Top 10 Steps to Self-Publishing a Novel in 2025 pt. 2

Sliding right back in to where I left off Monday. Let’s talk about the rest of the steps you need to follow to self-publish your book in 2025.

You may not need all of them. You will probably need to find other guides to help out with specifics. But I want you to know that it is possible for you to publish a book, and print copies, all on your own.

Intermission: From here on, the steps become muddled. It’s best to consider them all at the same time. Advice about finding forums may help you make this decision. Determining printing costs on various platforms may make you choose a different printing service than you expected to use. So, know that it may be best to jump between the rest of these steps in any order.

And stick with me, because the rest of this gets a bit more technical. But I would like to help you. . .

Step #6: Find a way to Print your books.

There are two methods to printing your self-published book.

Print on Demand is far and away the most common. This is where you upload your finalized manuscript, cover material, and other incidental descriptors to a platform which will host and sell your book for you. Someone: a reader who has found you from your website, a librarian who saw a positive review for your book online, your supportive mother or anyone else, orders a book from the platform. Then the platform takes the order and payment. They print the book and ship it. Books are only printed when people order them. You get paid by the platform based upon royalties which will be discussed later.

You can also order authors copies of print books on most platforms. These are books that you pay a relatively low rate for, (usually printing + shipping cost + a little extra,) and you can order books in large numbers which you can then turn around and sell directly to brick-and-mortar stores or hand out to your friends. Print on Demand services are free to upload and publish, only cost money when you order books for yourself (with a few exceptions,) and pay you. As long as you avoid scams (Step #7 below) uploading your manuscript to POD sites and publishing it is free. This is, of course, not mentioning the professionals you paid to help you from Step #5 above.

Bulk Printing is when you contact a printer, and order lots of copies of your book to be printed all at once. It requires a much steeper upfront cost and a place to house the books, but if you know that you can sell a lot, usually thousands of copies, then the per book printing cost might be cheap enough that it is worth it.

If you choose Print on Demand, there are several options. Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing), Barnes and Noble Press, Ingram Spark, Draft2Digital, and more. Each comes with their own formatting requirements and have distinct advantages and disadvantages. For example: Amazon has the widest online marketplace. Ingram Spark will allow almost any bookstore or library to order your books, and Barnes and Nobel Press gets your book into the online Barnes and Noble shop which is also attainable through Ingram Spark. (Either way, you will need to do more work to Get Your Books on Brick-and-Mortar Bookshelves.) You can choose one or more of these options too. More about how to choose a POD service in another future article.

If you choose to bulk print, there many options out there, and they change so rapidly, that I will probably not cover them in a future article, but it might be best to solicit help finding a good quality, cheap printer using Step #7 below.

Step #7: Find the Support Grous and Avoid the Scams.

When it comes to self-publishing in 2025 there are all kinds of people willing to help you on your journey from manuscript to publication. This is amazing! And it’s scary! Once you’ve determined your platform for printing, you can find tutorials, forums, support groups on Facebook and Instagram, random authors with internet blogs and many other people and places offering advice on how to go about getting your manuscript ready for final publication.

These tutorials cover everything from setting up your POD accounts, to Marketing your book for years after it has been released and every step in between. There are people who will teach everything from creating an account at Ingram Spark/Amazon/etc. to pushing that final button: Publish and releasing your story to the world. If you are a member of an actual in person or online writing group, even better, as perhaps you know someone who has gone through the process already.

But even if you are reliant upon online help, there is a lot of peer-support for self-publishers. There are experts who monitor the Kindle Direct Publishing forums who will answer any questions about Amazon. There are indie authors on YouTube with tutorials which will help you choose a printing platform and walk you through the steps to use it. There are Facebook groups where people post their successes, failures, best marketing practices, and often have their questions answered helpfully. There are even Reddit groups who will cheer you along each step of the way.

But beware!

There are, also, many people looking to take advantage of any aspirant self-publishers. The most common scams come in the form of platforms that offer to “help you publish on Amazon/Ingram Spark/etc.” They come with names like Ingrahm Online, KDP Printing LLC or Amazon Publishing Corp, purposefully conflating their names with the popular platforms in hopes of snagging authors unaware. If you’ve started your self-publishing journey, then you have undoubtably seen their advertisements popping up in your feed. These scammers will put your book on Amazon, Ingram Spark, or other platforms, sure, for a price. And they will usually negotiate absurd royalty rates which barely, if ever, payout.

There is a popular adage amongst self-publishers, and it is, almost without exception, true. “Publishers pay you. You should never pay to get your book published.” If you want to go the traditional route, and have someone publish a book for you, query an agent. If you pay a printer directly to print copies of your book, that’s fine. Otherwise, avoid any service which promises to ‘publish your book’ and then comes asking for money.

Amazon’s print on demand service is Kindle Direct Publishing. You access it by logging into your Amazon account and scrolling to the bottom of Amazon’s page and clicking the “Self-Publish with Us” link. (If you are logged out the link will say “Kindle Direct Publishing: Indie and Print Publishing Made Easy.”)  Either way, you will then have to make a separate author’s account on KDP, but everything is done through Amazon’s platform directly. This rule is true for Ingram Spark, Barnes and Noble, and the other POD platforms. Printers also allow you to directly order from their platforms. Go directly to trusted websites. Any legitimate POD platform has a login, and a set of steps you can follow on your own to put your manuscript on their page, to set the price, add other information and publish all on your own. Never try to publish through a third-party website and definitely don’t pay anyone for the privilege of their scam.

There will also be illustrators who over-promise, over-charge or use generative AI without permission. There will be editors who want you to pay the price of the downpayment on their new home to get your 120pg manuscript proofread. There will be people who offer you a discount on ISBN’s. There will be advertised professionals who flake after taking your first payment. There will be marketers who approach you in social DMs claiming to be, or be attached to, famous authors or agents. These DM’s will claim to have “discovered your work,” and will offer ‘help’ in many forms which either gains them access to your accounts and intellectual property or will simply cost you a small fortune for nothing. There will be people offering to “publish your book in their country.” (Amazon and Ingram are both international.) And there are a thousand other scams out there.

Again, there are more people who want to help, and there may even be someone willing to guide you along each of the steps necessary to get your book, in your name and under your control, onto your platform of choice. There will be people willing to compare professional prices, find those professionals, fix layout issues, share their marketing techniques, and simply cheer you on. They are out there. But you have to be careful, be discerning, and practice better judgement. This is why finding the proper support on social media, YouTube, and amongst the various online self-publishing forums is so important.

Perhaps this point warrants a future article about Avoiding the Scams on the Road to Self-Publication. Maybe I could post Some of the Most Helpful Resources [I have found] for Self-Publishers., in the future. But for now, it’s simply important to know that there is lots of advice out there, lots of help but also lots of people looking to make a quick buck off of your hard work.

Now that you’ve avoided the scam potholes, and are browsing the successful self-publishing forums, you may start to notice that there is an overwhelming amount of info out there about book specifics, so let’s talk about the numbers.

Step #8: It’s All the Numbers

ISBNs, LCCNs, Release dates, Word and Page Counts, Printing Cost, Suggested Retail Price, Royalties. What are all of these and how do you handle them?

ISBNs are International Standard Book Numbers. It’s the number on the back of most books denoted by barcode (excluding the sales price.) These allow booksellers to easily catalogue and sort your book, they also tie it to your name* (the publisher’s.) You will need one ISBN for each different edition of your book. (That means that if you want to publish, Hardback, paperback, and special edition “with an extra 20 pages”, then you are going to need 3 different ISBNs.)

ISNBs are necessary if you want to sell physical copies of books from anywhere beyond the trunk of your car.

Most print on demand platforms offer their own ISBNs. But if you accept an Amazon, Ingram Spark or Barnes and Noble ISBN, then that technically makes them the publisher, and this is supposed to be an article about self-publishing. Accepting a free ISBN also makes it impossible to release the same book, (with the same ISBN,) on multiple platforms, and makes it hard to use multiple platforms in general. If you only plan to release on one platform, (and don’t desire in store sells,) or if you only plan on releasing eBooks, then buying your own ISBN might not be necessary. But if you want to publish, and sell, physical copies of your book, then I heavily recommend getting your own ISBN. It gives you much more control.

In the US, you will have to buy your ISBNs through Bowker. Other countries have different ISBN sellers, which I know less about. In the U.S. ISBNs from Bowker will be registered to your name, and you can tie them to any of your books. As previously mentioned, you will need 1 ISBN for each different format of your book.

LCCNs are the U.S. Library of Congress Control Numbers. (These are the numbers you usually see on the title page.) This allows your book to become part of the National Library’s Catalogue of books. If you send a physical copy to the Library of Congress once it’s complete, they may keep it. This isn’t necessary, but it does make the book more professional, and it makes it easier for local libraries to catalog. Most importantly, it’s incredibly easy. Just follow the steps on the Library of Congress’s Website and submit your book for an LCCN before you put together your final title page.

A release date is up to you, and we will discuss it more in Step #10.

Word count and page count are two ways of accounting for your book. These will tell readers what they are getting into, and, along with decisions about the color, content and dimensions of your book, will also determine the cost of printing your book. It’s a simple formula. The more pages: the more your book will cost to print. The more color you want in your book: the more it will cost to print. The better the paper quality: the more it will cost to print. Most Print on Demand and Bulk Printing Companies have a calculator which will help you determine printing cost. (Keep in mind that Bulk printing costs typically drop the more books you order.) By now you should know the shape, size, and length of your novel (if only roughly) and you should be able to input these numbers into the calculators and find out how much it will cost to print your book on the various platforms.

That will help you determine the Suggested Retail Price, or the selling point you want to set for your book. That will then determine how much you make off of it. Because here is the thing: this is all up to you. As long as your suggested retail price is set higher than the print cost, then POD platforms will carry it. (If you are selling the books wholesale then that is a separate conversation) But if you think your book is worth more, if you have a specific price point picked out and, most importantly, if you want to make anything off your book at all, then you will need to charge more than the minimum. You set your price, and that determines the royalties. The same calculators which helped you determine how much it should cost to print a book should also help you determine royalties from each sale.

This would be a good time to check with the forums to make certain you set a reasonable price for your genre. This is also where eBooks have a massive advantage. Because they are not printed, there is no printing cost. Their price can be set much lower to attract a wider audience, while you still make a profit.

My advice is relative, many authors have their own ideal price point. Some expect a standard royalty rate of about $2 per book. Some believe that they can sell their book for much more or much less. I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t oversell yourself, but don’t undersell yourself either. If you are confident about your work, if you are proud of what you have done, and perhaps if you have established yourself and are hearing from others (you don’t know) that your work is worth it, take that into account.

I may share my thoughts about pricing independent books at some point in the future, but for now, let’s move on to something from the previous paragraph.

Step #9: Get Feedback.

OK. In All honesty, you should be getting feedback all throughout this entire process. Friends, family and writing groups. Someone should see your manuscript long before you ever consult an editor. (And especially if you are doing your own self-editing.) If you can’t find interested family and friends, browse those forums. There will be writing groups out there. (In person writing groups are wonderful, but if its not possible to find writers in your area interested in your genre, then go online) If none of these three groups are interested, and even if all three of these previous groups have helped, you should also look for beta-readers. There are people you don’t know who are ready and willing to read manuscripts and provide feedback. Some are paid. Some will do it for free. Look for them in forums and posts.

Don’t let your eyes be the only pair to have scanned through your manuscript before you publish. Don’t let the only person who has read your manuscript and offered encouragement be a loving and supportive, but too-close-to-you, spouse or parent.

You are about to put a book out into the world. People will see it, and some will comment on it. As hard as it may be to take criticism and feedback on something so precious to you, it is much better hear suggestions and complaints when there is still time to make changes. Reading a series of negative reviews on your book’s sales page when you can’t do anything about them is much worse. Don’t take all the criticism. Weigh it, listen, and acknowledge the most common things you are hearing even if they are hard. You do not have to accept every suggestion, but unless you in the rare 0.000001% of authors, it’s important to remember that your work isn’t perfect, and an outside perspective may pick up on things you’ve missed.

That is not what this was supposed to be about.

You’ve already heard advice and remarks. You’ve taken some comments and made changes while discarding others. You are justifiably, (I hope,) confident of your work. Now it is time to look for reviews. In the short weeks or months between uploading your manuscript and pushing publish, you will be able to order proof copies. This is a great way to make certain that you have dotted all of your ‘t’s and crossed all of your ‘i’s. It is also the perfect time to reach out to reviewers. Reviews will help establish your book as solid. The number and strength of your reviews will, in a way, help to advertise your novel.

There are book reviewers out there for every genre, and you should start contacting them. Some of them will be happy to accept author proofs for pre-reviews. Others will want to wait until your book is published. Many will not reply to your contact. I will post an entire article about Finding Reviews for Your Novel in the future, but the point is that finding reviews will help to sell your book.

This is why it’s also important to solicit reviews early and often. Ask professional and hobbyist book reviewers for early reviews. Request reviews with your social media posts. Put a request for reviews in your acknowledgements in the actual book. Don’t ask for reviews from family and friends. (Amazon has specific policies against it.) But seek reviews from people you meet at book signings, readers who follow you on social media, and every now and then return to that list of professionals and hobbyists and contact those you haven’t heard from before.

I mention this in the steps along the way to self-publishing, mostly to remind you that feedback is important. But I also mention it because you should, if possible, include a request for reviews inside your book.

Finally, it is time to

Step #10: Push that Button

Get all of your ducks in a row. Make the manuscript the best you possibly can. Get that cover ready. Decide upon a POD platform (or printing service.) Decide on the dimensions, make, and shape of your book. Follow the platform’s rules. Follow the platform’s guidelines for margins, bleeds other things. If you have trouble with any of this look to the forums, social media, and YouTube for guidance and advice. Avoid anyone who wants to charge you money to do any of the following. (Unless you specifically sought them out for the job.) You’ve ordered author’s proofs and checked for any mistakes. You’ve set a price. You’ve done some early marketing.

We’re skipping all steps about marketing here even though there are things you can do to Market a book before Release.

And so, there is nothing left to do. It’s finally time to push the final button and publish your work!

Because the truth is, in 2025 the ability to self-publish a book has never been easier. If you write something, and do a little bit of research, you can publish it somewhere practically the next day. You can even skip most of the steps in this 2-part article, and still manage to hold a complete novel in your hands in a matter of weeks.

That’s really what I want writers to know. Self-publishing is entirely possible. It’s not for everyone, and it might not be for you. But you can do it. Hopefully these steps will give you some guidance as to how.

Good luck. I hope to read what you have written after all of this.