Think Differently. Solve the Impossible.

Writing the manuscript is the first part of making a book. Once you've finished writing, revising, and editing it, you have a different problem:

How do you turn a manuscript into an actual book that people can buy?

I've done this both ways. I've had books traditionally published, and I've self-published books. There's a tendency to think that traditional publishing is "real publishing" and self-publishing is less legitimate.

The question is:

What is the publisher going to do for you that you can't, or don't want to, do yourself?
 

What a Publisher Does

A publisher can provide editing, design, production, printing, distribution, publicity, and access to bookstores.

Don't assume that signing with a publisher means they're going to do all of those things well, or do any or all of them. If someone offers to publish your book, ask:

Can they get my book onto bookstore shelves? (If they can't that's a flag).

What promotions are they going to pay to do? (If they can't tell you a budget, or expect you to pay, that's a minus).

What rights am I giving them? (I don't mean copyright. You own that. I mean rights to the finished layout as submitted for printing, and the cover. Can you take those for yourself if for some reason you have a falling out and decide not to work together anymore.

Who owns the cover and other work created for the book?

What happens if the relationship ends?

A publishing contract isn't valuable just because someone calls themselves a publisher. What you're getting in exchange for the revenue you're giving up? That's why self-publishing can make sense.

NEVER pay to have your book published by a "publisher." If you have to pay, you're not dealing with a"publisher" - you are being sold a service that will help you do what is required to get your book self-published.
 

When You Self-Publish, You Become the Publisher

Self-publishing doesn't eliminate the publisher - it makes you the publisher. That means someone (you) has to arrange editing, cover design, interior layout, ISBNs, printing, distribution, pricing, proof copies, corrections, ebooks, promotion, and more.

You're responsible for making those decisions and hiring people and paying for it. That's the downside of self-publishing. You have to do the work yourself and front the money.

Self-publishing has advantages:

You control it.

You're not waiting for a publisher to decide when your book comes out, what the cover looks like, how it is positioned, and whether they still care about promoting it six months later.

And you keep %100 profits.
 

Print-on-Demand Changed Self-Publishing

Gone are the days where if you self-published you had to have a thousand copies of books printed and store them in your garage until you sold them. Print-on-demand allows a book to be manufactured when someone orders one - one at a time. That's why it's called Print On Demand (POD).  It changed the economics of publishing a book.

Instead of asking: How many books should I print? You can ask:

How do I write a great book and make it available where people are likely to buy it?

If you're using Lightning Source/Ingram, this isn't a decision you need to make retailer by retailer. Ingram makes your book available through its enormous distribution network, which includes Amazon, bookstores, online retailers, libraries, schools and other outlets.

If you're using Amazon KDP, there is an additional decision. By default, your book is available on Amazon only. If you want it available outside Amazon, you need to enroll Amazon's Expanded Distribution.

Don't overthink the name “Expanded Distribution.” In this context, “Expanded” means allowing your KDP paperback to be for sale in places other than on Amazon. If someone buys the book on Amazon, the Amazon compensation formula applies. If someone buys it elsewhere, the Expanded Distribution formula applies. Expanded Distribution has different requirements and, as we'll see later, a different compensation formula.

Unless you decide to publish using Amazon KDP,  where your book can be purchased isn't an Amazon vs. Ingram question. Both can make a book available through Amazon. If you publish using Amazon's KDP, distribution beyond Amazon is a separate option you need to choose.

Understand the Business You're In

An assumption many first-time authors make is that people buy books on Amazon, therefore I should self-publish through Amazon.

You don't have to publish through Amazon to sell your book on Amazon.

Publishing, Printing, Distribution and Retailing Are Not the Same

With traditional publishing, a publisher prints thousands of books. They're stored somewhere. A distributor makes them available to bookstores. A bookstore orders them, puts them on the shelf, and sells them.

Print-on-demand changed that.

The book being offered for sale does not physically exist. Yet. When someone orders a POD book, a copy is manufactured to fulfill that particular order. Amazon describes what it calls virtual inventory, where a retailer can show a KDP title as being available, even though it doesn't have finished copies sitting on a shelf.
 

A “Royalty” Isn't  How to Think About It

Amazon calls the money it pays a self-published author a royalty. Lightning Source/Ingram calls the corresponding amount publisher compensation.

I prefer the second term, as it is authentic to what it means. If I sign a contract with a traditional publisher and give it publishing rights to my book, royalty makes sense. I'm the author. They're the publisher. I get paid royalties on how many copies they sell, just like having a record deal.

If I'm self-publishing, I am the publisher. I hire companies to provide the services I need such as printing, distribution, fulfillment and access to retailers. When I sell a copy, the money I make from what's left over after printing and shipping is called publisher compensation.

Thinking of the money as publisher compensation changes how to look at the transaction. It's longer asking, How much royalty will Amazon give me? It's, what does the reader pay, what does it cost to manufacture the book, who  participates in the sale, and what's left for me afterwards as the publisher?

There are important difference between the way KDP and Lightning Source/Ingram do this.
 

If publishing with KDP, where Someone Buys Your Book Changes How Much You Make

With Amazon KDP, how much you're paid depends on which sales channel it is purchased. For a book sold on Amazon, KDP currently pays either 50% or 60% of the list price, depending on the book's price, minus printing costs. (For a KDP paperback or hardcover, Amazon says the author's royalty continues to be calculated using the list price the author established, even if Amazon chooses to charge a higher price.)

If you enroll in Expanded Distribution, Amazon makes the book available to bookstores, libraries, online retailers and sellers outside Amazon. Amazon calls this "Expanded Distribution." For a book sold through Expanded Distribution, KDP pays 40% of the list price minus printing costs. Amazon gives an example for a $15 paperback with a $5 printing cost as follows:

Purchased through Amazon:
$15 × 60% − $5 = $4 author payment.

Purchased through Expanded Distribution:
$15 × 40% − $5 = $1 author payment.

Same book. Same $15 list price. Same $5 printing cost.

It's unknown why Amazon use a 40% rate for Expanded Distribution. Amazon's documentation doesn't provide a breakdown showing where the other 20 percentage points go, or why Amazon chose that rate. My opinion is it's how Amazon makes money when someone buys it from somewhere other than the Amazon store.
 

Lightning Source Approaches the Economics Differently

Lightning Source/Ingram uses a different model. The author establishes the retail price and the wholesale discount. Ingram calculates publisher (author's) compensation by subtracting the wholesale discount and printing cost from the list price set by author for the book:

List price − wholesale discount − actual printing cost = publisher compensation.

The difference is that this is the compensation formula for all books sold through Ingram's distribution network. It doesn't change if the retailer is Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, or someone else. That makes a difference in how much money an author can make. 

Here's a breakdown of how much an author would make depending on if the book is published with Amazon or Ingram Spark. If publishing with Ingram Spark the author has some control over setting the wholesale rate. Therefore two rates are included in the following table, a 40% and 55% discount to the book store:

Note: Amazon's $5 figure comes from Amazon's own example. Ingram's $4.17 figure is its published example for a 200-page, 6×9 black-and-white paperback. I'm using each company's own figures rather than assuming their printing costs are identical. Actual printing costs depend on the specifications of your book.
 

There Must Be a Catch?

Here's an assumption some make:

“If Amazon is selling the book, surely publishing directly through Amazon ought to be at least as economical as going through Ingram. If the numbers say otherwise, there must be some hidden complication.”

An Ingram-distributed book can be sold on Amazon. I don't need to publish a book through KDP for Amazon to sell it. Depending on the wholesale discount and printing costs, Ingram can leave the publisher with as much or more per copy.

The mistake is assuming that because Amazon is the retailer selling the book, publishing through Amazon must therefore be the most economical way to get that book to an Amazon customer.

It may sound logical.

The numbers answer the question otherwise..
 

Why I Look Beyond the Amazon Sale

It's easy for a first-time author considering KDP to focus on the Amazon rate. Amazon sells books, and your book may sell primarily there.

That's an assumption.

If you're deciding how to publish a book, I'd look at both KDP compensation formulas and ask:

What do I receive if the book sells on Amazon?  What do I receive if the book I publish with Amazon sells somewhere else through Amazon's Expanded Distribution?

With Lightning Source/Ingram, I establish the wholesale discount I'm willing to offer sellers, and that becomes part of the publisher-compensation calculation.That's why I've preferred going directly to Lightning Source. My reason is simple:

If I want my book in Ingram's wholesale distribution system, why put another company (Amazon) between me and the system?

Amazon may be an excellent place to sell my book.

That doesn't mean Amazon is the company I must use to publish and distribute it.
 

Don't Assume Everyone Will Buy Your Book from Amazon

Amazon is important in book sales. That doesn't mean all your books will be purchased there. Industry sales data show that substantial book revenue continues to come through other channels, not just Amazon. I've seen that in my books. Only about half of my sales through Lightning Source have come through Amazon.

Imagine that I chose my publishing infrastructure based on the assumption that most of my customers will buy from Amazon. That assumption would have been wrong roughly half the time.

The question isn't, should my book be available on Amazon?

Absolutely. I want my books there.

The question is: Should Amazon be my self-publishing and distribution platform simply because Amazon is an important retailer?
 

Can a Print-on-Demand Book Be “Out of Stock”?

There is a disadvantage to using Lightning Source/Ingram that I've experienced, and I'm not the only publisher who has experienced it.

I've occasionally gone to Amazon and found my books listed as “Temporarily out of stock” or  “Currently unavailable.”

Sometimes I've contacted Amazon and gotten the problem corrected. Other times it seems to correct itself. Then, sometime later, I might discover the same problem with a diffferent book.

That's odd, because a POD book doesn't need to be sitting on a shelf waiting for someone to order it. The entire point of print-on-demand is that a copy can be manufactured when it is needed. The same book that Amazon says is unavailable is available for purchase.

The Problem Has Been Reported for Years

The Alliance of Independent Authors discussed this problem in an interview about IngramSpark books being sold on Amazon. The problem described is similar to what I've experienced. 

IngramSpark-distributed books on Amazon fluctuating between long delivery times and “out of stock,” despite the books being print-on-demand and Ingram saying it could manufacture and ship POD orders quickly.

The author interviewed said there've been problems for years and nobody had gotten to the bottom of why IngramSpark paperbacks fluctuate in availability on Amazon.

For one release, Amazon reportedly told customers their books would be delayed six to eight weeks because of issues with the publisher. Ingram later provided internal sales information showing that Amazon hadn't placed its order with Ingram until after the book's launch, even though Amazon had been taking preorders.

Other Authors Report the Same Thing

I went looking for other author experiences and found plenty. One IngramSpark author reported that an Amazon hardcover listing went from “Temporarily out of stock” to “unavailable.”

Another described an IngramSpark book becoming “Temporarily out of stock” after people began ordering it. The author contacted Ingram, which resent the book's metadata. The problem persisted.

Another author described an Amazon listing that oscillated between “this title has not yet been released” and “temporarily out of stock” for nearly a month. The author contacted Ingram multiple times, had the metadata resubmitted twice, checked the ISBN status with Bowker, and contacted multiple departments at Amazon trying to resolve it.

There are reports where availability differs by Amazon marketplace as well. One author found an Ingram hardcover unavailable for purchase in the United States while the same book remained orderable through Amazon Canada. (I've noticed on my statements that if someone can find a book cheaper in another country due to the current exchange rate, it may be printed in a country outside the United States and shipped to the US. The book buyer and author may have no idea this is happening.)

The problem can come and go. Authors have described books being orderable, becoming unavailable or out of stock, and becoming available again.

This isn't a new phenomenon. A report described Lightning Source books on Amazon changing from quick availability to estimated delivery of two to three weeks and, in some cases, having no direct Amazon availability at all. At the time, Lightning Source reportedly acknowledged that Amazon had changed the availability of some LSI titles and said it was investigating the issue. Amazon reportedly told publishers that making a title available through a wholesaler or distributor did not guarantee that Amazon would display it as “In Stock.”

Isn't a POD Book Always Available?

Yes. Print-on-demand means a book can be manufactured in response to demand.
 

What Does “In Stock” Mean for a Print-on-Demand Book?

Amazon uses language to describe books for sale:

“In stock.”

“Only 2 left in stock.”

“Out of stock.”

“Used.”

Most interpret those words literally. If a book is “in stock,” you expect a physical copy to exist somewhere in inventory. If Amazon says “only 2 left in stock,” you expect there to be two physical copies remaining. If someone is selling a “used” copy, you expect that a physical copy was previously purchased and is being resold.

I've learned from experience that those descriptions don't mean what they appear to mean. I discovered this while conducting an experiment with one of my print-on-demand books. I made the book available for distribution through Lightning Source and watched what happened on Amazon. Copies appeared as “in stock” with some Amazon sellers immediately offering “used” copies for sale. 

The timing made the those descriptions impossible. There hadn't been enough time for a copy to be ordered, printed, shipped and placed into someone's inventory. There definitely was not a "used" copy in circulation. There hadn't been enough time for someone to obtain a copy, receive it, use it and then put that physical copy back up for sale as “used.”

In this experiment, “in stock” did not mean what  buyers would reasonably assume it meant: that an already-printed copy was physically sitting in inventory.

"Used” did not mean what most would assume: that the seller was offering a previously owned physical copy of that newly available book.
 

Why Would Someone Offer a “Used” Book That Isn't Actually Used?

One explanation is price segmentation.

Different buyers are willing to pay different amounts for the same book. One buyer may pay full retail for a new copy. Another who won't buy at that price, might buy a copy advertised as “used” for less. A bookseller doesn't need the same profit margin from every customer. Making less on a sale can be better than making nothing as the customer decided the new copy was too expensive.

Retailers and marketplace sellers routinely compete for customers using price, shipping, availability and other terms. What's unusual in my experiment is the “used” designation. If the book is described as “used,” most buyers reasonably understand that to mean they're purchasing a previously owned physical copy. In my experiment, the timing demonstrated that couldn't have been true. The book had just been made available.

That Changes How to Interpret “Out of Stock”

The same experiment makes Amazon's “out of stock” designation interesting. The purpose of print-on-demand is that a physical book doesn't have to be sitting in inventory before someone buys it. Someone orders the book. The book is manufactured. The book is shipped.

When Amazon describes one of my Ingram-distributed POD books as “out of stock,” it's easy for a customer to interpret that in the traditional retail sense: They sold all the copies and are waiting for more to arrive.

I don't take Amazon's “in stock,” “out of stock,” “only X left,” or even “used” descriptions as literal statements. I've seen firsthand that they aren't that. A POD book doesn't need to be replenished in the traditional sense. If the book remains active through Lightning Source, another copy can be manufactured when someone orders it.

There is only one availability question that matters:

Can the reader buy the book?
 

Would This Happen If I Published the Book Through KDP?

That led me to the question: Would this happen, or happen as often, if I published the same book directly through Amazon KDP?

There are reports of KDP books experiencing availability these problems too. One KDP author reported in 2026 that a paperback remained “Temporarily Out of Stock” for more than a month and said Amazon representatives described it as a known issue.

Ppublishing with Amazon's KDP program does not guarantee that you may never encounter an availability problem.

The Alliance of Independent Authors recommends using KDP for the Amazon ecosystem and IngramSpark for wider print distribution. Its explanation mentions the way books coming through outside distributors can be treated within Amazon. ALLi has said that books uploaded directly through KDP become available more quickly on Amazon and avoid the “out of stock” designation that can occur when using an outside distributor.

That's significant enough that some experienced independent publishers deliberately use both systems:

KDP for copies sold through Amazon.
Ingram for distribution elsewhere.

I haven't found good comparative data that would allow me to say, “An Ingram-distributed book is X times more likely to be listed as unavailable on Amazon.” There is enough evidence for me to consider Amazon availability a legitimate issue when deciding whether to use Ingram alone or combine Ingram with KDP.

Is Amazon Deliberately Disadvantaging Ingram Books?

Some authors  suspect that Amazon favors books published directly through KDP. Some say, Amazon wants me to use KDP, so it makes books supplied through Ingram less attractive or less available.

One author who encountered the problem said they felt as though they were being “punished” for not printing the hardcover directly through KDP.  The Alliance of Independent Authors documented the problem and recommends KDP for Amazon.  Nobody has conclusively established why IngramSpark books can experience these availability fluctuations.

There's a  Trade-Off

Earlier, we looked at the economics. An Ingram-distributed book can be sold on Amazon. I don't have to publish through KDP simply because I want Amazon customers to be able to buy my book. Depending upon the wholesale discount and manufacturing costs, going directly through Ingram can leave the publisher with more money per copy than KDP's Expanded Distribution model.

That's one reason I use Lightning Source.

I found a potential disadvantage:

Amazon is an extremely important bookseller, and books supplied to Amazon through Ingram have a documented history of sometimes displaying undesirable availability messages.

If someone arrives at my Amazon page ready to buy my book and sees, “Currently unavailable," they may not go searching Barnes & Noble, an independent bookstore or other retailer to see whether the  same book is available there.

They may simply leave.

I don't know how many sales I've lost because of that.
 

Distribution Doesn't Mean the Retailer Will Keep Selling Your Book

When we say Ingram “distributes” a book to retailers, it's easy to assume, my book will be for sale at those retailers.

That's not what it means.

I discovered this with Barnes & Noble. I havebooks distributed through Lightning Source/Ingram. Most had been available on Barnes & Noble's website for years. I used the Barnes & Noble product-page URLs on my websites to send people there to buy the books. One day I discovered those links didn't work anymore.

I searched Barnes & Noble for my books. Some didn't appear even when I searched by ISBN. My most recent book  said “out of stock.” Was it because the books are print-on-demand, wholesale discount too low, or because I designate my books as non-returnable?

POD status and returnability can matter to a physical bookstore. Barnes & Noble says books being considered for stocking in its stores need to be returnable. I've spoken with a bookseller who told me that their Ingram catalog identifies POD books and that the store generally doesn't order them. That's different from whether a book appears for sale or not.

I found reports from independent authors whose books had originally appeared on Barnes & Noble's website and subsequently disappeared. Some reported getting the books restored after contacting Barnes & Noble.

I contacted Barnes & Noble and asked.

Their answer was simple: "Titles may fall off the site if there is no customer demand over time.” They offered to restore my titles and said they should begin reappearing later that day.

My books hadn't gone out of print. I hadn't removed them from distribution. They were available through Ingram. Barnes & Noble had simply stopped displaying them on its website because, according to the response, there hasn't been customer demand over time for certain books.

There's also a practical lesson here for anyone publishing a book:

Check your books occasionally.

Don't assume that because your book appeared on a retailer's website when you published it, it will  be there five or ten years later.

Don't assume that because Ingram says your book is available through its distribution network, every retailer in that network is necessarily displaying it for sale.

Distribution means a retailer can obtain your book. It doesn't guarantee that the retailer will continuously offer your book for sale.

The Price You Set Isn't Necessarily the Price the Reader Pays

There's another part of distribution you give up some control over, regardless of who you use to self-publish: the price the retailer charges.

When I publish a book through Lightning Source, I establish a retail price and a wholesale discount. The retail price is a recommended retail price. Retailers can establish their own selling prices, different that what you suggested.

I've seen this happen with my  books on Amazon. Sometimes I've found one of my books offered for substantially more than the retail price I established.

I've seen the opposite: Amazon or an Amazon seller advertising the book at what appears to be a lower price. When I looked closely, shipping was added, bringing the customer's actual cost to my intended retail price, or in some cases, a dollar more.

The advertised price isn't necessarily the delivered price.

When my books were available through Barnes & Noble, I saw them offered at the exact retail price I had established. I recently discovered that my books are also available through Walmart, and are being sold at my established retail price, including free shipping. Yet I've seen Amazon price those same Ingram-distributed books differently.

The unusual Amazon prices don't appear to be something Ingram is imposing. The same book, with the same Ingram pricing and wholesale terms, can be presented differently by different retailers. 
 

Is My Wholesale Discount Causing Amazon to Raise its Price?.

Suppose I establish a relatively low wholesale discount. Amazon has less margin if it sells the book at my recommended retail price. It seems economically reasonable to wonder: Is Amazon raising the customer price to create a larger margin?

Other Ingram authors have reported Amazon selling their books above their established retail prices, including authors using relatively low wholesale discounts. I'm not the only publisher who has seen unusual pricing.

I ran an experiment. I increased the wholesale discount on one of my books from 40% to 55% and watched to see whether Amazon would lower the selling price.

I didn't notice a change. There could have been a delay before the new information propagated through Ingram and Amazon. There could be other variables involved. My experiment doesn't prove that wholesale discount has no effect on Amazon's pricing. The explanation makes economic sense.

Amazon says that for books published through KDP, it reserves the right to establish a retail customer price different from the author's list price. Importantly, Amazon says the KDP author's compensation continues to be calculated from the author's list, price rather than Amazon's customer price.

Publishing through KDP doesn't give you control over the price Amazon shows the customer either.
 

Don't  Send Everyone to Amazon

Authors routinely put an Amazon button on their websites: Buy My Book on Amazon. I understand why. Amazon sells a lot of books. If you're distributing through Ingram, your book may be available from many other retailers. Before automatically sending everyone to Amazon, look at what your reader will encounter.

Is the book available?
What price is being displayed?
Is shipping added?
What's the total delivered price?

I've found my own books on Walmart at my established retail price with free shipping, while I've found the same books on Amazon at high prices I wouldn't expect a reader to pay.

That doesn't mean Walmart will always be cheaper, Barnes & Noble will always honor my suggested price, or Amazon will always be more expensive. Those would be conclusions my observations don't establish.

It means: Don't assume Amazon is the best place for your reader to buy your book just because Amazon is the first place people think of when buying books.

Check.

Tthat brings us back to the larger lesson: Making a book available for distribution isn't the end of the process. The retailer controls whether it displays the book, whether it stocks the book, and what price it presents to the customer. As the publisher, those are things worth checking—not assuming.

Should You Use Both KDP and Ingram?

The hybrid strategy makes sense. Using KDP for Amazon and Ingram for wider distribution may give an author more direct integration with Amazon while retaining Ingram's broader distribution system.

That creates a set of considerations involving, files, settings and managing the same book through two systems. I wouldn't tell a first-time author, “Use both.”

The economics may favor one. Amazon availability may favor another. Bookstore distribution may favor another. The right question isn't, which company is best? It's, what trade-offs am I willing to accept?

For me, the occasional Amazon availability problem hasn't been enough to make me abandon Lightning Source. It's something a first-time author should know can happen before choosing how to publish and distribute a book. I haven't established that using KDP eliminates Amazon availability problems. KDP authors report availability problems.
 

Using KDP and Ingram Together

An author who owns the ISBN can publish the same paperback through KDP and Ingram using the same ISBN: KDP handles Amazon; Ingram handles the remainder of distribution. The important part is that you don't enroll the KDP version in Expanded Distribution. Ingram handles that function.

To the reader buying your book, there aren't supposed to be two different books on Amazon. It's the same book, identified by the same ISBN. Think about this before you publish your book. If you use Amazon KDP's free ISBN, you can't take that ISBN to Ingram. If you use Ingram's free ISBN, you can't take that ISBN to KDP. If you want the flexibility to use both systems for the same book, owning your own  ISBN (directly from Bowker) preserves that option.

This approach may offer an interesting compromise. The direct KDP relationship for Amazon may help avoid some of the availability problems reported by authors supplying Amazon through Ingram, while Ingram provides th broader distribution.
 

Don't Assume You Can Easily Change Later

There's an argument a first-time author might hear: Don't worry too much about which platform you choose. You can always change later. Technically, yes - you can publish the book somewhere else later. Practically, that is more complicated than it sounds.

One reason is the ISBN. Amazon offers a free ISBN. Amazon says that ISBN can only be used with KDP. IngramSpark's free ISBN similarly stays within its system. Moving elsewhere may mean establishing the book under another ISBN, and potentially another edition or catalog record.

There are the production files.There's an enormous difference between, I have a PDF of my book, and I possess the production files necessary to manufacture my book somewhere else.

A PDF you exported from Word isn't a professional print-production file. A commercial printer has specifications: trim dimensions, embedded fonts, margins, bleed, image resolution, PDF standards and more. The cover is specific , as its dimensions depend upon things such as trim size, page count, paper, spine width and bleed. Another POD printer may have different specifications.

When I talk about owning my book, I don't mean owning the copyright. I own:

my ISBN
editable interior file
print-ready interior PDF
editable cover file
print-ready cover PDF

When I hire someone to design a book or book cover, I get those files from them. That doesn't mean I can take one printer's PDF and upload it unchanged to another printer. It means I possess the underlying assets necessary to adapt my book to another printer's specifications.
 

Think Like the Publisher - Before You Publish

None of this means Amazon KDP is bad. For some authors it may be the right solution. The point is not to start with, "Amazon is where everyone buys books, therefore I'll publish through Amazon."

Who controls the wholesale terms and percent discount ?
What happens when a bookstore, rather than an Amazon customer, buys my book?
Who owns my ISBN?
Who owns my production files?

Could I reproduce this book somewhere else five years from now if the company I'm using disappears, changes its terms or I find a better option?

Those questions may seem unnecessary when all you want to do is get your first book published. They're easier to answer before you've sold thousands of copies.

Self-publishing doesn't mean finding a company that will publish your book. It means becoming the publisher and deciding which companies you want to hire to do the jobs you can't, or don't want to do yourself.
 

Your ISBN Matters

An ISBN is the identifying number assigned to a particular edition and format of a book.

I prefer owning my ISBN rather than accepting (and buying) one supplied by a publishing platform. If you're serious about self-publishing your own books consider buying your own ISBN numbers.

In the United States, I purchase mine through Bowker.

You'll need the ISBN as you get farther into the production process, including information that appears with the finished cover.
 

You Could Create Your Own Publishing Company

You may want to create a publishing name or imprint. A publishing identity can give multiple books consistency, and separate you, the author, from the business of publishing books. This isn't necessary to self-publish a book. You don't need a clever publishing-company name, logo and elaborate business structure before you've written your first book.

The book comes first.

Everything else exists to support it.

Don't Treat the Cover as Decoration

Don't try to save money on the cover. People do judge books by their covers.

Before hiring a designer, go to a bookstore. Walk around. Which books make you stop? Which ones do you pick up? Why?  Find books similar to yours and look at who designed them.

I've found designers this way. Many designers who work on books from established publishers are independent designers you can hire yourself. Just ask. Send them an email.
 

Don't Design the Cover Too Soon

There's reason I tell people to finish the manuscript first is that the cover has physical dimensions. The thickness of the spine depends upon the number of pages. The number of pages depends upon your final manuscript plus trim size, paper thickness, typography and layout.

You don't know the size of the cover you need until you know what you book will look like physically. Don't solve tomorrow's problem before you've solved today's. The sequence matters: Finish manuscript → edit → determine format → lay out book → establish final page count → create cover.
 

The Interior Is a Design Project

A manuscript and a book aren't the same thing.

At some point, your Word document has to become pages. That's what's called the book layout. You will need to decide things such as: page dimensions, typeface, font size, margins, headings, photographs, captions ,page numbers, front matter, back matter.

For simple books, publishing platforms offer tools that make this easier for you. For more complicated books - books with lots of photographs, illustrations or carefully designed pages—I prefer having control over the layout. I've use professional page-layout software, rather than treating the Word manuscript as the final book.

Whatever software me or my designer use, I want the final production files—not a PDF someone else controls. If a designer disappears three years from now and I need to change two pages, I don't want to discover that I don't possess what I need to modify my own book.

Go to a bookstore.

Open books.
How large is the type?
How much white space is there?
Where do chapters begin?
What does the copyright page contain?
Where is the author biography?

There's a trick I've used before I even get to the official proof. I'll print several pages of the draft, cut the paper approximately to the final dimensions of the book, and hold them as though I'm reading a finished book. Something that looks perfectly fine at 100 percent on a computer monitor can feel completely different when you're holding a 5½ × 8½-inch page six inches from your face.

Is the type too small?
Are the margins too narrow?
Does the page feel crowded?
Is there too much empty space?

Design the thing people will actually be holding - not the PDF you're looking at on your computer.
 

Color Changes Economics

If your book contains photographs or illustrations, there's another decision to make:

Do they need to be in color?

Color dramatically increase the cost of printing, particularly with print-on-demand.  That means a design decision becomes a business decision. If adding color makes the book cost substantially more to manufacture, you'll either make less on each copy sold or have to charge the reader more.

For some books, color is essential. For others, it's nice to have.

Traditional bulk printing can lower the cost per book, particularly for high-quality color. That creates another problem: you may have to buy hundreds or thousands of copies before you've sold one, and handle physical fulfillment and shipping. (That's something a "real" publisher will do if you have a contract as a signed author). Then you have to store them. And you've spent money whether anyone buys them or not.

What problem you're trying to solve?

The cheapest book to manufacture isn't necessarily the best book. 

The most beautiful book you can possibly manufacture may not be one your reader is willing to pay for.
 

Do You Need an Index?

Look at comparable books. Do they have indexes? Would someone use your book as a reference and want to find a particular subject later? If so, having an index adds value.  If you're writing a memoir or a book someone will read from beginning to end, it may not.

An index creates work for you because its references have to correspond to the final pagination of the book. That means it comes late in the process, after the layout has stabilized, and page numbers established.

Don't include an index just because you think any serious book has an index. Many do not. 

Ask: Would an index help someone use this book? Is it worth the time and expense of creating one?
 

Copyright, Not Trademark

First-time authors sometimes get confused the difference between copyright and trademark. For most writing their first book, trademark isn't something you need to spend time worrying about.

Copyright protects what you wrote.

You don't have to register a copyright to own one. Copyright protection exists when you create the work and fix it in a tangible form.

I officially register the copyright on my books. Having a copyright registration to document a is a good position to be in if someone copies your work and you have to do something about it to enforce your claim to a copywriter.

Registration provides legal benefits if you ever need to enforce your copyright. For the small amount of money and effort involved to do so, registering an official copyright with the USPTO is an easy step in protecting something you may have spent months or years creating.
 

Trademarks are different.

You generally can't register the title of a single book as a trademark simply because it's the title of your book A trademark identifies a brand of good or services.

A series, can be different. If you publish multiple books under the same series name, that name may be permitted as a trademark.

The USPTO generally requires evidence showing the brand being used for more than one creative work. There is an intent-to-use trademark application process. If you're developing a series, you may be able to apply for a trademark before the second book is published. That doesn't give you forever to create the second book. You e have to demonstrate use, subject to the USPTO's filing deadlines and available extensions. If you do not provide the second book in the allowed time you will lose the trademark.

If you're writing your first book and don't have a series or larger brand you're trying to protect, I wouldn't make trademark registration a concern. You've got more immediate problems:

Is the book good?
Is it finished?
Has someone other than you critically reviewed it?
Has it been properly edited?
Do you own your ISBN and production files?
Does the finished book look professional?

Solve those problems.

Register your copyright.

Order a Proof

This is a step I wouldn't skip. Don't approve your book because the PDF looks good on your monitor. 

Get a physical copy.

Hold it.
Read it.
Flip through it.
Look at the cover.
Look at the margins.
Feel the paper.
Look at the photographs.

When the manuscript becomes a physical object, you'll notice things you didn't notice when it was a digital file. This is different from the rough mockup I mentioned earlier. The mockup helps you make design decisions. The proof tells you whether those decisions worked.

Make the corrections.
Order another proof.

You're going to live with the finished book much longer than you're going to live with the frustration of waiting another week to publish it.
 

What About an Ebook?

You can create an ebook too.

You don't need to do everything at once. Some books translate beautifully to ebooks. Text-heavy books are straightforward. A book with lots of photographs, charts or unusual layouts can be a different problem. Ask: 

Does my reader want this book electronically?

Will the electronic version preserve what makes this book special ?

Is creating it worth the additional time or expense?

You can always release one later.

Finish the book.  Celebrate it.  Then decide what you want to do next.
 

Self-Publishing Isn't Just Uploading a File

Uploading a Word document to Amazon is easy. Publishing a good book isn't.

You're creating a product. Writing created the content. Editing improved it. Design makes it usable and attractive. Printing turns it into an object. Distribution makes it available. Promotion gives someone a reason to discover it.

Self-publishing means you're responsible for putting those pieces together.

Sound like a lot work? It is.

You've done the hardest part.

You wrote the book.

See also:

How to Write Your First Book

How to Sell Your Book

Resources

ISBNs directly from Bowker
https://www.myidentifiers.com/identify-protect-your-book/isbn/buy-isbn

Publish on Demand® with IngramSpark
https://www.ingramspark.com/

U.S. Copyright Office
https://www.copyright.gov/registration/

Amazon →  https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/create

Design

I use the following program to layout my books, based on PDF templates I download customized for the ISBN barcode and cover size of the book.

Adobe InDesign is the industry-standard for book layout and desktop publishing. Requires a subscription.

I use QuarkXPress as I own the application without having to buy a subscription as required with Adobe products.  https://www.quark.com/

About the Author

Daniel Stih is the author of 14 books covering subjects ranging from environmental health to climbing, music, relationships, and personal development. He has worked with both traditional publishers and self-published his own books, giving him firsthand experience with writing, editing, book design, print-on-demand, distribution, marketing, and selling books. He's published books in color and black-and-white, hard cover and soft.

His first book became a bestseller following a radio appearance, and his books have gone on to support speaking, teaching, consulting, media appearances, and other professional work.

These articles aren't a formula for becoming a bestselling author. They're based on what Daniel has learned from writing, publishing, and selling books.

Learn more about his approach: Why I Think This Way.