Self-Publishing Sunday {Week 2}

Welcome back to Self-Publishing Sunday! This week’s topic is companies to self-publish through. Sorry that it took me so long to get this up today … I’ve been severely under the weather for about 2 weeks now, and then this morning I ended up lying in bed for an extra 4 hours longer than planned … it happens. Anyway, let’s get down to it!

There a lot of people out there who have made the decision that they are going to publish their writing themselves, but they have no idea how that actually happens. I think that there are two different categories that this can be broken down into: hard copies and electronic copies (or e-books).

E-book: Amazon 


Amazon has this great program called Kindle Direct Publishing. It is exactly what it sounds like – it lets you publish your writing to the Kindle store. You can even select to earn up to 70% of royalties! This is awesome because usually self-published authors aren’t making as much as traditionally published authors. Plus, you can enroll in Kindle Select. The plus is that you get higher royalties, they help you advertise a bit, and your book can be lent in the Kindle library. The con is that if you enroll in that then you can’t publish your e-book with anyone else. You can still publish with KDP without enrolling in Kindle Select, or you can enroll for a bit and then unenroll.

One thing I really liked using Kindle Select was that it meant that I could very easily do promotions. For a day or so, I actually had it be available for free. Why would I want to do that, you ask? Well, that meant that I got more readers, and many of them ended up writing reviews. Those reviews then helped other people later choose to buy Aureole, so it was absolutely worth it.

E-book: Barnes & Noble


NOOK Press is Barnes and Noble’s version of KDP. There are a lot of really similar features. Basically, it allows you to publish your e-book to the NOOK store, so anyone with a NOOK or NOOK app can buy it. One great component is its “Quick Start” option, where you can try it before 100% committing. If you’re on the fence, that is a great way to test it. Another great part is that if you want to make any changes after you have uploaded your manuscript, you can make them right on the program instead of reuploading the manuscript each time. Royalties are 40-65% of sales, depending on the cost of your book.

Hard Copy: Amazon 


Amazon has this other company (sub-company?) called CreateSpace. Now, I love CreateSpace. L.O.V.E. it. Not only do they provide a way for you to get a hard copy of your book – and let’s face it, holding a hard copy is really the best part of becoming an author – but they also have a lot of other services available. Royalties depend on the ways you choose to sell the book.

1. Making hard copies available for purchase on Amazon.
2. Making hard copies available for libraries and independent bookstores to purchase for their stock. (Um, how awesome is that?)
3. Free publishing resources on creating, formatting, and marketing.
4. They do have professional services like editing, formatting, marketing, and more.
5. Cover creator
6. Free AND paid services are available
7. You can publish your book on Kindle through CreateSpace if you would like to!

PSSSSST – CreateSpace does books, music, and filmmaking. Not just for authors now!

The first time I held a copy of my writing! The BEST feeling.

There are a couple of other ways to go about it, but these are the ones that, from my research, seem to reach the largest number of people. I opted to not publish with Apple’s iBook (as of right now) because most people I know who use iPads or iPhones to read tend to use the Kindle or Nook apps. Plus, by the time you’re done working with different companies, you’re really, really tired of going through everything six million times for each company.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions! I think we’ll be back next week with the next post. If not, it’ll be the week after that. I’ll let you know!

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.