Publishing, Answered.

I get asked this more than almost anything else, and I get why. Nobody wants to commit to a number without knowing what it buys.

Here’s the honest answer: it depends on what you’re building. A simple, professionally designed book starts around a few thousand dollars. A full curriculum built to sell into schools and organizations is a different investment entirely, because it’s a different kind of asset.

What doesn’t change is this: you should always know exactly what you’re paying for, line by line, before you commit. If an agency can’t tell you that, that’s your answer right there.

Short answer: yes, if you want to sell your book through retailers. Longer answer: it depends on how many formats you’re publishing.

Each format, paperback, hardcover, ebook, needs its own ISBN. Think of it like a fingerprint. One book, three formats, three ISBNs.

You can buy them yourself through Bowker, or your publishing team can guide you through it. Either way, don’t skip this step. It’s a small detail with a big impact on how your book gets tracked and sold.

Traditional publishers acquire your manuscript, own your rights, and pay you a royalty, usually a small one, on their timeline, not yours.

Self-publishing means you do everything yourself, or hire out pieces of it individually.

What we do sits in between, but closer to full ownership. You invest in the production of your book, and you keep 100% of your rights and royalties, always. You’re not giving anything up. You’re paying for expertise, not a publisher’s approval.

Don’t just look at whether the art is pretty. Look at whether it’s consistent.

Can this illustrator draw the same character from five different angles and have them still look like the same character? Can they match a tone, playful, serious, whimsical, to what your story actually needs? A beautiful single image means nothing if the style falls apart across sixty pages.

Always ask for a test illustration before committing to a full project. It tells you more than any portfolio can.

This one comes up constantly, and the answer usually comes down to your book type and your budget.

Full color is standard for picture books aimed at younger readers, ages 0 to 8. It’s vivid, it’s immersive, and it costs more because every page is its own piece of art.

Black-and-white, or line art, is common in coloring books, activity books, and books for slightly older readers. It’s simpler, more budget-friendly, and honestly, still beautiful when it’s done well.

Neither one is “better.” It’s about what your book needs to do.

Every author wants a firm number here, and I understand why. But the honest answer is: it depends on you.

The single biggest factor in your timeline isn’t your publishing team, it’s how quickly you respond to feedback, approve proofs, and make decisions. A book can move quickly when an author is engaged and responsive. It stalls when they’re not.

If someone gives you an exact promise with no caveats, ask more questions.

If you’re planning to build a series, or if your character has real potential to become a brand, yes, it’s worth looking into.

I trademarked And That’s Okay!®, because I knew from the beginning it wasn’t going to be one book. It was going to be a body of work. That protection matters more the bigger your vision gets.

If you’re writing a single, standalone title, it may not be necessary yet. But if you’re building something you want to protect and grow, don’t wait until someone else claims it first.

Yes, and if you have any kind of framework, lesson, or teachable idea inside your book, you probably should.

A book gets read once. A curriculum gets taught, over and over, to new groups, in new rooms, sometimes by people other than you. That’s the difference between a product and an asset.

This is actually where I started. I didn’t set out to build a curriculum business, people kept asking for more than the book, and I built what they needed.

All of them. That’s not a sales pitch, it’s the actual answer.

Your manuscript, your cover, your files, your royalties, all of it stays yours. There’s no fine print buried in a contract giving someone else a cut of your future. You’re not signing away anything. You’re paying for the labor and expertise to bring your book to life professionally, and everything it produces belongs to you.

If a publishing agreement doesn’t say that in plain language, read it twice.

This is one of the most overlooked opportunities for authors, especially if your book has any educational or developmental angle.

Schools, districts, and organizations don’t buy books the way individual readers do. They want to know it’s aligned to standards, that there’s a lesson plan or facilitator guide behind it, and that you can actually present it to a decision-maker.

That’s usually the missing piece for most authors, not the book itself, but the pitch and the supporting materials behind it. Build those, and bulk orders stop being a maybe.

A short companion to “Why Every Author Needs Lesson Plans” — read the full post for the deep dive.

Three reasons every author needs at least one lesson plan for their book:

1. It speaks the language schools already use. Standards, objectives, assessments, that’s the vocabulary administrators listen for. Without it, your pitch sounds like a sales pitch. With it, it sounds like a resource.

2. It doubles as a workshop. The same activities you build for a classroom can become the foundation for a parent session, a corporate training, or a keynote breakout.

3. It’s the difference between a one-time read and a lasting impression. A book gets read once. A lesson plan gets taught again and again, to new students, new years, new rooms.

Placeholder: link to full “Why Every Author Needs Lesson Plans” post still pending.

A sell sheet is a single page that explains your book’s theme, audience, and value, built for bookstores, libraries, and organizations to glance at and instantly understand what they’re looking at.

Think of it as your book’s business card. No one has time to read your full manuscript before deciding whether to carry it. A sell sheet does that work for you, in about ten seconds.

If you’re pitching bulk orders anywhere, this isn’t optional. It’s the first thing a decision-maker will ask for.

Both turn your book into something more than a one-time read, but they’re not the same thing.

A workbook is a companion, worksheets and activities that reinforce what’s already in your book. It’s built for a reader to work through on their own.

A curriculum is bigger. It’s standards-aligned, structured for teaching, and built to be delivered by someone else, a teacher, a facilitator, a trainer, to a whole room, over time.

If you want readers to reflect, a workbook is enough. If you want your book taught, a curriculum is what gets you there.

A reader magnet is a free item, a short guide, a printable, a bonus chapter, that you give away in exchange for someone joining your email list.

It sounds small, but it’s one of the only ways to keep in touch with your readers after they close the book. Reviews fade. Social media posts disappear in a scroll. An email list is yours, permanently.

If you plan to publish more than one book, or build any kind of platform around your work, this is worth setting up before your first launch, not after.

These get confused constantly, and they protect very different things.

Copyright protects your actual written work, the words on the page. You get this automatically the moment you write something original, no paperwork required, though registering it strengthens your legal protection.

Trademark protects a name, phrase, or brand, like a book title that’s becoming a series, or a character people will recognize. That one takes an application, and it’s worth doing if you’re building something bigger than a single book.

Know which one you actually need before you spend money protecting the wrong thing.

A+ Content is the extra visual real estate on your Amazon product page, banners, comparison images, extended descriptions, beyond the standard listing.

Here’s why it matters: most buyers decide in seconds whether to keep scrolling or click “buy.” A plain listing competes on price. A page with A+ Content competes on trust, it looks like a real product from a real publisher, not a hobby project.

It’s one of the highest-impact, most overlooked pieces of getting a book to actually sell once it’s live.

Most book descriptions summarize the plot. That’s the mistake.

A description that sells answers one question: why should I care? Not what happens in the book, but what it will do for the reader, make them laugh, help them heal, teach their kid a skill, give them language for something they’ve never been able to explain.

Plot summaries inform. Value statements sell. Know the difference before you write your own.

Short answer: more than one, if you can.

Paperback is the standard, affordable, widely accepted everywhere. Hardcover signals durability and prestige, and many libraries prefer it for exactly that reason. eBook opens the door to readers who never buy print at all, and to library lending systems that only carry digital copies.

Each format reaches a different reader. If your budget only allows one to start, paperback is almost always the right first move, but don’t stop there.

This is the part most authors don’t picture clearly, so here’s the real order of operations.

First, a questionnaire, so your team understands your vision beyond just the words on the page. Then design begins: interior formatting, cover concepts, illustrations if needed. You’ll review proofs and give feedback along the way. Once everything’s approved, files go final, and your book becomes ready to publish.

The one variable that changes this timeline more than anything else? How quickly you respond at each step.

Library-ready and school-ready aren’t quite the same bar.

Libraries care about cataloging, formatting, and professional editing. Schools care about all of that, plus one more thing: does this book connect to what they’re already required to teach?

That’s where standards alignment comes in. A school administrator isn’t just asking “is this a good book?” They’re asking “does this fit into my curriculum?” If the answer isn’t obvious, the sale usually doesn’t happen.

Both let you publish and distribute your book, but they’re not interchangeable.

Amazon KDP gets your book on Amazon, fast, easy, and it’s where most individual readers will find you. IngramSpark distributes far more broadly, bookstores, libraries, and retailers beyond Amazon, but it takes more setup and a bit more patience.

If you only want Amazon sales, KDP alone is fine. If you want your book to have a real shot at bookstores and libraries, you need both.

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number, think of it as your book’s social security number. It’s a unique code that identifies your specific book, in its specific format, so retailers, libraries, and distributors all know exactly what they’re looking at.

Every format needs its own: your paperback, hardcover, and ebook each get a different ISBN, even though it’s the same book. It’s how the entire publishing and retail system tracks, sells, and reorders your title without confusion.

No ISBN, no way for the industry to recognize your book exists.

If you plan to sell in physical stores, yes. The barcode on the back of your book is generated from your ISBN, it’s what a cashier scans at checkout, and what a bookstore uses to track inventory on their shelves.

If you’re only selling digitally or exclusively through Amazon, you can technically skip it, Amazon generates its own tracking behind the scenes. But if there’s any chance your book ends up in a bookstore, library, or boutique shop, the barcode needs to be there. It’s a small square that opens a lot of doors.

“Format” just means the physical (or digital) version your book comes in, and there are more options than most first-time authors realize.

Paperback: affordable, lightweight, the most common format.

Hardcover: more durable, often preferred by libraries, feels more premium.

Ebook: digital, no printing or shipping, reaches readers who never buy physical books.

Audiobook: narrated, growing fast, reaches readers who “read” during a commute or workout.

You don’t need all four to launch. But the more formats you offer, the more types of readers you can actually reach.

Trim size is simply the finished, physical dimensions of your book, the height and width once it’s printed and, well, trimmed to size.

A children’s picture book might be 8.5 x 8.5 inches. A novel is often 5.5 x 8.5 inches. The trim size you choose affects everything: how illustrations get laid out, how the book feels in someone’s hands, even printing cost.

It’s one of those decisions that seems minor until you realize it shapes the entire reading experience.