Self-publish without a vanity press

You can put a book on Amazon this month without paying anyone for the privilege of existing. People who charge $4,000 to “publish you” are selling you a costume.

The only platforms that matter at first

Amazon KDP is free to upload. That is where most English-language independent books earn. Start there. kdp.amazon.com.

Draft2Digital or KDP’s expanded options can get you into other stores later. IngramSpark is for bookstores and libraries who will not order from Amazon’s print program. You do not need Ingram on day one unless a bookstore has already asked.

Three invoices worth paying

Editing. At least a copyedit. Friends are not copyeditors. Budget honestly.
Cover. Thumbnail at postage-stamp size must still read as your genre. Premade covers exist. Canva is a last resort for text-heavy nonfiction, not for thriller.
Formatting. Atticus is a one-time payment that exports ebook + print. Vellum is Mac-only and costs more. Word can be made to behave. Kindle Create is free and ugly-but-fine for a first ebook.

Everything else — “marketing packages,” fake reviews, “we’ll make you a bestseller,” ISBN bundles from a company you’ve never heard of — treat as a fire.

ISBN

KDP will give you a free ISBN for print that lists Amazon as imprint. That is fine for a first book you sell on Amazon. If you want bookstore dignity and your own imprint name, buy ISBNs from your national agency (Bowker in the US). Do not buy them from a random “publishing service.”

The upload

Title, subtitle, author name, description (your blurb), seven keyword slots, two browse categories, manuscript, cover, price. Order a proof. Hold it. Fix the running heads and the one chapter that starts on the left. Then hit publish. It is allowed to feel like nothing. Reports lag. Do not refresh them like a slot machine.

KDP Select

Enrolling in Select puts the ebook in Kindle Unlimited and requires digital exclusivity for 90 days. For many fiction categories it is still the right first move. For wide nonfiction with a real audience off Amazon, skip it. You can change your mind later.

If a company needs your credit card before they tell you what they do with your rights, you are not being published. You are being billed.

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