How to Use Step One 2 Published

Step One 2 Published is designed to teach you how to self-publish your book, not do the work for you.

Think of Step One as the guide sitting beside you while you prepare your book for publication. It will walk you through the process, explain unfamiliar terms, help you troubleshoot problems, and show you what to do next. You will still be working in your own manuscript, formatting program, and publishing accounts.

The best way to use Step One

For the best experience, use Step One on a desktop or laptop computer, including Mac. You can browse on a phone, but because Step One includes detailed guides, reference pages, checklists, and detailed instructions, the layout is easier to navigate on a larger screen.

Keep Step One open beside your manuscript while you work. If possible, have Step One open in one window or device and your manuscript or formatting program open in another. Work through the journey one step at a time and make the changes to your actual book as you go. Don't feel like you need to read the entire site before starting. Use it while you're doing the work.

When you get stuck, search.

Use Search to find an unfamiliar term or lesson. Expand information headings for explanations, or open Troubleshooting when something does not look right. Search and expandable instructions are the help tools provided on this site.

Step One won't have every answer. Yet.

Self-publishing involves different programs, book types, publishing platforms, and situations. Not every possible answer will be here. Step One is continually being improved as we discover where authors get stuck and what information they need. If you can't find an answer, something doesn't make sense, or you discover something we should include, please tell us.

Your questions help make Step One better for the author who comes after you.

A quick disclaimer

Step One will not have every answer. We're building this to cover the questions, problems, and roadblocks authors encounter most often, and we're improving it as we learn where people get stuck. But self-publishing has a lot of moving parts, and sometimes your particular problem may not be covered here.

When that happens, Google and YouTube are your friends. There are thousands of tutorials available for specific programs, unusual formatting issues, and platform-specific problems.

And if you had to leave Step One to find an answer, please come back and tell us what you were looking for. That's exactly the kind of feedback that helps us decide what Step One needs next.

The goal isn't to have every answer on the internet. The goal is to give you a clear path through self-publishing and help you find your way when you get stuck.

One last thing

Step One is here to help you become self-sufficient, not dependent on another service to publish your book. Take your time. Work through one step at a time. If you don't understand something, use Search or Troubleshooting and keep going.

You wrote the book. Now let's get it ready to publish.

Checklists and your program choice save on this device. Calculators and program-specific lesson guidance work without an account. See the full feature status.