Publishing is So Easy a Writer Can Do It

Updated 3.24.11

The book publishing industry, like the newspaper biz, is on a glide path to oblivion. It's just too easy and cheap to download a book to your computer, iPad or Kindle.

And that was last year!

Now it takes less time to publish your own book than it does to write a publisher query letter, let alone send it out and wait for the rejection letters.

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing is so easy it's frightening (to the publishing industry).

How easy?

I just published my first eBook in less than an hour without spending a penny. If you're a writer and have any books or short stories in your file, you definitely should turn them into eBooks.

At Kindle Direct Publishing there are just a few pages to read here [1]. Then you answer some simple questions, upload your cover and book, and you're done. Twenty-four hours later your eBook is for sale on Amazon's site.

If you choose to sell your book for between $2.99 and $9.99 you get a whopping 70% royalty! If not, the royalty is still 35%, considerably higher than a regular publisher will give you for an eBook. And provided you own the worldwide rights, Amazon will sell your book on all its sites across the globe.

Apple also has their own free direct publishing. Read their FAQs page here [2].

And Lulu is another great source, here [3].

But nothing is as quick and effortless as Kindle Direct.

Of course, as with any publisher, sales are dependent on promotion. No promotion, no sales. So don't expect to become Stephen King over night. But look on the bright side; half the game is won getting your book published. Now all you have to do to win the other half is find clever ways to promote it.

Ahem! Speaking of which...

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If you have a Kindle I invite you to download my very first eBook. It's a short little story entitled Eeeww! and is costs just $ 0.99. It's a heartwarming tale about the ugliest person who ever lived, guaranteed to lift the spirits of children from 3 to 103.

With the charm of a classic fairy tale, Eeeww! tells the story of how the pretty land of Prettania exploited the ugly world of Uglaria until the ugliest Uglarian of all taught everyone that the only meaningful beauty is on the inside.

Read it to your kids. But be sure to read it to yourself. It'll make you smile every time someone wrinkles their nose and says, Eeeww!

To purchase a copy, click here [4], or on the picture, above. If don't own a Kindle don't worry. There are free Kindle reading apps that allow you to read Kindle Direct books on your iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, iPad, Android or Windows Phone 7. You'll find them all here [5].

And if you're an animation producer and think, as I do, that it would make a terrific animated film, please do contact me.

So if you're a writer like me, with a book or short story you couldn't sell, the time has come to dust it off and digitize it.

Good luck!

Jeff

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