Self-Publishing FAQ

POD publishing is perfect for first-time independent authors working on growing their audience. It is also excellent for those who want the ability to control their own book listings, access royalty statements, and manage their publisher accounts.

POD works very well to produce softcover books with black-and-white interiors. In recent years, it’s also become a very good option for full-color interiors. For many authors, POD publishing is far and away the best option for bringing a high-quality book to market.

Here’s the short answer: When you’ve taken it as far as you can on your own.

The long answer is a little bit more complicated. Before reaching out to a professional editor, here are a few ideas: 

• Put your manuscript away for a month or longer
• Come back to it with fresh eyes and do another round of revisions
• Run it through your Word document’s Spelling and Grammar editor or other editing software
• Send it to early readers who are willing to give you feedback
• Revise again

If you have the time, repeat this process as many times as you can until it’s the best it can be. Taking these steps can help you take care of a lot of the clean-up work before you bring a professional editor into the picture so you can get the most out of your professional editing dollars.

For most new authors, the ideal approach includes three rounds of editing:

1. Developmental editing—to tighten logic, enhance presentation of information, and address any structural issues
2. Line editing—to help with phrasing, and clean up after any developmental debris
3. Copyediting—to fix spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax and to bring a manuscript in line with the Chicago Manual of Style, the publishing industry’s guide for editing most books

However, we recognize that three rounds of editing isn’t always in the budget for every independent author. If you still not sure about the best editorial approach for you, here are a few things to try:

• Ask your early readers if they have concerns about the organization of your book.
• Hire a professional editor to do an editorial assessment on your book, and let them know you’re looking for help identifying revisions you can make on your own as well as an editing plan moving forward.
• Check out our recent blog post, “What Kind of Editing Do I Need?”
• Publish with Spoonbridge Press. We will work with you to build an editing plan for your book, and we offer editorial assessments for authors seeking more comprehensive feedback.

In large part, this depends on how long your book is and how much editing you’ll need. A very short book that’s very clean could be copyedited for under $2,000; a very long book could cost $10,000 or more for multiple rounds of editing. (That’s why it’s so important to revise your book on your own as much as possible!)

Your publication cost also depends on how much of the process you plan to take care of yourself. If you edit, design, and distribute your book directly to Amazon on your own, self-publishing may not cost you a thing. If you hire a company like us to manage your editing, book design, and publication for a 50,000-word book, your cost will likely be between $8,000  and $15,000.

At the end of the day, publishing a high-quality book is an investment that may not be an option for all authors. If you can’t hire a company to manage your entire publication, please consider hiring a professional editor who can recommend an editing plan and a professional cover designer to make your book stand out.

Amazon is a competitive sales environment, with over 1.4 million self-published books released each year on its platform alone. However, new authors don’t always know how to optimize their book listings or select the keywords or categories that can help them rise above the noise.

The strongest keywords for your book are the ones your ideal audience is already using. Strategic keywords and category choices help you reach the right readers and support your publishing goals.

We recommend that most independent authors buy their own ISBNs (one for each format or edition of your book). Owning your ISBN establishes you—not Amazon—as the publisher of record, and it allows your book to be distributed through the same system bookstores, libraries, and other retailers use to order traditionally published books.

For most authors, ebooks are a good idea. Ebooks are often sold at a lower price point than physical books, making them accessible to more readers. Digital delivery means no shipping times, which means instant gratification for readers. And publishing an ebook on KDP lets you enroll your book in KDP Select and take advantage of other opportunities to connect with readers.

Some industry insiders claim they can spot a POD book a mile away because of the binding, but most average readers won’t notice those minimal differences. Rather than any printing discrepancies, readers are more likely to mark a book as self-published if the cover design is poor, the book isn’t edited, or Amazon is the publisher on record. (That’s why it’s so important to consider your publishing path carefully and avoid making “rookie” mistakes that will mark your book as self-published!)

That said, POD does risk occasional misprints or misaligned covers making their way to customers sign unseen. If these risks are not acceptable for your project, consider digital or offset printing.

Many new authors wonder if they should pay a big-name book review company to review their book so they can use excerpts of that review on their book cover and in their marketing materials. On the one hand, many new authors believe paid reviews will give them a needed confidence boost, and readers don’t always know that they paid for the review. But paid reviews don’t actually boost sales. And with all the generic AI-assisted reviews out there, it’s not always clear whether the reviewer even read the book.  

Instead of approaching a book review company, consider asking for endorsements from top bloggers, authors, and other professionals in your field. If they agree, you can send them a watermarked PDF as an advance review copy (or ARC) and leverage any endorsements you receive in various ways.

It’s a good idea to give readers a central location where they can find a link to your book, learn more about you, and take other actions. (While we don’t offer websites in-house, we are happy to put you in touch with web designers who can provide an easy-to-manage Squarespace website that is specifically designed to help authors promote their books.)

Spoonbridge Press is a good fit for authors looking for expert guidance, collaboration, and long-term control. We do our best work with authors who value quality and partnership and want to play a role in the publishing decisions that shape their books.

We’re not a hybrid publisher or a vanity press. You remain the publisher of record, retain full control of your accounts and royalties, and work closely with us to make informed decisions at every stage. If this approach aligns with your goals, schedule a free author consultation to learn more about how we can help you publish a book you’ll be proud of. 

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