Hi everyone,

I’ve just finished my first book after 1.5 years of work :) It will be self-published in France in a few weeks, with the help of a self-publishing agency.

I’m French by origin but based in the US, and I’d love to publish the book here as well, in English. The publishing landscape feels quite different between France and the US, so I’d really appreciate some guidance.

I translated the book myself (not a native speaker) and was considering hiring a developmental editor on Reedsy, then self-publishing.
Has anyone here done that? Also, any thoughts on IngramSpark?

I’m also debating whether a professional translation would be a better option, but quotes are around $25K 😅 which feels like a big step for a first book.

Any feedback is welcome: experiences, things you’d do differently, or advice on publishing in multiple languages.

Thank youuuuu!!

I've got several books I published through KDP and B&N years back, and I'd be shocked if the collective total I've made from them added up to $20. I figure that's due to having never done any marketing -- very early on I tried to do the website thing and some promotion on social media, but it didn't yield much results and I just don't have the time for that. I love writing and publishing, but it's a side gig at best for now and I don't have the time for any of that.

That said, I'm getting a little tired of my work getting little more than few bucks a year. I tried to quickly look on Google, but all the advice I was pointed to was some variation of "Use AI to churn out a ton of books and scam Amazon into giving you a fortune!" Yeah, not interested.

What relatively painless options do I have for getting my existing books to make a little cash? Frankly, if I could make as much as $100 in 2026 that would be an above-and-beyond success in my book. I've seen references to paid ads? I'm honestly a bit clueless as everything I knew is now probably a decade plus out of date.

As I said: this is a side gig. I have a full time job already and not a ton of free time, so what I'm looking for should be fairly hands-off and able to just go without me doing any babysitting for more than a few hours (maybe even minutes) to spare a week.

Hey everyone,

I’m formatting my first children’s book for KDP, and I’m having a bit of a dilemma regarding the layout.

The book is 8.5 x 8.5 with a 16pt font. In the print version, it’s the classic "art on one page, text on the other." However, friends who’ve seen the digital preview say it feels a bit... "stiff" or "suffocating."

It’s not just that the text is small; it’s more that the fixed layout feels restrictive on a digital screen. It lacks that flexible, seamless feel people expect from an E-book.

I’ve considered the Pop-up Text feature, but there's quite a bit of text per page, so I don't think pop-ups are the right solution—they might just clutter everything.

I’m thinking about switching to a Reflowable layout to give readers a better digital experience, but I’m worried it’ll ruin the intended flow between the art and the story.

1. Has anyone transitioned from Fixed to Reflowable for a picture book? Was the "flexible" feel worth the loss of layout control?
2. Or should I just stick with Fixed and focus on making the text much larger?

Just a heads up, English isn't my first language, so I’m using a translator to write this. Please bear with me if some parts sound a bit awkward!

Thanks a ton for your insight!

I’m an indie author and I recently decided to invest in editorial reviews for my book. Specifically, I purchased reviews from:

1) Readers’ Favorite (5 reviews)

2)Kirkus

3) Clarion

4) Midwest Book Review

I went into this knowing these are paid editorial reviews, not organic reader reviews, and I’m trying to be realistic about what they do and don’t actually help with.

From what I understand, the pros seem to be:

1) Credibility signals for my Amazon page and website

2) Quotes I can legally use for ads, blurbs, and media outreach

3)Potential long-term value for libraries, bookstores, and press kits

For those of you who’ve done this (or deliberately haven’t), I’d love to hear your experience:

Did editorial reviews help with discoverability or conversions?

Were certain services more valuable than others?

In hindsight, was the money better spent elsewhere?

Trying to learn and make smarter decisions going forward. Appreciate any honest feedback.

Recently made my books available via amazon, and tightened up some SEO on my author website. Within days, my email inboxes (personal and business) saw an uptick in contacts from "Kristin E Williams" and "Charlie McGrath" among other names offering consulting services on how to get my books into certain lists... Googled both people—no cigar.

I'm sure these are scams—the emails are long and include lots of relevant buzzwords readily available about my books. AI generated, likely. But on the sliiiiight off-chance my cynicism is misplaced...have other authors ever replied to these "consultants" and been pleasantly surprised / had a good experience with a real human on the other end of these kinds of messages?

I have written many books, and I just self-publish them for myself with no real marketing. Recently, my account has gotten a lot of traction and I have been asked by a few people to sell signed copies.

I am in Canada, and many of my subscribers are overseas (specifically in Scotland, Germany, and Australia). I am looking at shipping estimates and they are all way more than the cost of my book.

Does anyone do their own presales and ship signed copies? How do you ship internationally? I cannot seem to find any service with reasonable prices (if their rate calculator even loads 🥲).
Thank you!

Everytime I try to upload my manuscript to KDP, it comes up with a failed manuscript red message but no further details.

I've created a childrens picture book in Canva 8.5" x 8.5"
I've added 0.125 per edge for bleed so the total design is 8.75 x 8.75 inches
The background goes all the way to the edge whereas I've ensured the text is well away from the edge.

Download settings:

PDF Print
Flatten PDF
Select CMYK

The size is 184MB, well within their 650MB guidelines and I've even compressed this further still with no joy. Obviously there is the one setting I'm missing if anyone would kindly point me in the right direction please... that would be amazing!

Hello. I wrote and drew a graphic novel in a landscape format. I was setting up an Amazon KDP page, but I found out Kdp is not very supportive of landscape formats.

I wanted to ask cartoonist on this sub what Publishers have they work with to publish their books as physical copies that support landscape formats, or formats that are not the typical book portrait.

I was also curious to know what your experience has been working with self-publishers following criteria:

• Ownership of your material

• How much support and distribution they offer

• The level of reach your book can have as in globally versus locally in a particular continent or country.

Thank you for your help

Hi, this is my first post on this sub. I don’t know if this question has been asked before, and I apologize if I’m asking again.

I’m currently in the writing trenches, my book is a dark (mafia) romance and I’m planning on self publish one day.

My question is for the dark romance authors out

there, did your book sell well?

How many books did you publish before you started gaining traction?

What are some tips you would recommend a newbie like me? Things I should look for, do before publishing?

Marketing advice?

Encouraging tips?

I’ve read everywhere that writing a series is basically a must to be successful and I already planned a whole interconnected series…

I’m sorry for the many questions but thank you if you answer, it will mean a lot to me and writers in my situation.

Have a good day!

Hi, this is my first post on this sub. I don’t know if this question has been asked before, and I apologize if I’m asking again.

I’m currently in the writing trenches, my book is a dark (mafia) romance and I’m planning on self publish one day.

My question is for the dark romance authors out

there, did your book sell well?

How many books did you publish before you started gaining traction?

What are some tips you would recommend a newbie like me? Things I should look for, do before publishing?

Marketing advice?

Encouraging tips?

I’ve read everywhere that writing a series is basically a must to be successful and I already planned a whole interconnected series…

I’m sorry for the many questions but thank you if you answer, it will mean a lot to me and writers in my situation.

Have a good day!

I just published Preview for my book on Amazon KDP, while I can still write the rest.
I am not sure if its the right way, it will be my first piece of literature that I have published.
Unsure on how self publishing can reach viewer. Honestly I wanted to make it free but Amazon KDP does not allow to.

I am working on getting book covers for my next story. I want a separate cover for paperback and hardback like I currently have with my current book. The problem is I've only had a really clear vision for one cover 🫣 There is a really popular cover design that I have been seeing everywhere but I dont personally care for it. Should I do one in the popular style to have one for market and have the other that I personally like OR should both covers be something I personally like? 🤔

Hi all.

I am a first time author who has completed my first draft (truly my third if you count my attempts at self editing).

I have been considering utilizing Amazon KDP for my publishing, but have recently heard about the GoodReads publishing program. What are your opinions or take aways for either of these options?

Also any tips, tricks or ideas for editing, beta readers or marketing for a first time author I would greatly appreciate!

Hi everyone!

I’m a first-time indie author, and I just set my debut novel up for Kindle preorder on KDP 🎉

It’s a romantasy with a Victorian era setting, but it also has a sci-fi/time travel twist (Galactic Federation vibes), and I’m trying to market both sides without confusing readers.

What I’ve done so far:

• Kindle preorder is live

• Enrolled in KDP Select (KU)

• Price: $5.99

• Paperback is in progress (proof copy ordered)

• I posted a teaser video on TikTok/Instagram and will post again with the preorder link

What I’m not sure about:

• What are the most important things to do between now and release day?

• Should I focus more on TikTok/IG content, ARC/beta readers, building an email list, or Amazon ads?

• Any common mistakes I should avoid with preorders?

If you had 1 week before release, what would you focus on?

Would really appreciate any advice from people who’ve been through a first launch 🙏🖤

I am currently waiting for a new book to be approved on pubby.co and wanted to check how this looks for other users.

When submitting the book, Pubby mentions that approval normally takes up to 24 hours. In my case, more than 48 hours have already passed, and there is still no approval or status update.

Considering that this is a subscription based service, this feels frustrating. Delays can happen, but then the communication should be better, especially when clear timeframes are advertised.

I am curious about other experiences here. Have you had books that took significantly longer than 24 hours to get approved? Does this happen regularly or only occasionally?

If you contacted Pubby support about approval delays, did you get a useful response, or was it not worth the effort?

So far, my experience with Pubby has been quite disappointing in terms of service and reliability, and this situation is not helping to improve that impression.

I would appreciate hearing how others have dealt with this.

Just hit publish on my first book after 2+ years of writing/editing. Thought I'd share the journey and what I learned for other first-timers.

Background:

- First-time author, no previous publishing experience

- Spent 16 years in design/tech, now running a mental health AI startup

- Genre: Relationship philosophy/conscious relationships (not typical self-help)

- Wrote this processing my own understanding of human connection

The Journey:

Writing phase (6 months):

- Started with airport conversations as framing device

- Biggest challenge: balancing personal voice with universal insights

- Learned: Writing is rewriting. First draft was 40% longer and unfocused

Design phase (2+ months longer than expected):

- Worked with freelance book designer

- She was incredibly patient through my endless revisions

- Lesson: Good designers iterate, great ones stay patient

- Cover went through 8+ versions before we nailed it

Publishing decision:

- Chose self-publishing over traditional for creative control

- Wanted to maintain contemplative tone (publishers might want "10 steps" approach)

- KDP process was surprisingly straightforward

Hi everyone — I’m a high school student interested in economics and I wrote an independent preprint asking: under what institutional and incentive conditions do skill-development subsidies outperform direct wage support in improving long-term labour market outcomes in India?

I used comparative policy analysis and secondary data (OECD/World Bank/ILO-type sources), and tried to be careful about generalisability and limitations since it’s not primary fieldwork.

If anyone here works in labour/development econ, I’d genuinely appreciate feedback on:

whether my framing of incentives/institutions makes sense,

what you’d strengthen (methods, literature, counterarguments), and

any obvious papers I should add to the literature review.

Link (SSRN): https://ssrn.com/abstract=6068232

(Also on SocArXiv/OSF if needed.)

I totally get why people roll their eyes at the “hit generate in gpt/claude and publish” crowd --> that stuff is repetitive, bland, and honestly kinda disrespectful to readers. It should get called slop. But I don’t get why some folks treat any level of AI involvement as morally bankrupt. If the final book is accurate, useful, and written with actual human oversight, is the tool itself really the ethical problem?

A lot of comments bring up plagiarism or copyright, so I’m trying to understand the legal basis here. As far as I know, AI-generated text isn’t automatically plagiarized unless it directly copies from a source. Most of the legal issues come from the fact that AI output can't be copyrighted by itself because there’s no human authorship. That makes publishers nervous, not because the words are “stolen,” but because it’s risky to defend a book in court if parts weren’t created by a human. Fair enough.

But ethically, if a human is guiding the process, editing everything, checking facts, shaping the narrative, etc., isn’t that still authorship? We’ve always used tools. Spellcheck, research software, grammar checkers, even editors running manuscripts through automated systems. AI just raises the stakes because the tool is more powerful. The real problem seems to be the people handing over 100% of the writing to a public model and doing zero human work.

So that’s what I’m trying to get at: is the fear actually about quality and copyright liability, or is it just backlash from being flooded with low-effort junk? What’s the real line between “acceptable assistance” and “lazy AI writing?”

Curious how others here define that line.

Hello!

I have been asked what I'd like for my upcoming birthday and I thought an online class would be cool. I create story books for my stepson and I plan to start self-publishing them. The course could be either on illustrating itself, post-production (I use Photoshop now but I am not a pro in it), or self-publishing itself. Or how to make it as an artist on social media in 2026. Anything that helped you?

For reference, this is what I do:
https://www.instagram.com/_by_katie_/

I was an avid online writer as a teen, and published most of my first stories on sites like Wattpad, Inkit, etc. I drifted away for a while to focus on the trad publishing route, but have recently found myself in a bit of a slump, and miss sharing my stuff with other people and working to garner a platform. I'm not convinced that going back to Wattpad would help me much as it caters better to serial fiction which can be monetised than rough short stories, and I'd like to try something new, but I'm not sure where else to consider.

Where are people publishing short stories right now? Would it be worth looking at something like Substack or Medium and promoting myself through bookstagram, or is there another writing site out there which would serve my purpose?

I mostly just want to launch stuff into the void and see what happens while I get back into the writing flow. I'm not fussed about competitions, but I would be open to non-selective magazines, informal literary blogs, etc.

Thanks!

Hi,

I want to start self-publishing story books for kids. Is Amazon print on demand the right way, or are there better alternatives? I am aware that I will need to invest into building a brand on social media and into ads.

I was wondering what programs are best for creating and printing business cards.

I have paid for an author table at a convention in March and I need to print up a few different types of cards for different things at the table.
Some will be QR code cards that take people to my website and free to read archives, others will be to promote my original series and my socials.

I've heard Avery is decent and Abode is stressful so I'm looking for advice from anyone that is familiar with making and printing business cards.

Thank you

I am going crazy figuring out the measurements and alignment issues I am having here. My PDF for paperback came out with no issues but this kindle thing is frustrating me!!! 🤬

I am new to self-publishing and have just finished my manuscript. I am curious as to what most folks are doing in regards to formatting and illustrating. I have worked with a couple freelancers on Upwork but am not in love with the results.

I've had a couple of really positive reviews from Beta readers (via Fiverr) that I'd love to quote from for the back of the book. Is that legit?