The Independent Author's Publishing Guide
Forty pages covering editing standards, cover design, ISBNs, distribution, royalties and realistic timelines.
PDF · 40 pages Get the guide
Learn how publishing works before you spend anything
Guides, checklists, articles and webinars — all free, all written by our editors and designers, and all useful whether or not you ever hire us.
Downloadable guides
Downloadable guides
Longer documents you can work through with your own manuscript in front of you.
Manuscript Preparation Checklist
Everything to fix in your file before submitting it — formatting, styles, images and the things that cost time later.
Checklist Read the checklist
Editing Order Guide
Which editing stage comes first, why the order matters, and what it costs to get it wrong.
Article Read the guide
Launch Planning Calendar
A twelve-week launch calendar with honest expectations for each activity.
Webinar + template Watch the session
Before you submit
Preparing your manuscript
Get your file into the shape that saves you money at every subsequent stage.
Use one file, not thirty
Submit the whole book as a single document. Chapter-per-file manuscripts introduce version errors and cost time to reconcile.
Apply heading styles properly
Use your word processor's Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles rather than manually enlarging and bolding text. Typesetting depends on this.
One space after a full stop
Double spaces are a typewriter convention that creates visible gaps in typeset pages. If your file has them, find and replace before submitting.
No manual formatting for layout
Tabs, repeated returns and manual page breaks to force layout all have to be stripped out. Let the typesetter handle position.
Images as separate files
Supply images separately at 300 DPI or higher, with a marker in the text showing placement. Images pasted into a document lose resolution.
Use real em and en dashes
Two hyphens is not a dash. Getting this right in the manuscript saves a global correction pass later.
Include your front and back matter
Dedication, acknowledgements, author biography and any epigraphs should arrive with the manuscript, not after typesetting has started.
Name the file sensibly
Title, your surname and a date. "Final_v7_FINAL_actual.docx" causes genuine problems when four people are working on it.
Browse
Browse by topic
Everything we have written, grouped by what you are trying to work out.
Craft & Editing
Structure, revision, voice and the problems that recur in almost every first draft.
Design & Production
Covers, typesetting, printing, colour and the physical business of making books.
Marketing & Launch
What genuinely helps a book find readers, and what is a waste of money.
The Business of Writing
Rights, royalties, pricing and what to check before signing anything.
Guides & Checklists
Step-by-step guides to work through with your manuscript.
Frequently Asked Questions
Around forty answers on process, rights, pricing and production, searchable.
Latest
New from the blog and webinars
Upcoming
Monthly Publishing Clinic: bring your manuscript question
An open session where authors bring a specific question about their manuscript and get an answer from an editor, live.
Elena Marsh · 60 minutes
Upcoming
Cover design decoded: why some jackets sell and others disappear
A working art director takes apart twenty covers — ten that work and ten that do not — and explains…
Ines Okonjo · 75 minutes
Craft & Editing
Why your second act sags, and the three questions that fix it
Almost every first novel we assess has the same structural problem in the middle third. It is diagnosable in about…
Elena Marsh · 3 min read
Craft & Editing
Your business book is too long, and shortening it is the highest-return edit available
Business readers are busy and sceptical. A tight 45,000-word book beats a comprehensive 90,000-word one almost every time, and the…
Tobias Reiner · 2 min read
Design & Production
The storyboard is where a picture book is actually written
First-time picture book authors think illustration means sending a manuscript and receiving pictures. The stage in between is where the…
Ines Okonjo · 2 min read
Tools
Work it out for yourself
Practical tools that answer a question without needing to talk to anyone.
Compare all four packages
Every inclusion, allowance and limit side by side, filterable and printable.
Build a custom publishing plan
Add individual services to a saved plan and send it for a single quote.
How publishing works, step by step
The six stages explained with what you do, what we do and how long each takes.
Request a custom quote
Tell us about the book and get a scoped written price.
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Thirty minutes with a consultant, free, with no obligation to buy anything afterwards.
Your manuscript stays confidential. We claim no rights in your work at any stage.