If you have a manuscript that has been collecting dust in the corner of your office, you may consider publishing it yourself. Ereaders like the Amazon Kindle have not only opened up a whole new world for reading, but also for authors looking to get their book published. Let’s face it, it can be hard to get an agent to pick up your book, but now you can publish it yourself as an electronic version and promote it yourself.
Amazon has a place that you can publish your book. You need to have an account at Amazon, but it is free and takes just a few minutes to register. You go through the publishing process at Amazon’s Digital Text Platform site. Here are the steps to get you going.
• Download the .pdf Amazon DTP Quickstart Guide. It is a through document that gives you all the details you need.
• After you create your account information at the DTP site, you will see an “Add New” button at the top of the page.
• Once you click this button, you will see a screen that shows you the four steps you need to complete to publish. Each one will have a red “X” until you complete it, and once you are done, it will change to a green check mark.
• The first step is to enter the product details. You will add things such as title and product description. The more descriptive you are, the greater the chances that consumers will find your work. You can also upload the cover image, and remember, people do judge a book by its cover.
• The next step is to confirm the content rights. This section is simply assuming you have the rights to what you want to publish.
• Then comes the process of uploading your book. Amazon is very clear that HTML works the best. MS Word is second best, but a PDF is a “no-no”. If you are using MS Word, you can save the manuscript as an HTML file.
• The last step is entering the suggested retail price for the ebook. If you are a new author, you have to accept that you may not make a lot of money off your book. The 99-cent book niche in the ereader realm is quite popular, and you may get a lot of downloads if you choose to price it low.
• Once everything is complete, you can click “Publish“. It takes between 24 to 48 hours to see it as a listing.
Amazon has a lot of support forums and FAQs about self-publishing electronically, sble to do this without any hitch. Don’t skimp on getting the word out there. Use social sites like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out that you have an ebook ready to be purchased and downloaded to any Kindle.