I own and manage my own publishing business, yet I write a lot about self-publishing. This might confuse some readers, so I thought it’s time to provide definitions of a few terms I use regularly.
There is no commonly agreed definition of the term “self-publishing.” Different commercial actors within the publishing industries in different countries use the term in different ways.
In Austria, where I live, it all depends on whether you publish materials (texts, photographs, illustrations of any kind) which were created just by yourself, or if other people contributed creative materials to your book.
If you do everything by yourself, e.g., the cover design of your book, you are a self-publisher. If anyone else contributes creative materials to you book, you are a proper publisher.
Publishers need trade licenses, they need to pay mandatory membership fees to the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, and they can apply for membership in the Austrian Booksellers and Publishers Association/Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels (HVB). The publishing business’s legal form is irrelevant. I am a sole proprietor who does business under her own name; yet, I am a publisher and not a self-publisher – at least in Austria.
I do intend to publish a collection of 19th century texts in English in the United States of America, by utilizing Kindle Direct Publishing’s (KDP) self-publishing platform. KDP considers me a self-publishing author. It all relates to my Tax Profile on KDP, and my taxpayer ID number with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
My KDP classification as a self-publishing author is related to the legal structure of my business, and the fact that I am a sole proprietor who files taxes (both in Austria and in the US) under my own name, as an individual; that’s why KDP considers me a self-publishing author, and not the owner of a publishing business.
In Austria, my business’s legal structure has nothing to do with whether I need a publishing trade licence or not, so it’s the other way round: I am considered the owner of a publishing business, and not a self-publishing author.
In preparation for the publication of my first book in the US in the second half of 2026, I recently updated and validated my US tax profile on KDP’s website by filling in a W-8 form. I lived, studied, and worked in the US in the past, and have a U.S. social security number – it stays with me for life. I filed several income tax reports in the past in the US, so the IRS already knows me. That simplifies everything for me.
(If you are a foreigner who doesn’t have a U.S. social security number, you’ll need to apply for a different kind of tax identification number with the IRS, if you want to publish books in the US on KDP.)
Austria and the United States of America have a tax treaty, which means I’ll only have to pay income tax in Austria, but I do have to file a tax return each year with the IRS in the US, and provide information about income derived from book sales in the US.
I consider myself a micro-press publisher – and yes, micro-press publishers are proper publishers. Once you fall into the category of “publisher,” it all depends on the size of your team. If it’s just you, and maybe one or two employees or freelancers, your business is so small that the word “micro” sums it up nicely. The same goes for the number of books you publish. If you publish just one or two books each year (or less), the word “micro” seems appropriate. As you grow your business, you stop being a micro-press publisher, and cross the (invisible) line into the realm of “independent publishing.” But there are no hard and fast rules that would distinguish between micro-press and independent publishing. Use whichever term feels most appropiate to you to describe your role within your business or your business as a whole.