How to publish your first book on Laterpress

‍

Step 1: Log in, or create an account - Click the “Login” button on the top right of the screen. If you have an account, enter your email address and password to sign in. If not, click “Don’t have an account?” below the login box. The next screen will ask for a name or pseudonym, an email, and a password.

‍Step 2: Set up your author details - You will be given options to add a profile photo, website link, twitter handle, and a bio. These fields are not mandatory, and you can return later to edit them whenever you want.

‍Step 3: Click the “Add Book” button - Here, you can enter the book’s title, upload a cover, and set up the URL to the story. Note that the URL cannot be changed once saved. “Click Save & Continue” when ready.

‍Step 4: Enter book details - There is a field for the genre, ISBN (optional), and a short description of the book (350 characters maximum). Click “Save & Continue” when ready.

‍Step 5: Pricing details - To charge readers, you must first set up a stripe account and connect it to your Laterpress account. How to do this will be covered in a separate walkthrough. 

You will have the option to decide if anyone can access the story, or only people who purchase an annual subscription for all your work. This screen is where you can set a price and whether it is for the whole book, or a bundle of chapters. If bundling chapters, you will then have options on the bundle size. (Bundle size options are any number from 1-10, or multiples of 5 for all numbers between 10 and 100). 

You can also set a preview length, which is the number of chapters someone can read for free, without creating an account. At the end of the preview, readers must create an account or log in to keep reading, and purchase your content, if it’s monetized.  

All of these options can be changed at any time from the “Details” screen after the book is created.

Click “Add Book” when ready.

‍Step 6 - Option 1: Adding chapters - Click “Edit” on the book, then “Add Chapter” at the bottom of the screen. On the following page, you can either write your story, or copy / paste in what you wrote on a different word processor. Once finished, click “Publish.”

Step 6 - Option 2: Import epub - Click “Edit” on the book, then "Import epub." A file browser will open up, allowing you to choose the epub you wish to upload. Once the file has been selected, click "Open." A text box will ask you if you wish to make this file available for readers to download, to which you may select Yes or No. Either way, the system will convert chapters of your epub into chapters of a browser-based book. Depending on how you formatted the epub, you may wish to manually adjust chapter titles, or make use of our custom numbering feature to designate front matter, back matter, etc. The chapters are added to the end of the book, if you already had chapters before importing an epub.

‍Step 7: Schedule an email (optional) - You can decide when an email blast goes out to readers, letting them know a new chapter is available. Click “Don’t schedule email” to continue without sending a notification. 

Your chapter is live as soon as you hit publish!

‍Publishing multiple chapters at once: If you’re uploading an entire book at once, you may not want every chapter to go live as you enter them, but rather all at once at the end. To do this, click “Save” instead of “Publish.” This will save the chapter in “Draft” status (visible on the right side of the chapter list). Once all chapters have been added, clicking “Publish” will publish all chapters in the “Draft” status at the same time.