How to Self-Publish Your E-Book

Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.
Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.
TT

How to Self-Publish Your E-Book

Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.
Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.

J. D. Biersdorfer

If you have a story you want to share, you can easily publish your work in popular electronic bookstores — and maybe even make a little money.

Apple’s Pages app for Mac, iOS, and iCloud provides all the tools needed to write, design, and publish an e-book to its Apple Books store.

Have you ever dreamed of publishing your own e-book and making it big — like the best-selling authors Colleen Hoover and Andy Weir? Not everyone has such success, but plenty of writers have found an audience online with platforms, like Amazon Kindle Publishing and Barnes & Noble Press, that allow authors to freely upload their books and sell them. While you may not get as much exposure by skipping traditional publishing methods and releasing your book yourself, you do retain more control over your work and royalties, which can be up to 70 percent of the sale price. If you’re inspired, here’s a basic overview of the process.

Prepare Your Manuscript

You don’t need special software to write a book — pretty much any modern word-processing program will do — although some people find apps for organizing plots and characters useful. However, your text should be as mistake-free as possible, so take full advantage of any and all proofing tools you have. Apple’s Pages, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Zoho Writer and several other programs include spelling and grammar aids in their desktop editions; options may be more limited on mobile devices.

Some programs have add-ons that use artificial intelligence to analyze and suggest improvements to your writing; Zoho’s free Zia assistant and Microsoft’s new $30-a-month Copilot tool for its Office suite are two examples. Third-party A.I.-powered apps like Grammarly and ProWritingAid have free basic editions with the option to level up for additional help for $10 to $12 a month.

Grammarly is among the programs that use artificial intelligence to analyze and make suggestions for improving your writing.

If you’d rather have a human advising you (and you have the budget for it), hiring a professional editor can also help improve your book.

Design Your Book Cover

Even with a snappy title, a book cover with plain text on a plain background will probably get lost in a busy e-bookstore. Get readers to notice your work among the rows of competing books before they can even judge it.

Check your word-processing software to see if it includes book-cover templates. Design sites like Canva or Snappa also offer free or inexpensive options. Browsing design sites or store shelves to see which covers stand out can give you ideas.

If you go the D.I.Y. route, keep a few things in mind. First, do not use someone else’s copyrighted photos, illustrations, or graphics without permission. If you use your own images, remember that e-book covers are tiny in online stores — so make the cover legible. The file size requirements will vary based on the e-book publisher(s) you choose to distribute your book, so keep the design flexible enough that you can adjust it as needed.

As with hiring an editor, hiring a graphic designer to create a cover is an option.

Pick a Publisher

When you have your text and art finished, choose an e-book publishing platform. Unless you agree to an exclusive deal with one publisher, you can upload your book to multiple e-bookstores, but programs like Amazon’s KDP Select require 90 days of Kindle-only distribution in exchange for special promotions.

E-book publisher and bookstore sites include Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books for Authors, Barnes & Noble Press, the Books Partner Center for Google Play Books, and Rakuten’s Kobo Writing Life. (Many also can create printed books — but for a price.)

The New York Times



Official: DeepSeek Success Shows China's 'Ability to Innovate'

FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
TT

Official: DeepSeek Success Shows China's 'Ability to Innovate'

FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

The shock entrance of DeepSeek in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence has put the world on notice as to China's innovation prowess, a high-ranking Beijing official said Thursday.

The startup released a new version of its AI chatbot in January, sending shockwaves across global markets.

DeepSeek wowed industry insiders with its apparent ability to rival or even surpass the capabilities of Western competitors like ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost.

"DeepSeek has stood out in the global field of AI," said Wu Qing, Chairman of China's Securities Regulatory Commission.

"It is not just that the field of AI has been deeply shocked, but now also the world and the financial community have a new understanding of China's ability to innovate in science and technology," he said.

The official added that DeepSeek had contributed to a "recent re-evaluation of Chinese assets".

"If someone does not talk about DeepSeek these days, it seems that they're not fashionable," Wu said.

"But this phenomenon is indeed worthy of our high attention."

Recent weeks have seen shares in Chinese tech titans surge.

Last month, long-shunned Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting President Xi Jinping at a business symposium -- signaling a more welcoming stance from Beijing towards its domestic tech sector.

Alibaba's shares rose more than eight percent during Thursday trading in Hong Kong after it unveiled an AI model with a performance it said was "comparable" to DeepSeek.

Investors are watching for announcements this week from Beijing -- where officials are convening for a key annual political event known as the "Two Sessions" -- on further government support to boost innovation and spending.

Wu's comments came during a press conference on China's economy, which has struggled to fully recover from the pandemic.

Authorities are banking on advanced technology as a lifeline to reach official growth targets this year as heightened trade winds batter the export-dependent nation.