There is something, which makes people want to write a book, it can be anything really, a desire to share knowledge of a particular subject, or the desire to share and inform your readers. There can also be the desire simply to entertain your reader. The point is that you will plan to write a book. At some point, this book will be edited and complete and you will, as a writer consider the possibilities of where you can publish your work.
A word of caution: This is not an easy industry if you decide to either go the traditional publishing route or if you choose to self-publish. Both have challenges.
At this point, you will begin to look at your target audience and you might find that there is a limited audience for your book. This is when most people go straight for the Internet search boxes and type in self-publishing company. Do not do this.
First edit your work once more, and keep on looking at your pre-marketing, which means getting, and running a blog and writing on online websites to develop a following for your future book. Now, do another marketing plan. This time consider your budget. This is a bit like making money online, but more offline, and is about money.
For most, your budget should be about $1000 at minimum, which can include costs of proofs and some basic marketing materials, but it needs to also include editing and proofreading. This should be done for self-published works as well.
The key to a good selling book is to consider what you can do as a self-publisher. One you can have control of the editing and design, but also understand that there will be reviews by people about how the book reads and looks, and this means that you must be willing to get “bad reviews.” This happens.
Where should you go to have your book self-published? If this is your first book, get your ISBN for this book and then head over to a self-publishing company and not a vanity press. The difference is huge, if you have your own ISBN you are the publisher of this work, and you will simply need someone who will print and distribute your work.
This can be done and there are many sites, which you can use for this. Some of the vanity presses you need to avoid are The Author Solutions group, which is the parent company to Xlibris, iUniverse and AuthorHouse. You will spend more than $1000 in the end. Many people have complained about them and they have made it known on the Internet.
The key to self-publishing is thinking and being critical of your work before and during the publishing process and then knowing how to keep the interest in your work alive for as long as it takes to write and edit and fix up your next manuscript.