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The Self-publishing Plan is free to use.

I created it because the internet swarms with scam artists searching for inexperienced authors. My Plan allows these authors to have a guide to self-publish their book without needing the "help" of the scam artists.

If you have a question about the content one one of the cards, contact me and I'll answer the question. hankquense (at) iCloud (dot) com

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The most important element on your book’s

landing page is your book description. The job of the landing page is to persuade the visitor to buy the book and one of the most important elements on the landing page is the book description.

For fiction, the description should attempt to get the visitor interested in the main character and that character’s problem.  You want the visitor to say to herself, “Oh!  I wonder how the character will get out of the mess she’s in.”  Once you get the visitor thinking like that, you’re close to getting a sale.

With a non-fiction book, the goal is to convince the visitor that your book will solve a problem the visitor has.  After all, if a visitor landed on your book page, that visitor must have at least a passing interest in the problem.

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If it’s a first draft, it most definitely is not finished. It’s ‘done’ when you feel you can’t improve it any more.

At that point it's time to hire a professional editor to work on the manuscript.

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A beta reader is someone who reads a draft of a book manuscript (typically after at least one revision, but before publication) and provides feedback to the writer from the perspective of the target audience or an average reader. Beta readers differ from editors and proofreaders in that they focus on elements like plot, pacing, consistency, characters, and overall impression, rather than grammar or professional critique.

Beta readers act as a test audience for unreleased works, helping authors identify plot holes, inconsistencies, or unclear passages before the book is published.​

They are especially valuable for giving genre-specific feedback, ensuring that the story resonates with its intended readers.​

Beta readers can be friends, acquaintances, or strangers—ideally, they enjoy your genre and can give honest, constructive criticism.​

While they are not editors, their insights are often crucial for authors seeking to improve their manuscript’s appeal and readability

How to find beta readers? Read this article

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Self-publishing a book requires money, even if you do all or almost all the work.

Your major expenditures will be for a cover artist and an editor. Covers can vary from $50 to $150 but prestigious artists will charger several hundred dollars or more. A professional editor will cost $1000 and up.

You may also need funds for ISBN's, but maybe not. See the ISBN card under Step 4 for more information.

Marketing your book will also require money. You should provide several hundred dollars at this point. Marketing specifics will come later.

An important point here is to limit your expenditures to what you can afford.

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A unique book cover is an important element in getting your book noticed.  Studies have shown that many readers are initially attracted to a book by the cover.  Consequently, a shoddy cover won’t attract potential readers.  Look at a book page on Amazon.  One of the first things you’ll see is the cover image.  This image can go a long way towards attracting a buyer’s attention.

My advice is to hire a competent cover artist to create a cover for your book.  If you already know such an artist, great.  In this case, you may be able to get a cover at an attractive price.  If you don’t know such an artist or if you can’t afford a hefty expense, the question comes down to this: How do you find someone who can produce the cover for your book?  The usual way to find such an artist is to use the internet.

In your web searches, you’ll find a number of artists who have produced a number of pre-made ebook covers you can buy at an inexpensive price.  Once you pay for it, the artist will add your title and name to the cover and send it to you.  While this may sound like an ideal solution, it comes with a few drawbacks.  First, the covers are generic and won’t match your story very well.  Second, a generic cover may tell the potential buyer the content will also be generic.  Third, the artist retains the copyright to the cover blank and can sell it again to another author.  So there is a strong possibility you will see ‘your’ cover on someone else’s book.

I recommend you use a third approach to find your cover artist: ask on LinkedIn and Goodreads groups for recommendations.  The names you receive will be for cover artists who have previously worked with the recommender.  Once you get some names, send an email describing your project and any ideas about what you’d like to see on the cover.

Ebooks and print books have two very different types of covers.

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Getting a professional editor to work on your book is not an option; it is a mandatory requirement!  An editor provides another pair of eyes to read and polish your manuscript.

You may think your manuscript is perfect, but it isn’t.   It doesn’t matter how many times you went through it to dig out typos and to polish sentences, it still needs an editor.

There are four different types of editors: developmental, line, copy and proof readers.  All four have quite different functions. Developmental editors help with story line, character development and plot.  These are the most expensive type of editors.  If you use this type, it should have been done long before you started the publishing process because you will have a lot of revisions to take care of.  If you use a developmental editor, you can skip the beta reader task, but you still need a second editor to correct the typos and clumsy sentence structure.  Many of these issues came about when you revised the book from developmental editor’s suggestions or from beta reader changes. Line editors provide comprehensive help and will look at plot, sentence structure, dialogue, word usage, and multiple other issues.  Beta readers will do some of these functions, and if you have a competent team of them you most likely won’t need this type of editor. Copy editors will find a lot of mistakes you missed.  These include typos, incorrect usage (‘too’ instead of ‘to’ or ‘two’).  A good editor will also find clumsy sentence structure, repeated words and other mistakes. Proof readers are similar to copy editors. They will find typos, grammar errors and check for complete sentence and the occasional wrong word usage, but they don’t look at your clumsy sentences or bad dialogue.

At an absolute minimum, your book will require copy editing.  If your errors are not rooted out, the reader will think she bought a book written by an amateur.  If you want to produce quality content, it has to be professionally edited.

Always remember, your name will be on the title page and the cover, so you want the book to be as perfect as possible.

Unless you personally know the editor, do NOT pay the entire fee up front. Reserve at least a third of the fee to be paid on completion. If you pay 100% upfront, you are opening yourself up to possible unethical behavior by the editor.

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If you have trouble formatting an ebook or designing the interior, you may need to hire additional help. You may need this help if you simply don’t have the time to spend on these chores. In this case perhaps my Self-publishing Service will be of use to you.

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Keywords are frequently referred to as tags.

Readers will often search for a book using the name of a best-selling author or the title of a book, but readers can’t enter your title or name since you and your book have achieved little recognition.  So far!

Another way readers will search for a book is by using a short descriptive phrase such as ‘fantasy quest’ or ‘regency romance’.  This is the situation where you want your book to appear in the search results.  To accomplish this, it is vital that you develop a set of keywords that will ensure your book title will show up in the reader’s search results.

The keywords you want to use are ones that readers in your genre will use when browsing for a book.  These keywords are not necessarily what your book is about: they are the terms a reader will type into a search engine.  Let’s say your book is a fantasy novel filled with elves and dwarfs.  You may think ‘dwarfs’ and ‘elves’ would be great keywords.  They are not.  A reader looking for a fantasy novel won’t use them, but instead will search on keywords like ‘fantasy adventure’ or ‘fantasy quest.’  Consequently, it is important for your marketing efforts that you develop a relevant set of keywords.

Once you get a set of keywords, you can use

them in a variety of ways. Besides the packagers and blog posts, you can embed them into your book blurb, your book

description and your short and long synopsis.

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The purpose of the book blurb is to grab the attention of a potential reader.  Once you have her attention by means of a great pitch line as the opening sentence, you need to follow that up with a few more sentences that tell her what’s different about your book and what’s in it for her.

Many new authors consider a book blurb to be a short synopsis.  This is a mistake.  Book blurbs and a short synopsis are two different animals, and they have very different purposes.

Here are descriptions for each of the three elements involved in a book blurb.  Keep the blurb to fewer than a hundred words if possible and no longer than a hundred-fifty words.

Pitch Line: This is the first statement and it is the hook to grab the reader’s attention.  Its purpose is to persuade the reader to keep reading the other two statements.  It should be simple, one or two sentences at most, and it must make a clear statement about your book.

What's in it for the buyer? This is a statement that explains what the reader (i.e. a book buyer) will get in exchange for money.  This must be explicit.  Tell the reader what benefit he'll get from buying the book.  Think of this statement in this way: if your book is surrounded by hundreds of similar-sized books on a shelf in a bookstore or on a web page, what would persuade the buyer to choose your book instead of one of the others?

What's different about this book? With all the books published every month, what makes your book stand out from the others?

Embedding keywords into your marketing content makes search engines giddy with happiness and they react positively to the experience.

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Self-publishing a book is difficult. Over time, I develop a method that simplifies the process by breaking it into 10 steps. This step-by-step process will get your book published and initiate the pre-launch marketing.

The plan includes such vital tasks as developing a

compelling book description, building an author

platform and getting book reviews.

This webpage will give you an understanding of what the ten steps are all about and how to implement them.

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If you are too busy to devote the time and energy required to self-publish your manuscript, consider hiring a publishing partner (me) to get it done.

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If you are computer literate and can spend time on the project, I estimate it will take you a minimum of three months from start to publication. and probably longer.

It's impossible to predict an actual interval because of the variable factors. These include: your computer expertise and the amount of time you can dedicate to the project.

If it's your first exposure to the publishing world, a bit of research will also be required to get comfortable will some of the tasks included in this whiteboard.

In most cases, the actual interval will also depend on others such as a cover artist, an editor or beta readers.

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You can access the entire Self-publishing Plan-DIY by clicking on this link

This Self-publishing Plan – DIY is a 10‑step roadmap that takes you from finished draft to published book with built‑in marketing. You’ll learn how to budget, hire trusted professionals, publish in ebook and print, and launch your book without falling for scams or confusion.

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I use AI almost everyday in my work in writing, publishing and marketing. It really is an essential part of the author's business these days. I use it as an AI assistant or writing buddy, not as a substitute for my own voice.

I provide AI queries in several places in this plan. I recommend you use them and learn how to write queries to take advantage of AI.

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An AI App like ChatGPT or Perplexity can be quite useful in developing a set or appropriate keywords. You can use a brief storyline to describe the book for the AI or use a short synopsis.

Use a query like this: Develop a set of ten keywords for {Insert storyline}