Most aspiring authors don’t get stuck on the writing. They get stuck on the publishing. They’ve finished a manuscript, or close to one, and then face a wall of decisions they don’t know how to navigate. Which platform? Which format? Which paper weight? Where do you even buy an ISBN? The result, far too often, is a finished book that never quite makes it into readers’ hands. The author hovers at the finish line for months, sometimes years, while the manuscript sits quietly on a hard drive doing nothing for anyone.
The good news is that publishing has become genuinely accessible. The bad news is that nobody hands you a roadmap. Most of what’s on the internet is either outdated or partial.
So this is the exact 7-stage process I now use for every book I publish. It’s been refined across multiple books and produces professional-quality results at low cost, with full creative control and no upfront fees. It’s not the only way to do it, but it works reliably. If you’re sitting on a manuscript, this is the practical guide that should help unstick you.
Why this process actually works
Before getting into the steps, a quick word on the underlying logic.
Self-publishing has changed dramatically over the last decade. The stigma is gone. Many authors now choose self-publishing not because they couldn’t get a traditional deal, but because they actively prefer the creative control, the higher royalty rates, and the faster time-to-market. Done well, the quality is indistinguishable from traditional publication.
The key word there is “done well.” Without a process, self-publishing produces wildly variable results. With a process, it consistently produces good ones. What follows is mine.
Stage 1: Set up your book project on Lulu
Start by creating an account on the Lulu Publishing platform and setting up your book as a new project. The single most important thing you’ll do here is claim a free ISBN, which is the unique identifier your book needs to be properly distributed and catalogued.
Lulu provides ISBNs at no cost, which alone makes them worth using. Other platforms charge for ISBNs, sometimes substantially. Having a real ISBN matters because it’s how libraries, bookshops, and online retailers actually find and stock your book.
Stage 2: Format your interior text
Consistency saves you hours. I use a Microsoft Word template I’ve built and refined over multiple books, sized to US Trade (6 x 9 inches, or 152 x 229 mm). This is one of the most common book sizes in the industry. It produces a comfortable reading experience, fits well on shelves, and keeps printing costs sensible.
If you don’t have a template, build one once and reuse it forever. Set up your fonts, margins, headers, page numbers, chapter breaks, and section formatting deliberately. The amount of pain this saves on subsequent books is hard to overstate.
Stage 3: Design your cover with Canva
Your cover is the first thing every reader will see, so it deserves real attention. Canva is genuinely good for this. You can produce both front and back covers, sized to fit the 6 x 9 dimensions, in a few hours of focused work.
A useful side benefit: Canva also has a 3D mock-up feature that lets you generate promotional images of your book before it’s even printed. These are gold for marketing on social media, websites, and press releases. Your book looks established and credible long before launch day.
Stage 4: Upload and integrate your content
Back into Lulu. Upload your formatted interior text. Then use Lulu’s cover design tool to integrate the front and back cover images you created in Canva. The platform walks you through the steps and won’t let you skip anything important.
This is the stage where the book starts to feel real. You’re seeing it, for the first time, in something close to its final form.
Stage 5: Order a physical proof
Non-negotiable. Order a physical proof copy and read it carefully, in print, before doing anything else. Digital previews never catch everything. Reading on paper is genuinely different from reading on a screen, and you’ll spot things you wouldn’t otherwise see.
My standard print specification is Standard Black & White printing on 60gsm White Uncoated paper, Paperback Perfect Bound. This combination delivers good quality at a sensible cost. There are fancier options. For most non-fiction books, this spec is more than adequate.
Stage 6: Gather feedback and refine
When the proof copy arrives, read it cover to cover. I usually order three or four extra copies and pass them to trusted friends or colleagues for feedback. Fresh eyes catch things you’ve stopped seeing after months of staring at your own manuscript.
Implement the feedback. Upload the revised files to Lulu. Don’t skip this step in the rush to publish. The errors you fix here are the ones you won’t be embarrassed about a year from now.
Stage 7: Finalise and expand to Amazon
Order one final proof to confirm all changes look right. Then download the print-ready assets (interior and cover files) from Lulu and upload them to Amazon KDP.
This dual-platform approach matters. Lulu gives you international print-on-demand and direct sales. Amazon KDP gives you the world’s largest book-buying audience. Together, they cover almost everything you need without any inventory risk.
The mindset that gets you over the line
The technical process is genuinely simple once you’ve done it once. The real obstacle for most aspiring authors isn’t technical at all. It’s perfectionism.
Plenty of authors get trapped in endless tweaking. They believe their manuscript needs to be flawless before they’re allowed to publish. Here’s the unhelpful truth. Perfection is the enemy of published.
Your book doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be valuable. Readers care vastly more about the insights, stories, and solutions you provide than they do about the occasional minor typo. The real failure isn’t publishing a slightly imperfect book. The real failure is never publishing at all.
The book that exists, even imperfectly, helps people. The book that doesn’t exist helps nobody.
Beyond the technical
While this process handles the publishing mechanics, the bigger goal is creating real value for readers. Each stage isn’t just a hurdle to clear. It’s an opportunity to make the final product genuinely better.
The self-publishing landscape continues to evolve, with new tools appearing every year. By following a systematic approach, you’re not just publishing a book. You’re building the foundation for an ongoing author platform, creating something that may keep working for you for years, and potentially building a stream of passive income that compounds over time.
Your next step
The hardest part of publishing is starting. The process above looks straightforward in writing, and it genuinely is, but most people who read it will still find reasons to delay.
Don’t be one of them.
If you have a manuscript, or even a partial one, the single most useful thing you can do this week is set up a Lulu account and claim your free ISBN. That one act, taking maybe twenty minutes, shifts the project from “thinking about publishing someday” to “actively in the publishing process.” The rest follows much more naturally once that first move has been made.
The world genuinely needs more people willing to share their unique perspective, hard-won knowledge, and honest stories. Every published author started exactly where you are right now.
So if you have a book idea, or a manuscript already drafted, what’s actually stopping you from spending twenty minutes today setting up a Lulu account and claiming the ISBN that turns this from someday into now?