How to Self Publish a Book

There are thousands of us writers with a finished novel, journal, list of recipes etc...but chances are, it is patiently collecting dust on a shelf or buried in a folder titled 'Finished Novels' in our hardrive. Of these thousands only a few finally get their work published and in stores. It's not so much only a matter of whether the material is worthy of publication or not, but also one of luck, knowing the right people and just being lucky on having the right editor read your manuscript.

With the possibility of seeing our work in print getting increasingly harder, the option to self-publish becomes more and more attractive. It lets the writer have a book in print and available for sale within a very short time span. There are many companies that offer self publishing and on demand printing, choosing he write one can make all the difference. Some of the most commonly known are Xlibris, iUniverse, Lulu, CreateSpace and Inkwater Press among many others. All of these companies have their pros and cons, so you have to research them and see which one would be best for you.

In this article, though, I will show you a pretty quick and inexpensive way to self publish that book of yours; it is how I got my novel published. I ended up going with Lulu Publishing, the reason I picked them is because they offer a service where you can publish the book on demand and have it available on their website for sale. To do this it is actualy free. You set your royalty payment (from $0 to $4) and pick the cover type, design and upload your manuscript. That's it. You then go through a wizard that lets you design the book cover and review your inner pages to make sure they look alright. You can make revisions all the way until you approve the book, which is done after you get your ISBN number. The book price is a bit high (about $18 for a softcover book) but you can also make it available for download at a pretty low fee (again, dependong on how much of a royalty you want to get). With this option when someone orders your book, it is printed on demand digitally, so there's no stock.

If you want to take it a bit further, you can get an ISBN number. This can still be done for free and have Lulu be the publisher of your book. When you do this you can also have your book distributed through Amazon and other online bookstores as well, but your rights to the book are limited, since Lulu remains the publisher. You can get an ISBN number and have it name you as the publisher, but for this there is a $99 fee. That is not a lot comapring it to other companies, or even other more expensive editing services at Lulu. These services do all the editing and designing for you, but it costs much more. So if you don't mind doing a bit more work then you'll end up paying much less. I chose the $99 option myself, so I can have the rights to my book and also have it distributed through other stores. Also with this option, I can remove the book from the Lulu website at any time and even have it re-published elsewhere or, hopefully, even with a conventional publisher.

Self publishing this way is a good way to get the book out there and in the hands of readers and potential editors. If you promote the book well you can sell enough copies and make back the $99 fee within reasonable time.It is also a nice feeling to actually see your work in print. So if you are considering self-publishing a book, I would suggest you look into this method, I think it is not a lot to pay and you raise your chances of your book being discovered by readers and maybe someone who can get your work in the hands of a regular publisher and get that book into real bookstores.