Author Freely is an Australian platform that allows authors to publish their books online for free. In other words, authors can upload their book, determine how much they want to earn per sale, and make their book available for purchase through our retail store (and other online retailers!) without paying anything. Got a question? Check out the list of Frequently Asked Questions below. If you can’t find an answer, contact us.
Have questions? Check out the list of frequently asked questions. If you can't find an answer, get in touch with our support.
The publication process through Author Freely is simple and fast! To publish your book, log in or register an account with us, then go to New Book in your author dashboard and follow the prompts.
For a quick tutorial on how to publish your book, see the video below:
You can publish your book in 6 x 9 inch (152 x 229 mm), 5 x 8 inch (), A5 (148 x 21 mm), A4 (210 x 297 mm) or Square (216 x 216 mm). Before you upload, your file must be saved in PDF format.
Download one of our MS Word templates to help you format your manuscript in the correct size:
Alternatively, you can resize your MS Word document to one of these formats manually. Firstly, highlight the whole document, click Layout > Size and choose your format from the dropdown. If you can’t see your format, click More Paper Sizes and input your Custom Paper Size.
With Author Freely, everyone can publish their book at the click of a button. We believe that everyone’s story is worth sharing!
No, there is no gatekeeping or review process for books uploaded on Author Freely. Here, every book is worthy of being published.
No. By working in a different model, Author Freely does not make any kind of evaluation of our books. In other words, you shouldn't worry about this step.
The dimensions of the images on the cover, interior and respective margins must adhere to the instructions in the table below:
| A5 | A4 | Square | ||
| Cover (Partial Customisation) | 1630 pixels wide by 1473 pixels length. | 2224 pixels wide by 2360 pixels length. | 1040 pixels wide by 1040 pixels length. | 1630 pixels wide by 1473 pixels length. |
| Cover (Full Customisation) | 1748 pixels wide by 2480 pixels length. | 2480 pixels wide by 3508 pixels length. | 1240 pixels wide by 1748 pixels length. | 2362 pixels wide by 2362 pixels length. |
| Back | 1748 pixels wide by 1970 pixels length. | 2480 pixels wide by 3015 pixels length. | 1240 pixels wide by 1370 pixels length. | 2362 pixels wide by 1823 pixels length. |
| Ears | 940 pixels wide by 2480 pixels length. | Books in A4 format do not have ears. | Books in the Pocket format do not have ears. | Books in the Square format do not have ears. |
| Dimensions of the Crumb | 14.8cm wide by 21.0cm high. | 21.0cm wide by 29.7cm high. | 10.5cm wide by 14.8cm high. | 20.0cm wide by 20.0cm high. |
| Margins | Top and Bottom: 2.54 cm. Sides: 1.91 cm. |
Top and Bottom: 2.54 cm. Sides: 1.91 cm. |
Top and Bottom: 1.50 cm. Sides: 1.2 cm. |
Top and Bottom: 2.54 cm. Sides: 2.54 cm. |
To convert your MS Word document to PDF, open your MS Word document.
Then Save As your document, choose PDF from the dropdown and click Save.
Once your PDF is saved, upload and publish it with Author Freely!
With our cover generator, you can set up your cover a number of ways. If you don’t already have a cover designed, you can make one with our cover generator by choosing from our graphics or uploading your own, and adjusting the size, colour and font of your book title, subtitle, author name and blurb to how you like it. If you do have a cover pre-designed, you can upload it straight into the generator and hide the pre-filled text so nothing is duplicated and overlaying your original design. In both cases, the images need to be adjusted to fit the book size. Click here to see how to adjust and edit your cover photo.
Because we are a free self-publishing company, Author Freely doesn’t do services such as ghost writing, editing, typesetting or design for the books published through us.
This also means that any type of error – spelling, grammar, or otherwise – will be printed as we don’t review our authors’ books.
If you do want assistance regarding publishing services, check out the Author Freely Marketplace for businesses recommended by us! Note that these professional services are optional.
Hiring one of our professionals is not necessary to be published on Author Freely.
You can find a number of professional publishing services in our marketplace to help you enhance your book. Note that these professional services are optional. Hiring one of our professionals is not necessary to be published on Author Freely.
Yes, you can edit your book and the price at any time (unless your book is in pre-sales). To do so, go to My Books in your dashboard, click “Published Books” and select the book you want to change. From there, click the “Edit” option and follow the steps. You can change your content, cover, and price as many times as you want.
You certainly can! While uploading your book, you can determine the author’s name to be your real name or a pseudonym. This will not have any impact on your copyright ownership. Please note that you will need to use your legal name for the purposes of your bank details etc. The pseudonym should only be used for your book itself.
Author Freely offers, free of charge, a series of online course to help you promote your book. To access them, go to Authors’ University.
Today, Author Freely has one of the largest distribution networks for print and eBooks among self-publishing platforms worldwide. You can check our network (and the requirements of each specific bookstore) by clicking here.
During the publication process you will upload your book files onto the Author Freely platform. From there, our system will calculate the page number of your book and display a calculator that will show all the costs involved in printing, along with a field where you can specify the royalty margin you want from your book sales.
Bank details are used by Author Freely to make direct debit royalty payments. The details are essential to the payment process.
Copyright is exclusively owned by the author. Author Freely does not retain any copyright or exclusivity. Our authors can withdraw their book from Author Freely at any time through the website. It is a simple and easy process.
There are two ways you can receive your royalty payments, and you can choose the one you prefer and change it whenever you want.
Both forms of deposit have a minimum amount receivable and vary as follows:
Receive coupons from various promotions or partnerships between Author Freely and other companies and get discounts on book purchases. To use your coupon, make your purchase normally and enter the coupon code at the end. To understand better, go to the link http://authorfreely.com/webpage/coupon.
The ISBN - International Standard Book Number - is a a standardised international system that numerically identifies books by title, the author, country, publisher, and even edition. Also used for identifying software, its number system is converted into barcode, which eliminates language barriers and facilitates a book's circulation and commercialisation.
No, it's not. An ISBN is a way of cataloguing books – it doesn't define what is and isn't a literary work. The focus of Author Freely is to allow authors to publish their books, and we consider their content as the most important piece.
ISBN's are essential to the distribution of your book. To sell through any book retailer (including both book stores and online retailers), you will need to have an ISBN that is assigned to your book. Some book-focused websites or social networks will also require it. ISBN's can be purchased at a relatively low cost.
In general, changes to works should have a new ISBN assigned to it. A new ISBN should be assigned:
Note:
In the case of electronic publications, however, it is only required that the work is not updated frequently – without a periodicity being defined.
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