Is it possible to self-publish your book for free?

In short, the answer is yes.

It will cost you nothing – no one-time fee, no ongoing monthly fee – to publish through Createspace on through the Kindle Store. Createspace is owned by Amazon.com. They are what is called a print on demand publisher. And by publishing your book through Createspace, you will be able to sell your book through Amazon.com and other online bookstores.

Kindle is the online store for electronic books (ebooks) which can be read on tablet devices like the Kindle or iPad.

That sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

 However, you should know that there are likely to be costs involved with self-publishing.

Most authors excel at writing books. But they are not graphic designers. What about you? Are you going to design your own cover? If no, you should plan have to pay someone to create a book cover. You can always try to find a family member or friend who can do graphic design to help you. I got my first book cover done free just because the designer wanted to have his name in the credits for my book. The same thing could happen for you – all you have to do is ask!

Additionally, most authors should not edit their own work. So you should plan to hire an editor. Technically, you don’t have to. But poorly edited books do not sell well and tend to get bad reviews. Again, if you know an editor, maybe they will edit the book for you free just for being mentioned as someone who helped you publish the book. But it is strongly recommended to hire a professional editor to review your work. Don’t let that stop you from getting your friends and neighbors to read the book for edits too!

There are also costs involved with promoting your book.

You will need a website. That involves having web hosting and some other minor costs. You can always start a free blog on a service like Tumblr or you can opt to just have a Facebook Fan Page. Those options are free.

You should issue a press release when your book goes live. And if you want the press release to be seen by several media outlets than you will have to pay for the press release. But you can always write a press release (or several) and send them to news outlets yourself. You won’t get the broad reach that you do when you pay for the service (they can reach hundreds or thousands of media contacts) but you can at least hit your local papers and news sources.

 Finally, it will cost you a price to get copies of your book…

(assuming you self-published a print book). You get the copies a very discounted rate and there is a small shipping fee too. But if you

You may have already been expecting the various costs I just outlined. Importantly, Createspace does not charge any fees for you to publish your book. Today, you can even opt in to using their expanded distribution network, which enables you to sell your book on additional online platforms, for free. This service used to cost $40 per year.

Additionally, once your print book is published through Createspace, you can click a button to have the book converted to Kindle format. Then, you can publish your book on the Kindle store as well. Again, there is no cost involved.

 Technically, if you are looking for the cheapest way to get published…

Then you may want to consider publishing an e-book. Publishing an e-book, like to sell on the Kindle store, costs even less than self-publishing a print book. You still have to pay for a book cover and editing, however your book cover design will cost less. There is more work involved in designing a print book cover. Kindle and e-book covers are easier to design and therefore less expensive.

You can publish your book for free through Createspace and Kindle. This will let you publish your book in print format and electronic format. However, be aware that there are costs involved with self-publishing. The most important costs are getting a book cover design and editing. But you should not have to pay for the actual process of getting the book printed or distributed on Amazon.com.