The short answer is a big fat YES! Unless you have written numerous books which have been edited and you are a ‘clean’ writer, then it is imperative to have your book edited. At the very least run it through an editing software or ask beta readers to give you feedback. However, I strongly suggest you have a professional pair of eyes go over it before publishing. Writers can never see their own errors. I’m sure there are even one or two in this website! To read a book with typos and grammar is not a good look, and this will be reflected in reviews, and could impact future sales.

An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a national and international standard identification number for uniquely identifying books. They are essential for your books for easy identification across all stores and libraries. A potential reader can find your book easily if they have the ISBN. Each format needs its own ISBN, i.e. e-book, hardcover, paperback, large print etc.

There are no ‘shoulds’ in the world of creativity! When a story is done, it’s done. When you have said all you need to say in non-fiction, you can type ‘the end’.
But to give you a guide, the average length of a novel is 90,000 words but can be anywhere between 50,000 – 110,000. Anything under this is called a novella. Young Adult (YA) fiction is generally 50,000 – 80,000, middle-grade lower again. However, some genres also have standard lengths. Romance tends to be on the shorter end of that range, whereas science fiction and fantasy are longer because they need to include the world-building and are often narrated over multiple timelines.

While Amazon is the biggest bookseller in the world, there are hundreds of other platforms you can publish your book. You can use an aggregator (e.g. Draft2Digital) or distributor like Ingramspark who will upload your book to multiple platforms. I go into more detail about this in my self-publishing guide How To Give Your Books Wings.

There is no magic formula to work out your selling price for your books. Firstly, have a look at similar length books in your genre. If your book is a series starter you may want to price it lower to entice readers into your funnel. Non-fiction books tend to be more expensive than fiction books. You don’t want to price too low as that gives a perception of lower quality.

This is more of a marketing question and not my strong suit. With KU you are selling your e-book exclusively through Amazon. Certain genres are very popular e.g. romance and thrillers. However, you do still have to grease the wheels of the Amazon algorithms and use paid ads to have readers find your book. There is more information about being in KU in my self-publishing guide, How To Give Your Book Wings.

There are 3 ways to publish your work; print, e-book and audio. Ideally, an author would do all three, but definitely publish both print and e-book. Print still has the lion’s share of the market, however e-books are growing massively, especially in the USA.

As a self-published author, I have not experienced pitching to traditional publishers or working with an agent. This is not my zone of genius, however I can offer general advice and help you write your pitch.