Print is Dead

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Self-publishing a book: routes, real costs and traps

Publishing your own book is now straightforward to do and hard to do well. A practical guide to the steps, the money, and the companies to avoid.

Last reviewed October 2026

Not long ago, "self-published" was shorthand for "rejected". That has changed. Many writers now choose to publish their own books, some build substantial careers that way, and some move between self-publishing and traditional publishers over the course of a career. The tools are easy to use: you can upload a manuscript to a retailer's platform today and be on sale within days. What has not changed is that a book still needs editing, design, a market and a way to reach it. This guide walks through the decisions in order.

Self-publishing, traditional publishing and the space between

In traditional publishing a publisher buys the rights to your book, pays you an advance against royalties, and takes on the costs and risks of editing, design, printing, distribution and marketing. You give up control and most of the revenue per copy; in return you get a team, an upfront payment and access to bookshops.

In self-publishing you are the publisher. You keep the rights and a much larger share of each sale, and you make every decision, but you pay for everything and carry all the risk.

Between the two sit "hybrid" or "assisted" publishers, which offer publishing services in exchange for a fee and a share of revenue. Some are reputable small businesses; others are vanity presses under a new name. The test is simple: in an honest arrangement the money flows toward the author. We return to this below.

Step 1: edit before anything else

A common weakness of self-published books is that they were not edited enough. It helps to know the levels of editing:

Professional editors usually charge by the word, page or hour, and prices vary widely with the level of work and the editor's experience. Ask for a sample edit of a few pages before committing, and check references. Beta readers and critique groups are valuable, but they are not a substitute for an editor.

Step 2: cover and interior design

Readers do judge books by their covers, especially as thumbnails on a retailer's page. A cover has to signal the genre at a glance and look professional at a very small size. Many self-publishing authors hire a cover designer; many designers offer packages that include the e-book cover and the full wrap for print, with spine and back cover.

The interior matters too. A print book needs proper typesetting: margins, fonts, page numbers, running heads and chapter openings. An e-book needs a clean, valid file. See our guide to e-book formats for why a well-built EPUB is the best master file.

Step 3: ISBNs and metadata

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 13-digit identifier used by the book trade to identify a specific edition of a book. Each format, such as paperback, hardback and e-book, normally gets its own ISBN. ISBNs are issued by a national agency in each country, and the price varies: some countries charge for them, while others, such as Canada through Library and Archives Canada, issue them free to publishers based there. The International ISBN Agency lists the national agencies.

Some platforms offer a free ISBN, but it usually lists the platform, not you, as the publisher, and it may only be usable with that platform. If you plan to sell widely, buying your own is usually worth it.

Metadata, the descriptive information attached to your book (title, subtitle, description, categories, keywords, author biography, price, format details), is how retailers, libraries and search engines find it. Write it as carefully as you would the back cover.

Step 4: choose your distribution

E-books

You can publish e-books directly to individual retailers through their own author platforms, including Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, or through an aggregator that distributes one file to many stores and to library platforms for a fee or a share of royalties. Amazon offers additional benefits to authors who make an e-book exclusive to its store for a set period; whether that is worth giving up other stores and libraries is one of the biggest decisions in self-publishing, and the answer differs by genre.

Print

For print, self-publishers usually use print on demand: a copy is printed only when someone orders it, so there is no stock to buy and store. Retailer platforms offer print-on-demand paperbacks and often hardbacks, and services such as IngramSpark distribute print-on-demand books through the wholesale network that bookshops and libraries order from. Getting a book listed with a wholesaler is not the same as getting it stocked by shops, which depends on discounts, returns terms and demand. Our article on how bookselling works explains why.

Audio

Audiobooks can be produced through narrator marketplaces or independent producers; see audiobooks.

Step 5: marketing is the real job

Publishing a book does not mean anyone will find it. Self-published authors who do well usually treat marketing as an ongoing part of the work: a mailing list of readers, a consistent presence where their genre's readers gather, advance copies for reviewers, price promotions, and above all more books. In genre fiction especially, series sell earlier titles, and readers who finish one book look for the next.

Paid advertising on retailer sites and social platforms can work, but it is easy to spend more than a book earns. Start small, measure results and stop what does not pay for itself.

What it costs

Self-publishing can cost almost nothing if you do everything yourself, or several thousand dollars if you hire professional editing, design and narration. There are no reliable standard prices; rates vary by country, genre, length and the experience of the professional. A realistic budget usually puts most of the money into editing and the cover, because those do a great deal to decide whether a book sells. Be wary of any company that bundles all of this into an expensive package.

How to spot a vanity press

A vanity press makes its money from authors rather than from readers. Warning signs include:

Before signing with any service, search its name together with "complaints" and check organisations that track bad actors in publishing, such as Writer Beware, and author organisations such as the Authors Guild. Read the contract, and if possible have someone who knows publishing contracts read it too.

Using AI tools

If you use AI tools in writing or producing a book, check each platform's rules. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, for example, has since 2023 asked authors to disclose AI-generated text, images or translations when publishing, while not requiring disclosure for AI-assisted work such as editing suggestions. The copyright position of AI-generated material is also unsettled; see AI and books.

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