Luke J. Wilson | 22nd December 2025 | Articles, Self-Publishing

📘 How to Self-Publish Your Book Easily (Even If You’ve Never Done It Before) So, you’ve written a book—maybe a devotional, a character study, or your first novel—and now you're wondering: “How do I actually publish this?” Don’t worry. Self-publishing doesn’t have to be overwhelming or expensive. In fact, I’ve refined a process over the years that removes nearly all the hassle, even if you're just starting out. Here’s my streamlined, step-by-step guide to publishing your book without needing to learn complicated formatting software or juggle multiple publishing platforms. ✅ Step 1: Write and Format Your Book Using Reedsy (FREE) 📍 https://editor.reedsy.com Reedsy is a free online book editor that handles professional formatting for both ebooks and print-ready manuscripts. Just sign up, paste in your chapters, and Reedsy will: Automatically format your book to industry standards Include front matter (title, copyright, etc.) Add back matter like About the Author or Also by this Author Export both an EPUB (ebook) and a PDF (print) version This means no need to mess around with Microsoft Word or typesetting software—Reedsy does the heavy lifting for you. ✅ Step 2: Distribute Your Book Using PublishDrive 📍 https://publishdrive.com Once your files are ready, head over to PublishDrive. This platform lets you publish your book to multiple global retailers (like Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and more) all from one dashboard. There's a free tier for one published book. Paid tiers are available if you’re publishing more titles. It helps track and manage all your sales, royalties, and reports in one place. This saves you the headache of uploading your files separately to each store and logging into five dashboards every month. ✅ Step 3: Buy an ISBN (Optional but Recommended) If you’re publishing print versions, you’ll need an ISBN. 🔗 Cheapest ...

Luke J. Wilson | 19th May 2025 | Articles, Social Media

📣 How to Market Your Books (and Yourself) on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook: A Practical Guide for Authors You’ve written your book. You’ve published it. Now comes the tricky part: getting people to notice it. With traditional marketing channels becoming more expensive and competitive, authors are turning to social media, particularly TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, to grow their audience and drive book sales. And the good news? You don’t need to go viral or dance on camera to make an impact. Here’s how to build your brand, connect with readers, and market your books authentically on each platform—without (hopefully) burning yourself out! 📱 TikTok (a.k.a. #BookTok) Why It Matters: TikTok has become one of the most powerful platforms for authors. A single video can launch a self-published book into bestseller status if it resonates with the right audience. What Works: Short, punchy videos (15–30 seconds) Behind-the-scenes content: your writing process, inspiration, book cover reveal Reader-focused videos: "If you liked this, you’ll love that" Trends with a twist: use popular sounds/memes/trends but relate them to your book or niche Hosting Live Q&As, giveaways, or launch parties Easy Content Ideas: “3 books that inspired my novel” “The hardest chapter I had to write” “Things only writers understand” A dramatic reading of a powerful line from your book Annotated flip-through of your print edition Tools: Use CapCut for quick, stylish edits Add on-screen captions for accessibility and retention (A 2019 study conducted by Verizon Media found that up to 69% of consumers prefer watching videos without sound, so captions are a must) Tips: Post 3–5 times a week (or build up to this, consistency is key) Use #BookTok, genre-specific hashtags (eg, #YAfiction), and niche communities (eg, #IndieAuthor) Don’t worry about polish—real and ...

Luke J. Wilson | 26th July 2022 | Articles, 40 Days with the Fathers

I was interviewed about my book, 40 Days with the Fathers, a few months ago. It's taken a while to be released, but now it's available to listen to! Ruah Space, who endeavours "to provide you with experiences and space to encounter God and deepen your faith", got in touch with me for a chat about my book, the early church, and the spiritual practices of the ancient church. We talked about everything from fasting to martyrdom, and the topics covered in the book, so if you're interested to hear more about that (or my thoughts on it all), then click the link below to go and listen to the podcast: Spiritual Formation & The Church Fathers with Luke Wilson – Ruah Space   I hope you enjoy the interview! And if you haven't already got it, you can buy my book on Amazon.   ...

Luke J. Wilson | 31st January 2022 | Book Extracts, 40 Days with the Fathers

INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION   As with many things, they can always be improved. And as somewhat of a “recovering perfectionist”, I can't let things go until I have that sense of completion about it; whether that be my work projects, writing or some other form of the creative process I am involved in. I say “recovering” because I try not to let myself be burdened by needless (and endless) perfectionism over the things I make, and have learned to let things be. With that said, though, this book has always niggled at me in the back of my mind ever since I first published it in December 2017. I knew it wasn't truly complete at the time, but I had also recently become a father for the first time and so I did rush it to print just to make sure I got it out. Once life settled down, that niggle was still there and I published a Revised Edition about eight months later which included some of the additions I had wanted to include the first time around, such as the maps and timelines. I was happy to leave it there, but as more people read it and had questions about different aspects of early history, or had suggestions about what they would find useful to make this book a better resource... that niggle returned! I've finally updated various chapters with more detail or better footnotes and sources plus added a new chapter dedicated to the Council of Nicaea to help dispel some myths. Now, here we are at the beginning of 2022 after a couple of the craziest years we've lived through in recent memory with the pandemic, and what better time to reflect on the past and hear from people who lived through far worse times, yet came through stronger for it and found God in the midst of their suffering? We can take hope in our forefathers in the Faith, learn from them and grow from their wisdom and insights, and maybe begin to see and trust the God who suffers with us yet gives us the strength to endure. I hope and pray that this book will be a blessing to you as you r...

Luke J. Wilson | 31st January 2022 | Articles, 40 Days with the Fathers

After many, many months of working on this in between COVID and other “life events” that kept me busy, I’ve finally released the Third Edition of my book, 40 Day With the Fathers: A Journey Through Church History!   The Third Edition includes: a foreword by Paul Pavao (author of Decoding Nicea), updated content and also a new chapter about the Council of Nicaea explaining what did (and didn’t) happen there. “I cannot imagine there is a better way to get familiar with 350 of the most important years of church history in seven hours spread over 40 days.” — Paul Pavao, author of Decoding Nicea If you are unfamiliar with my previous editions and what this book is about, here’s the blurb and some quotes from reviewers to give you an overview of its content:   Take a journey through the first 400 years of Church History in only 40 days! Over the course of this reading plan you will read extracts and commentary on 23 different early Church texts from a selection of some of the most influential Church Fathers: Didache, Diognetus, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, and Leo the Great. These people who came before us, those great men of faith, many of whom suffered persecution and martyrdom to preserve the Church and Christ’s mission, bridge the gap between the Bible and the present day. They fill the void we sometimes wonder about when we get to the end of reading Acts or the Epistles and think, “what happened next?” or “what happened to the Ephesian church after Paul left?” — well now you can read for yourself and see how God continued to grow His Church!   Praise for 40 Days with the Fathers: “Timeless truths still for today” — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Insightful and captivating” — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “[This book] will round out your knowledge and help you become a better teacher.” — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “If you are a pastor or church leader, I ...

Luke J. Wilson | 21st January 2022 | Articles, Self-Publishing

So you've about to publish your book on Amazon, congratulations! That's it, right, nothing more to do now? This is just the beginning. Now is the time to make sure that your keywords and description are really on point and help drive your organic sales. I have recently discovered a tool called eGrow which lets you reverse lookup keywords from other books on Amazon, which you can also check per marketplace too (i.e. the .com or .co.uk Amazon marketplaces). You just paste a product URL into the dashboard, and it will bring up a list of results you can filter and look through to see what people are searching, and how much the keyword is worth, that are relevant to your book. egrow.io interface As you can see from the image above, it can potentially show you lots of good information to help guide you in what to include in your keyword section of the book details page. What I have done is search for a few books which are in a similar area and genre to mine, looked at the top keywords and then copied them to my keyword section on the KDP setup. KDP Book Details Page   Another thing you can consult to make sure you are getting the keyword right and not adding any which will get your book pulled from the site, is the Make Your Book More Discoverable with Keywords (amazon.com) guide from Amazon. This page lists all the guidelines you must follow, as well as best practices for creating keywords for your book, such as: Combine keywords in the most logical order. Customers search for "military science fiction" but probably not for "fiction science military" Use up to seven keywords or short phrases. Keep an eye on the character limit in the text field Before publishing, search using keywords you’re considering on Amazon. If you get irrelevant or unsatisfying results, make some changes. When searching, look at the suggestions that appear in the "Search" field drop down Think like a reader. Imagine how you'd search if you were a customer Choose yo...

Javier Collins | 26th July 2021 | Articles, Guest Post

There’s no denying that the world of literature and poetry has changed drastically in recent decades.  In the past, aspiring authors had no choice but to manually write or type out their manuscripts, mail them out to publishing houses and agents, and then pray that somebody would be interested in publishing their works.  However, today, authors don’t need publishers or agents, and many modern writers can make a living through self-publishing.  Below, we’re diving into our list of the absolute best and most popular tools and resources for self-publishing authors.    Writing And Editing Software As an author, your pen is probably your best friend.  The problem, however, is that it will take you forever to write out your next novel by hand. And even if you did manage to write it all out, you’d still need to have it published somewhere else anyway.  Therefore, most self-publishing authors do most of their writing in a word processing tool, which allows them to write, edit, modify, and create using pre-designed book templates and many other tools that make writing and self-publishing a book much more straightforward than doing it manually.  Reedsy Reedsy is an online platform designed to support authors throughout the publishing process. It connects writers with a curated marketplace of professional editors, designers, marketers, and other publishing experts. Whether you’re looking for help with book editing, cover design, or formatting, Reedsy offers high-quality, vetted professionals to ensure your book meets industry standards. It also features a user-friendly interface, including a writing tool for authors to write and format their manuscripts directly on the platform. Reedsy empowers authors to manage the entire publishing process, from writing to self-publishing, with resources to help them publish successfully and professionally. Reedsy: Find the perfect editor, designer or marketer | Reedsy Scrivener Ask any modern self-publishing a...

Jaime Shaw | 15th July 2021 | Articles, Guest Post

You have written a book – congratulations! You are ready to start promoting your brand-new book, but you do not have hundreds of pounds in your budget to spend. We have got your back. Here are our top five free ways to promote your new book online. 1. A Pen Name You may wish to use your real name as the author of your book. This is great if someone of the same name has not already become a well-known author. Check Amazon for book listings of authors of the same name and ensure that yours is available to use. If you do select a pen name, make it appeal to your target audience. Be easy to spell and find online. Ensure your pen name can be pronounced by your readers and choose one that rolls off the tongue and is enjoyable to say. The phycology behind this is that the more approachable your brand, the more people will want to talk about your book with their friends and colleagues. Similarly, another person by your name may be famous for something else. An influencer or another business. Check the handles on social media accounts for your name. It is important that it is available as this will be a driving force behind your future promotions. 2. A Logo Business branding does not stop at companies and Ecommerce shops. Branding yourself as an author is a clever way to become easily recognisable to your fans. Creating a logo is an excellent way to get started. It defines who you are, what you do and what genre customers should expect. Design a logo for free here. 3. An Email Welcome contact with your readers by creating a business email. Have a link to your email on your website and social media accounts. Add your email to business cards and, most importantly, put it in your book. Ask customers to contact you with their thoughts on your book.  Many authors cut this part of the process as they are not aware. But how many times have you wished you could ask a writer questions about their story or simply let them know how engaged you were with their words? Makin...

Luke J. Wilson | 07th July 2020 | Articles, Self-Publishing

Many people say they want to write a book “one day”, or that they have a great idea for a story. Some might even have had an exciting life which would make an interesting novel or biography to read. A lot of the time, it’s the thought that they would never get a publishing deal for their book which stops the creative process from even beginning, but in this digital age we find ourselves, publishing a book has never been easier! Self-publishing no longer has that stigma of poorly written and badly edited books anymore, as more and more people turn to it — especially with so many online options to do so these days. Even many famous authors began with self-publishing and hit it big! So let’s get into it: Step One: Write your book! Sure, this might sound strange to put in this guide on publishing, but you only get to publish if you actually finish (or start!) your book. Don’t let “one day” never arrive, make “one day” today. Lock yourself away and get writing! If you’re looking for motivation, join Twitter and get involved in the #WritingCommunity, or join in with NaNoWriMo as a way to push yourself towards your goal. Step Two: Edit your book This one is crucial to getting your book widely read and taken seriously (and professionally). Nobody wants to read something with many typos or grammatical mistakes as it will just come across amateurish. If you are unsure on how to go about this, here are some step-by-step instructions, or you can search for an editor on Reedsy. Step Three: Format your book Formatting your book is about getting it set right for the size of book you want printing, assuming you are making a print version as well as an eBook. Once you have decided what size book you want, head over to Amazon’s Paperback Manuscript Templates page where you can download a ZIP file full of preset MS Word files. All you need to do it copy your text into it and then you can work on adjusting the layout of the text and chapters to su...

Luke J. Wilson | 04th July 2020 | Book Extracts, 40 Days with the Fathers

Preface This is the companion to the first book in the series, Forty Days with the Fathers: A Daily Reading Plan. The first book originally took form on my blog as a daily post throughout the period of Lent in 2017 (hence the 40 days), and aims to give you a glimpse into the minds of that great cloud of witnesses that have come before us through short commentary of the early church texts. This book follows the same forty day pattern and chapter breaks so you can read it alongside the first book, or as a stand-alone reading plan with no additional commentary, as it features the source texts in full as translated and edited by Philip Schaff et al. All the original footnotes are included as well as few of my own where certain things required clarification for 21st century readers. The more learned readers here may notice that I have chosen to only include the shorter Ignatian epistles in this collection—this is because I am convinced by the arguments for their genuineness over the longer letters which are thought to be interpolations. The reading plan follows a collection of twenty-three early texts in full from the first four centuries. As an additional bit of information, at the beginning of each text I have given a preface which gives a Who, What, Why and When so you can read a short summary about the historical context, purpose for it being written, and the approximate date of each ancient text as well. At the end of each chapter, there is a notes section so you can jot down any thoughts you had during your reading, and at the very end of the book are some useful appendices containing historical data and maps to help bring more visual context the New Testament and Early Church texts. Each daily reading will vary in length of time to read, and by day 40, you will have read the writings of ten different Church Fathers from the Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene period:   Didache, Diognetus, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem,...

Luke J. Wilson | 22nd June 2020 | Articles, Self-Publishing

So you’ve recently written a book. Great! Maybe you’ve published it online as a paperback already, but now you want to get it into the hands of those with eReaders and Kindle devices. Seems straightforward enough, right?  Well, kinda.  An eBook isn’t quite as simple as just handing out a PDF version of your book. I mean, you can do this, but it’s not very optimised for reading on a mobile device via the various eBook apps. It’ll require a lot of pinching-and-zooming on smaller screens! Your eBook Options If you’re publishing/published via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), once known as CreateSpace, then there is an automatic option for you in your author dashboard. It’ll take your uploaded manuscript and attempt to rework it into a formatted Kindle version.  Related: 9 THINGS TO CONSIDER BETWEEN INGRAMSPARK & KDP Personally, I’ve found this method to be rather hit-and-miss leading to various formatting issues and messy internal code (that makes up the eBook), leading it to get rejected on other eBook publishing websites (I’ll come to these later). Other online publishers offer similar automated methods, and there are even extensions you can get to plug into OpenOffice or MS Word that’ll enable you to export to ePub format. But there is a way around this using a variety of tools and websites that can help, and using these methods you can create an eBook which will be accepted everywhere and work smoothly on all devices! As I’ve only had experience with KDP’s automation, I’ll be explaining my methods from that perspective, and the end result will be a working Kindle (MOBI) and ePub formatted eBook. Step One: Get your Kindle file The first thing to do will be to upload your manuscript to KDP if you haven’t already. Once Amazon has processed it all, you’ll have the option to download your book as a Kindle preview MOBI file. Doing it this way first will take out the bulk of the work you will ...

Luke J. Wilson | 23rd October 2019 | Articles, Self-Publishing

If you are about to self-publish your book but are unsure about which platform to use, have a read through this list of things I’ve learnt over the last year or so. I initially published my book on Amazon CreateSpace (now renamed as Kindle Direct Publishing) as that’s all I was familiar with at the time back in Dec 2017, but have since found many other platforms which are also similar. For the sake of this post, I am concentrating on KDP vs IngramSpark as I was looking into, and since have, published my book through IngramSpark. One of the best points between the two is that Ingram supplies many bookshops across the world. I’m in the UK and am trying to get my book in to the local Christian and indie bookshops. No one (or very few) bookshops will touch Amazon/CreateSpace, but through Ingram I potentially can get my foot in the door.   While KDP is completely free, there are a few things to note about using IngramSpark alongside it. Let’s have a look at a few key differences to be aware of: 1. UPFRONT COSTS Ingramspark has an upfront cost, whereas KDP is free — but the pros of using IngramSpark outweigh the cons of any costs, in my opinion. Prices as of 21st Oct 2019 are — eBook: $25 (£19.23), Print: $49 (£37.69) See the full costing here: http://www.ingramspark.com/features Along with a title set up fee (above), there is also a cost to making revisions after you have submitted your book for distribution. Any changes to cover design or manuscript will incur a $25 fee on IngramSpark, whereas KDP is totally free. So the major con is the cost of using IngramSpark over KDP, but some of the main pros to consider include: Opportunity to get into brick-and-mortar bookshops The ability to create hardbacks, which Amazon doesn’t have. They also have UK distribution so you can order your own book at an Author discount with fair postage prices, this will like pass onto retailer who may buy your book on wholesale. Since CreateSpace...

Luke J. Wilson | 24th May 2019 | Articles, Self-Publishing

7 Tips for Marketing your Book on a Budget   Create a website and/or blog. Getting an audience who is interested in other things you write is a good place to start, and then you can tag on book promos etc. to your blog posts. It also gives you a mailing list for targeted promos later on as your audience and subscribers grow (And if you're interested, you can view my main blog here). Make promo advert graphics and share them to your Facebook/Instagram stories. These always show at the top of people's feed and in Facebook Messenger and so get seen more often than regular posts. Join Facebook author promo groups. Join and share links to your sales funnel/Amazon page etc. These groups are often just a massive link-drop groups but it gets your book seen by more eyes, and they often have "follow parties" to gain a few extra likes/follows. Every bit can help!Here's some Facebook groups I am in and which I recommend for different reasons:Self Promo Groups: Authors Promoting Their Books Author Book Promotions Writers and Authors Promotions Author/Publisher/Editor/Book Readers Authors, Artists, Book & Art Promotion Authors, Writers & Bloggers Motivational/Help Groups 10 Minute Novelists Indie Cover Project #SupportIndieWriters Christian Authors Book Marketing Strategies Join other Facebook discussion groups that are of a related topic to your book (if possible). Then you may be able to share links direct to you book/blog to people actually interested in your genre. You can also share your promo graphics to the group "stories" and get more eyes on it as well. Facebook will also tell you how many people have seen these stories, and I’ve often gathered 900+ views. That doesn’t mean 900 sales, but I have seen a few sales spike after doing this, plus it means 900 people are now aware of your book which they may have saved for later or recommending to others who might be interested. You never know where it can lead.  Please not...

Luke J. Wilson | 24th July 2018 | Book Extracts, 40 Days with the Fathers

Why read the Early Church Fathers? Maybe for some of you reading this, the question might better be phrased as: who are the Church Fathers? No doubt you will be familiar with some of their names: Augustine, Jerome, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr et al. You may have even read portions or quotes by some of these men. But that still doesn't really explain to you who they are and why you should care, much less actually read any of their works. My new book deals with a selection of some of the most influential Early Church Fathers, sometimes also referred to as the Apostolic Fathers (if they lived between AD 70-150), or collectively as the Ante Nicene Fathers for all of those in the period of time preceding the Council of Nicea (AD 325). It is these men who wrote doctrine and defences against heresy and helped to continue and shape the Church in its most formative years. Some of the earlier Christian leaders of the 2nd Century were discipled and taught by the Apostles themselves. Those include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna. Still others in mid-2nd century were then taught by those who knew the men who were taught by some of the Apostles. One of the more well-known Bishops who was second generation to the Apostles was Irenaeus (best known for his extensive apologetic works, Against Heresies). From chapter 21 onward in my book, I look at a few writers from beyond this period (around 356) up until AD 449 where we can observe some distinctive changes in thought and practice. These people who came before us, those great men of faith, many of whom suffered persecution and martyrdom to preserve the Church and Christ's mission, bridge the gap between the Bible and the present day. They fill the void we sometimes wonder about when we get to the end of reading Acts or the Epistles and think, “what happened next?” or “what happened to the Ephesian church after Paul left?”. So Why Read What They Wrote? The Bible didn't just...