The Next Big Writer — Which is the best book publishing path for a first-time author?

Re: Which is the best book publishing path for a first-time author?

null@example.com (B Douglas Slack) — Tue, 26 May 2026 01:15:29 +0000

Good catch, Dirk. I missed that.

Bill

Re: Which is the best book publishing path for a first-time author?

null@example.com (Dirk B) — Tue, 26 May 2026 01:08:06 +0000

I have a hunch that Ben is trying to peddle the services of that link he included, having referred to it as the "best book publishing" options. And he's using a temp email service (mailshan.com), which are often considered suspect by admins, and hasn't done a single review on this site.

Ben, if this is legit, please refrain from throwing in links that seem so obviously intended to sell, otherwise your account may get suspended.

Thanks
Dirk

Re: Which is the best book publishing path for a first-time author?

null@example.com (B Douglas Slack) — Tue, 26 May 2026 00:02:43 +0000

I tried the "traditional" way until I accumulated 50 rejection notices. Then I turned to self-publishing. I put two books out on Amazon using their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). It's free to sign up with and practically painless. They give you software to download, called Kindle Create that helps you format your book the way you want it. Add pictures, chapter delineation, numbering, and all that. Then click "Publish." Amazon does the rest. You get a free ISBN number, plus your novel is available around 24 hours later. The paperback option take a couple of days.From first loading my novel into KC to seeing it on an Amazon page was around 36 hours.

They only require you give them a bank account (I made mine a secondary account to my savings account) so they can put royalties into it. If you go over $100 a year in royalties, you'll get a tax notice for when you file as well.

Bill

Which is the best book publishing path for a first-time author?

null@example.com (benbaker) — Mon, 25 May 2026 23:55:49 +0000

I never imagined finishing my book would lead to even more questions, but here I am manuscript done, completely lost on what comes next. A friend suggested I look into the [link deleted by DB] options before making any decisions, but honestly the more I research, the more overwhelmed I feel. Self-publishing, hybrid, traditional everyone swears by something different, so has anyone been through this and can share what actually made sense for them?