When I established my publishing business in January of 2026, I decided to chronicle my publishing journey from start to finish on this website. As a sole proprietor who does (almost) everything by herself, my decisions and actions resemble those of authors who self-publish, and not those of publishing houses with publishing teams.
The only difference between self-publishing authors and me is the fact that I intend to publish other people’s texts in addition to my own, which requires a trade licence for a publishing business in Austria. But I am operating with a miniscule budget, as do most self-publishing authors, regardless of where they live.
As I already self-published three books in the past, I can share the lessons I’ve learned. As I also don’t mind falling flat on my face in public, I don’t mind sharing mistakes as well as (past and future) failures.
So what can you expect from this website?
All articles will be filed in at least one of the following six categories (but can be filed in more than one category):
1) The Publishing Business
This involves all aspects of running a business. I’ve been self-employed for 15+ years. I do my own taxes & bookkeping & invoicing. I negotiate my own contracts. I am the webmaster of this website (Thank you WordPress – I couldn’t do it without you!).
2) Writing the Book
Articles in this category involve all stages of the writing process. While most of my writing experience involves non-fiction texts, I do have experience in writing works of fiction. I am intimately familiar with writing block – and know how to overcome it. I also do a lot of research for my projects.
3) Book Editing
You finished the first draft of your book. Now you need to re-write it; not just once, but several times. Anything that involves the process of re-writing falls into the Book Editing category. A few keywords are alpha-readers, beta-readers, content editing, fact checking, and proof reading. Word count is also something I’ll write about, as it affects the production of a book, its distribution, and matters of marketing.
4) Book Production
You finished writing the text, you finished editing – now you need to turn your text into an actual book: a printed book, an e-book, or an audio book. All articles that deal with the actual production of the product “book” fall into this category. Examples are formatting, choosing a font, and cover design.
5) Book Distribution / Sales
How do you get the finished book into the hands of readers? Warehousing, delivery (to bookstores, libraries, directly to readers, etc.), and selling/invoicing – All articles that deal with this stage of the publishing process will be filed in the Book Distribution / Sales category.
5) Marketing / Press & Publicity
You finished the book, great! Now you need to tell people that your book exists, and you need to convince them to buy it.