keep the final file as a clean Word or Google Docs document, because formatting comes after editing, never before.

How do you format the interior and design the cover?

Choose the trim size first; it sets the page count, the printing cost and the cover size. Set margins that suit the page count with the margin and gutter calculator. For print, a full cover is back, spine and front in one file, with 0.125 in of bleed on the outside edges. Make the cover last, once the page count is final, because the spine width depends on it.

Do you need an ISBN to publish a book?

For paperbacks and hardcovers, yes; for ebooks on KDP, no. KDP gives a free ISBN that only works on KDP. To sell the same edition elsewhere, buy your own. Our guide answers whether you need an ISBN for KDP, and the ISBN barcode generator makes the back cover barcode.

How do you price and publish the book?

On KDP a paperback earns 60% of the list price from $9.99 on Amazon.com (50% below it), minus the printing cost. A 300-page novel at $14.99 earns $4.39 a sale. Upload, preview every page, order a proof, then publish. New books go live within 72 hours. For Amazon's field-by-field setup, readhow to self publish on Amazon.

What happens after you publish?

Check the live listing, then set up your Author Page so readers see your bio and other books. Plan the weeks around release with the book launch timeline. If you would rather hand the setup to someone, our publishing setup service works in your own accounts, so the book, rights and royalties stay yours.