Publishing a Book Online and Other Options

After a long process of generating ideas, writing outlines and drafts, checking for spelling and grammar, and editing your writing, it can be exciting to think about the possibility of seeing your work in print and how you might go about publishing a book online as well.

First, you will want to decide on the format to publish your writing in - book, ebook, blog, or some combination of those three. Next, you will want to consider whether you want to make it available for others to purchase or get for free or if it is only for family and friends to read. While you mull these things over, keep on reading to learn more about the publishing options available.

A Look at the Different Options

Depending on your goals and amount of time you have, there are several types of publishing formats to research and choose from such as

Print book
Ebook
Blog
Photo calendar

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing

If you or your child have written a novel or a nonfiction title, then you might want to consider publishing on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. You can set a price for your work, choose which countries to make it available in, and learn how to format your work to meet Kindle’s requirements. You can also decide on whether you want to print as a paperback, ebook, or both.

If you decide to publish a book online through Kindle Direct Publishing, you can turn this into a learning opportunity for time management and goal setting by introducing weekly milestones or goals to meet towards publishing work online.

Blog

One way to share your work online is to post it on a blog. Some options for sites you can use to start a blog are Wordpress, Blogger, Wix, Weebly, and a few others. If this is a project for kids, make sure that there is adult or parental supervision while children are online.

The things that running a blog can teach include

Planning a regular posting schedule - such as once a week, twice a month, or another schedule - and being consistent with it
Generating ideas for blog posts, stories, articles, poems, and more
Practicing and honing English skills by creating an outline and draft, checking for spelling and grammar, and structuring sentences and paragraphs

If your interests and skills lie more in taking videos, you might consider having a vlog or vlogging. A vlog is a video-based blog where you record and post videos.

Lulu

This site offers many options to self-publish your work. From print books to ebooks and magazines to cookbooks and calendars, there is lots to choose from on Lulu.

Skills Developed

As you look into which publishing option is the best fit for the book or other project you are working on, here is a list of some of the skills that you (or your children) will learn and develop along the way.

Research skills
Reading skills
Writing and editing skills
Setting a timeline with deadlines for tasks to complete to stay on track
Deciding on a budget for publishing
Formatting work to be ready for publication

You might like to document the progress made along the way. It can be encouraging to look back and see how much you and your children have learned and grown in their skills and gifts.

Work Together as a Family

These are some ideas for books and other items or things you and your children might like to work on together and then publish

A family cookbook
A calendar with photos of your family (to share with other family members) or photos your children have taken
A photo book of a favorite family vacation or missions trip

To help make publishing a book manageable, you might decide to delegate tasks - appropriate for various ages and skill levels - for family members to complete.

Learning more about publishing a book online and other publishing options available will be a great starting point in working towards having your project in print. Deciding to publish your book can provide an opportunity for many skills to be developed and can also be a project for the whole family to be part of and work on together.

Resources

You can find some courses and lessons related to writing, budgeting, and research on our full curriculum site SchoolhouseTeachers.com. If you’re not already a member, you can try out the site with a 3-month membership for free by requesting a trial membership in an email to smorrison@theoldschoolhouse.com.

Here are five courses you can check out that will help you in publishing a book online.

This article has been written by homeschooling staff writers of The Canadian Schoolhouse (TCS). Enjoy more of our content from TCS contributors and staff writers by visiting our Front Door page that has content on our monthly theme and links to all our content sections.