What are the ways to publish a book?
Before you write a single line, decide who will bring your book to market. That choice determines your costs, your workload, where the book is sold and how much you earn per copy.
- Traditional publisher: The publisher pays for editing, cover, typesetting, printing, distribution and marketing, and pays you royalties on every sale. Publishing costs you nothing, but publishers are selective.
- Self-publishing: You publish on your own, for example through Amazon KDP. Uploading is free; editing, cover design and advertising are on you. You keep a larger share of each sale, but getting into bookstores is your problem.
- Publishing platforms with publisher distribution: You deliver a finished book, and a platform publishes it with the publisher's ISBN and lists it with the book wholesalers bookstores order from. One example is ShelfPublisher, the author platform of Orbita Media GmbH.
Be careful with offers that charge you to be "published". Some are honest hybrid publishers, many are vanity presses. How to tell them apart is covered in our guide How to find a book publisher.
Step 1: Topic, audience and positioning
The most important decision happens before you write. Who is the book for? Which question does it answer, which feeling does it promise? A book with a clearly defined readership sells more easily than a book "for everyone". If you already have an audience, you know its questions from comments and messages, and that is usually where your strongest book topic is hiding.
Step 2: The manuscript – write it yourself or get help
You don't have to be an experienced writer. Many nonfiction books and creator books are written with support: by a ghostwriter, or with a writing mentor who turns your texts, notes and voice messages into a manuscript in your own voice. At Orbita Media this writing support is part of publishing and costs you nothing. More on that under Become an author.
Step 3: Choose your route
Three questions decide it: How much money do you want to invest up front? How much time do you have? And how will readers find you? An existing audience makes you especially attractive to publishers, because the book launches with readers already waiting. Without an audience but with a finished, professionally designed book, self-publishing or a platform is often the faster route. A side-by-side comparison is in Traditional vs. self-publishing.
Step 4: Editing and proofreading
Editing works on the content: structure, flow, clarity and tone. Proofreading comes last and catches spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Readers notice immediately when either is missing, in reviews and in the bookstore. A publisher includes both; when you self-publish, you hire them yourself.
Step 5: Title, cover and interior design
The cover is a book's most important sales tool. It has to signal genre and audience in a split second, as a thumbnail in an online store just as much as on the shelf. The title carries the main search term of your topic so readers can find the book. Typesetting turns the text into pages that are a pleasure to read.
Step 6: ISBN and metadata
Every edition (hardcover, paperback, e-book, audiobook) needs its own ISBN. In the US, ISBNs are sold by Bowker: a single ISBN costs $125, a block of ten $295 (myidentifiers.com, November 2026). In the UK they are issued by Nielsen. Publishers and publishing platforms provide the ISBN for you. Then come the metadata: description, categories and keywords decide whether your book shows up when readers search.
Step 7: Printing and distribution
This is where the routes differ most. Publishers print in runs and supply the book wholesalers, so any bookstore can order the book within days. Self-publishing usually relies on print-on-demand: a copy is printed only after it is ordered. That keeps costs low, but bookstores rarely stock print-on-demand titles. Orbita Media books are orderable in every bookstore in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, online and offline, and are distributed worldwide to bookstores and online retailers.
Step 8: Marketing that doesn't stop after launch
Books sell when people hear about them. Pre-orders before publication concentrate sales into launch week and improve the odds of reaching a bestseller list. After that, ads on Amazon, Meta and TikTok, press coverage and your own community carry the book for months. When you self-publish, that ad budget comes out of your pocket; at Orbita Media, paid campaigns keep running permanently.
What's different in 2027
Two trends shape the coming year. First, reach matters more than ever: books are discovered on TikTok, Instagram and in podcasts, and authors who bring a community start with a head start. Second, platform terms keep moving: on July 7, 2026, Amazon KDP widened the price band for its 70% e-book royalty from $9.99 to $12.99 (now $2.99 to $12.99). If you self-publish, review your prices and royalty options regularly.
Which route is right for you?
You have a community, a story or expertise, but little time? Then a publisher like Orbita Media is the direct route: free for you, with writing support and a time investment of a few hours. You have a finished book with a cover and want to publish it yourself, but still want it orderable in bookstores? Then take a look at ShelfPublisher.