Self-Publishing: Dreaming with Eyes Open
Disclaimer: All of this is based on my personal experience, which is a sample size of one and not a universal formula.
I'm 35 and have wanted to publish my work since I was 17. After a decade of periodic rejections from traditional publishers and halfhearted attempts to self-publish, I got serious about making this dream come true around 6 months ago. And after a lifetime of waiting I was able to finally publish my work on July 28, 2026. During the process I took extensive notes, and I wanted to share them here. My ultimate takeaway is that self-publishing can be a dream come true (it was for me) provided you start with the right dream.
Getting started can be extremely daunting. Every guide I saw recommended several high barriers to entry that were supposedly non-optional: hundreds of dollars for an editor, a thousand on a cover designer, a few hundred on marketing and ads etc.
I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a passion project. The lack of capital was part of the charm for me. Could I do this myself, for $0?
On that note let me say that the expensive hiring route will still often get you a higher-quality result. The professionals in this space do great work (there's a reason they're professionals), and if you have the funds or you're an established author, work with someone you trust. But this guide is for a writer without that budget, the one deciding between putting the work out into the world and letting it sit on a hard drive.
Now, to launch a book I wore many hats: writer, editor, designer, publisher, and marketer. There's a reason these are normally separate jobs. They're specialized. But I came in playing each of these roles like a character in my stories, and I was able to learn enough to cross the finish line.
Writer
This isn't a writing guide, so I don't have much to say here. Some of you reading this are much better storytellers than I am, and any craft notes I gave would come from my own style and experience, not yours.
But there's one area I do want to address directly: AI.
It's 2026, and if you're new to publishing, here's the current climate: AI work has become relatively common, and readers see it constantly. That's bad because there's much more skepticism and competition than before. But it's also good because, speaking as a reader, all the coal makes true diamonds stand out.
Do
Use AI for plotting, character questions, accuracy checks. “My character has X condition, what's a good job for them?” or “I want this plot element, how do I resolve it well?” Then think critically about the answers, weigh them against what actually makes the story stronger, and cut what doesn't.
Don't
Let AI write your manuscript. If you've read a LinkedIn post recently, you might notice that they mostly follow the same patterns. AI-generated prose can have recognizable tells in its wording, phrasing, and cadence. As a reader, I notice them, and I didn't want my own work to carry that feeling. At minimum, I think relying on generated prose risks making a story feel less personal. Thousands of words demand time and focus from a reader, and you should respect that investment with your own. Remember that your voice is unique and irreplaceable.
You'll see later that I did use AI for my book cover. It's a different medium, but I'd bet some readers were still turned off by my AI cover. Still, I've found readers are far more forgiving of a cover they look at for a few seconds than a book they spend hours getting to know.
Editor
This section covers two parts of the editing process: formatting and proofreading.
First the formatting: Kindle is finicky about this. My first upload was a circus of smooshed lines and inconsistent tabs. I had to go back and fix everything, and here's the Google Docs style that worked:
- First-line indent: 0.3in, via Format > Align & indent > Indentation options
- Line spacing: 1.15 or 1.5
- Space after paragraph: 0
- First paragraph after a scene break or chapter opening: no indent
- Scene breaks: single centered asterisk, Normal style
- Back matter headings (Author's Note, About the Author): Heading 1 (generates Kindle's nav menu)
- Copyright page: Normal style, never a heading, or it lands in the table of contents
- Title page: Normal style, centered, sized manually
I've also made a template for individual sections here.
Once your story's complete and you've shown it to close family and friends, do an initial proofreading pass yourself. Then it's time to get an external, unbiased eye: beta readers. Some writers do ARCs and paid editors too.
I used two subreddits to pull beta readers. They both have different cultures and different expectations.
r/DestructiveReaders
This is a gold mine of story advice from focused readers. You contribute by reading others' work and commenting, thoroughly (think 700 to 800 words minimum). Keep a list of links to your critiques; when you post, you attach them to show you've “earned” the review you're asking for. Critiques can be banked up to three months, so no rush.
Also don't expect a full novel critique here. People visit on lunch breaks, so post a single telling section, under 2,500 words, and ask specific questions: does this character feel real? What do you guess happens next?
r/BetaReaders
This is the Wild West by comparison. You can get a full novel read here, but readers are pickier about what they take on. Post asking for feedback; interested readers comment or DM. Offering a critique in return helps, especially with fellow authors.
On scams: open read-only access to your doc, double-check it's actually read-only. Open comment access only if a reader seems trustworthy and specifically asks, since it enables real line-level critique. Don't respond to anyone who emails you directly without going through your thread first. And, as always, keep a backup of your work.
Sifting through feedback
Once beta readers start weighing in, feedback rapidly becomes unmanageable. For me, the problem wasn't bad feedback. It was volume. Juggling half a dozen reviews at once was like drinking from a firehose! Read each review and summarize their big notes, then look for trends. How many readers caught the same thing? Do you actually think it'd improve the story? Give this at least two weeks, more for a longer work, and go into rewrites with an open mind.
Export path: Download as .docx from Google Docs, upload directly to KDP. You don't need Draft2Digital, Atticus, or Vellum for a straightforward manuscript. D2D's free formatter is a fine fallback if KDP's converter mangles something, but for a clean Doc it adds a step without adding value.
Designer
I used AI to build my cover. Part of the charm of doing this myself was seeing if I could, but art and design aren't things I'm naturally gifted with. Still, if I were to go back and spend money anywhere, this is where it'd go.
I saw getcovers.com recommended recently and genuinely liked their samples. But for this first book, I wanted to learn the whole thing myself.
I spent months on dead ends before landing on a process that worked. I was already paying for Claude and ChatGPT, so it cost nothing extra.
The rough workflow: Claude built a concept (ugly, but good composition and color basis). ChatGPT fleshed it out into a usable image. That got me roughly 80% of the way. The last 20% is what ate my time.
What worked: I listed every remaining defect and fed it to Claude, which generated a mask and prompt (effectively “edit only the area of this image covered by the mask. Make these changes and don't edit anything outside the mask”). Then I told ChatGPT to edit only the masked area, nothing outside it. That got me to about 95% of the way there. Finally I finished structural fixes and the title/author text in Photopea, a free browser-based Photoshop alternative. A designer would probably (definitely) be better at this step than I was. Just save your work as you go.
There are more sophisticated workflows I picked up after asking r/StableDiffusion for feedback that I haven't tried yet. If I were an established author, or had different constraints, I'd go back and spend the $35 at getcovers.com.
Publisher
I was almost done, but there are a few KDP idiosyncrasies that I stumbled upon before I hit submit.
Royalties
KDP pays in bands based on price:
| Price range | Royalty | Example |
|---|---|---|
| $0.99 to $2.98 | 35% | $0.35 per sale at $0.99 |
| $2.99 to $9.99 | 70% | ~$2.09 per sale at $2.99 |
| KU page reads | n/a | ~$0.004 to $0.005 per page |
This can seem counterintuitive. $2.99 earns roughly six times more per sale than $0.99. For my launch, I decided that a debut with zero reviews needed downloads more than dollars early on, so I started at $0.99. My strategy will be to raise the price after 15 to 20 reviews for a longer work (this work is a short story so I'm going to keep it at 99 cents).
AI disclosure
KDP asks about AI-generated content on the content page. If your cover used AI generation, like mine, disclose it. Story text you wrote yourself doesn't require disclosure. Editorial assistance, like plot advice, doesn't either. Be accurate, not evasive.
Keywords & categories
You get 3 categories and 7 keyword slots. Keywords are search phrases, not single words. “Road trip short story” and “grief and healing fiction” are keywords (that I used for my story), “fiction” is not. I used all seven. For categories, I leaned toward narrow over broad: a small category you can chart in feels more useful than one where you're invisible.
Before you publish
Preview before you publish, and actually read the whole thing in the preview pane. The waiting period is 24 to 72 hours before your listing goes live.
Author pages (there are two)
- Amazon Author Central (author.amazon.com). Create the account, add photo and bio, claim your book. Until claimed, your name on the listing isn't a link.
- Goodreads. Search for your book, apply for the Author Program, approval takes a few days. Once approved, claim the book, add your bio. Generally don't respond to reviews.
Marketer
Your listing being live doesn't mean anyone will find it. I've seen a lot of people publish and then walk away from their own book. And I get it. This part felt less like art and more like hustling a street corner with a demo tape, but it's the difference between a growing audience and a book sitting at 0 reviews. I told myself: do it for the readers who'd love your work if they ever got the chance to find it.
Whatever promotion you plan, plan for it to underperform: low engagement, posts removed, bad timing etc. can all happen at any time. To counteract this you must cast a wide net. Free book newsletters are worth submitting to, but I wouldn't build a strategy around them. My experience with these sites was basically a lottery with minimal results. What actually worked for me was social media and forums.
My approach was to schedule a 5-day free promo about a week after launch, once the initial wave died down (friends and family, initial announcement posts etc). For me, this was a second wind. I used the promo window to maximize downloads and hopefully generate some reviews and post-promo momentum, which I hoped would signal Amazon's algorithm to keep promoting me after the window closed.
Your sales rank will drop during the promo. That's normal, Amazon moves free books to a separate ranking list. I panicked seeing my numbers in freefall before realizing what was happening.
Forums & channels: what actually happened
- MobileRead forumworked · 800+ views
- r/FreeEBOOKSworked · ~600 views
- r/KindleFreebiesdid NOT work · silent, no reason given (and looking at the posts there it seems like you need to meet specific criteria)
- LinkedIn/Facebooksupportive, existing network, YMMV
- Facebook author groupssingle most successful channel. Confirm self-promo is allowed first.
- My newsletterunderperformed · not a writing-centric audience
Showcases I tried, none picked me up
Freebooksy, Manybooks, One Hundred Free Books, AwesomeGang, Crave Books, Contentmo, Bookpraiser, and Pretty Hot. Maybe your luck will be better. One thing that clicked for me: I didn't spend money advertising my first book. I'd rather spend on my second, or probably my third or fourth. Books build off each other, and later books get better ROI from readers who just finished the one before. I do the same thing as a reader.
Once the free period ends, I shifted to Kindle Unlimited to test KU-specific promotion. I posted to r/KindleUnlimited and a few Facebook KU groups.
My first attempt wasn't a runaway success, but it also wasn't a dud. And I'll be using these notes when I publish my next work.
I'm honestly over the moon with the performance, but I'm even happier with the lessons. I will keep writing. And after the struggle, the next book will be stronger.
Written after the launch of Dinosaur Road, my debut short story. If this helped, I'd love to hear about it — my email is on the contact page, and the books are on Amazon.
There's a bare, unbranded copy of this guide at /guides/self-publishing-dreaming-with-eyes-open — no navigation, nothing to click through to — for posting anywhere a link back to a personal site would read as promotion.