Five Ways To Self-Publish Your Book in 2024

Here are the main five methods in 2024 to self-publish, with advantages and disadvantages.

Amazon KDP

The easiest choice for self-publishing on both paperback and Kindle, Amazon holds the lion’s share when it comes to distribution and sales, meaning you will get the best platform and the quickest to reach readers, as long as you use the tools available to the maximum advantage when releasing your book. The advantages of using Amazon cannot be overestimated where stats show 70% of all readers buy their books from Amazon. To make sure you get the most out of Amazon, follow these steps:

Make sure you have a great cover that works in thumbnail size: Often authors will only check their book cover at its full size, not realizing the font is too small for listings
Use a well-written blurb that is direct and concise to catch the right readers at a glance
Check your author profile is complete at Author Central
Price your eBook between 99c and $2.99 to get as many sales as possible
Use Amazon’s Countdown Deals to promote your book
Promote your book in the first 30 days. This is when Amazon is pushing your title the hardest

Assisted Publishing

Platforms that assist you with publishing and distribution will charge little to nothing, such as Smashwords and BookBaby, but instead take a commission on your sales. These have distribution deals in place, so will get your book seen. However, they won’t be doing any design work or publicity campaigns without charging you extra. If you get into the swing of their services, you may come out with a solid product, but it’s really down to style and taste, and a great deal of figuring out what’s on offer.

Vanity Press

Those in the vanity press vein, such as iUniverse, Author Solutions, Pegasus, or Austin Macauley will charge you a hefty fee upfront to do everything for your book’s layout and cover, and often you’ll pay a lot for what you could have probably done yourself better for cheaper.

Vanity presses tend to work on the old-fashioned model of ‘pure’ self-publishing (see below), and you’ll likely end up with a huge box of books you can’t shift but can’t throw away because you paid so much for them. Kindle books are published using KDP in most cases, meaning you split your royalties yet even thinner with the publisher and have no control over your reports.

However, if you know nothing about how to go about the process, and you simply want to write and leave it at that, don’t care much about your sales, and just want to see your book in print, these services may have some advantage for you.

Here are some tips to get the most out of this method:

Get your editing and book cover designed elsewhere – it will be much more economical and better executed
Use social media marketing and ads to publicize your book on launch – you won’t get anywhere if you don’t
Get editorial reviews to help launch your book – these will help publicize your book
Insist on categories and keywords you have chosen that will get you ranking
Get reader reviews for your book when it launches – your publisher likely will not
Make sure a Goodreads page is set up for your book
Don’t sign any contract that means the publisher has your work ‘in perpetuity’ because you won’t be able to switch publishers

Disadvantages

It is extremely doubtful you will be put in niche categories by the publisher, and if you decide to promote your book using mailer services to reach high ranking, you will find it near-impossible to change your categories as the publisher will not want to drill down into Amazon’s categories for library reasons (which is illogical, but they hold onto this policy in most cases)
You will not be able to see your sales dashboard on KDP as that will be controlled by your publisher, so you will rely on a third-party report often issued as much as six months after the fact to claim your royalties
You will split your royalties even when they are split already, such as with Kindle
You will likely pay for many services that are ineffective and not properly monitored

‘Pure’ Self-Publishing

‘Pure’ self-publishing works if you already have a reader base, for example, if you are a writing club and want to print an anthology of your members’ work, or a church group, or a niche interest group, and you know for sure that you will sell many copies before you go to print. In this case, you can go to a local printer shop that specializes in printing paperbacks, and have your book printed, receive a box of books, and sell them yourself to your group.

Many people have made the mistake of thinking this method will work for them when they don’t have readers yet, and have tried to sell their books at markets and fairs, and have to charge a huge premium because of all the costs incurred. It’s a long, sad path and not recommended for first-time authors.

Here are some tips to get the most out of this method:

Get your book cover, interior, and editing done professionally – no good having a sloppy product if you are making such a grand outlaying
Shop around for book printers that you can talk to and who can give you options on paper and cut
Don’t be talked into a big run, even if it makes the books cheaper per unit. Get 20 to begin, or at least, the lowest possible number offered
Always get a proof copy in both PDF and in your hands as a book before agreeing to the run and check it thoroughly

Best book finishes for paperbacks:

Off-white paper
Matte cover
10.5 pt font, serif, such as Times or Garamond

Best book finishes for textbooks:

White paper
Shiny cover
Font size will vary, but stick with a classic font such as Times New Roman

Best book finishes for graphic novels/comic books/picture books

White paper
Shiny cover
Font of your choice, if not written in the artwork
Sans serif is best for kids’ books, such as Verdana or Arial

Substack

Substack is a cool way to get started with writing, and could prove a great way to make money if you have a reader base, as each reader signed up will pay you the cost of a book *every month*. This method works well for science fiction fantasy epics, series books, literary fiction, poetry, and for prolific writers who have a lot of shorts to share.

The idea is that you set up a project where you offer your book chapter by chapter, or story by story, as well as offering your readers blog posts, opinion, and more. While the writing belongs to you, you do grant a limited license to Substack while you publish on their platform for practical reasons. You can read the license here: https://substack.com/pa

Note that you cannot publish erotica or political opinion on Substack.

Good examples of Substacks we like: