Do you have a book sitting on your hard drive that you would love to publish? Today there is absolutely no need to not publish your book even if your main intent is to publish it to give friends and family a copy of it.
The traditional method of publishing a book was to submit your manuscript to publishing houses in the hopes that one of them would pick it up. This was time consuming and was not any guarantee of securing a publishing contract.
While the advantage of getting a publishing contract is one of getting more media and marketing attention. The publishing house will often arrange things like book tours and signings for you. They market your book and this helps with exposure and sales.
The newer method of publishing your book today requires you to self publish your book. This method still takes time and still requires that you write a quality book and have a great looking ecover designed. Once your book is ready for publishing the process only takes a few days or hours sometimes to get your book approved and ready for sale.
The downside of self publishing is that once your book is published, your job does not end. You are now responsible for marketing your book and for driving traffic to your sales page. While this is a large job it can be done if you prepare for it correctly.
Your Publishing Choices
There are plenty of places where you can publish your book today. Things to take into consideration are the printing costs if you wish to produce a paperback or hardcover version of your book. Including photographs can dramatically increase the price of your publishing costs. This reflects in your price and could deter sales. Keep in mind that certain books such as recipe books and some travel books can benefit from including photographs in them.
The following are the most common places to publish your book online:
- Amazon Kindle
- Amazon CreateSpace
- iBookstore
- Barnes & Noble
- Smashwords
- Kobo
- Lulu
All of these have different terms of use and conditions so be certain to read them all before deciding on your publishing platform. You want to be aware of payment terms and methods as well. Lulu for example will send you royalties via PayPal while Amazon prefers to send checks or do direct deposit. This will vary depending on your country of residence. You may also need to submit tax identification numbers as well and most sites have toll free numbers that you can call for further information and assistance.
Many authors today are publishing their books digitally in an e-reader format. This is where the popular Kindle site comes from. The Kindle was the first e-reader on the market and was produced by Amazon hence the site Amazon Kindle Books.
There are advantages and disadvantages to all of the site above. Amazon and Barnes & Noble are well established publishing platforms. But there is also a ton of competition for getting your books ranked high. This is another reason why your ecover is so important: a great looking ecover will attract more potential buyers.
Kobo is a fairly new site and is based out of Canada. There are fewer books there at the moment which is why you may want to consider publishing there. The same applies with the iBookstore which is now gaining in popularity quickly.
