Useful Links for Self-Publishing
With the right resources, you can learn a lot on your own.
COVERS
- KDP Cover Guidelines
- Cover Designer Recommendations from Creative Penn
- TheBookCoverDesigner.com
- GoOnWrite.com
- 100 Covers
- Top 10 ebook cover design sites
- Excellent article on covers: What is the real purpose of a book cover?
- 99 Designs
- Extended Imagery (did my OCULAR DENIAL cover)
- Rita Toews (did my RAVELED cover)
FORMATTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT:
- Amazon’s File Formatting Tips
- Guido Henkel’s Guide to formatting
- Easy article regarding font size, style, and spacing
PROMOTIONAL SITES
- Amazon Giveaway made simple: Amazon Giveaway (See Author Central Page)
- BookBub: Biggest and best of the best—IF you can get on!
- Freebooksy/Bargain Booksy (Now known as Written Word Media)
- Author Marketing Club—Free Book Submission Tool: A resource page for you to submit your book to many promotional sites
- EreaderNewsToday Strong promotional site with large following. They also have a Book of the Day—BOTD—to which you can submit your book once per quarter. Very competitive to become BOTD. Join their mailing list to learn about availability.
- Kindle Book Review: I am linking you to their Author Resources Page. Tons of info and suggested sites for you to check out
- Goodreads: (Owned by Amazon now) Huge following, lots of opportunities for connection with readers and promotion to readers
AMAZON Companies and Links
- KDP Kindle Direct Publishing to publish your ebook with Amazon. You can also publish print-on-demand paperbacks here because KDP now encompasses the former CreateSpace.
- ACX for creating and selling audiobooks
- Amazon Author Central
- Amazon Top Reviewers
- To List a Link to YOUR Review Page
OTHER SELF-PUBLISHING COMPANIES
RANDOM
- Amazing BookBub Post with 48 Publishing Resources
- Joanna Penn’s excellent self-publishing website filled with links and resources
- Very successful digital publisher in UK
- Good Book Blurb Article: “6 Steps to Getting an Awesome Endorsement”
- NetGalley: “We help readers of influence discover and recommend new books”
- Article from an author recently picked up by Thomas & Mercer
- Thomas Corson Knowles: All things publishing. Interesting guy with lots of great interviews.
- Jane Friedman: Very helpful tips for writers. Sign up for her excellent newsletter: Electric Speed
- Article by Robert Mening on Best Website Builders
- Bitly, to make pretty, trackable hyperlinks
- Example of a link to a review page (CIRCLED)
- Help page for Keywords when listing your ebook
- To add Editorial Reviews via Author Central
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
- FREE BOOK: Successful Self-Publishing by Joanna Penn
- FREE BOOK: Publish on Amazon Kindle
- Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran
- Strangers to Superfans by David Gaughran
Paperback-related
- Bowker To buy ISBNs for paperbacks. You don’t need ISBNs for ebooks. You can get publisher-supplied ISBNs for free, but they come with caveats.
- CreateSpace Transitioning to KDP FAQs
- CreateSpace to make Print-on-demand paperbacks Owned by Amazon. You can also make print-on-demand paperbacks directly through KDP now.
*Full disclosure: I am signed up with the Amazon Associates program. If you click on Amazon links and purchase certain products, I can earn from qualifying purchases. (Ebooks are not considered qualifying purchases.)