You love books. You can keep up with the best of them at any literary gathering. Twain, Salinger, Stephen King…the references just roll off your tongue! So what’s stopping you? You know you want to…so why not give this writing thing a shot?
Before the dawn of the Internet, the odds of a novice writer getting published were pretty slim. The publishing world has always been very tough to crack. The “gate-keepers,” (editors) at major publishers have long kept the gates closed to newcomers. Authors who wanted to get their books considered faced a daunting reality: most editors wouldn’t look at unsolicited manuscripts and most agents wouldn’t take on any writers who hadn’t had a book published. No wonder so many writers filed their hopes away in an old drawer.
The Internet, however, is revolutionizing book publishing. Today there are many viable online self-publishing sites that make “do-it-yourself” publishing worth considering.
Createspace and Lulu are two of the leading self-publishing, “print on demand” sites today. While these sites are not free to use, they are affordable and offer real options for motivated authors. Both sites provide ways to publish manuscripts and provide pathways for sales. Authors have the choice of submitting a finished text in a file format, or having the site provide editing and design services for a fee. Books can be sold online on an author’s own website and on amazon.com, with the author getting a cut of the royalty from each book sold. The prices of the books may be somewhat inflated, but the author will get a larger royalty than they could expect from a traditional publisher.
What about marketing? Some authors write their own blogs and provide a link on the blog for readers to purchase their book. With all these online tools available, the pathway into the marketplace is obvious. Today, with some ingenuity, that publishing dream can become a reality.