Publishing Your First Book with Print-On-Demand

Writing has always been a major passion of mine and like many other aspiring writers, I always dreamed of writing my own book. The thought of seeing my name on a real book was fascinating to me. The dream was awesome, but the process of getting your book published is not a dream at all. Finding a publisher and/or agent can be very frustrating and time consuming and can almost make you lose hope of publishing your first book.

So with this being said, I recommend a different approach. After you have written your first book, I advise you to simply use a print-on-demand publisher. You can find several of these companies online. Unlike regular publishers, who publish a ton of copies and distribute them right off the bat, the print on demand publishers only print your books when they are ordered. They never print any more books than they need to . . . and most of these companies typically do not have books that make it into actual bookstores. Most bookstores frown upon print-on-demand books because of the simple and easy process to get a book printed with these companies. Basically, anybody with a book and a credit card can publish any book they want, no matter how good or bad a writer they are. Unless your book is filled with errors and bad grammar, your book will typically be accepted and published by print-on-demand companies. They may review your book, but they usually don't edit your book, which is a major reason why stores like Barnes & Noble will not accept books from these companies to be placed in their bookstores. Most "regular" books go through a detailed editing and proofreading process, but print-on-demand books are basically printed immediately after they are accepted. The only one editing the book is the one who wrote it.

I decided to use one of these sites for my first book. I spent $500 to have my book published with a print-on-demand company about 3 years ago. I certainly have not gotten rich off my book (titled "How Cheap Can You Get?"), but it was very rewarding for me to see my name on a real book! It was even more rewarding to see my book listed on major sites like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Barnes & Noble may not place your book in their stores, but they will put them on their website. That is one key thing I like about my print on demand publisher. They really don't promote my book at all, but they do place it on all of the major book sites on the internet, which has helped my sales significantly. After all, you can only have so many friends and family members buy your book, right? Eventually, you need OTHER people to buy your book!

Obviously, if I had a "real" publisher, my book could've received better promoting and possibly better profits, but hey, lets be honest with each other . . . how many people write an award winning book on their first try? The honest truth is that most "first books" really aren't that great, so I don't regret using print-on-demand. I feel that I have several other books in me and I will most likely use a real publisher next time. And now that I have a book under my belt, I can use this book as a marketing tool to attract a potential publisher to publish my second book.

I have no regrets to having used the print-on-demand service. With that service, I was able to get my first book "out of the way." Now, instead of focusing on my "first book," I can focus on my "best book."