You've finished your story, had it critiqued, and proof read it forwards and backwards. Now you want to self-publish.

What Self-Publish Really Means

YOU are the publisher, the boss, the ultimate decision maker.

YOU decide the:

1. Cover artist
2. Formatter
3. Release date
4. Selling price
5. Vendors, e.g., Kobo, Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble
6. Marketing.

In short, everything that's related to your book. It's a daunting responsibility, but there's plenty of help available.

Where to Turn for Advice

There are so many websites and blogs and articles out there that you could get hopelessly confused. Some are good, some aren't. Through personal experience, I highly recommend:

The Alliance of Independent Authors, a Non-profit Association for Self-Publishing Authors. Their Watchdog service is especially valuable.

The Book Designer, Practical Advice to Build Better Books. Tons of information about book layout.

The Creative Penn... where you will find resources to help you write, publish and market your book.

Romance Writers of America. If you don't write romance, join as an associate member for access to the savviest writers on the planet. Yes, I'm a member. ;)

Your Ebook Files

Before loading to vendors, you'll need a minimum of two files, a mobi file formatted specifically for Amazon and an epub file for all the other vendors. You'll also need a cover image, sized to 1600 pixels wide x 2560 pixels tall formatted at 300 PPI. A professional cover artist will know what that means.

In this course, you'll finesse the Word document from where you left off and then convert it to mobi and epub formats.

The prerequisite for this course is Mastering Word for Fiction Writers: Write & Draft.

Support is a Comment Away

Join the private Facebook group @MasteringWord to chat with Joan and other students and get your questions answered.

You may also add a question to the comment section at the end of each lecture.