Let’s walk through a complete high-level roadmap to self-publish your book from concept to KDP upload, with most steps applying even if you use a hybrid or traditional publisher. Before writing anything, identify four key components: why you are writing, what your focus is, what your message is, and who your target audience is. Your "why" might be becoming a known author, making money, using the book as a business card, or leaving a legacy, and this keeps your book focused.

Identifying your target audience requires being specific because if you write for everyone, you write for nobody. Most readers decide whether to buy in less than 10 seconds based on the cover and back description, so speak directly to your ideal reader's situation.

When building content, every story must support the point in that specific chapter rather than including random tales. Hiring a professional editor is vital for credibility since unprofessionally edited books receive reviews calling out mistakes that permanently damage your reputation. The four editing types in order are developmental, line, copy, and proofreading. Vet editors to ensure they work in your genre, edit full-time, communicate promptly, and respect your voice.

Purchase your own ISBNs through Bowker and buy a set of 10 since you need separate ISBNs for each format. While your editor works, begin book cover design asking for samples and client referrals. Avoid formatters using Microsoft Word, instead using Adobe InDesign, Atticus, or Vellum. For KDP upload you need your final manuscript, ebook cover, paperback cover, and assigned ISBNs, uploading about a week before launch.

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The opinions expressed on the show by the host or guests are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views of Unicorn Publishing Company. Unicorn Publishing Company, the host, guests, and affiliates are not responsible or liable for any decisions made by listeners or actions taken hereto based on the information discussed in this podcast. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge and agree to release Unicorn Publishing Company, the host, affiliates, and guests from any liability.

First, I'm asking for your permission to record while you are on. If you are okay with that, go ahead and hit "Okay." Today is an overview of self-publishing and the steps you need to take to publish your book. Most of these steps, up to the point of uploading on KDP, apply even if you are using a publisher. However, the main difference is the initial approach.

You would either query a hybrid publisher or hire an agent to query a traditional publisher. While you don't necessarily need an agent for a traditional publisher, many people choose that route because it is easier. That is a separate investment we won't discuss today, but I wanted to make that distinction. Regardless of the path, a publisher will still follow these steps to produce your book, and most will still utilize KDP for distribution.

We are going to discuss your step-by-step roadmap to self-publishing. This is a high-level overview, but if either of you have questions as we go along, please jump in and ask. If you have a question for later, you can put it in the chat, though I may not check it as frequently while I'm following the presentation. Today, we will learn and focus on the key steps to writing and publishing your book on Amazon.

You want to follow these steps to self-publish your book successfully. It is important to complete them in order; doing them out of order can cost you extra time and money that is not well spent. There are four key components to your book, which I discuss in my book, "From Idea to Outline," and in the Jumpstart course coming up in July.

You should identify these key components before you start writing. If you have already started, that is okay; you don't have to rewrite everything. You can still do this exercise and then review your manuscript to see if it hits all these checkpoints. If not, you can edit your book to include them. The components are: 1. Why are you writing your book? 2. What is the focus? 3. What is your book's message? 4. Who is your target audience?

No matter what genre you are writing, these are four elements you should know before you start. This helps you tune into your message and ensure the book is highly focused on your reader. Regarding the first point: Why are you writing? Do you want to become a well-known author? Do you want to make a million dollars? Are you using the book as a business card, or do you want to leave a legacy?

So because this really helps you tune in your book's message and get your book really highly focused on your reader. So number one, why are you writing a book? Do you want to become a well-known author? Do you want to make a million dollars with your book? Are you writing a book to use as a business card? Or do you just wanna leave a legacy? Like you, you're just because there's people that just write a book.

Some people write a book to leave a legacy, ordering perhaps 50 copies for their family members. Joanna and Cheryl, go ahead and unmute. Joanna, you go first. What is your "why" for your book? Joanna shared that she is writing her autobiography so her family's future generations know about their trials, tribulations, and the will to overcome situations. Her main reason is legacy, which is wonderful.

my will to adapt and learn and overcome situations. and the things that we survived as a family growing up. So that would be my way to share with my grandchildren, great grandchildren and on and on, brothers, sisters. So that is the main reason why I'm writing my autobiography. So your main reason is legacy. Yes. Awesome. I love that.

Cheryl, how about you? Cheryl explained that for the seven books she has already published, the focus was to take stories shared on her podcast and adapt them into middle-grade books to encourage children to do good in the world.

Her current project is a guidebook for Girl Scouts or anyone looking to start their own project. It serves as an inspirational, self-help guidebook designed to educate people. I love both of those reasons. They are much more meaningful than simply wanting to make a million dollars. While that would be nice, the purpose and the "why" behind your book are far more important.

So they can do the same, like so they can bring Girl Scouts to the highest level they can be. I love that. I love that. Those are both amazing reasons to write a book. I love those reasons. And I actually love those reasons better than I want to make a million dollars with a book because it's, you know, to make a million dollars with a book obviously would be nice, right? No, I'm never gonna say no, I don't want to make a million dollars with any of my books. But I feel like the purpose behind your book and or why behind your book is so much more important than the like.

When you have a deep purpose, it extends further into the world around you. I admire you both for that. The next thing to consider is the focus and intention of your book. What do you intend to achieve while writing? Then, there is your message. Joanna mentioned resilience and sharing family history, while Cheryl's message is about achieving high goals through a guided process.

Do you want to become a well-known author? Do you want to use your book as a business card? Do you want to leave a legacy? So, what is the focus of your book? So, what is like what intention do you have when you're writing your book, basically? All right, now your message. So, like you said, Joanna, yours was like resilience and teaching, like talk, telling your grandkids and your family like what you had to go through to get to where you're at now. And then for Cheryl, your message is like,

Your message could be a framework, an efficient process, or a survival guide. For example, I helped a client named Tom publish a book called "Dreams Take Flight" when he turned 80. You are never too old to publish. His message was centered on his role in making disc golf popular. He found me online, and we worked together to share his story.

From my client Tom, and we published it when he turned 80. So you're never too old to publish a book. and his message in his book is people kept so he so the basis behind his book is he wanted to leave a legacy because he is the person that's responsible for this golf being so popular in the world. Like literally, and he literally lives in my town. He lives 10 minutes from my house, which is kind of funny. so he found me online and hired me to help him write his book. And so

In our discussions, a consistent theme emerged: people would tell him something couldn't be done, and he would find a way to do it. His message was one of resilience and problem-solving. Another client, whose book was recently published, also focused on resilience—the idea of getting knocked down and picking yourself back up. Every book has a unique message, even if they share a common theme.

The next step is identifying your target audience. For instance, when writing the second edition of my guide to traveling gluten-free, I know my audience consists of women aged 30 to 60 who have celiac disease or family members who do. They are typically married, raising kids, or helping with grandkids, and they need to know what is safe for their families to eat.

I know when I'm writing my second edition of my guide to traveling gluten-free that my target audience is women ages 30 to 60 who either have celiac disease or whose family members have celiac disease. Typically they're married or they have a partner and they're raising kids or helping to raise grandkids or they have grandkids and they need this information to learn what is safe to feed my family and what is not safe to feed my family or myself.

I know this because I look at my podcast demographics, which consistently fall into this category. Specifically, the core is 40 to 55, as that is often when people are finally diagnosed with celiac disease. You need to be as specific as possible because if you write for everyone, you write for nobody. Cheryl, you go first. Tell us about your target audience and if any part of that demographic surprised you.

Who your target audience is and be as specific as possible because you don't want to write for everybody. Cause as we know, if you write for everybody, you write for nobody. So let's unmute. And Cheryl, I'm gonna have you go first. Your tolerant audience is pretty easy. So who, so just tell us your target audience. And if there are any target audience people who you like, I didn't think it would be this, and you were surprised by some of your target audience.

Cheryl noted her audience is specific: middle school Girl Scouts. However, she also reaches high schoolers looking for community service projects. She also keeps in mind the adults who support these students. That community service piece is a great point; it provides a way for students to earn awards while doing good. Joanna, who is your target audience outside of your family?

Of course, because they're the middle school girls, girl scouts, I always also have to keep in mind the adults that support them. Right, right. No, but I love the fact I love that community service piece because that's a really good point. Cause there's a lot of other like groups and schools that you have to do community service for, right? And like what a better way to do it than joining a Girl Scout group and getting an award while you're doing the community service. So it's like a double award for doing something good. And I really love that. That's awesome.

Thanks for sharing. Okay, Joanna, what is your star? Who do you think your target audience is? Obviously, you want your family members to read it, but outside your family members, who do you feel like your target audience might be? So my target audience that I can identify being at this point is gonna be a group of individuals under an umbrella of areas, and I can break that down just a little bit. So like

Joanna identified a broad but specific group: people in the "sandwich generation" caring for both children and parents, teen mothers, people dealing with mental health situations, and those struggling with chronic medical conditions. She hopes her story of survival helps others in similar situations.

struggle with met medical, chronic medical conditions. So a lot of the things that I've been through, I'm hoping as I'm telling my story and sharing with my family and how we survived it and what we did, maybe other people that are in those areas. So it's a broad area. I know that. but it's going to be targeted to specific

She is also touching on raising teenagers and the journey of education. While it covers many life experiences, it targets specific situations people live through. Joanna, you are clearly appealing to an audience aged 40 and up, as they have the life experience to relate to your journey. Narrowing it down to "40 plus" would make it even more niche.

The path will be in there. So that's gonna be a lot of things I'm gonna be touching on. And I don't know if people are gonna be able to relate or not, but I'll just share what worked and what didn't for me. Doesn't make my way right or wrong. It just makes it my way. Right. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. And two, you're clearly appealing to an audience that's 40 plus, right? Because these are going to be people that have already lived life experiences. It's not going to be like the younger crowd that your book's gonna appeal to.

Because you have to live these life experiences. You have to have life under your belt in order to relate to a lot of the things that are in your book. So yeah, I mean, I feel that's still pretty niche what you got. Like you've got it niche down a little bit. But I would say even adding 40 plus would niche it down even more. That's what I'll do. Thank you. Yeah.

When writing the back of your book, you want to speak directly to your "avatar" or ideal reader. Appeal to their situation as a selling point. Most readers make a decision in less than 10 seconds based on the cover and the back description. If it relates to them, they buy it. This quick decision-making is a common trait in how people choose books.

So I'm probably I'm sure you guys probably relate to that. That is a very, very typical way people choose the books that they're gonna read. And the topper to that is people will make that decision in less than 10 seconds. Like you feel like that's just hardly any time, right? But that's how fast our brains look at something and decide yes or no. And that's from just like, you know, like having to like all these years, like having to for us to like.

After figuring out those four things, you should create an outline. Some people prefer to "pant," or write without a plan, but an outline ensures your content remains focused on your purpose and audience. Without one, you might write a lot of content that doesn't make it into the final book, which is an inefficient use of time. There are several ways to structure an outline: chronological, sequential, or topical.

You're still gonna have content, but it's not gonna be focused on the four things we talked about earlier. And you're gonna be writing a lot of content that may not make it into the book. So it's not a very efficient use of your time. And we cannot get back our time. So time is one of the things we want to be extremely careful with. So there's a couple of different ways you can do an outline structure for your book. You can do it chronologically. That's what my client did in this one, and actually this one, because they're both memoirs.

and so memoirs set up really well for chronological order, although you don't have to do a memoir in chronological order. There's sequential, and then like this happened, then this happened, then this happened, and then there's topical, which is like categorical. So there's a lot, and there's other ways too, but these are the three most common ways to set up your outline. And so this is what would be a categorical or topical way. I love mind maps. So when I used to teach middle schoolers,

Memoirs work well chronologically, while others may be categorical. I personally love mind maps. When I taught middle school, traditional outlines didn't work for my students or for me because I am not a linear thinker. Mind maps are excellent for visual learners. For example, if you were writing "Marketing 101," each branch on the mind map could represent a chapter.

That is not the best way for me to map out my ideas. I love using a mind map because I'm not a linear thinker. This also is really helpful for people who are visual learners because you can just clearly see what your book's gonna be about. So this is an example. If I was writing a book about marketing 101, right? These are some of the key topics I could write about. Now, all of these topics on this little spoke wheel here are all gonna be chapters.

Right. So this is the beauty of building out a mind map. You start with your main idea and it doesn't have to be your title. And I tell people, you don't need to choose your title until you're finished formatting your book. But what I always recommend is keep a running list of titles and don't completely cross out your old ones because sometimes you go back to your old ones and like, I like this word from this piece of title and this from this piece, and you end up combining them. All right. So this is another idea of a mind map. This is somebody building a website, but same thing.

You start with a main idea and build out. You don't even need a final title until the book is finished, though you should keep a running list of ideas. In a mind map, the main topic is in the center, the first set of hubs are your chapters, and the spokes coming off those are your subtopics and content. This tool helps you visually construct the foundation of your book. Another option is a dichotomy diagram, which is a more linear tree diagram.

magical about mind maps, I feel like, because this is such a simple tool that you can visually see what you're building and also construct all of the content for your book. So again, this is always your main topic in the middle. And then the first hub of your thing. So this would be header, homepage, subpages, footer, and sidebar in this example, these would be your chapters. And then anything coming off your chapters are subtitles in your chapters.

And then anything coming off those subtitles are content underneath the subtitles. So you're literally building out the construct of your book. Now, again, books are a work of art. So your process can change, this can change, but you need to start somewhere and have a foundation to build on. So this is what's called a I just lost it. It's basically like where you choose a yes or no. And I'm a dichotomy. So this is a dichotomy diagram. That's a mouthful.

And I see these a lot in science as a teacher. And I love these because you can, it's like a mind map, but it's more linear. So if you're more of a linear thinker, but you like the visual part, a dichotomy, dichotomy map is a great way to go because it's basically a tree diagram where you extend subtopics off of different topics, right? So again, these would be your main topics here, would be your chapters.

These would be your subtopics and your chapters, and these would be the supporting under that. And these top subtopics here would support these subtopics here. So any questions on mind maps before we move on?

When adding content to your outline, focus on building your story. You can use personal examples, business stories, frameworks, research, or firsthand knowledge. The most important criteria is that the story must support the point you are making in that specific chapter. Don't include random stories that don't relate to the topic.

You can talk about your first hand knowledge of something. You can talk about your secondhand knowledge of something, but just make sure you state that in your book that this is something you got from another person. and so people know that. Or you can add research to your book, right? To build your story. So these are not all of the pieces of content you can use to build your story. These are just some main examples, right? But one of the things I always tell people and clients is a piece of advice I give them is if you're gonna have a story, the the one

criteria that has to fit is it has to support whatever you're talking about, right? Like you can't just go into some random story that doesn't relate to your chapter or the piece that you're talking about. So like for example, in my client Tom's book, he kept telling me more stories and more stories. I'm like, Tom, we need to add that to your book. He's like, no, I don't know. I'm like, Tom, you're eighty years old. No one's gonna care about it like no one's gonna arrest you for pot you smoked when you're 18, right? So like and that was back in the sixties and everybody smoked pot pretty much. So anyway

Colorful stories draw readers in emotionally and build a connection. Even in a business book, I recommend personal stories. For the second edition of my travel book, I am adding more stories because they connect so well with readers. Once you have outlined your content, I recommend organizing your files by folder—typically one folder per chapter to keep research and drafts sorted.

That was my first book. So I didn't know a lot about writing books. So this my second edition, I am definitely adding more stories in there because A, I now have more stories because I've traveled much more since I've written my first book. And B, those stories really connect with readers. So I'm gonna add them in there. All right, so once you have everything outlined and you have most of your content that you know you're gonna use, like research and stuff, sorted into your folders. And what I recommend is putting one chapter for each folder.

For second editions, I've found it helpful to group chapters in threes unless you have a high volume of research. Be sure to label your files clearly as "Second Edition" to avoid overwriting your original work. After finishing your rough draft, you move into self-editing and working with beta readers. Beta readers provide feedback on flow and clarity. They don't need to read the whole book; feedback on even one chapter is valuable.

But one of the things I'm finding out with writing a second edition is because I'm using my last edition obviously as a base. It's very hard to go back and forth. And the other thing I'm realizing too is when you're writing a second edition, you want to label all your second edition files, second ed, and then the title. Because one of the things I did the other day is I accidentally wrote my second edition in my first edition draft and I didn't realize that. I know. Luckily, Google has the version history, so I can revert it back.

But I'm not too worried about it because I'm not gonna write my first edition again. So I just kind of laughed and copied and pasted it in the right place. But that's when I'm like, I'm gonna write a second ed on the top of everything. All right. So here's so now that you're done your rough draft and you've written that, this is the part that comes from your self-editing and your beta readers. So self-editing means you are going through your book and editing your own book, right? And then beta readers ask other people.

To read your book and get feedback. So there's a couple of different ways to do beta readers. One is you can just ask people you know, you can put it out online. I announced it on my podcast because I knew a lot of my podcast listeners, some of them would be interested in beta reading a book that's the same topic as the podcast. So if you have a podcast, this is an easy ask for people to come in and beta read your book. So I tell people you can read one chapter, you can read two chapters, you can read the whole book.

It doesn't matter. Like if you read one chapter, that's fine. I consider you a beta reader because not everybody has time to read your whole book. And I'd rather somebody be invested in one chapter than not be invested at all and feel like, this too, this whole book is too overwhelming right now. Like I can't do that. So that's my take on it. Everybody has a different take. One of the main things with beta readers is you're looking for feedback on things like flow, understanding of the concepts. Does this make sense? Does this not make sense? Like, does this relate to you? Do you feel like this is pulling you in?

You are looking for whether the concepts make sense and pull the reader in. Don't ask them to critique grammar; that is what a professional editor is for. Hiring a professional editor is vital for your credibility. I once worked with a client whose first book had many reviews stating the book lacked professional editing. That hurts your reputation, which is very difficult to fix.

I actually worked on a client's book a couple three months ago. And I looked at her first book and I looked at her reviews on her first book. And one quarter of her reviews on Amazon, she had like 70. So she had a decent amount of reviews. One quarter said, I don't think this person had a professional editor. There's mistakes all over the place. And I was like, ouch, that really hurts your credibility because once you put that out, you can't get that back. And as we all know, reputation is the hardest thing to fix. So

This is especially important if you are a speaker. If an event coordinator sees a book full of mistakes, it signals a lack of professionalism. Joanna and Cheryl, if you were organizing an event and a potential speaker gave you a book full of typos, what would you think? Joanna noted it would show a lack of care and would make the book a challenge to read rather than an enjoyable experience.

And they gave you the book, their book, and it was full of typos and stuff. What would you think? I would definitely think that they didn't take the time to get everything right. They didn't maybe put enough emphasis on following the guidelines that editors would like to see. and then I would think that

I wouldn't want to read it because it would be a challenge. Instead of being fun and experiential, it will be more of a challenge to try to read and to cipher what exactly, especially if there's like fragmented sentences, punctuations that are, you know, not coherent. So that's what I would think. I I would definitely think that they they just didn't follow the

the guidelines that p editors would like to see that it's professionally edited is what I would think. Good point. I didn't think of reading it as a challenge because if they're handing out the book at your event and people are reading it and they're like, why did they pick this person? This is such a challenge to read. But that's a really good point. I love that. Cheryl, what about you? If you were an event organizer and someone gave you a book that was full of mistakes or didn't look perfect like what would you what would you what would be your first impression? Well

Cheryl added that if a speaker doesn't prepare their book professionally, they likely won't prepare their presentation professionally either. It reflects poorly on the event coordinator. There are four types of editing. First is developmental editing, which focuses on overarching concepts. Avoid using AI for this; AI lacks the context and understanding of the message you want to convey.

To do this book, right? This presentation. That's a good point. I love that. I really like that. So yeah, so you can't get that back. So especially if you're a speaker, you definitely want to hire a professional editor. All right. So these are the four types of editing because I get this question a lot. And I have a podcast episode on this as well. So I've got a pod of a couple of different podcast episodes on editing. So the first edit that you want to have for your book is about mental editing. One of the things you want to make sure is that your editor is not using AI to edit your book because

I know people do say, like, I put it in AI AI and it said this, but AI is not a good book editor. I can tell you that right now. It does okay on certain pieces, but it's not good with context. And that's the main thing you want to see with an editor is how they get your context, they understand what you're trying to get across and the message. And so AI doesn't understand that. And that's why it's not a good editor for your book. You can use it as part of your self-editing process, but again,

AI often gets things wrong. For example, it might suggest removing environmental detail when a human reader actually needs more to understand the setting. Line editing follows developmental editing; this is where an editor goes line-by-line to strengthen your wording. Many authors use "fuzzy" or weak words like "sort of" or "kind of." Removing these makes you sound more confident and authoritative.

So that's what AI does. Line editing on the other hand is so developmental editing is your overarching concepts and things like that. But line editing is when an editor goes line by line, right? And I read every line in the book and I give the author a better sounding book with more powerful wording, which strengthens your book. Because lot of people, very common thing a lot of people will do is they'll use what I call fuzzy words or

Non-powerful words like something, sort of, kind of. I think that this might work. Like those things you want to take out of your book because they don't make you look confident and you want to look confident as an author. Even if you're wrong, that's okay. Because the confidence piece that comes across. And if you especially if you're using your book for a business book and you don't sound confident, why would someone hire you? Right? Like, I'm not gonna hire somebody.

Copy editing catches the grammar and technical mistakes that developmental and line editing might miss. If an editor claims to do every single type of editing perfectly, be cautious. I specialize in developmental and line editing for nonfiction and ghostwriting, and I team up with others for copy editing and proofreading. This ensures each stage of the process gets the expert attention it deserves.

I don't do all forms of editing and I'm really good at what I do and I do it full time. I do developmental online editing for nonfiction, period. Like that's my specialty and ghostwriting. But I don't copy and proof that I have other people who I team up with to do that. So this is just like grammar mistakes. And then the proofreading catches any grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes that the copy editing did not do. And you can hire the same person for copy and proof because they're very, very similar.

And that's typically what I do is I team up with somebody who does the copy improved parks. I do the developmental line editing piece. All right. So editor qualifications. So these are just the basic six. I actually have a podcast episode on 22 questions you can ask your editor. And when someone, one of my one of my friends in the school community said, Wow, this is a lot of questions. I don't think I'd work with anybody who asked me this many questions, but

When looking for an editor, check their qualifications: 1. They should work in your specific genre. 2. They should edit or write full-time. Those doing it "on the side" often don't fully understand the publishing process. 3. They should answer all your questions. 4. They should have a clear, understandable process. 5. They must be open to communication during business hours and respond promptly.

memoir and self-help. And those are pretty much the four that I cover. They edit or write full time. You don't want to hire somebody who has a different full-time job and then does ghostwriting on the side or does editing on the side because almost every problem I have talked to people with is with people who are editing or ghostwriting on the side to make extra money because they don't understand the process.

They don't understand publishing and they don't understand how to edit books correctly. They might have an English degree, but they don't know publishing. There's a difference between having an English degree and knowing publishing and what publishers are looking for and what a good book sounds like. All right. The editor answers all your questions. So if you're asking questions and they're not answering you, that's a huge red flag. They have a process that they follow, right? It might be different than another editor, but they have a clear process and you understand the process.

6. They must be respectful of your point of view and tone of voice. An editor's job is to support your book, not change it into something else. Communication is the biggest indicator of a good editor. Next, you must purchase your own ISBNs through Bowker in the US. Do not use the free Amazon ISBN. If you do, you can only ever sell your book on Amazon, and you won't be able to sell copies at your own workshops or speaking events.

and if they can't tell you their process, then do not hire them. That means they're not professional. The editor is open to communicating at any point in the process. Now this doesn't mean that you can text the editor three in the morning and they're gonna answer you back. This means that if you have a question, you can email them or text them during normal business hours and they'll respond within 48 hours, right? If they're not responding within 48 hours, and besides the fact that they've had an emergency or something like that has happened.

then you may want to find a different editor. and you can always ask them, what's your turnaround time for answering my questions? Mine is 24 hours for my clients. All right. They are respectful out of your point of view, your work, and your tone of voice. So they're not going in your book trying to change it all. I talk to people who have editors who have done that and that's very not cool, right? My job is not to change your book. My job is to support your book.

That's why I pick books that resonate with me, because then I can more easily support the author, right? I'm not going to pick a book that doesn't resonate with me because I can't do a good job for my client. So these are the top six. There's more editor qualifications. So definitely listen to that episode on the 22 questions to ask your editor to get more qualifications. But I think the biggest one, these are all really big, but the communication piece is really big because that's the one big red flag that's consistent across all editors that aren't good.

If they won't communicate with you, they tell you, you can only reach out to me like once a month. That's a big red flag. or they don't get back to you in time. All right. So the next step after you've purchased the editor and they're working on your book is if you want to purchase ISPNs. Do not, do not use the free Amazon ISBN. There's many reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that if you purchase the free Amazon ISPN, you think you're saving yourself some money, but you're really not. Because when you have the I Amazon ISBN, the

Buying a set of 10 ISBNs is a better value because you need a separate ISBN for each format: audiobook, paperback, hardcover, and ebook. Assign these on Bowker before you upload to KDP. While your editor is working, you can begin book cover design. Ask for samples and actual client referrals. You can start the ebook cover early, but never start the paperback cover until formatting is 100% complete.

Not a hardcover. I've got an ebook, a paperback, and audio. So I had to use three ISBNs just for that one book. So go on Balker, buy the set of twice of 10, and then you need to assign your ISPNs. So like this ISBN is for my paperback. This one is for my ebook. This one's for my audiobook. So you need to assign them on Balker before you upload your thing before you upload your book into KDP. All right.

So book cover design. So while the person is working on your editing, you can have your book cover designer start to work. Again, there's many similarities between hiring a book cover designer and hiring an editor. So make sure you ask them lots of questions and get samples from them. And also, I would also say get two pieces of client referrals because one of the things I'm finding with samples on like fiber and upwork is I think they're screenshotting other people's stuff and putting it on their portfolio because

A lot like I've hired two different book editor, book cover designers on Fiverr. And this the stuff that I was getting was not what was in their portfolios. So make sure you get referrals from actual client referrals from people. You can start creating your ebook cover before you're finished paper formatting, but never start your paperback until your formatting is complete. I've seen so many authors make this mistake. And the reason why you don't want to start your paperback cover until

The paperback cover requires the exact page count from the final formatted file. If you make even minor changes after the cover is designed, it can change the spine width and force a complete redesign. Common book sizes are 5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9 inches. For the KDP upload, you will need your final formatted manuscript, ebook cover, paperback cover, and your assigned ISBNs.

We formatted it and I told her, make sure you approve. She said yes. We formatted it. And then she's like, well, I want to change chapter one. So then she had to pay to reformat it because then I had to change chapter one, re-edit it. She had just reapproved it the other day. And then now I'm taking that and putting it back into her book and reformatting her book. All right. Then once you have your book formatted, then your book cover designer can make your paperback book because they know the exact number of pages it is. And you want to because you have to know your book size too.

So a common book size is eight and a half by five and a half, which is like this right here. So I believe this is an eight, or it might be as this one might be a six by nine. But six by nine and eight and a half by five and a half are very common sizes that you see book cup book books come in. All right, so KDP upload, right? So no matter what you're uploading, unless it's an audiobook, audiobooks are going to upload on ACX, and that is not my specialty that I refer to other people. But if you're uploading an ebook, a paperback, or a hardcover.

I assist people with KVP upload. So once you have your final manuscript, which means it is formatted. And the other thing with formatting is never ever hire somebody who formats your book in WordPerfect because the pictures are all stretched out. It looks all wonky. It does not look professional. So if you are hiring a book formatter and ask them what program do you use to format? If it's Adobe InDesign, that's fine. If it's Atticus, that's fine. If it's Vellum, that's fine. If it's

Avoid formatters who only use Microsoft Word, as it often results in unprofessional layouts. Professional programs include Adobe InDesign, Atticus, or Vellum. Upload your elements to Amazon about a week before your planned launch to allow for processing. KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, and it handles all Amazon book sales, not just Kindles. It is the platform for both self-published and traditionally published books.

And you fill out all the boxes, including your name if you have if you want to add anybody as an editor or contributor, things like that. All right. So that is the basic overlay of what you need to do to write, edit, and publish your book on KDP. If you need any other information, you can reach out to me at writeforyou.me at Write For You self-publishing. So Cheryl and Joanna, did you have any questions about the process?

All right, did you get you a I don't have any questions about the process? you laid them out pretty in detail, but can you elaborate on what KDP stands for? Yeah, that's actually somebody asked me that the other day. So KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. And so that just means any like any book that Amazon is selling, not just books on Kindle, but any book that is published on Amazon. So it can be professionally published with a

with a publisher traditional or hybrid and published on Amazon as well or you can self-publish it on Amazon. But KDP just stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. So when you upload your book onto Amazon, you have a KDP bookshelf, which is all of your books you have published on Amazon. Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Cheryl, did you have any questions? I don't have any questions. I'll just add one comment on something that I found when I was publishing my books. And that is to make sure to publish as this is. I agree, you have your own ISBNs, but publish to KDP before you publish anywhere else. So, like I also publish to Ingram Spark because I want libraries to be able to order my books. and you have to use a Kindle.

Cheryl mentioned an important tip: always publish to KDP before publishing to other platforms like IngramSpark to avoid distribution conflicts. This has been a great session. If you need any assistance, you can find me in the "Publishing for Leaders" community or at writeforyou.me. Thank you for joining!