It is one thing to self-publish. Quite another to make money at it. Many beginners assume that if they right the book about the better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to their door.

Sadly, that seldom happens.

There are three things a title needs to succeed in today’s marketplace: Promotion, promotion, promotion. If you’re not prepared to sell yourself and your book to the world, your title is has little chance of selling.

So the results for a self-published title (or a book printed by major publishers) vary from dismal to successful depending in large part by how aggressively the author promotes his book (and, of course, how well-written it is).

Some authors hope to make it big with just an ebook version of their title. Right now, that won’t work because while ebook sales are growing by the day, print is still where it’s at. So it is wise to go the extra mile and create a POD (print on demand) version as well as an ebook version of a title. POD costs very little to implement, and many services will also handle the shipping to the buyer, freeing you up to do other things than store books in your home and fulfill orders.

Ten years from now when ebooks are the medium of choice, it might make sense to have only an ebook title. Right now, an author is cutting out a big chuck of potential sales if he doesn’t have a print version for sale.

If you want to be really aggressive about promoting and selling your books, creating a web site, doing book signings (for the print versions), etc.., etc., you have a good chance of making some money. But if you want to just write a book and put it into print without going the extra mile to promote it, the results are likely to be disappointing.

I’d also suggest getting your own ISBN for a title so the print version can appear in bookstores. The Amazon/Kindle free numbers are nice, but for sales outside Amazon.com, you need an ISBN (this might change in the future – but not yet).

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Duncan Long has worked in the publishing industry for several decades, and has seen over 100 of his books go into print with established presses. He currently works as a freelance book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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