What size do you want your book to be?
Will people be carrying it around?
Will they be writing in it?
What size and shapes are the books you examined earlier? Why do you think they chose that size?
How long is your manuscript? How many pages?
Check your printer and see if there are any page count requirements. There may be a minimum page count for hardcover books for example.
Do you have the funds or financial backing to order your books in bulk?
Would using a print on demand service make self publishing more accessible to you?
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (known as Amazon KDP)
Barnes & Noble Print on Demand
(Note: I am not endorsing any of these companies. I am sharing the information I have at hand about your options. My personal experience is limited to print on demand through Amazon KDP.)
Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, or Audiobook?
What type of books do you read? What would your audience prefer? What are the costs and time involved?
Choose 2-5 physical books from the same genre as your book.
What would it be shelved by?
If you don’t own these books try the local library or browse a bookshop.
Look at their binding. Are they hardcover, softcover, spiral bound?
What size are they?
Are they illustrated?
Are the pages blank ink or full color?
What is the paper texture?
Are they designed to be written in?
Which would you prefer for your book?
Consider your options.
How would you like to fund your print run?
What type of preorder would you prefer?
Think about what you need as you move into the self publishing process.
How can you support your nervous system and mental health?
How can you kindle your creativity as you move into an logistical project?
Who is your support system?
How can you be kind to yourself during this process?
What can you take off your self publishing list? (Ex. audiobook, etc.)
If you want to dig deeper into your creative process you may be interested in my book Discover Your Creative Ecosystem & Journal Companion.
Think about your motivations for writing and publishing this book.
Why did I write this book?
What inspired me?
Who did I write it for?
Did I write to help, to inspire, or to entertain?
How does my book do that?
What books would it be shelved by?
Why is this book important to you?
There are endless ways to approach self publishing so I’ve started an author spotlight series to help indie authors connect and share stories.
Follow Susan Earlam on Substack.
Check out her books Earthly Bodies and Dark Is The Water: & other wyrd tales.
You can find the rest of the course and resources for independent publishing here.
First of all, I respect anyone who chooses to publish outside of Amazon’s ecosystem. My hat is absolutely off to you. Self publishing allows us to make choices that align with our own needs and values and if you have the resources to print and sell your book without Amazon that’s bloody brilliant.
What I don’t like is seeing indie authors shamed or embarrassed for using Amazon.
Would you imagine shaming a traditionally published author for being sold through Amazon?
Absolutely not. That would be absurd.
The research I’ve done says that half of all book purchases in the U.S. are made on Amazon.1
Choosing not to sell your book through Amazon is leaving a lot of sales on the table and putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage.
Author Susan Earlam talks a lot about that in her author spotlight here:
If you choose not to utilize Amazon you’ll need to lean on your own community (both locally and your group of supporters online.) And probably accept that you’ll sell a lot fewer books.
It’s also worth noting Amazon print on demand services which make publishing accessible to those with less financial capital. I never could have afforded a local bindery for my first book project. Amazon’s print on demand offerings are what made selling print books accessible to me.
I chose not to sell my first book, Discover Your Creative Ecosystem, on Amazon for a few reasons.
However, for my next two books, I will be selling on Amazon for the same reasons:
There are plenty of ways to utilitze Amazon’s marketplace without going all in.
You can also do your part as a consumer by purchasing books outside the Amazon ecosystem whenever possible (indie bookshops, direct from publisher, from authors, secondhand, etc.)
But this often means books will cost a bit more due to Amazon’s reduced shipping costs. How often we can do this will vary depending on our personal finances and what bookshops offer.
1 So You Want to Publish a Book? by Anne Trubek
