How to self-publish a book in the UK

To self-publish a book in the UK you edit and design it, buy your ISBNs from Nielsen (the UK’s sole agency), prepare print-ready and ePUB files, publish through Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, then send one free copy to the British Library within a month of publication. Most authors reach sale in two to four months, and books are zero-rated for VAT.

That is the whole route. Below is the UK-specific detail — the bits that differ from the generic advice you will read elsewhere — with the official sources for every hard figure, because prices and rules here change and you should check them live.

Do you need a UK ISBN, and where do you get one?

An ISBN is the 13-digit number that identifies your book to retailers, wholesalers and libraries. You do not legally have to have one to publish — Amazon KDP will hand you a free ISBN for use on its own store — but if you want bookshops, libraries and proper bibliographic listing, you want your own. The free KDP number lists Amazon as the publisher of record and cannot be used elsewhere; your own ISBN keeps you as the publisher and travels everywhere. We work through the trade-offs in our guide to whether you need an ISBN.

In the UK there is one place to buy them: the Nielsen ISBN Store, the country’s designated agency under the International ISBN Agency. As of 2026, the Nielsen ISBN Store lists a single ISBN at about £89, a block of ten at about £164, a hundred at about £369 and a thousand at about £1,849 — so buying in tens is far better value, and you will need them. Each format needs its own number: paperback, hardback, eBook and audiobook are four separate ISBNs for one title. Confirm the current prices at the Nielsen ISBN Store before you buy, as they are reviewed periodically.

Where should you actually sell — KDP, IngramSpark, or both?

For most UK indie authors the answer is both, and they do different jobs. Amazon KDP gives you the largest single retailer and the best eBook economics. IngramSpark is what gets your print book into the channel that Waterstones, Foyles, Blackwell’s, independent shops and public-library procurement systems actually order from — Ingram’s wholesale network reaches tens of thousands of retailers and library systems worldwide.

One UK-relevant trap: do not tick KDP’s Expanded Distribution if you also plan to use IngramSpark. Expanded Distribution routes your paperback to shops through Ingram but at a reduced royalty, and locks that ISBN out of IngramSpark. The cleaner setup is KDP for Amazon sales and IngramSpark for the bookshop-and-library channel. The full mechanics are in KDP vs IngramSpark.

Decision	Amazon KDP	IngramSpark
Best for	Amazon.co.uk sales, eBooks	Waterstones, indie shops, libraries
eBook royalty	70% at £1.99–£9.99 list (minus a small per-MB delivery fee); 35% otherwise	Available, but KDP usually better for Kindle
Paperback royalty	60% of list minus printing	Wholesale discount model; you set the trade discount
Reaches UK bookshops	Only via Expanded Distribution (lower rate)	Yes — its core strength
Setup cost	Free	Free to publish a title (was a fee historically; check current terms)
Use your own ISBN	Yes (recommended)	Required for full distribution

Royalty rates and price bands are Amazon’s and can change — always confirm the live figures in your KDP royalty calculator before you set a price.

What is legal deposit, and is it compulsory?

This is the step UK authors most often miss, and it is a legal obligation, not a courtesy. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 you must send one free copy of every print book you publish to the British Library within one month of publication. You do this whether you sold one copy or ten thousand; it is how the nation’s published record is kept.

There are six legal-deposit libraries in total: the British Library, the Bodleian (Oxford), Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin. The British Library copy goes automatically. The other five are entitled to claim a copy, and in practice the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries (ALDL) may write to request up to five further copies, which you then post. Send the British Library copy to its Legal Deposit Office, and check the current address and any electronic-deposit rules at the British Library’s legal deposit pages, as procedures are updated from time to time. None of this requires an ISBN, but having one makes you findable once your book is in the system. Related to listing and cataloguing, a CIP record is a separate, optional thing — we explain it in what a CIP record is and whether you need one.

Is there VAT on a self-published book in the UK?

Good news, and it is unusually clear-cut. Printed books in the UK are zero-rated for VAT under the VAT Act 1994 — that is 0%, not exempt, which is a technical distinction that matters if you ever register for VAT. Since 2020, most digital books are zero-rated too, so a reflowable eBook is treated like its print equivalent. The notable exception is audiobooks, which remain standard-rated whether physical or digital.

For the overwhelming majority of self-publishers this means you are not charging VAT on book sales and the question rarely arises until your total taxable turnover crosses the VAT registration threshold. Because the threshold and the rules can move, confirm your position against HMRC VAT Notice 701/10 or with an accountant before assuming anything — this is jurisdiction-specific and we are pointing you at the official source on purpose.

How should you price a book in pounds?

Price for your reader, not for a round number. On Kindle the 70% royalty band runs from £1.99 to £9.99, and UK fiction readers are price-sensitive: the practical sweet spot for a novel eBook tends to sit around £2.99 to £4.99. Below £1.99 or above £9.99 you drop to the 35% rate, so there is a real reason to stay inside the band.

For print, your floor is the printing cost. KDP charges roughly a fixed amount per paperback plus a per-page rate, and your 60%-of-list royalty is calculated after that is deducted — so a long book needs a higher cover price to earn anything. Set your IngramSpark trade discount with bookshops in mind: too low and shops have no margin to stock you; the conventional figure is around 40% to 55%. Run the actual numbers in the KDP printing and royalty calculator before you commit, and read KDP vs IngramSpark for how the two pricing models interact.

What does the UK self-publishing checklist look like?

1. Edit the manuscript — structural, line and proofread. The book is made here.
2. Choose formats — eBook, paperback, hardback, or a mix; budget an ISBN per format.
3. Commission the cover and interior — designed to read at thumbnail size and typeset to spec.
4. Buy ISBNs from Nielsen — buy in tens; assign one to each format.
5. Prepare files — a press-ready PDF and an EPUBCheck-valid reflowable ePUB 3 that pass KDP and IngramSpark first time.
6. Publish on KDP and IngramSpark — KDP for Amazon, IngramSpark for shops and libraries; do not tick Expanded Distribution if using both.
7. Price in pounds — stay in the £1.99–£9.99 Kindle band; set a sensible trade discount.
8. Send legal deposit — one copy to the British Library within a month; keep five spares for ALDL.
9. Launch and keep selling — a steady marketing habit beats a one-day spike.

So how long does it take, and what does it cost?

If you do most of it yourself, your only hard costs are ISBNs and proof copies, and the timeline is bounded by your own hours. Commission a professional edit and cover and you are looking at a mid-range spend and roughly two to three months. Have the whole production handled — edit, cover, print and eBook files — and you are typically four to eight weeks from final manuscript to on-sale, at a higher but fixed price. The variable is always how much you hand off versus do alone.

If you would rather not assemble the ISBN-buying, file-building and store-uploading yourself, that is the part a publishing house takes off your hands. At Librum we’ve produced English-language books for authors worldwide for over fifteen years: covers and interiors drawn by people, never AI, an EPUBCheck-validated ePUB 3 and print files built to pass KDP and IngramSpark first time, a fixed quote up front (usually within 24 hours), two revision rounds, and you keep every right plus the editable source files. If that sounds like the help you want, see how we work with authors and publishers.