Lists of self-publishing steps are easy to find, and most of them agree: edit, proofread, cover, format, upload, launch. The order is where authors lose time and money, because several of those steps take their input from the step before, and running them out of sequence means paying for the same work twice.
What follows is one workable sequence for a book going on sale through Amazon KDP, with print, and possibly other retailers too. Other routes exist, and this is the one this post walks through.
Decide which formats you are selling before you commission anything
Ebook only is the shortest path. There is no trim size, no page count, and no ISBN required, since Amazon assigns an ASIN. Add a paperback and you have picked up a chain of dependencies: trim size, a typeset interior, a final page count, a spine width calculated from that page count and the paper stock, and a cover file that wraps front, spine and back. A cover designer cannot build that wrap until the interior is finished, so a designer booked too early will either wait or charge you again.
Editing runs in one direction
Structural editing comes first, then the copyedit, then typesetting, then a proofread of the laid-out file. Cut a chapter after typesetting and you change the page count, which changes the spine, which sends the cover back to the designer. Proofreading the Word document rather than the final PDF or ebook file also tends to miss the errors that only formatting creates, such as broken hyphenation, orphaned headings and a table of contents pointing at the wrong chapter.
Settle the ISBN question before print setup
Print books need an ISBN. KDP will give you a free one, but it only works at KDP, and the listing shows the book as independently published rather than carrying your own imprint name. Buying your own makes you the publisher of record and lets you use the same number across KDP print, IngramSpark and anywhere else. Bowker sells them in the US at $125 for one and $295 for ten, so a block is much cheaper per number if you plan more than one book. UK authors buy from Nielsen instead. Every format needs its own number, so a paperback, a hardback and an ebook are three ISBNs, not one.
Set metadata and price knowing you can change them
Categories, keywords, blurb, price and even the cover can all be edited after publication, so none of them is worth stalling a launch over. Price does interact with what you earn: ebooks pay 35% or 70% depending on the price band and delivery settings, and since June 2025 KDP print pays 60% at higher list prices and 50% below a threshold that varies by marketplace. Run your actual page count and price through the KDP calculator rather than trusting a round number you read somewhere.
Upload, review, proof, then announce
KDP review usually takes up to 72 hours, and it can flag things you did not expect, so leave room for a resubmission. Order a printed proof or author copy and look at it in daylight before you tell anyone the publication date. If you use a pre-order, you can set a release date up to 90 days ahead, and your final file is due before the deadline shown on the setup page. Miss it and Amazon cancels the pre-orders and blocks you from using pre-orders for a year, which is the one deadline in this whole process with a real penalty attached.
The steps that only work before publication day
Some of the list has to happen while the book is still unpublished. ARC readers need a readable copy weeks ahead if you want reviews sitting on the page in week one. Anything you want to send readers to from inside the book, such as a mailing list sign-up or a link to buy direct, has to be written into the back matter before you upload, because retrofitting it means a new file and a fresh review. A launch week can be run once per book, and everything that feeds it is built beforehand.
Working through that sequence, most of the tools you need are for the reader-facing side: a website, a mailing list, ARC delivery, a press kit and a way to sell direct. Our Toolchest membership covers all of them for one flat monthly fee, so you are not stitching five subscriptions together before your first book is even live.