Answers

The advantage of self-publishing over traditional publishing is that you have complete creative control – you should be able to make more money per copy sold (typically around 25% of the cover price, but this can be less or a great deal more depending on the genre and the market) – but you are responsible for making sure the book meets professional standards. This may mean paying editors, formatters and designers to produce the book from your initial draft, as well as hiring a cover designer, and perhaps even a book publicist or marketer. Or you may decide you have the skills to do all of this for yourself.

Either way, as an indie author you’ll need to take one or both of these routes to self-publish your book:

• Arrange a printer to print copies for you and then sell copies directly to your audience and/or persuade booksellers or other retailers to stock and sell your book on your behalf. Typically retailers will want around 40% of the cover price for this (i.e. you sell them the books at a 40% discount) but it can go as high as 60% or even before in certain circumstances.
• Use a self-publishing platform – this will provide ‘print on demand’, so no stock needs to be held: each copy is only printed when a reader/customer has placed an order for it.

There are numerous self-publishing platforms, although the two most widely used ones are:

Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing): you upload your final files to the KDP platform and they then appear on sale at Amazon’s various international web stores. Amazon take a 40% retail cut for this, and what you receive is the 60% minus the unit cost for printing the book.

IngramSpark: Ingram does not offer its own direct-to-reader shop but instead supplies other retailers, so your book will probably appear at most online bookstores such as Barnes & Noble in the US and Waterstones, WHSmith and Blackwells in the UK (although it is not guaranteed at any one outlet). With Ingram, you have more choice over the retail discount, and it can be as low as 30% in the US and 35% in the UK, for example; in theory setting it higher makes it more attractive to retailers. Again the print cost is deducted from your part of the revenue.

If you publish through Ingram, your book will also be available at Amazon, although the speed of delivery to customers is usually quicker there if you go direct to Amazon. Ingram’s online platform is a little more complicated than Amazon’s; and Amazon KDP in fact offers an ‘expanded distribution’ option (for a fixed retail discount of 60%). Many independently published authors choose to use both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark to cover all options.

Note that the above is qualified by ‘usually’, ‘typically’ and ‘probably’ – there are subtleties and variations which mean different options suit different authors and books. (If you use our services we will provide tailor-made advice.)

Publishing a book involves several stages, although some of these are optional – every book is different and has different needs. These are the stages it might go through once you have got a first draft written:

• development/structural editing – this is where a specialist editor looks at how your book works, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, and suggests improvements (see our guide to the types of editing)
• copy editing – this is the picky stuff, where the editor ensures your grammar is correct, you have used words and phrases consistently and your style and content are accurate (again, see our guide)
• formatting/typesetting – this means laying out the finished text (and any illustrations) into the finished form of the book which will be published/printed; alongside this you will need a cover design
• proofreading – ideally your formatted book is then read by a fresh set of eyes; a proofreader will pick up any remaining typos or errors that have  crept in from formatting
• indexing – if your non-fiction book needs an index, this is the point where that would be compiled, i.e. when both the text and its formatting have otherwise been completed
• publishing – now the book is ready to publish!

Traditional publishing is where all of the above is done for you and the publisher takes a risk on the sales, arranging printing, distribution and marketing the book for you, in return for which you will receive an upfront advance and/or royalties on each sale of the book. Typically you might receive 10% of the cover price, but it can be less after the publisher’s costs are taken into account (less still if you have a literary agent representing you). Hybrid publishers will offer the same services but you would make a financial contribution to the publisher’s costs.

If you decide to self-publish, you can choose to take on any or all of the above stages yourself – or you can hire out parts of the process. Typically you would then either arrange for copies to be printed and be responsible for selling them either directly or by persuading retailers to sell them on your behalf – or you can use one of the online self-publishing platforms available.

For more on this, see the related question here, ‘How do I self-publish a book?’.

Amazon’s KDP platform offers print-on-demand paperback and ebook publishing exclusively through Amazon’s online stores (other options are available in the US, but not the UK, and if you want bookshops/libraries to be able to order your book, you should use IngramSpark or a combination of Ingram and Amazon).

Pros of using Amazon KDP

• No set-up fees
• No fees for revising your book
• Easy interface
• Access to Amazon’s advertising and promotion services

Cons of using Amazon KDP

• Colour paperback book interiors are expensive
• No hardback dust jacket option (but case laminate hardbacks are available)

KDP account set-up step by step

If you already use Amazon for shopping, you can use your existing account.

1. Visit https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ to start the process – click ‘Sign in’ if you already use Amazon, or sign up otherwise.

2. Amazon requires a two-step authentication process. So as well as your usual password, when you log in to your account using a new device (or after a long gap), you will need to request a code (OTP = ‘one time password’) to be sent to your phone, and then enter the code you are sent here:

3. When you have done that you can proceed to your account setup. Here you will need to provide:

i. Details of your name (or business name) and address

ii. Your bank account details for receiving revenue from your book sales. Note you’ll need to find your IBAN and BIC/SWIFT info – these are international versions of your sort code and account number which you can usually find on your bank statements – if not, you may need to ask your bank for them.

iii. Your tax information. NOTE: Amazon will withhold sales tax from sales in the US unless you fill this in. Here are the various questions and what you should enter:

1. What is your tax classification? Individual (unless you are trading as a limited company with more than one owner).
2. For U.S. tax purposes, are you a U.S. person? If you are a UK citizen and taxpayer, click No
3. Are you acting as an intermediary agent, or other person receiving payment on behalf of another person or as a flow-through entity? No
4. Now you need to fill in the form below. If you are in the UK, tick ‘I have a Non-US TIN’ at the bottom and enter your HMRC tax reference here. You can find this on tax returns and other HMRC letters.

When you have submitted all this information you should be able to set up a book. If you see the ‘Your account information is incomplete’ message as shown below, you can set up a book but you will not be able to publish it until the necessary tax/payment info has been supplied.

If you want your self-published book to be available through outlets other than Amazon alone, IngramSpark offers a popular option. It is also possible to order copies of your book in bulk. In general, pricing at Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark platforms is very similar.

Pros of IngramSpark:

• Cheaper colour printing, and more options for colour
• Distribution to online stores other than Amazon
• Bookshops and libraries can order copies through the Ingram catalogue
• Hardback book options

Cons of IngramSpark:

• More complex set-up process
• Set-up fee (up to £49) – although this can often be waived through using a discount code
• Sometimes books published through IngramSpark have longer availability times on Amazon
• £25 fee (per file) if you want to make revisions to your book after publication

Account set-up step by step

1. Visit Create Account at IngramSpark.com and set up an account with your name, email address and password.

 

 

2. You then need to accept various policy agreements – these cover Ingram’s relationships with various retail partners, etc.

3. Before you can set up your book, you will need to supply Ingram with:

your bank account details, for the money they will pay you when books have been sold

details of a debit/credit card – this is so Ingram can charge you for revisions if you need to make them, and the set-up fee (if applicable)

Note: if the blue button shows ‘Set up your account’ as in the screenshot below, you have not fully completed this set-up process yet.