Lesson 1: Selecting a Self-Publishing Service

Learning Outcome

Identify and use the publishing service most appropriate for a given project.

Describe the key differences between publishing services.
Locate and download all files necessary to format book interiors and covers that comply with a chosen service's requirements.

Lesson

The first necessary step in publishing your creative work is to select the path that's best for you. Your choice of publishing platform(s) will affect how you'll design and format your work, where the finished product will be sold, and how much you'll earn per sale. Different services are appropriate for different types of publications, so there is no one "right answer" for how to do things in self-publishing.

This course was designed in the summer of 2019. The landscape of publishing is evolving at a breakneck pace, so the information here could be outdated in a year or two as companies release new technologies and as new retailers and aggregators come and go. If you revisit this lesson in future years, make sure you also research what other opportunities might have popped up in the world of self-publishing.

The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing

Cons

Self-publishing doesn't pay well.

Though you'll see high-profile superstars like Amanda Hocking and Hugh Howey celebrated on blogs, the Authors Guild's 2018 Author Income Survey found the median annual book-related income for self-published authors is $1,951.

Self-published authors earn fifty-eight percent less than traditionally published authors, possibly due to the limited distribution of "indie" books. Twenty-five percent of all published authors earn $0 annually from their books.

Self-published books have limited distribution.

A self-published book will not be sold at a big retail store like Target, and it's difficult to place it even in small independent bookstores. Libraries often have collection development policies that require books to be reviewed by certain publications that accept very few or no self-published titles.

Self-publishing requires many skills.

Traditional publishers perform developmental and copy edits, design interiors and covers, and distribute books to retailers. When self-publishing, you'll need to accomplish all of these yourself to professional standards.

Depending on your goals, you might consider hiring freelance editors, photographers, designers, publicists, or other professionals. Expect to pay upwards of $1,000 for each service for quality work.

Self-publishing is time-consuming and potentially costly.

Expect to devote many hours or days to each of the tasks required to self-publish a work. If you want to sell your work widely, marketing will be a continuous daily effort.

Even if you don't hire any freelancers to help, you'll need to pay for proofs of your product. Paperbacks can cost between $10 and $20 each. Hardcovers will cost upwards of $30. Certain self-publishing platforms have title setup fees as well.

Pros

You have full creative control.

Traditionally published authors have little control over some editorial demands, cover designs, and even the title of the work. In self-publishing, you make all creative decisions.

You have full business control.

You can make decisions about pricing and retail availability for your title, and then change your mind at anytime. You can choose to give away your book for free, try promotional discounts, take advantage of exclusive platform programs, or do anything else you think best.

You also retain the intellectual property rights to make audiobooks, spin-offs, video adapations...whatever you want! Unlike in a traditional publishing contract, when you use self-publishing services your IP remains yours in whatever form it takes.

Self-publishing is relatively fast.

Though putting the product together takes time, you can have your work out in the world in a matter of days or weeks. Traditional publishing moves at a glacial pace, with books hitting the shelves a year or two after completion. (Not counting the months required to sign with an agent, auction the book, and negotiate a publishing contract.)

Self-publishing is personally rewarding.

It's a great feeling to hold a book in your hands and say, "I made this." It's an even better feeling show it to others and hear, "You made this?!"

Traditional publishing is a demanding industry in which commercial success is the only kind of success that matters. Publishers are businesses whose goal is to make money, after all. If your primary goal is not to make money, self-publishing might be a better fit.

Activity: What are your goals?

Take some time now to reflect on and write down your goals for this course.

What creative work do you want to publish? (A novel, anthology, or memoir? A book of photos and poetry? Family recipes?)
What do you want to accomplish through publication? (Make a gift for friends? Supplement your income? Share a message?)
How much time and money are you willing to invest in this project?

The answers to these questions will help you decide which self-publishing services are best for you.

Introduction to Formats

If you haven't worked in the publishing or library industries, the format options you see offered by self-publishing services can be overwhelming. Here's a brief glossary of the terms you'll see on pricing pages and formatting guidelines.

eBook Terms

Fixed Format

These files have the text and images set in specific places, and they don't adjust with the size of the screen. Example: PDF

Reflowable Format

These files allow the contents to wrap around as the font or screen size grows and shrinks. MOBI files for Kindle and EPUB files for other eReader apps are reflowable.

Printing Terms

Offset Printing

In the past, printing presses made all books on literal presses: machines that press inked plates to paper. In offset printing, the aluminum plate is first wrapped around a cylinder. That cylinder transfers an ink design to an second "offset" cylinder with a rubber blanket, which stamps the design on paper. This is the method used in the mass production of books or other publications.

Print on Demand (POD)

Print on Demand technology uses digital inkjet or toner printing, just like the printers commonly sold for homes and offices. The quality of this technology has improved enough in recent years to make POD books nearly indistinguishable from offset-printed books to the average reader. Instead of making plates to print off thousands of books and place them in retail stores, a publishing company can use POD to print off one or two copies at a time after they're ordered by an end consumer on a website like Amazon.

The cost of production per book is unavoidably higher with POD, but the technology allows self-publishers to produce books quickly and easily, without investing in large print runs.

Trade Book

These are commercial books for general readers sold in stores. Publishers differentiate them from academic and professional reference books, which they sell through different channels.

For a self-publisher, the distinction between trade and other books is likely meaningless, but when using a service you might have to select "trade book" to find the printing options you want. Trade books can be paperback (or "softcover," the pages wrapped in a printed coverstock) or hardcover (the pages sewn together, then glued into a case made of stiff boards).

Trim Sizes

Books come in standard sizes, called "trim sizes" because they're trimmed down to these dimensions in the last stage of production. Most paperbacks today are sized 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" or 6" x 9".

Perfect Bound Paperback

Paperbacks are the most affordable format to produce. Perfect Binding is a method of constructing the book by gluing the pages together at the spine. Then the whole book is trimmed down on the sides for uniform "perfect" edges.

Saddle Stitch Paperback

These books are bound by folding the pages and stapling them together in the center. The method is commonly used for short publications like manuals, comic books, concert and conference programs, etc. Books must be less than eighty pages long to use this binding method.

Dust Jacket Hardcover

In these hardcovers, the boards are typically wrapped in a cloth like dyed linen, then covered in a loose printed paper jacket for looks and (minimal) protection.

Casewrap Hardcover

Instead of cloth, these hardcovers are wrapped in a glossy laminate. This finish is common for school textbooks and children's picture books. Some services offer casewrap hardcovers with dust jackets.

Retailers vs. Aggregators

Self-publishing services can be broadly categorized as retailers or aggregators, though companies can fall into both categories at once.

Retailers

Retailers sell books directly to consumers. You've almost certainly purchased something from the first company on the list below.

Amazon

Formats: eBooks and paperbacks

Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform allows authors to publish both Kindle eBooks and Print on Demand (POD) paperbacks. Hardcovers are not an option.

Authors can enroll in the Kindle Select program, which offers some promotional opportunities and places titles in the Kindle Unlimited lending library. Kindle Select eBooks are exclusive to Amazon only and cannot be sold anywhere else, though there are no restrictions on print.

Barnes & Noble

Formats: eBooks and print (paperback or hardcover)

Barnes & Noble Press has a smaller market share than Amazon, but it allows authors to publish eBooks for NOOK devices. Authors can also print POD paperbacks or hardcovers.

B&N partners with third-party service providers for additional paid services like marketing, editing, design, and website development.

Apple Books

Formats: eBooks only

Apple's Pages application now offers book creation functions, replacing the previous iBooks Author software. The program for Mac, iPad, and iPhone devices offers attractive templates and EPUB exporting.

Rakuten Kobo

Formats: eBooks only

Canadian company Kobo offers Kobo Writing Life for publishing eBooks to Kobo devices. Though U.S. marketshare is low, the company is popular internationally.

Aggregators

Aggregators allow authors to sell books through multiple retailers from one platform.

Smashwords

Formats: eBooks Only

In the early 2010s, Smashwords was the most popular platform for eBook self-publishing. It was one of the first aggregators to distribute to retailers like Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Though Smashwords also advertises placement in OverDrive for libraries, only bestsellers in certain "Buy-Lists" will be included. The company does not offer print services.

One popular feature of Smashwords is the ability to create free book coupons for giveaways. Some downsides to using Smashwords are: the interface is old and clunky; the software accepts Microsoft DOC (not DOCX!) files or EPUBs only; and to publish on Amazon, authors must use KDP in parallel.

Draft2Digital

Formats: eBooks only

Like Smashwords, Draft2Digital (D2D) is a platform for publishing eBooks to multiple retailers. They're a younger company with several strengths over Smashwords.

The interface is newer and slicker.
They publish to Amazon, so you don't need to do that separately.
The sophisticated software formats eBooks automatically. You can choose from a couple of different templates for interiors.
You can create "Universal Book Links," which scan the web for all retailers that sell the book to display them in one place.

In 2018 D2D announced D2D Print, a paperback POD service that can distribute to Amazon and Ingram partners. D2D Print is fully functional, but still in beta for reasons addressed in the September 2021 article, "Everything you Need to Know About D2D Print."

Lulu

Formats: eBooks and print (paperback or hardcover)

Lulu is one of the most established Print-on-Demand (POD) companies. Authors can publish paperback and hardcover books (or calendars) for distribution online through Lulu.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. They also distribute eBooks to those retailers, plus Apple Books and Kobo.

One advantage of Lulu is the free ISBNs for all formats. Uploading titles is also free. In April 2020, Lulu updated its outdated and buggy interface to be more usable, with interesting new features like an API to sell books directly from an author or small press website (see "What's New at Lulu? Literally, Everything"). Lulu is an appropriate choice for your project if you have limited funds and you want to distribute both print and eBook formats through several different retailers with consistent ISBNs.

IngramSpark

Formats: eBooks and print (paperback or hardcover)

IngramSpark is a platform by Ingram, a printing company used by many academic presses and media publishers. They offer paperbacks in a large range of sizes, and casewrapped hardcovers with or without jackets in select trim sizes.

Unlike Lulu, IngramSpark charges title setup fees—$25 for eBook only and $49 for print/eBook. Formatting PDFs for this service requires advanced graphic design skills. Purportedly the print books are very high quality, and the company offers discounts for large book orders.

This service would be an appropriate choice if you intend to start a small press that distributes books to brick-and-mortar retailers or prints books in bulk to sell directly. For example, Moonglade Press used IngramSpark to distribute local poet Ellen Waterston's anthology, Hotel Domilocos, Poems.

Blurb

Formats: eBooks and print (paperback or hardcover)

Blurb is another company that partners with Ingram. They publish paperback and hardcover trade books, magazines, and eBooks (sort of). Internet articles recommend Blurb for highly visual works, like photo books.

Blurb charges conversion fees for eBooks, and they offer only fixed layouts for iPad and PDFs. Their software options are a web-based software Bookify, a free downloadable program BookWright, and plugins for Adobe InDesign and Lightroom.

BookBaby

Formats: eBooks and print (paperback or hardcover)

Portland-based BookBaby offers a range of services from a "complete" publishing package to custom print distribution, eBook conversion and distribution, and various a la carte services (editing, cover design, etc.).

This service has high start-up costs—minimum $250 for eBooks and $300 for bulk print orders, plus additional POD fees—but it also has wide distribution to stores like Powell's and to libraries via OverDrive and Hoopla.

How Bookstores Work

If you want to use a platform like IngramSpark to stock your print books in brick-and-mortar stores, keep in mind that you might do so at your own risk.

Bookstores often stock titles from publishers on the understanding they can later return all copies they're unable to sell. Publishers must then decide whether to attempt to sell the inventory elsewhere or cut their losses and destroy the books.

If you sign up for print distribution with IngramSpark, you can choose not to make your books returnable. Print-on-Demand books are also usually not returnable, because they're printed to order. However, bookstores will likely choose not to stock the title.

If you choose to make your books returnable, understand that if the stores do return unsold stock, IngramSpark will charge you "the wholesale cost of returns plus any applicable shipping and handling fees." Other services with print distribution likely have similar policies because this not an Ingram-specific policy, but standard practice in the publishing industry.

For a more detailed explanation, see Understanding Book Returns with IngramSpark.

Activity: Choose Your Service(s)

For the remainder of this class, research the services above (or others, if you find them!) and choose the option(s) you think best for your project. Make sure to carefully read the Terms of Use (TOUs) and other contractual agreements.

Before our next class, please do the following.

Set up an account for the platform(s) of your choice and write down the login credentials.
Select a format (hardcover or paperback) and trim size for your print book.
Using your selected trim size, if necessary, find the interior formatting requirements or a template file for your chosen service. We'll use these in the next lesson to format your manuscript.

The table below summarizes the features of the services described in this lesson. Keep in mind that most of the TOUs are not exclusive contracts, so you can mix and match! For example, you might choose Draft2Digital to publish your eBooks, then take the print file to Lulu to make paperbacks. Or you might launch the book on Amazon KDP to take advantage of KDP Select promotion tools for a few months, and later upload the book to Smashwords to distribute to other platforms.

Retailers

Service	Start-Up Costs	Print Formats	eBook Apps & Devices	ISBNs included?
Amazon KDP	Free	Paperback only	Kindle	Paperbacks only (eBooks get ASINs instead)
Barnes & Noble Press	Free	Paperback Casewrap hardcover Hardcover with dust jacket	NOOK	Yes, both print and eBooks
iBooks	Free	None	Apple products	No
Kobo	Free	None	Kobo	No

Aggregators

Service	Start-Up Costs	Print Formats	eBook Apps & Devices*	ISBNs included?	Recommended For
Blurb	Free	Paperback Casewrap hardcover (called "ImageWrap") Linen hardcover with dust jacket	Fixed-layout files only (with $9.99 conversion fee)	Yes	Printing visual works like art and photo books
BookBaby	$249 for eBooks $299 for print	Paperback Casewrap hardcover Casewrap hardcover with dust jacket	Amazon Kindle Apple Books Baker & Taylor Barnes & Noble BookShop Hoopla Kobo OverDrive Scribd	No	Starting an independent press; brick-and-mortar print distribution
Draft2Digital	Free	Paperback only	Amazon Kindle Apple Books Barnes & Noble Kobo OverDrive Scribd	Yes	Easily self-publishing books using templates
IngramSpark	$25 for eBooks $49 for print or both	Paperback Casewrap hardcover Cloth hardcover with or without dust jacket	Amazon Kindle Apple Books Barnes & Noble Kobo	No	Starting an independent press; brick-and-mortar print distribution
Lulu	Free	Paperback Casewrap hardcover Linen hardcover with dust jacket	Amazon Kindle Apple Books Barnes & Noble Kobo Lulu.com	Yes, both print and eBooks	Self-publishing POD books cheaply
Smashwords	Free	None	Apple Books Barnes & Noble Kobo OverDrive ("Buy-Lists" only) Scribd Smashwords Store	Yes, eBooks only	Self-publishing eBooks only

* This table lists the most common eBook platforms only. Aggregators might distribute to smaller outlets as well. For example, Lulu has an agreement with IngramSpark to distribute to all of these retailers: Global Online Retail Partners.

Resources

Downloads

Lesson 1 PowerPoint

Supplementary Readings

Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing (Third Edition)

This is a readable guide by Catherine Ryan Howard. She writes in the style of a personal blogger, and some of the vendor-specific information is now out of date, but the book gives a good overview of the self-publishing process from start to finish.

The Self-Publisher's Legal Handbook (Second Edition)

This is a short handbook by business attorney Helen Sedwick, with brief chapters on a variety of legal topics from copyright basics and contract interpretation to issues of defamation and privacy, hiring freelancers, using pen names, paying taxes, and more. Reading this is not a substitute for consulting a lawyer about specific issues, but it is a good introduction to "the legal side of writing and independent publishing."

Local Services

Bright Light Graphics

Lieve Maas, owner of Bright Light Graphics, designs book covers, interiors, and websites. Lieve can also help with branding and promotional materials.

Dancing Moon Press

Dancing Moon Press is a full-service publishing company led by Kim Cooper Findling. They offer services like author coaching, manuscript editing, and interior and cover design.

Quail Run Editorial

Julie Swearingen at Quail Run Editorial specializes in manuscript evaluations and editing at every stage of the revision process: developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading.

Self-Publishing Basics