Self-publishing: Sell your book online. It's easy peasy!

Are you interested in writing a book, or have you already written one? Well, nowadays it is not so difficult to share it with the world. Whereas in the past the only possibility was contacting the publishing house and it was quite difficult to actually print your own book. But what about now? Digital media brought many new possibilities, right?

Yes, it is right. Internet is a perfect place where everyone can express themselves without any doubts or complications. You can create a blog, just like this one, or just a simple webpage where you publish a digital version of your book. Many young writers still lack the motivation to write "for free". And that is understandable. If you are good and you spend countless hours writing something, why would you do it for free? Thanks to the digital media, this has changed so much. Not very many people realise, how easy it is to earn some cash just by sharing what you write and not keeping it to yourself. It is amazing also for the readers. Imagine how many great cheap books you can choose from. Their quality can surprise you and you can find the titles from amateur authors much better than actual books that got published. The prices are low, but by paying one or two pounds, you support the author and believe me, money are a great motivation for them to continue writing.

Well, let's look at the possibilities you have to get the most out of your book.

1. Lulu

This is a private self - publishing company from California. They already published over million titles by authors from all over the world and have a very professional image. They let you upload your work and everything is free. You can pick a price and your book is made available to the public via Lulu Marketplace. Their partners Barnes and Noble and iBooks may also publish your ebook so that your potential audience is increased even more. What is more, your book can even get its own ISBN for free.

There are some paid services, which you should consider as well. If you are not experienced in marketing or advertising, and you are willing to pay, you can let Lulu do the hardest work for you. For 149 pounds you can even get your book into print.  

2. Smashwords

The logo and slogan of Smashwords

Maybe even an easier possibility is Smashwords.com. This is another self-publishing web, where authors simply upload their ebooks in Microsoft Word format, which is then converted to many other digital ebook formats, such as ePub, PDF or mobi and therefore it is made available for readers to read more easily on many platforms. Smashwords proudly announce that they are the largest and most favourite platform for indie authors and they also offer many free services such as free ISBNs, ebook conversion or marketing of your book. You can choose the price of your book for free as well. 

3. Kindle Singles and Direct Publishing

Now this has become a quite popular way of ebook sharing and self publishing. Amazon uses their popular online platform to promote their own way of self publishing, and there are actually two possibilities.

Kindle Singles is the one that is more prestigious and you can find there mostly the books that are written by professional writers, journalists etc. And there are much more complications with self publishing, when compared to the other services I mentioned. Amazon team doesn't really let anyone sell their books on the Kindle Singles Store. Your ebook must meet their requirements, such as genre (some are not allowed) or word count (your book has to be at least 5000 words long). Amazon will also take much more profit from the actual sale of the ebook if you compare it with other platforms. Moreover, your ebook has to be approved by the people from Amazon, which can take a very long time and according to the reactions online, this is not so easy as you would expect.

Online discussion about Kindle Singles - click on it to
enlarge the image

So does Amazon really hate amateur authors? Nooo, not really, dont worry. There is still another service you can use. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing which does exactly what it promises in the title, directly publishes your work. You can also charge for your book, with Amazon taking just a smaller part of your actual sale. And it is all free as well. The only disadvantage over Kindle Singles is, that it is more difficult to find readers on Direct Publishing. But why not try to do both? While you publish your novel on KDP, you can still try to apply for Kindle Singles and see, how much you can get out of it. 

This video was uploaded to the official Kindle Youtube channel and it pretty much sums up the whole article.

As you can see, the digital media, whether it is Kindle Singles, Direct Publishing, Smashwords, Lulu or any other self-publishing service made it easier to share your book with the public and brought lots of new possibilities for the authors and readers as well.

Even more information about self-publishing can be found on my friend's blog. She writes about User Generated Content, click here to find out more.

Feel free to comment on any of articles. You can look forward to more articles in the next few days. Follow me on Twitter to find out about the new ones after they have been posted. :)

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