How to Self Publish a Book: A Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide

Learning how to self publish a book mostly comes down to turning one finished manuscript into two different files: a reflowable ebook file that adapts to any screen, and a fixed-layout print file that matches a physical page. Almost every confusing decision a first-time author meets, from EPUB versus PDF to trim sizes, bleed and ISBNs, traces back to that one split.

None of it requires a publisher, an agent or professional design software. It requires a clean manuscript, a handful of deliberate choices and a careful read of the platform’s own help pages. This guide walks through each stage in the order you will actually meet it, with plain-English definitions, comparison tables and a numbered checklist you can work through one item at a time.

Platform rules change, so treat this guide as a map rather than a rulebook. Wherever a specific requirement matters, you will find a link to the official Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) help page, and you should confirm the current version there before you upload anything.

What self-publishing actually involves

When you self-publish, you take on the jobs a traditional publisher would normally handle: editing, formatting, cover design, writing the book description, choosing categories and deciding where the book is sold. A platform such as KDP prints paperbacks on demand when a reader orders one and delivers ebooks to Kindle devices and apps, but it does not edit, design or proofread your book for you. What you upload is what readers receive.

That sounds like a lot, but each job is smaller than it looks, and you can hire help for any part you would rather not do yourself.

The roles you take on

• Author: you write and revise the text.
• Editor: you (or a freelancer you hire) check structure, clarity and errors.
• Formatter: you turn the manuscript into an ebook file and a print file.
• Designer: you create or commission the cover.
• Publisher: you choose the platform, the identifiers and the listing details. Depending on which ISBN you use, you may or may not be the official publisher of record.

If you are still working on the first draft, our guide on how to write a book for the first time covers planning and drafting. Come back here when the story is complete.

Self-publishing is not one big leap. It is a series of small, checkable steps, and almost every one of them can be fixed and re-uploaded if you get it wrong the first time.

Step 1: Finish and polish your manuscript

Formatting a book that is still changing creates double work, so the first step is to make the text as final as you can. Check that your length suits your genre and readers’ expectations; our overview of novel word counts by genre is a useful sanity check before you commit to a page count and trim size.

Revise in passes, not all at once

Trying to fix plot holes and commas in the same read rarely works. Most authors get better results from separate passes:

• Structural pass: does the story or argument hold together? Are chapters in the right order?
• Line pass: are sentences clear, varied and free of repetition?
• Proofreading pass: spelling, punctuation, consistent names, consistent spelling conventions (US or British English) and formatting slips.

Beta readers: a fresh pair of eyes

Beta readers are people who read your near-final manuscript and tell you how it felt as a reader: where they were confused, bored or hooked. They are not proofreaders. Give them a few specific questions, such as where they stopped reading or which character they did not believe, so the feedback is something you can act on. Readers from your target audience are more useful than friends who will simply say they liked it.

Proofreading tips that actually catch errors

Your brain autocorrects text it has seen many times, so change how you see it. Read the manuscript aloud, switch to a different font, or read it in a book-style layout instead of your usual editor. If you draft in Bookh, the Read Aloud tool, find and replace and version history make this pass easier, and the book-formatted preview shows the text the way a reader will meet it, which tends to expose awkward breaks and typos you skimmed past before.

Step 2: Choose ebook, paperback or both

An ebook and a paperback are the same words packaged in two very different ways. Understanding the difference early tells you which files you need to prepare and which rules apply.

Many first-time authors publish both, often starting with the ebook because it has fewer moving parts. Books with lots of photographs, such as family histories, are a special case: images display differently on every e-reader, so print often does them more justice. If that describes your project, our guide on how to start writing a memoir also covers how to plan the material you include.

Step 3: Understand EPUB, PDF and DOCX

File formats are where most first-time authors get stuck, so here is the short version. EPUB is an open standard for digital books, originally developed by the IDPF and now maintained by the W3C, and it is built to reflow. PDF is a fixed page, exactly like a printed sheet. DOCX is a Word file: great for writing and editing, but not a finished book on its own.

For Kindle ebooks, KDP describes EPUB as highly recommended because files that follow standard guidelines produce reflowable text that adjusts smoothly across Kindle devices and apps (KDP Help: supported ebook formats). For print, the interior is normally a print-ready PDF.

How to convert Word to EPUB

If you wrote your book in Word, you do not need to start again. The quality of your EPUB depends mostly on how clean your Word file is, so tidy it before you convert Word to EPUB:

1. Use built-in heading styles for every chapter title, so the converter can build a working table of contents.
2. Remove manual formatting: extra blank lines, spaces used for indents and tabs at the start of paragraphs. Use paragraph styles for indents instead.
3. Insert page breaks before each chapter rather than pressing Enter repeatedly.
4. Keep fonts simple, because e-readers usually override them anyway.
5. Convert with a dedicated tool: KDP accepts DOCX directly, Kindle Create can import it, and writing tools can export EPUB for you.
6. Open the result in a previewer and check chapter starts, the table of contents, italics, scene breaks and any images.

If you would rather skip the cleanup, Bookh exports the same manuscript to EPUB, Word/DOCX, HTML, PDF and standard manuscript format from its book-formatted preview, so your ebook and print files start from one consistent source instead of several copies of a Word document.

What happened to MOBI?

Older guides tell you to upload MOBI files. That advice is out of date: KDP no longer supports MOBI for reflowable ebooks and now accepts EPUB, DOCX or KPF for them instead (KDP Help). If a tutorial still mentions MOBI, look for a newer one.

Where standard manuscript format fits

Standard manuscript format is the plain layout agents, editors and many contests ask for: a simple serif font, double spacing, generous margins, a header with your name and title, and no decorative design. You will not publish in this format, but it is useful for sending the book to a freelance editor or proofreader before you format the final files.

Step 4: Format the print interior: trim size, margins and bleed

The ebook reflows, but the paperback interior has to be designed page by page. Three terms do most of the work here.

Choosing a trim size

Trim size is the finished width and height of your printed book after the pages are cut. KDP describes 6″ x 9″ (152.4 x 228.6 mm) as the standard trade size for non-fiction, memoirs and self-help books (KDP Help: trim size). Fiction is often printed in slightly smaller trade sizes, so look at books on your shelf in your genre and compare them with the list of sizes KDP supports. Choose your trim size before you format, because changing it later changes every page break.

Bookh’s PDF export uses the 6″ x 9″ trade size that KDP lists as standard (KDP Help), which makes it a straightforward starting point for a first paperback.

Margins and the gutter

The gutter is the inside margin, where pages meet the spine. Thicker books need a wider gutter, otherwise words disappear into the fold. KDP sets minimum margins based on your page count, so check its current margin guidance once you know roughly how many pages your book will have, and leave a little extra rather than the bare minimum.

Bleed, explained simply

Bleed means an image or background colour runs right to the edge of the page. Because the cutting blade is never perfectly precise, the printer needs extra image beyond the edge. If your interior has elements that reach the page edge, KDP’s guidance is to extend them 0.125″ (3.2 mm) past the trim on the top, bottom and outside edges, and to upload the interior as a PDF (KDP Help: bleed). A text-only novel normally has no bleed at all, which keeps things simpler.

Front and back matter

Front matter and back matter are the pages before and after the main text. A typical self-published book includes:

• Title page with the title and author name
• Copyright page with rights notice and ISBN
• Dedication (optional)
• Table of contents (essential in ebooks, optional in many print novels)
• Acknowledgements and an About the Author page
• Optionally, a short note pointing readers to your other books or newsletter

Step 5: Sort out ISBNs and identifiers

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique identifier for one specific edition and format of a book. Bookshops, libraries and distributors use it to order and catalogue the book. As a general rule, each format (ebook, paperback, hardcover) gets its own ISBN; confirm the details with your national ISBN agency.

Ebooks on Amazon

Kindle ebooks do not technically require an ISBN on Amazon; KDP assigns an internal 10-character ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) to identify the edition instead (KDP Help: ISBNs). If you plan to sell the ebook on other stores too, check what each store requires.

Paperbacks: free KDP ISBN or your own

For print, KDP offers a free ISBN, but if you use it Amazon is listed as the publisher of record and that ISBN can only be used on KDP (KDP Help: ISBNs). If you want your own imprint name on the listing, or plan to distribute the same paperback through other services such as IngramSpark, you need to obtain your own ISBN from the official agency in your country.

Official ISBN agencies by market: Bowker in the United States, the Nielsen ISBN Agency for the UK and Ireland, Thorpe-Bowker in Australia, and Library and Archives Canada in Canada. Check the agency’s own website for current pricing and conditions, and be cautious of third-party sellers offering cheap ISBNs, because the registered publisher may not be you.

Step 6: Prepare your cover and book details

Readers see your cover and description long before they see your first sentence, so give these the same care as the interior.

The cover

An ebook cover is a single front image. A paperback cover is a full wrap: back cover, spine and front cover as one file. The spine width depends on your page count and paper type, so finish the interior first, then use KDP’s cover calculator and template to get the exact dimensions. Test your front cover at thumbnail size; if the title is unreadable when it is tiny, simplify it.

Metadata: the words around your book

Metadata is the information that describes your book on the store page. You will usually be asked for:

• Title and subtitle: must match the cover and title page.
• Author name: keep it consistent across every format.
• Description: a short, compelling blurb, similar to back-cover copy. Lead with the hook, not the backstory.
• Keywords and categories: the words and shelves that help readers find you. Choose ones that accurately describe the book.
• Language, age range and content details where relevant.

Write the description in a separate document, read it aloud and trim anything that does not make a reader want to open the book.

Step 7: Upload, preview and publish on Amazon KDP

Once your files are ready, the upload itself is mostly form-filling. The exact screens change from time to time, but the process generally looks like this:

1. Create a KDP account and complete the tax and payment information.
2. Create a new title and choose ebook or paperback; you can link both formats to the same book later.
3. Enter the book details: title, author, description, keywords and categories.
4. Add the ISBN for print, either the free KDP ISBN or your own.
5. Upload the manuscript: EPUB (or DOCX/KPF) for the ebook, PDF for the paperback, at the trim size you chose.
6. Upload the cover or build one with KDP’s cover tools.
7. Check the online previewer page by page, looking for flagged issues, blank pages and text too close to the edge.
8. Set rights and pricing using KDP’s own guidance on royalties and territories; read the current terms rather than relying on old blog posts.
9. Order a printed proof of the paperback and read it with a pen in hand.
10. Publish, then check the live store page once it appears.

Publishing beyond Amazon

You do not have to sell only on Amazon. Other ebook stores and print distributors such as IngramSpark can reach more retailers and libraries, but each has its own file specifications and ISBN rules. If going wide is part of your plan, decide on your own ISBN before you publish the paperback, because the free KDP ISBN cannot follow the book elsewhere.

How to self publish a book: the complete checklist

Work through this list in order. It is the whole of how to self publish a book, reduced to checkable steps, and it is worth printing out and ticking off.

1. Finish the full draft and complete structural and line revisions.
2. Get beta-reader feedback and make the changes that matter.
3. Proofread in a different view from the one you wrote in, or hire a proofreader.
4. Decide on ebook, paperback or both.
5. Choose a trim size for the paperback and confirm it on KDP’s trim size page.
6. Clean up your Word styles and export or convert the manuscript to EPUB.
7. Create a print-ready PDF interior with correct margins, and bleed only if images reach the edge.
8. Add front and back matter: title page, copyright page, contents and About the Author.
9. Decide on ISBNs: none for a Kindle-only ebook, free KDP ISBN or your own for print.
10. Finish the cover: front image for the ebook, full wrap using KDP’s template for print.
11. Write the description, and choose keywords and categories.
12. Upload files, check the previewer, order a proof copy, then publish.

Common first-time mistakes to avoid

Most publishing problems are small and fixable, but these come up again and again:

• Formatting before the text is final. Every late edit can shift page breaks and the table of contents.
• Uploading a PDF as an ebook. A fixed-layout PDF does not reflow on e-readers; use EPUB for Kindle ebooks.
• Picking a trim size after formatting. Choose it first, or you will redo the layout.
• Ignoring the gutter. Text that disappears into the spine is one of the most common proof-copy surprises.
• Using the free ISBN without understanding it. It is fine for a KDP-only paperback, but it ties that edition to KDP.
• Trusting outdated advice. Rules about formats like MOBI have changed; always check the current KDP help pages.
• Skipping the printed proof. Screens hide problems that paper reveals instantly.

Frequently asked questions