Publish your book

Choose a publishing path

There are three broad ways to publish. Each has real strengths. The right one depends on your objectives from Module 1, how much control you want, and how much of the work you want to do yourself.

Traditional publishing

You (usually through a literary agent) pitch the book to a publishing house with a book proposal. If they accept, they buy the rights to publish it, typically pay you an advance against future royalties, and handle editing, design, printing and distribution. They make most of the final decisions, including the title and cover.

• Strengths: no upfront production cost to you, an advance, the publisher's name and bookstore relationships.
• Trade-offs: deals are hard to get without an existing audience; you give up control; and timelines are long. The Scribe Method puts it at 12 to 36 months to publication and lists typical royalty rates of around 15% of list price for hardcover and 7.5% for trade paperback (from the chapter on picking a publishing option). Publishers also expect authors to do much of their own promotion.
• Good fit if: you already have a large audience, you want the publisher's name on the spine, and you can wait.

If you go this way, your next step is a proposal, not a finished manuscript. The Scribe Method has a chapter on writing a nonfiction book proposal.

Self-publishing

You are the publisher. You hire (or do) the editing, cover and layout, buy ISBNs, upload files to platforms like Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, set the price and keep the royalties.

• Strengths: full control and ownership, a much larger share of each sale, and your own schedule.
• Trade-offs: you pay for everything up front and manage every step; quality is entirely on you; and self-published books are rarely stocked in physical bookstores without active selling.
• Good fit if: you want control, you are comfortable managing freelancers and platforms, and your goals do not depend on bookstore shelves.

Assisted (sometimes called hybrid) publishing

You pay a company to handle some or all of the publishing work. This is a wide category, and the quality ranges from excellent to predatory, so look closely at the terms. The best arrangements work like hiring a professional team: you pay for services, keep your rights, and keep your royalties. The worst charge high fees, take rights or a large share of royalties, and deliver little that you could not have bought yourself.

Scribe Media is a company in this category, so weigh our view accordingly. The Scribe Method chapter on publishing options is openly critical of publishers that charge authors while taking their rights. Whoever you talk to, ask:

• Who owns the rights, the final files and the ISBNs? Whose name is listed as publisher?
• What share of each sale do I keep, and how and when am I paid?
• What exactly is included (editing levels, cover, layout, formats, distribution, marketing), and what costs extra?
• Can I see books you published recently, in my genre?
• What happens if I want to leave or take the book elsewhere later?

The rest of this module assumes you, or a team you hire, are doing the publishing work. If you sign a traditional deal, the publisher will handle most of it, but it still helps to know what good looks like.

Pick your formats

• Paperback: almost always. Print on demand means you do not need to buy inventory, and print still matters for credibility, gifting and events.
• Ebook: almost always. It is a small extra step once the print interior exists, and some readers only read digitally.
• Hardcover: optional. It costs more to print, but it signals a premium book and works well as a gift for clients. The Scribe Method chapter on distribution treats it as nice to have rather than necessary.
• Audiobook: worth doing if you can afford it. Many people now listen to books, especially busy professionals. Decide whether you will narrate it yourself (readers of expert books often like hearing the author) or hire a narrator.

ISBNs and barcodes

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) identifies one edition in one format. According to the International ISBN Agency, ISBNs have had 13 digits since January 2007, each format (paperback, ebook and so on) should have its own ISBN, and it is the publisher who applies for it. If you self-publish, the publisher is you. An ISBN does not give you copyright; it is just an identifier for ordering and listing.

In the United States, ISBNs are sold by the official agency, Bowker. Other countries have their own agencies, and some issue ISBNs free.

You will have to make one decision here: use a free ISBN from a print-on-demand platform, or buy your own. A platform's free ISBN usually lists the platform as the publisher and generally can only be used on that platform. Buying your own lets you list your own imprint name as publisher (an imprint is simply the publishing name on the spine and copyright page) and use the same ISBN across every platform.

Barcodes

Print books need a barcode on the back cover so stores can scan them. The book barcode (called an EAN or Bookland EAN) encodes your ISBN. It can include a small extra block that encodes the price; a price code of 90000 means "no price encoded." Many cover designers and print platforms can generate the barcode for you, but check it scans and that it matches the right ISBN for that format.

Library records

US publishers can also request a Library of Congress Control Number before publication, which helps libraries catalog the book. The glossary explains LCCN and the related CIP data.

The cover

Readers judge books by their covers, mostly in a split second and mostly as a small image on a screen. The Scribe Method chapter on getting a great book cover is direct: do not design it yourself. Hire a professional who designs book covers specifically, not a general graphic designer.

To get a good result:

• Do your research first. Collect covers from your comparable books and your category. Note what readers in your space expect, and where there is room to stand out.
• Write a brief. Include your title, subtitle, positioning statement, reader profile, the feeling you want, covers you like and dislike, and every piece of text that must appear.
• Remember the whole wrap. Print books need a spine and back cover too. Spine width depends on page count and paper, so the designer needs the final page count from the interior layout.
• Check the thumbnail. Shrink the front cover to the size of a store listing. Can you still read the title? Does it still say what the book is?
• Do not crowd-source the decision. Ask a few target readers which option tells them most clearly what the book is. Avoid public polls.

Interior layout, front matter and back matter

Interior layout (also called typesetting or interior design) is where a manuscript becomes pages. It is harder than it looks. A good designer handles fonts, margins, spacing, headers, awkward line and page breaks, and images, and the reader never notices any of it. A poor layout makes a book feel amateur before anyone reads a sentence. The Scribe Method chapter on book layout covers the main decisions.

• Trim size: the finished size of the book. 6 by 9 inches is the most common; 5.5 by 8.5 inches is popular for business books. Match what your reader is used to.
• Print options: black and white or color interior, paper color, paperback or hardcover. Color printing costs considerably more.
• Ebook: ebooks are usually delivered as EPUB files, with text that reflows to fit any screen. Fixed layouts are for image-heavy books. Check the ebook on more than one device.

Front matter and back matter

Front matter is everything before chapter one; back matter is everything after the last chapter. Not every book needs every item. A common order:

On a foreword: most books do not need one. The Scribe Method chapter on forewords suggests a test: if you would not put "Foreword by [name]" on the cover, ask that person for a short endorsement (a blurb) instead.

Always check a printed proof

Order a physical proof copy and read it page by page. This is when the proofread happens (see Module 4). Look for typos, bad breaks, wrong running heads, images that print too dark, and a spine that is off center. Approve it only when you would be happy handing it to your most important client.

Price each format

Price is a positioning signal as well as a sales lever. For books by experts, pricing too low can make the book, and you, look less valuable. The Scribe Method chapter on pricing your book notes that Amazon pays its higher 70% ebook royalty for list prices from $2.99 to $12.99, and lower royalties outside that range. Platform terms change, so confirm the current rules on the platform itself before you set prices.

The same chapter suggests choosing a goal first, then pricing every format consistently:

Price ranges from the Scribe Method chapter on pricing. For print, your royalty depends on the list price minus printing cost and the retailer's share, so run each price through the platform's own calculator.

Also compare with the books in your Module 2 table. A price far above or below comparable books needs a reason.

Book description, bio and photo

The description

The description is the copy on the back cover and the store page. It does one thing: convince the right reader to buy. The Scribe Method chapter on book descriptions recommends 150 to 200 words in four parts: a hook, the reader's problem, what the book gives them, and an invitation to buy. Short paragraphs, second person, active language.

The author bio and photo

Write a short bio in the third person that includes only what makes you credible to this reader. Two or three sentences for the back cover, a slightly longer version for the store page and the back matter. The Scribe Method chapter on author bios has good and bad examples. Pair it with a professional photo that looks like the person your reader would hire or trust.

Metadata and categories

Metadata is all the information about your book that stores, libraries and search engines read: title, subtitle, author name, description, categories, keywords, ISBNs, price, page count, trim size, release date, language and territories. Good metadata helps the right readers find the book. Inconsistent metadata creates duplicate or broken listings.

• Be consistent. Your name, title and subtitle should be identical everywhere, down to punctuation and middle initials.
• Choose categories deliberately. Most distributors use BISAC subject codes, a standard list maintained by the Book Industry Study Group. Pick the most specific codes that honestly describe the book, using your comparable books as a guide. Amazon has its own category system for its store, which you choose inside KDP.
• Use reader language for keywords. Platforms let you add a few search keywords or phrases. Use words your reader types (from your Module 2 research), not words already in your title.
• Set a real release date. Give yourself enough time between final files and release for proofs, store listings and early reviews (Module 6).

Distribution

Distribution is how your book reaches stores and readers. For a self-published or assisted book, the Scribe Method chapter on distribution lays out a common setup:

• Print: print on demand through Amazon KDP for Amazon, and through IngramSpark for other retailers, bookstores and libraries. If you use both, turn off Amazon distribution in IngramSpark to avoid duplicate listings. Offset printing (a bulk print run) lowers the cost per copy but means paying up front and storing books, which makes sense mainly for large orders such as events or client gifting.
• Ebook: KDP for Kindle, plus other ebook stores either directly or through an aggregator that distributes to several stores at once.
• Audiobook: ACX for Audible, Amazon and Apple, and other distributors for wider reach to library and subscription services.

Bookstores are a special case. They usually expect books to be returnable and sold at a meaningful wholesale discount, and they rarely stock self-published books unless someone actively sells the book to them. If bookstore shelves matter to your objectives, plan for that explicitly; if they do not, do not distort your setup chasing them.

Common mistakes

• Signing before you understand the rights. Read the contract. Know who owns the files, the ISBNs and the right to publish.
• A homemade cover. It is the one place readers judge instantly. Hire a book cover designer.
• Formatting the interior in a word processor and calling it done. It shows. Use a professional or a dedicated layout tool, and check a printed proof.
• Reusing one ISBN across formats. Each format gets its own.
• Pricing to be cheap. For expert books, a low price can undercut the credibility the book is meant to build.
• Inconsistent names and titles across platforms. It splits your listings and confuses readers.
• Losing track of accounts and files. Years later, you will need to update a bio or fix a typo. Keep the publishing record.

What comes next

In Module 6, you will plan the launch, gather honest reviews, and set up the book to keep working for you through speaking, podcasts, media and client conversations.