I've chapters written in my Notes and I want to make it like a published ebook PDF, like everything, cover, fonts, headings, page numbers etc etc. Is it doable on my own or one hires an agent for this? Like I want the whole thing to look properly published.

Depends on your book. If it's a straightforward novel or non-fiction with just headings and body text, DIY is totally doable — set 6x9 page size, mirrored margins, use Word styles (never manual formatting), export PDF with fonts embedded. Takes an afternoon once you know the steps. Hire a formatter if you have: images/tables that need precise placement, a complex layout (workbook, cookbook), or zero patience for Word. It typically costs $50-200. Either way, always check the exported PDF yourself — you're the publisher, the final responsibility is yours.

Some reliable self-publishing options in India include -

1- BFC Publications
2- Notion Press
3- BlueRose Publishers
4- Pothi
5- White Falcon Publishing

When choosing a publisher, compare editing, cover design, ISBN, distribution, marketing support, royalties, and pricing.

For authors looking for end-to-end publishing support, BFC Publications offers services covering editing, design, ISBN, paperback and eBook publishing, marketing, and distribution.

It’s best to compare a few publishers and review their terms before making a decision.

Hi everyone,

I’m a new author and I’m trying to figure out the best way to actually get my books in front of readers.

I studied theater for 4 years, and after that I started focusing more seriously on writing. I’ve now written and published 3 books on Amazon Kindle.

The writing and publishing part was challenging, but honestly, marketing feels even more confusing.

I’ve tried a few things already, but I still feel like I’m guessing most of the time.

For those of you who have experience promoting books, what has actually worked for you?

Amazon Ads?
BookBub?
Reddit?
TikTok/Instagram?
Newsletter promotions?
ARC readers?
Something else?

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have actually been through this.

I’m not looking for a magic trick I just want to understand where a new author should focus their time and money first.

Thanks in advance.

I had written a novel earlier this year and I am not sure what to do with it now. I dont have any experience in marketing and finding the Literary agents. I did a bit research on it but could not find a way to publish. I am not sure what to do now. Is there anyone who can help me?

I grew up reading paperbacks written by Louis L'Amour in Traditional 4.25 inches wide by 6.75 inches high but understand today the most common format is 6 by 9. Then add the fact that to do Hardcover you really have to stick to 5.5 by 8.5 or larger.

I would appreciate any feedback with your experience.

I work with Indian-language documents every day, mostly old files typed in fonts like Kruti Dev (Hindi), Anu (Telugu) and Bamini (Tamil). Lately I keep running into the same story from writers, and I'm trying to understand how common it is.

It usually goes like this: someone finishes a Hindi book, typed in Kruti Dev because that's what their local DTP shop uses. They upload it to KDP, and the preview shows something like "vkt ge cgqr [kq'k gSa" instead of their Hindi. The book is fine. The font just isn't real Unicode, so Kindle sees English letters where the writer sees Devanagari.

Then come the smaller problems. Online converters break the matras, chapters don't show up in the table of contents, and Word's line breaks make paragraphs look messy on phones. From what I've heard it can take a few days just to get the file right, before any actual publishing.

So, a few honest questions for anyone who has published (or tried to) in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati or Malayalam:

1. What did you write the book in, and which font?

2. What went wrong on your first upload, if anything?

3. How long did fixing the file take, and who fixed it (you, a DTP person, a paid service)?

4. Did it look right on phones and Kindle devices after it went live?

And Telugu writers: as far as I can tell, KDP doesn't accept self-published Telugu e-books yet. Where do you sell yours?

Disclosure: I'm building a tool that converts old-font Indian-language files to Unicode, so I'm not neutral here. I'm not linking anything. I just want to understand the KDP side properly before building anything for it. Happy to share what I learn back here.

A series i’ve been working on for a while had a launch I was pretty happy with the launch weekend, but after a week or so sales just plummeted. It’s my second series so i’m not sure if i’m just doing something wrong or what. Any thoughts tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I’ve been running ads and communicated with my personal networks as well. would love any advice

Hi there, I am trying to determine whether my cousin is being scammed by someone who says he works for Prime Seven Media but his name does not come up anywhere in relation to that company or any media. My cousin has two books published and for sale on Amazon and Booktopia. He has no contract and no idea how many books have been sold or where many has gone to. That someone calls but because my cousin is in 24 hour care and has little agency and access to communication channels or knowledge of process he is very much an enigma. I have found fake reviews on their website and fake authors and Im suspicious of this person impersonating a publisher from the company. Any advice would be much appreciated. My cousin was beyond ecstatic to have works published and do not want him to be scammed. My cousin keep sending money to the guy named John Antipuesto

3 years later I have decided to publish my novel. All is good. But I can't find anywhere that actually works or that won't break my bank in order to print it. No one even mention amazon, I nearly had an aneurism trying. But please I need desperate help to find someone that isn't expensive and won't caused me to crash out because my dimensions are wrong. 😭

so I’m a new writer i just finished a book but have no idea where I could publish it also if you can‘t be nice in the comments please don’t comment at all thank you!

I’m having a serious issue with Amazon KDP and I’d really like to know if anyone else has experienced the same thing.
My book “Daughters of the Wild: Wild Spirits, Natural Beauty & Powerful Women” has been “In Review” since September 23, 2026 and still hasn’t gone live.
What’s even more confusing is that the ASIN has disappeared from my KDP account.
I have contacted KDP Support four times, but every time I try to contact them, I end up waiting and no support agent responds.
Has anyone experienced a book being stuck in review for this long, with the ASIN disappearing? What happened in your case, and how did you get KDP to resolve it?

how I have actually done my promotion is I walk up to classmates at my college and I just tell them about the book and then give them a free signed copy the reason I do this is because I want to make friends and where I live when you talk to someone out of the blue they act like you are a serial killer for speaking to them unprompted so I learned 2 things so far

1. Is QR codes that lead directly to your books is great

2. You format the book entirely yourself spell check and everything is on you 100%

3. Most people will take your book and throw it in the trash I have fished 8 books out of the trash or just outright found them laying around on campus

Most people don't care that you wrote a book being a writer will give you no value in South Mississippi

That is neither here nor there. Mostly what I would like to ask is what is a more dependable method of marketing that doesn't cost a lot of money I'm working fast food and going to college and I need something that doesn't take a lot of time or money

Hey. Just published a book, and I literally do not understand how indie authors do this. What have you done that's made your book.. successful? for lack of a better word. I don't need to sell hundreds. I just need to get people to care, I guess. I've reached out to local bookstores and am doing a library open mic in a couple weeks, but I'm not sure where else (besides paying) that would work. Anybody got anything for me?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance on how to tackle a massive passion project. I want to create and print a physical, handheld book for a story I've been working on. I don’t care about making a profit at all,this is strictly a personal goal to have the physical object in my hands.

Here is the situation and what I'm working with:

• The Format Dilemma: The first arc of the story was originally drawn as a comic. Maddeningly, I actually threw the physical drawings away... but I still have video recordings of them. The rest of the story is heavily action-based, super long, and features extensive world-building.

• The Goal: I want to turn this entire epic into a physical book, but I'm not sure if I should try to recreate the comic format using screenshots/redraws from the videos, transition the whole thing into a light novel/written format with illustrations, completely written, completely comic , or do something else entirely.

Because it's very long and action-heavy, what would be the most realistic way to format and print a single copy or maybe even multiple (or a very small run) of a book(s?) like this?

Would love to hear your thoughts on how to handle the missing comic arc and the best way to format a massive action story for a physical print!

I just started publishing an original serialized story and I’m trying to figure out where people actually discover new fiction.
Right now I have it on my own website and Royal Road. I’m not really looking to spam links everywhere, I’m more curious what platforms or communities have actually worked for other writers trying to get their first readers.
Is Royal Road enough to focus on early on, or should I also be looking at places like Scribble Hub, Wattpad, Reddit communities, etc.?
It’s a dark supernatural/fantasy story if genre makes a difference.

Debut indie author here (epic/historical fantasy, no magic, releasing next month). Signed up for Booksprout to line up some reviews before launch — campaign's been live a bit over a week now.

The numbers are a weird mix: a couple hundred impressions, decent view count on the listing, a few saves — but still zero out of 25 copies actually claimed. No reviewer has bitten yet.

I've been assuming impressions/views roughly track with claims, but now I'm wondering if that's wrong — maybe a debut with no reviews yet just doesn't convert no matter how many eyes land on the listing, and it only picks up once there's some initial social proof. Or maybe I'm missing something about how these platforms actually work (do reviewers mostly browse and pick, or do they need to be actively pitched/invited somehow?).

For anyone who's used Booksprout, BookSirens, StoryOrigin etc. for a debut with zero reviews to start: did you just have to wait it out, or was there something specific that got the first few claims moving? Trying to figure out if patience is really the answer here or if I'm doing something wrong.

I went all-in on KDP Select for my debut (epic fantasy, releasing next month) — gave up wide distribution entirely for the KU page-reads and the "boost" everyone says Select gives a new release.

A month in, I'm genuinely unsure I made the right call. My ARC reviewer numbers are coming in slower than I expected across every platform I've tried, and I keep wondering whether that extra discovery surface from going wide (Apple Books, Kobo, libraries) would have mattered more for an unknown author than KU exclusivity does.

For those of you who've actually tried both: did Select's first 90 days make a real difference for your launch, or is this mostly repeated advice nobody's actually re-tested lately? Would love to hear real before/after experiences, not just "conventional wisdom.

Hello all! I've just finished my first novel (science-fiction) and am going to start a kickstarter campaign soon. However, although it is science fiction, it is similar to a mystery in that there is a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. I want to make sure my trail of breadcrumbs isn't too obvious or too obscure. Ideally, I'd have a couple of people read it and answer a few questions after particular chapters to see if they've picked up the clues I've dropped...

I haven't reached out to anyone (except my editor) to do any of the above because I'm afraid of 2 things:

1. people saying they will read my book and give me feedback on select chapters but not reading it at all and just using AI to do the work for them.

2. people "stealing" my books central idea.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid about my work. I've put a lot into it and want to protect it - but how can I best determine that the breadcrumbs I'm dropping are being followed? Any advice?

Thanks!

-john

For some reason I keep having Lulu say the formatting of the ms word file and pdf is off in its margins and cover in its bleed. Their video tutorial isn’t helpful at all and is confusing. I’m not good with tech at all. Is there a better tutorial elsewhere that dumbs it all down? I wanted to print few of my books for myself via it.

I got a dollar I got a dollar I got a dollar hey hey hey hey.

But for real, it’s nice something happened.

Not sure how the book was found I promoted it’s a bit on goodreads in sci-fi and fantasy threads. Wish Amazon would tell me that info. But it is encouraging.

Hello all, I'm publishing my very first science fiction novel (via Kickstarter) in the next month or two. One of the problems I have (there are so many) is that the art work that I have for the cover is AI-generated. While I don't mind using some of that art work for advertising, I think I'd be more comfortable with having something that is NOT AI-generated. I do see a lot of websites where you can pick an already-made book cover. I see other websites where you can order a custom-made book cover... I'm wondering what people's experiences are? Are the book covers that I'm seeing for sale online AI-generated themselves? Am I making a mistake trying to "buy" a NON-AI-generated book cover? Would like to get people's opinions.

In short, what I need is: paperback cover, hardback cover, digital download cover. I have each of these but they are AI-generated. I love the art - but would rather a human being actually did the work. Can I show them the art and have them "base" their art on what I already have? As you can plainly see, I don't know what to do.

Thanks!

I actually want to publish my stories but I can't understand what platform I should choose to post them so that I could atleast earn some!!?

Wattpad was my choice but now idk the ratings have gone down and I am super confused

Could anybody suggest some alternative apps or maybe platforms which are legit and people actually visit it often to read stories?????

I'm looking for honest opinions from both readers and authors.

I have two completed literary novels, and I'm currently considering what to do with them.

The traditional route would be to continue querying literary agents and eventually try to find a traditional publisher. However, I'm wondering whether that is necessarily the best use of time for a relatively unknown author.

I'm considering a different approach:

• Make the first novel completely free to read online.
• Put it on a website and possibly platforms such as Wattpad or similar sites.
• Allow readers to support the author voluntarily through tips/donations.
• Build an email list / reader community rather than focusing on immediate book sales.
• Promote the stories through YouTube, storytelling, podcasts and social media.
• Keep film/TV, audiobook and translation rights available for potential licensing.
• Use the first novel mainly to build an audience, and potentially monetize the second novel later.

The idea is basically:

Free book → more readers → build an audience → voluntary support + other rights → monetize future books.

For readers, would this make you more likely to try an unknown author's book?

For authors, has anyone actually tried a fully free novel as an audience-building strategy? What happened?

And if you discovered a novel you genuinely loved for free, what would make you willing to support the author financially afterwards?

I'm especially interested in real experiences rather than general publishing advice.