Publish Your Own Book!

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You do have a book inside of you that others want to read.  Seriously.
Here is the fast way to get your story in print.

1.  Write a very good manuscript of 10,000 to 40,000 words.
2.  Get 3-5 literate people to review it and check the idea, the flow, the grammar, and the spelling.
3. Define your audience very clearly.  (This should also be in your mind while you are writing).
4.  Choose a publisher.  A Print On Demand Publisher.  Not just a printer unless you want to keep hundreds of copies of your book at your own place.  A POD publisher with a good reputation will give you a choice of options as to how much of the publishing and marketing you want to do, or that you want them to do for you.
5.  Hire the publisher to do what you want to pay for.  For a "standard" paperback book, consider $700-$1000 for the total cost of having 50 books delivered to you.  You will send these to family, friends, local newspapers and bookshops.
6.  Your book will be available at many online resellers, such as Amazon.com.  Your royalty fee will be about 5-40% of the sales price of books sold.
7.  You can see your book in print and in shops within three months or so after sending it to the publisher. 

There are many printers who offer publication services, and there are many publishers who offer printing on demand.

Below are some of the publishers that I looked at, with a few comments

http://www.millcitypress.com.  One of the newest and most quick-adapting of the new generation of publishers.  Fast turnaround time and excellent customer service.  Read the article by Mark Levine,  "The Fine Print."

http://www.authorhouse.com. Good training in how to publish your own book. Good customer communications. 

http://www.anauthorsdream.com. $595.00. wide listing of options; 40% royalty.

http://www.aventinePress.com. $399. custom cover design $300.

http://www.blitzprint.com. No nonsense presentation with much useful advice.

http://www.diggorypress.com. Attractive incremental charges program. $6.70 minimum fulfilment price. $80 formatting. $100 for isbn & barcoding. $320 for custom cover design. $40 for ebook setup. $70 setup fees.

http://www.iUniverse.com. Active customer support and excellent resources on the how and why of self-publishing.  They have many well-written documents on how to get your book published.  Their primary clients seem to be authors without time or inclination to do much of the highly-skilled work of page layout and design and marketing. 

http://outskirtspress.com/rubypublishing.php. "Ruby" level of services. $599 package.

http://www.wingspanpress.com. $499 basic. $350 cover. per hour fees on extra services. They suggest retail price of $14.00, at cost of $4.40 on a 200 page book.

A page full of links to self-publishing: http://selfpublishing.lifetips.com/

A comparison among many of the POD service agencies: 
http://dehanna.com/print_on_demand.htm.

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