The Independent Author's Publishing Guide
Everything we would tell you in a consultation, written down. What editing actually costs and why. How ISBNs and royalties work. What distribution can and cannot promise. How long each stage really takes.
- Written by our working editors
- No sales sequence afterwards
- Instant PDF download
Would rather talk it through? Call +1 877 275 5624 and ask for an editorial director.
Production standards, written down
The specifications our own editors and designers work to: what a typeset interior requires, how a cover is briefed, and what a print-ready file has to contain.
Costed route by route
What each publishing path involves and what it realistically costs, so you can price the book you actually want rather than the package someone wants to sell you.
The questions worth asking
A list of questions to put to any publishing company, including us, and the answers that should make you walk away.
Eight chapters, no filler
Written to be useful whether or not you ever hire us. Several sections will actively talk you out of spending money.
Before you spend anything
How to tell whether a manuscript is actually ready, and the questions to ask yourself before commissioning a single service.
What each editing stage does
Developmental, copyediting and proofreading explained properly what each catches, what it costs, and why the order is not negotiable.
Briefing a cover designer
A fill-in brief template, plus how to research your category and why your cover has to work at 120 pixels wide.
Interiors and why typesetting matters
Trim sizes, measure, widows and orphans, and the difference between a formatted book and a typeset one.
ISBNs, metadata and royalties
Who should own your ISBN, what BISAC codes do, how royalty rates actually work, and where the money goes.
Distribution, honestly
What "available in bookstores" really means, why a wholesale listing is not shelf space, and how long propagation takes.
Marketing without the nonsense
What genuinely moves a listing, what advance reader copies do, and how to spot a promise nobody can keep.
Realistic timelines
Stage-by-stage schedules for each route to publication, including where the time actually goes.
An informed author is easier to work with
Most of the friction in publishing comes from mismatched expectations about cost, about timelines, about what distribution means. An author who already understands the process asks better questions, makes better decisions and is far less likely to be disappointed.
Some readers use the guide to publish entirely on their own. That is a genuinely fine outcome, and it happens often enough that we mention it in the introduction.
Get the guide