How to publish your book: paperback, hardcover and ebook.

A generation ago, publishing a book meant finding an agent, winning over a publisher, and waiting years. Today you can turn a finished manuscript into a real, printed book in a matter of days. But the choices along the way — ISBNs, trim sizes, paper, covers, distribution — can feel like a foreign language. This guide translates.

1. Your publishing options

• Traditional publishing. A publisher pays you an advance and handles design, printing and stores. It's very competitive, slow, and usually requires an agent.
• Self-publishing. You handle (or pay for) editing, design, ISBNs, printing and selling. Full control, but a lot to learn.
• Assisted publishing. A service like Author Out Loud guides you through each step — design, ISBNs, print-ready files, printing and a page to sell from — so you get a professional result without becoming an expert.

2. Paperback, hardcover or ebook?

You don't have to pick just one. Each format is called an edition.

• Paperback — the most popular and affordable printed format. Great for selling and gifting.
• Hardcover — sturdier and more expensive to print. Perfect for family histories and keepsakes.
• Ebook — read on Kindle, Apple Books, phones and tablets. No printing cost at all.

3. ISBNs, explained

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 13-digit number that identifies one specific edition of a book. It's the number above the barcode on the back cover, and it's how stores and libraries find and order a book.

• Each printed edition sold in stores needs its own ISBN — the paperback and hardcover of the same book have different numbers. Ebooks on Amazon Kindle don't need one; Amazon gives them their own number.
• ISBNs are issued by an official agency in each country. In the United States, that's Bowker.
• The ISBN is tied to a publisher of record. If a printing company gives you a free ISBN, that company is usually listed as the publisher.
• A valid ISBN-13 starts with 978 or 979 and ends with a check digit that confirms the other digits are correct.

4. Size, paper and the inside pages

Trim size is the size of the finished book. 6 × 9 inches is the standard for most nonfiction; 5.5 × 8.5 is popular for memoirs and self-help; 5 × 8 feels like a pocket paperback; 8.5 × 11 suits workbooks.

Paper usually comes in cream (warmer and easier on the eyes for long reading) or bright white (better for books with charts or photos).

The interior layout — fonts, margins, chapter openings, page numbers, a table of contents — is what makes a manuscript look like a real book. For older readers, a slightly larger text size makes a big difference.

5. Your cover

People really do judge a book by its cover. A printed cover has three parts:

• Front — title, subtitle and author name, readable even as a small thumbnail.
• Spine — its width depends on the number of pages and the paper. Thin books may have no spine text.
• Back — a short, warm description, a line about the author, and the ISBN barcode.

If you're uploading your own cover image, it needs to be high resolution — roughly 300 pixels per inch of the printed size — or it will look blurry in print.

6. How print-on-demand works

With print-on-demand, there's no warehouse full of books and no minimum order. Each copy is printed when someone orders it, then shipped directly. That means:

• You can order one copy or a hundred.
• You can fix a typo and the next copy printed includes the fix.
• The cost per copy depends on page count, size, paper and binding — a typical 200-page paperback costs a few dollars to print.

Before anything prints, the printer checks your files: page sizes, fonts, image quality and that the cover fits the spine. Good tools prepare files that pass these checks the first time.

7. Selling and sharing your book

Decide on a list price for each edition, then give readers an easy place to buy. A dedicated page for your book — with the cover, a description, a little about you and a buy button — is simple to share with family, friends, your church or your customers.

Launching is mostly about telling people, warmly and more than once: a cover reveal, a launch-day post and email, a few early readers who leave reviews, and a photo of you holding the finished book.

8. A simple publishing checklist

1. Finish and read through your manuscript.
2. Choose your editions: paperback, hardcover, ebook.
3. Pick a trim size and paper.
4. Design or upload your cover, and write the back-cover description.
5. Get an ISBN for each edition.
6. Create print-ready files and pass the printer's checks.
7. Order a proof copy and read it in print.
8. Set your prices and share your book page.

Haven't finished the manuscript yet? Start with our guide on how to write a book when you're not a writer.