How to self-publish every book you write for free
Every writer’s dream is to be a published author; sit down and write books and publish and sell them all over the world. How cool would it be to be able to write as many books as you want and know that they will all be published?
Can you believe it?
If you could write and publish books for a living, you could work from anywhere in the world. You could sit by a pool and write, or sit on a warm tropical beach, or hide in a snow-covered log cabin while churning out one great book after another, knowing that each one will get published.
How fantastic would that life be?
Well, now you can stop dreaming and make your life as a successful author come true. And if he thinks he can’t afford to publish all of his own books, he’s wrong. Because now it is possible to write and publish all your books for free.
The easiest and most obvious way to publish a book is to publish it digitally as an e-book. And e-book publishing has made such great strides that it’s now possible to become a full-time writer simply by writing and publishing your own e-books, fiction or non-fiction.
But first you need to make sure you have your manuscript formatted correctly (and easily) and have a cover design for your eBook. E-books used to be published only as downloadable PDF documents that could be read on any computer. But the internet has really changed the way ebooks are published now and in addition to making your books available as downloadable PDF ebooks, you can now publish them through several major online companies as digital epub ebooks. .
Epub files are basically a type of HTML file that makes them easy to download and read on any screen of any size. But unlike traditional books and PDF e-books, epub file readers can change layout and font etc to suit them, which makes formatting less important, plus you should keep it simple (no fancy fonts, etc.).
There are several companies online that will publish your eBook and here is a short list of the ones I consider to be the best.
amazon.com
Amazon will publish your eBook through their dtp (Digital Text Platform). They have a very easy to use control panel where you can simply fill in your eBook information and upload your manuscript file to be automatically transformed into an epub file. Amazon.com, at this time, does not insist that your e-book have an ISBN number. Amazon also provides its readers with an iPhone app so that all e-books purchased through Amazon can also be read on an iPhone or iPad.
SmashWords
SmashWords will allow you to open an account and upload your eBooks. They will sell them directly from their website and will also submit your epub file to the iTunes online store (if you have an ISBN). But they have strict conditions on how your ebook manuscript should be formatted and set. They provide a great style guide that you can download and follow. And although long, the guide is easy to understand.
Kobo Books
Kobo Books sells e-books through its online store and also through Borders and some other physical and online stores. They have a conversion service which, while not free, is very good and allows you to download your own epub files to save. Kobo eBooks can be read on almost any digital device, including Blackberry and Android phones.
itunes
The Apple iTunes store has a somewhat complicated dashboard for uploading your eBook files. They also insist that your ebook have an ISBN number before considering listing it on their online store.
lulu.com
Lulu.com is a free online POD publisher that will sell a print copy of your book On Demand from their website, as well as help you design a free book cover. All they ask in return is a percentage of each book sale. This is a great way to provide a print alternative to all of your e-books for anyone who still prefers to buy a physical book. They will also allow you to sell PDF copies of your ebook through their online bookstore.
Of course, these are just a few of the different options you have to start publishing every book you write.
But more than just writing and publishing books, you also need to continually market them.
If you want to write and publish a lot of books, the easiest way to market them is to start your own author blog that you update regularly with information about the books you have already written and published and your next job or work in progress. Progress.
And if you add an email signup box, you can also send regular emails to interested readers with your latest news, and over time, your list will grow into a group of ready buyers for every book you write.
Just make sure that everything you write is excellent and makes for indescribable reading.