Getting your book released to the public is a great achievement, but the publication process can be tedious and overwhelming. Thankfully, with various online tools and resources, publishing has become easier and quicker than ever before. This guide will help you understand how your book can be made easily available to readers.

What to do before publishing your book?
Here are some important things you need to do:

• Get it professionally edited and formatted
  After you finish writing your book, getting it edited is the next step.

You can hire a professional editor to do it for you. The editor could will help you get a different perspective about your manuscript. After the final draft is ready, format you book by adding significant headlines, page numbers, and aligning your text.

Optimize your description and cover
The way your book looks can play a huge role in sales. Creating an eye-catching cover can evoke curiosity in a reader. Similarly, writing a compelling description will urge people to read your book. Keeping the description short, crisp, and snappy is crucial. Nonetheless, don’t summarize your book in the description, keep the mystery and leave the reader wanting more.

Decide on a publisher
Books are published in one of two ways. The first one is finding a publishing house, which will require querying, finding an agent, and getting your book approved. In this method, a lot of the work is handled by the publisher, including printing, selling, and a small part of marketing. The other method is publishing the book yourself. There are numerous options that allow you to publish your book within minutes. Moreover, you can edit the book even after it has been published. Nonetheless, you will have to incur various, costs such as designing and marketing.

Marketing
It doesn’t matter who publishes your book—be it a big establishment or a small one—you’re the one who has to market it. What your book is about matters the most when it comes to readers. Therefore, you will need to put a ton of effort into marketing and promoting your creation to the masses. It might even take a few books before you actually become a recognized name in the market. Having a personal blog or a strong social media presence may help you with marketing a lot more.

Top self-publishing companies
These five entities are our best picks when it comes to getting your book out there:

• Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
  At KDP, you can publish your book for free within a span of minutes and it will show up on Kindle’s library within 24 hours. The book can even undergo changes whenever you want, even after uploading it. You can earn up to 70% in royalties by selling books to people in various countries, including Canada, Australia , and Germany. Moreover, you can get your book in paperback and even order a proof copy to review your book in this format.
• CreateSpace
  The CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform is an on-demand paperback book publishing platform. Just upload your book in PDF format and you’ll be given an estimated cost. You can price your book anywhere above the cost and CreateSpace takes a 40% cut. They do not hoard stocks, so, if someone orders a book, CreateSpace prints one and delivers it to them. A sample version of the book can be ordered so that you can update any changes before the launch.
• iBooks
  Apple’s iBooks is one of the biggest online platforms when it comes to readers. If you want to publish on iBooks, you will need an Apple device, iTunes Connect account, and the latest version of the Pages app. Going through the submission checklist in the Apple Books Publisher User Guide is a crucial step that ensures quick and easy publication. After uploading the file, Apple Books will review your submission and you can then choose to update the book after it gets published. iBooks offers the writer a royalty rate of 70%.
• Lulu
  Lulu publishes both digital and print copies as well as distributes your book to various online stores and distributors. This company offers free publishing and distribution services, nonetheless, they do charge a 20% commission on every book sold. Moreover, they will also deduct any commissions for books sold through their partner retailers. They also offer a number of other support services including editing and cover design.
• Barnes and Noble
  At Barnes and Noble, you can publish your manuscript in e-book as well as paperback format. The only things you need to do are visit their online portal and publish your book. Depending on the cost of the book, you will receive up to 60% in royalties. One drawback to look out for is that Barnes and Noble only sells books on their online platform and retail stores. This means that they do not partner with other retailers or publishers.