Self-publishing

Chick tracts are short evangelical gospel tracts in a comic book format, originally created by American publisher and religious cartoonist Jack Chick in the 1960s. His company Chick Publications has continued to print these tracts, in addition to those by new writers.

Smashwords, Inc., based in Los Gatos, California, is a platform for self-publishing e-books. The company, founded by Mark Coker, began public operation in 2008 and was acquired by Draft2Digital, LLC in 2022.

Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. The site was created in 2008 by the Organization for Transformative Works and went into open beta in 2009 and continues to be in beta. As of 1 January 2025, Archive of Our Own hosts over 14,630,000 works in over 70,700 fandoms, including those related to real people. The site has received generally positive reception for its curation, organization, and design, mostly done by readers and writers of fanfiction.

Bookmate is a social ebook subscription service, available primarily on mobile, with catalogues in 9 languages. The mobile app is supported on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and feature phones, and the service is also available in a web version.

Shutterfly, LLC. is an American photography, photography products, and image sharing company, headquartered in San Jose, California. The company is mainly known for custom photo printing services, including books featuring user-provided images, framed pictures, and other objects with custom image prints, including blankets or mobile phone cases. The company has a variety of sub-brands including the main Shutterfly photo gift business, TinyPrints, SnapFish, Spoonflower, Shutterfly Business Solutions, and Lifetouch.

Web fiction is written works of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the web serial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines.

Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier. Ink rollers transfer ink to the image areas of the image carrier, while a water roller applies a water-based film to the non-image areas.

In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses.

Samizdat (Russian: самиздат, lit. 'self-publishing') was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because printed texts could be traced back to the source. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship.

A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging. Recordings may be copied and traded among fans without financial exchange, but some bootleggers have sold recordings for profit, sometimes by adding professional-quality sound engineering and packaging to the raw material. Bootlegs usually consist of unreleased studio recordings, live performances or interviews without the quality control of official releases.