How to Self Publish Your Book

Print on demand publishing means that authors like you and I can now get our work published without cost. I’m going to talk about my own experience of publishing a book here, so you can follow the steps, but it’s pretty straightforward – all you need is a book!

I use and recommend Lulu, but there are plenty of other companies who offer a similar service – just search for “print on demand.” POD means literally that they will print a copy each time one is ordered. Modern technology makes it possible to do this and keep the price reasonable.

Once you’ve registered on the site, you can upload your book in various formats, and then you can begin the design process. Lulu allows you to upload an image for the cover, or use one of many templates. You can get into some real detail on paper types, bindings and matt or shiny covers, as well as select the size of the actual book. Be aware that all of the options affect the finished price, so don’t go mad and price your book out of the market! You’ll also have the ability to write your own back cover, as well as an author bio and include a photo of yourself.

Next you need to work on the price. Once you’ve finished you design, Lulu will tell you how much each book will cost, and it will ask you how much you want to sell it for. In my case each book costs around $9 and I sell them for $14. Once the price is set, the work is done, and you haven’t paid a penny! All you need to do now is send people to the relevant page in Lulu, they buy the book and Lulu pays you your profit once a month. They also send you a daily report showing how many copies have been sold.

In addition to the above, Lulu offers some quite good promotional tools, ranging from “Buy Now” buttons to fully fledged web shops to help sell your book. The site is full of advice about how to promote it, and in some cases they will submit the book to Amazon as well.

I started off simply sending people to Lulu from my web page, then Lulu put the book on Amazon as well, so that increased sales, and finally local shops where I live asked if they could offer it. I’m able to order at cost price, and I get additional discounts for quantity, so I was able to set a wholesale price that earned me a reasonable amount, and still left the retailers with a decent margin.

Overall, I’m really pleased with my experience with Lulu (and no this isn’t an affiliate scheme!) – I’ve seen my book published, I didn’t have to spend a cent to do it, and sales are ticking along quite nicely.

You can see my book on Lulu and how it’s presented at this link:

Living in Lanzarote

And if you want to see it on Amazon, you can do so here:

Living in Lanzarote on Amazon

You might also enjoy:

1/ A blogger’s day – part one

2/ Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents

3/ How the blogging market is changing