A Checklist for Self-Publishing: Red Tape Edition
You thought writing your manuscript was hard
Do you have a manuscript, live in the United States of America, and are looking to self-publish (on Amazon)? Well, here’s a technical checklist for you to follow about all the paperwork you’ll need to fill out, created by yours truly as a result of me ramming my head into all of the walls in an effort to understand what to do.
The following checklist is all the steps one must take to prepare a book for publication, excluding anything marketing related, put together from my own experiences with self-publishing. This is by no means all of the steps; details may be missing.
Publishing houses will already cover most steps of this checklist.
1. Finish your manuscript
It’s highly recommended that you have your manuscript either fully finalized or at least very completed with a few minor tweaks remaining. This step includes final edits, alpha/beta reader feedback, and manuscript formatting. Without your manuscript, completing the checklist will be impossible.
Manuscript Formatting: You can either hire a typesetter or use a third party website like Reedsy to help you with this process. You can also learn how to typeset yourself, which is what I opted to do, using how Reedsy formats as a reference guide.
Personally, I write all my manuscripts on Google Docs. This is perfect for your digital manuscript; there’s not as much fancy formatting to be done there. For your physical prints, however, if you don’t already write on or own Microsoft Word, I suggest downloading OpenOffice. It’s open source and free to download and use if you can’t afford Microsoft Office, and it works just as well.
2. Prepare your extra content
This includes but isn’t limited to any other work that must be done by third parties - book covers, professional headshots, promotional art and materials, etc. - unless you’re doing any of this work yourself. The sooner you get this stuff done, the easier you can breathe. This largely marks the end of preparing for your book’s release on the creative side.
Cover Formatting: If you or your artist is having trouble with sizing the cover for your physical prints, Amazon has a handy dandy cover calculator which you can use. You can find information about the digital cover specifications here. Covers for physical prints must be PDF’s while your digital cover can either be a TIFF or JPEG. If you need help converting your physical covers into PDF format, use Canva.
And don’t forget to make sure that the canvas dimentions are the same dimentions you need your spread to be. If you download and use the cover calculator template files and drag and drop what Amazon gives you directly into your art program, your canvas will be way too big. ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK! I learned this lesson the hard way.
Professional Headshots: Getting your photo taken for your author page can take time and a good chunk of money. Allow about a month of time to wait for your headshots to be ready, depending on the photographer/agency you decide to use.
3. Finalize your publication date
The one major thing that hangs on your publication date being finalized is your International Standard Book Number (ISBN). Without registering your ISBN, you will have a hard time completing some of the next steps on this check list.
This is also for those that may be eagerly waiting for the arrival of your book to their eBook readers or physical bookshelves, and drawing in other people that might be interested in buying your book later down the line.
Leave about two to three months or so of buffer room from when you start registering all the following things that you’ll need for your book to be able to be printed with ease.
4. Register your ISBN’s
ISBN’s, on the surface, are complicated. An ISBN is a way for anyone, be it individuals or corporations, to easily find your book. It contains all sorts of metadata about the book itself which anyone can access if they so wish. Before obtaining any sort of ISBN, some things to note:
eBooks don’t need an ISBN; whether or not you wish to have an ISBN for your eBook is up to you.
Each print type needs a different ISBN. If you’re publishing one title as an eBook, a paperback, and a hardcover, you will need three different ISBN’s.
If a manuscript is changed or updated in a way that accounts to 10% or more of the original published manuscript POST-PUBLICATION, you must re-print this new manuscript, including assigning it a different ISBN and marking it as a second edition.
If you buy your own ISBN’s, so long as they remain unassigned they are yours to use forever. Once an ISBN is assigned to a piece of work, however, they will forever be tied to that title, edition, and print format.
You cannot resell ISBN’s to others, as the ISBN’s will still be registered with all of your information attached to them.
This is by no means all of the rules of ISBN’s, and I highly encourage you to do your own further research into the topic. The more you know about them and how they work, the better off you’ll be.
The best and most recommended way to get ISBN’s for your book is to purchase them through Bowker. The fee is well worth owning your own ISBN’s.
Note: Some details in your ISBN information can be changed, while others cannot. Make sure all the details you enter into the ISBN registration form is as accurate as possible. The little “Help” icons will usually say whether or not a field can be altered after registration.
If you’re registering your ISBN’s before your book is published, make sure its status is “Forthcoming”. This just means that the book isn’t available for purchase yet. When your book is finally published, make sure to change “Forthcoming” to “Active Record”.
Some third party self-publishers, like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Barnes & Noble, offer “free” ISBN’s to authors. In actuality, they still purchase these ISBN’s from Bowker using their own information.
The key difference between buying an ISBN for yourself and having these third party vendors provide an ISBN for you is that you don’t own the third party assigned ISBN. That means you cannot use a third party assigned ISBN to sell your book on other websites.
EG: You cannot publish on Barnes & Noble using a free KDP ISBN, and vice versa.
If you plan to publish on more than one platform, use your own ISBN’s.
ISBN’s are included on the copyright page of books, so make sure that once you get your ISBN’s to place them there - keep track of which number is for which print format.
The only reason why you wouldn’t need an ISBN is if you plan to only sell digital copies of your book. If you want to sell physical copies, you’ll need an ISBN.
Tidbit: International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
While this might not apply to you and your book right now, it’s important to keep note of whether or not you might need an ISSN. An ISSN is for serialized works of literature, though its use is mostly reserved for things like monthly magazines or weekly newsletters.
That being said, if you plan to work on a series of books that has no definite end to them just yet, getting an ISSN might do you some good. You can find out how to get an ISSN here.
5. Register your book with the Library of Congress
If you plan to offer one or more print formats of your book, you’re going to want to obtain a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN). This ensures that your book can be placed in libraries across the United Stated of America. If you don’t want your book to be available in American libraries, you don’t need an LCCN.
The Library of Congress says that it can take between 1-2 weeks to obtain an LCCN, though it’s possible for the registration process to take less or more time depending on how many registration requests there are on their back-end.
Note: There have been issues with registering a LCCN when filling out the “Projected Publication Date”; for the LCCN form, they only ask for the month and year, whereas the ISBN form also asks for the day. If you are trying to register for a LCCN the same month you plan to publish your book, expect there to be errors in the process because of this.
When you receive your LCCN, they will ask you to send the best copy of your book to their office as soon as it’s available for purchase. Do so at your earliest convenience. Sending a copy of your book to their office does not include it in registering your book at the Copyright Office (see step #6).
Unlike an ISBN, you only need one LCCN for all of your print formats. LCCN’s don’t cover digital prints.
6. Register your book with the Copyright Office (optional)
Registering your book at the Copyright Office is not a requirement but is strongly recommended. It simply provides you with a legal shield against those within the United States of America infringing on your copyright. The Copyright Office’s juristiction does not extend beyond the United States. In order to file a lawsuit within the United States, you must have your book registered at the Copyright Office.
If you’re fine without this extra layer of legal protection, don’t worry with paying the fees and sending in your manuscript to them.
You don’t have to file with the Copyright Office right away, either. So long as you don’t wait too long you can file this paperwork before or after you book’s publication.
Note: Book titles are not protected by copyright; most likely whatever title you’re using for your book has already been used before. However, if you are writing a book series, it might be worth your time filing a trademark for the series’ name. Find and ask a trademark lawyer if you’d like to know more.
You can visit the U.S. Copyright Office website for more information.
Final Review: Do you have everything you need?
Do you have your manuscript complete?
Do you have all of your extra material prepared (book covers, promotional material, etc.)?
Have you finalized your publication date? Remember: You’ll be looking at about 2-3 months of buffer room from when you file your paperwork to when you’ll be published at the (comfortable) minimum.
Do you have enough ISBN’s purchased for all your book formats? Are your ISBN’s registered? Do you have your ISBN’s on your book’s copyright page?
Have you registered and received your LCCN? Do you have your LCCN on your book’s copyright page?
When your book is published, did you make sure to change your ISBN’s to “Active Record”? Did you send a copy of your book to the Library of Congress’ office?
Did you decide to file with the Copyright Office? Did you fill out the paperwork and send a copy of your book to the Copyright Office?
If you’ve completed all the steps above then congratulations! You’re now all set for your book to be released in both digital and physical formats here in the United States of America without any legal headaches. That was a lot of red tape, wasn’t it? Don’t worry, you’ll get to do this all again next time you want to self-publish!
If you still have any questions about the processes outlined above, Google is your best friend! You’re not the only one asking, and so the answers you seek might be out there on the web somewhere. Of course, sometimes the best experience is to ram your head against that wall as well, just to see how it feels.
You can now by my new young adult fantasy novel, Shadowbound, on Amazon in digital, paperback, and hardcover formats!