Registering Aurora Cantus with Google Books
by Silvia Passiflora, Founder and Publisher | Scriptaluna
June 4, 2026
There is a version of self-publishing that gets presented as a simple transaction: upload your file, click distribute, watch it appear on Amazon. Done.
That version exists. It also leaves many of the decisions — and much of the long-term value — in someone else's hands.
When Aurora Cantus: A Poet's Book of Hours was ready to enter the world, I had already set up distribution through IngramSpark, which feeds into Amazon, Barnes & Noble, indie bookstores, libraries, Google Books, and tens of thousands of retailers worldwide.
Distribution, however, is only one layer. A distributor places a book into the pipeline. Representation is something else entirely.
Ingram submits the basic information. But Google Books allows publishers to manage the details themselves: descriptions, author biographies, BISAC categories, cover images, preview pages, and other metadata that help readers discover and understand a book before they ever hold it in their hands.
Some of the terminology sounds intimidating — BISAC codes, DRM encryption, metadata standards. Once translated into plain language, most of it is surprisingly straightforward. You decide where your book belongs. You decide how much of it a stranger can preview. You decide how you want it presented.
The times have quietly redefined basic computer literacy. Publishing now asks writers to understand page layout, PDF workflows, print specifications, metadata, and visual presentation. It's hard the first time, because the task is often learning what the real task is. Once you understand that, you may discover you don't need specialized publishing software at all. Mac Pages or Microsoft Word may be enough.
Be careful with bundled services in any industry. Outsource what genuinely requires another person's expertise.
Cover design is a discrete creative service, though perpetual rights to the artwork should always be secured in writing. Platform terms protect the platform. They do not necessarily protect your perpetual rights to the artwork in all media (think: promotional material and movies). Learning to make your own cover art secures your rights unassailably.
The one thing I would never skip is an editor.
A manuscript needs a reader who is not the author, who has no stake in the choices being made, and who can still see what disappeared from view three drafts ago. Most publishing skills can be learned. An outside eye cannot be self-generated.
Aurora Cantus is now registered with Google Books with its own description, author information, categories, cover, and preview pages. It is there for discoverability, for knowledge graph presence, and for the reader who encounters it through a search and wants to know what they are holding before deciding to find it in the world.
That took a morning.
It was worth every minute.
For more editorials like this, visit Editor's Letters