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Independent publishing (Indie publishing) is one way you can share your knowledge and create another income stream for yourself. Knowledge is valuable and people are willing to pay for it.

Notable Authors that Published Independently

Many famous authors began by self-publishing or turned to it when they realized they could make more money that way. Examples:

  • Andy Weir (The Martian, which was later made into a movie with Matt Damon.)
  • E.L. James (50 Shades of Grey)
  • Christopher Paolini (Inheritance Cycle)
  • Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul)
  • Beatrix Potter (all of her books)
  • Lisa Genova (Still Alice)

Some of these books were later picked up by major publishing houses, but they got started independently by the authors.

Vanity Publishing Houses

You can pay a vanity publishing house to create the book for you or you can use a self-publishing platform.

A vanity publisher is a business that you pay to do everything involved in printing a book. You end up with a few cases of books that you are responsible for distributing (selling). Some vanity publishers offer additional plans where they will do some of the marketing.

Self-Publishing Platforms

The alternative is using a self-publishing platform such as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or Ingram Spark. There are advantages to both.  Today we are talking about KDP, since we published author, Katina Makris’ third book using this platform.

Kindle Publishing Direct

There are many reasons we like KDP – here are just a few of them:

  • It’s free to set up an account
  • You have 100% control over your book and its content
  • The author gets 70% of the sales on ebooks and 60% of the sales (minus printing costs on paperbacks)
  • KDP provide templates and guidelines customized to your book
  • Your book can be sold anywhere in the world where Amazon online is available
  • You can enroll in extended distribution, which means your book will appear on other book seller platforms, such as Barnes & Noble
  • Extended distribution also makes your book available to purchase at a wholesale price by bookstores
  • Amazon offers a “sponsored ad” program that is highly effective for selling a lot of books (I will talk about this more in another email.)

Loving Yourself Enough to Live, by Katina Makris, CCH, CIH

Katina Makris is a natural health care practitioner that contracted neurological Lyme disease. It was a near-fatal experience for her. She fully recovered and went on to write two books on the subject, as well as to travel internationally, speaking and teaching on the Lyme epidemic.

During her 5 years of recovery, Katina maintained a journal where she wrote about her near-death experience and everything it took for her to beat the odds. She shared some of her journal entries with her followers, and they were profoundly inspired by her words.

We decided to compile the best of them and develop an inspirational book that could benefit anyone facing a life challenge. A lot went into the creating of this book:

  • Compiling and editing the manuscript
  • Designing the cover (see the image at the top)
  • Purchasing the ISBN’s and bar code
  • Copyright registration
  • Registering with the Library of Congress
  • Determining the pricing
  • Formatting for the eBook version
  • Typesetting for the paperback version
  • And much more!

Are You an Author but You Don’t Know It?

Wherever you are in the writing/publishing process, let us know if you would like more information. Send an email to [email protected] or call 888.448.2932