As an avid comic book reader in my youth, I was consumed by the tales featuring heroes such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, Superman, The Avengers and The New Teen Titans. While the stories and artwork caught most of my attention, I couldn't help but notice tiny bits of text near the logos or titles of these books. The letters "TM" and "C" often stood out, and although I came to learn what they stood for, it wasn't until many decades later that they'd truly become significant to me.

When people mention self-publishing platforms the names that first come to mind for most of us are KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), Smashwords, CreateSpace, Draft2Digital, Nook, IngramSparks, and Kobo. All of these platforms have their pros and cons, but are effective ways for indie authors to get their stories into the marketplace. Whether an author's book will be available in digital, print or both, as I've mentioned here a few times in the past, writing a novel is just the