The Self-Publisher's Checklist: 12 Steps to Take Before You Hit Publish

Most self-publishing guides walk you through a process. This is a checklist: twelve things to verify before you click Publish, so nothing slips through because you were focused on the manuscript and forgot the business side.

It covers the manuscript, rights, metadata, pricing, distribution, legal basics, and launch day. It is not a substitute for the publishing process itself. It is how you confirm the process has left you with a book ready for readers.

Part 1: Before You Write

1. Define your format, audience & word-count target

Decide up front whether this is ebook-only or ebook plus print. This affects trim size, cover specs, and formatting decisions later, so get it settled before you're deep into the manuscript.

Then pin down two things:

Your audience: Who is this book for, specifically? Not "readers who like fantasy"; "readers who finished Twilight and want more".
Your word-count target: Genre has norms for a reason: readers of a category have expectations, and retailers/algorithms use length as a signal too. A 40,000-word thriller and a 120,000-word epic fantasy are both fine as long as it's the right length for that genre.

2. Nail your one-sentence pitch

Before you write chapter one, write the sentence you'd use to describe the book to a stranger: audience + genre + hook. If you can't compress it to one sentence now, it'll be much harder to compress into back-cover copy and ad copy later. You'll need both of those eventually.

Part 2: Manuscript-Ready

3. Complete a full edit

There are 3 phases you should look at when editing, treat each one of them independently.

Structural edit: does the plot/argument hold together? Big-picture only.
Line edit: sentence-level clarity, pacing, voice, consistency.
Proofread: typos, punctuation, formatting slips. And these kinds of mistakes put readers off usually.

Quick tip: don't do them in parallel. Once you're done with structural editing and you move to line edit, make sure there's nothing else about the structure you will change later. That's how things get messy.

4. Get beta feedback and lock formatting

Get at least 3-5 readers from outside your own circle. Friends and family tend to be encouraging rather than honest, and you need honest at this stage. When you ask them for feedback be specific: not "what did you think?" but "where did you get bored?", "what do you think about character X?", "were you able to predict the ending and how quickly?".

Once feedback is folded in, lock your formatting: consistent chapter breaks, front matter (title page, copyright page), back matter (author note, acknowledgments), and, if nonfiction, a working table of contents. This is also the point where your manuscript is genuinely ready to submit for publishing, not just "done".

Part 3: ISBN & Rights

5. Decide if you need an ISBN, and budget for it

You'll need an ISBN for most print and retail listings. On PubliWrite free ISBNs are available on the paid plans. If you're publishing in multiple formats (ebooks + paperback + hardcover), each print format typically needs its own ISBN. Make sure you factor that in.

6. Confirm you keep full rights

This is worth stating plainly because it surprises first-time authors coming from other platforms: publishing on PubliWrite doesn't require exclusivity. But there are platforms where this is not the case. Amazon's KDP Select is the best-known example: enrolling means that ebook can't be sold anywhere else while you're in it.

Part 4: Cover & Metadata

7. Finalise your cover and back-cover copy

Your cover needs to work at two sizes: full-size on a product page, and thumbnail-size in search results and recommendation grids. If it doesn't read clearly as a 100px-wide thumbnail, it needs another pass. If you're printing, don't forget spine text and a good back cover. It's easy to design the front and back and forget the spine exists until proof time. In regard to the back-cover copy: about 150 words, no spoilers, built around the hook from your one-sentence pitch. This is the same muscle as ad copy lead with what makes the book different, not a plot summary.

8. Pick categories and keywords for discoverability

Resist the pull toward broad, crowded top-level categories just because they sound prestigious. A narrow category where you can realistically rank beats a broad one where you're buried on page 37. Same logic for keywords applies. Specific and searchable beats generic and competitive.

Part 5: Pricing

9. Set your price using the royalty calculator

Two things behave differently, so check both:

Ebook royalty is calculated from your sale price.
Print royalty (paperback/hardcover) has printing cost deducted first, then your royalty rate applies. Run your actual price and expected monthly sales through the royalty calculator. This is for PubliWrite but most big platforms have one. These calculators break down ebook vs. paperback vs. hardcover line by line, and show what you'd keep in different scenarios.

Part 6: Distribution

10. Decide where you want to distribute

Before you publish anywhere, get clear on your distribution goals: which countries/markets matter to you, which formats you want to sell (ebook, paperback, hardcover), and whether exclusivity terms are a dealbreaker. Then check those against what your chosen platform actually offers: reach, format support, and exclusivity requirements vary a lot platform to platform, and it's easier to check before you publish than to migrate after.

On PubliWrite specifically: worldwide distribution to 150+ countries, every major format (ebook, paperback, hardcover, PDF), print-on-demand for physical copies (so no upfront inventory cost and no unsold-stock risk; copies print only when ordered). There's no exclusivity requirement, so nothing here locks you out of distributing elsewhere too.

Part 7: Legal Basics

11. Cover your legal basics

These are small things but very important to have

Permissions for anything not originally yours; quoted passages, song lyrics, images. You don't want to get in trouble.
Disclaimers if you're writing nonfiction with medical, financial, or legal content, a standard disclaimer paragraph covers you here. This will also keep you out of trouble long term.

Part 8: Launch Day

12. Build your launch-day action list

Have these ready before publish day, not scrambled together after:

A pre-written social post: you can fire this the moment your book goes live. Writing it in the moment might make it seem rushed.
Your author page claimed and filled in: regardless of where you publish, you should have a nice author profile that readers can look at.
Have your marketplace link ready to share: your goal on day one isn't massive volume; it is to find your first 10 readers. That's a small, achievable target that also seeds reviews and social proof for everyone who finds the book afterward.

You're ready

Twelve checks, done. None of them are hard on their own. The failure mode is skipping one because you were focused on the manuscript. Bookmark this, or grab the printable version below and check items off as you go.

Download the printable checklist here