self-publishing-checklist-publish-your-book

Self-Publishing Checklist: Publish Your Book!

9/18/2020

Welcome to the third and final post of our series, summarizing our Self-Publishing Checklists. This one will cover all the steps to submit your manuscript to your POD service, and get your book officially published! If you missed it, here's the first in our series, which covers all of your publishing prep work and here's the second, covering building your files and choosing your Print-on-Demand service.

We’ve put together this guide to help authors through the process of self-publishing. Our goal is to give you a framework to hopefully make the task of publishing your book seem just a little less daunting. Remember that this isn’t meant to be the only way to get a book published, and won’t include all of the information you will need (that would be difficult to list in one place). However, where it’s lacking, we’ve included links to outside websites and blog posts that we’ve found helpful.

we wish you luck on your publishing journey!

At this point you should have all of your prep work done. You know where you want to publish (whether you want to focus on Amazon, IngramSpark, or both). You have your ISBN, LCCN, and manuscripts created. Now you just need to publish! For the purposes of this guide, we're going to assume that you are publishing with both Amazon and IngramSpark. If you are only doing one or the other, feel free to skip to that section.

1. uploading to amazon

create an account

If you haven’t already, create an account with Kindle Direct Publishing.

Fill out author/publisher information.
Add your bank account (where you want to receive your royalty payments).
Fill out your tax information (your social security number or your tax identification number for your business).

submit your manuscript

Go to Bookshelf on the top menu. You should see a box that says Create a New Title. Click on either the +Kindle eBook or +Paperback. (Even if you want to do both, you have to do it one at a time.)

Create a Paperback:

Fill out your paperback details and meta-data (and make sure it matches the
information you filled out for both your ISBN and LCCN).
Fill out your ISBN number. (Either click Use My Own ISBN or click Get a Free KDP ISBN (if you didn’t buy your own).
Put down your publication date (this can be a projected date in the future). It is the date that your book will go live and be available to buy. (Again, it should match the publication date on your ISBN and LCCN).
Choose your print options (paper, ink, trim size, bleed, cover)
- Here’s an explanation of their printing costs, if you’re not sure what to choose.
Decide on Expanded Distribution or not (though some print options aren’t eligible).
- REMEMBER: if you choose Expanded Distribution with Amazon, you won’t be able to publish your book with IngramSpark, so be sure.
Upload your manuscript (the file you created in the last step).
- Here’s an overview on paperback submissions if you’re having trouble with the file.
Upload your cover.
- If you have your own barcode, be sure to check the box below the upload button.
- If you need a barcode, then leave the box unchecked, and they will add one for you (do this if you requested a free KDP ISBN).
Make sure you preview your file to check for mistakes by clicking Launch Previewer. (Note that it will take quite a few minutes to load).
Choose your pricing, and check your royalty price for each book. If it all looks good, hit submit! The book will go live as soon as it is reviewed (unless you choose a later publication date.)

Create an eBook:

Fill out your ebook details and meta-data (and make sure it matches the
information you filled out for both your paperback and your ISBN and LCCN).
Upload your manuscript (the file you created in the last step).
- Here’s an overview on ebook submissions if you’re having trouble with the file.
Upload your cover.
Make sure you preview your file to check for mistakes by clicking Launch Previewer. (Note that it will take quite a few minutes to load). Because it’s an ebook, you can send the file to your kindle device so you can see it exactly like a reader would.
Fill out your ISBN number. If you don’t have one, then leave it blank (if you want to only publish on Amazon, an ebook isn’t required to have an ISBN).
Decide whether you wan to enroll in Kindle Select.
- This means you won’t be able to publish your ebook with IngramSpark until it is un-enrolled from Select. It takes three months before you can cancel it. Then you can choose to renew your enrollment, or remove it from Select and publish elsewhere as well.
- You can always enroll it at a future date, as long as the ebook isn’t currently for sale or published anywhere else. Simply go to your Promotions page under Marketing.
Choose your pricing, and check your royalty price for each book. If it all looks good, hit submit! The book will go live as soon as it is reviewed (unless you choose a later publication date.)

link ebook and paperback

This is so both of the formats of your book appear under one listing on Amazon's database. It should do it automatically after a few days, and you will see them under one listing under Your Books at the bottom of your Bookshelf.

If they don’t automatically link, then you can do it manually. Here’s a link to directions.

order an author copy

Before your book goes live, be sure to order an author copy of your paperback to make sure that it looks good. The digital previewer can’t show you everything. Here’s an overview of author copies.

When you order your first test, Amazon automatically includes their ownbarcode on the back, in addition to the one you added, but it won’t be there in the final print. (And future author copies won’t have it).
If you do find a mistake and need to make a change, there’s no fee or penalty for uploading another file, so no worries. Simply click Edit Book Details to make the changes.

and your book is published with amazon!! pause to celebrate...
...and now on to ingramspark! 

uploading to ingramspark

Amazon is done, and now you’re ready to submit to IngramSpark. The process is much the same, with a few differences. Let’s get started.

create an account

If you haven’t already, create an account with IngramSpark.

Fill out author/publisher information.
Add your bank account (where you want to receive your royalty payments).
Fill out your tax information (your social security number or your tax identification number for your business).

submit your manuscript

On the Home page, click on Upload a Title. You can choose from three options:

eBook Only	$25
Print Book Only	$49
Print & eBook	$49

If you want both an eBook and a Print book, the obvious choice is to choose both and save yourself some money. If you choose both, you will fill out the info for both simultaneously. If you want only one or the other, click on that one (the steps are largely the same so we’ll only have one checklist).

Paperback & eBook:

Fill out your book details and meta-data (and make sure it matches the
information you filled out for both your ISBN and LCCN).
Fill out your ISBN number. (If you didn’t buy an ISBN, then click Receive a free ISBN, owned by IngramSpark).
- If you are doing both ebook and paperback at the same time, you will have to request two ISBNs.
Paperback: choose your print options (paper, ink, trim size, bleed, cover)
- Here’s an explanation of their paper options.
Put down your publication date (this can be a projected date in the future). It is the date that your book will go live and be available to buy. (Again, it should match the publication date on your ISBN and LCCN).
Choose your pricing, and check your royalty price for each book (paperback and ebook).
- You want set the discount price for bookstore orders (Ingram Spark will tell you the industry standard.)
- Paperback: with IngramSpark (unlike with Amazon) you also have the option to allow returns or not. We would recommend yes. This means that if a bookstore chooses to order a shipment of your books to sell in their store, and they fail to sell half, they can safely return them with no loss of profit. This means they are more likely to order your book.
Upload your manuscripts (the file you created in the last step).
- MAKE SURE YOUR FILES ARE 100% ACCURATE. There will be a $25 re-uploading fee (yes, even before you hit submit) for each file if you notice a mistake or want to change anything.
Upload your cover.
- Make sure to choose the correct option if you need a barcode.
Make sure you preview your file to check for mistakes by downloading the digital file. (Note that sometimes certain browsers don’t let the file download, so if you have a problem switch browsers then try again).
If it all looks good, hit submit! The book will go live as soon as it is reviewed (unless you choose a later publication date.)
Pay the uploading fee (price depends on what you are publishing)

order an author copy

Before your book goes live, be sure to order an author copyof your paperback to make sure that it looks good. The digital previewer can’t show you everything.

Simply go to My Account and Orders on the side menu. Then order a book.
Note that IngramSpark’s author copies are slightly more expensive than Amazon’s (and their shipping is much much slower).

send a copy to library of congress

At this point you can send one of your author copies to the Library of Congress (to make your LCCN official). Make sure not to send one that has a not-for-sale-barcode on it.

and you're published!

You're book is published, or set to be published on your chosen date! Congratulations!

We hope this guide has helped, if only in a small amount. You can find the full checklist on this page, if you'd like to view it all before we summarize it in these posts. Or you can get a free, downloadable PDF version of the full guide by signing up to our mailing list on the right menu.

It’s a huge accomplishment to publish your book, but it doesn’t mean the job is over. There’s still the equally daunting task of marketing and promoting your book to get it in front of the people who will read and love it. Because of this, we hope to have a guide that covers marketing and book launch prep in the future (similar to this one), so stay tuned!

Until then, happy writing!

--Starwhale Books

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