How to Use the Internet for Self-Publishing Your Books and Make Money

English: A Picture of a eBook  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has never been a more exciting time to consider writing and earning from a book!
Gone are the days of mailing a manuscript to a publishing house and waiting for months to get a response. Thanks to the huge success of Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform and many more self-publishing services, it's possible to publish a book and start making money in next to no time.

How it used to be

Prior to the digital publishing explosion, many authors who were rejected by traditional publishers made the decision to collaborate with a "vanity publisher" instead. It typically cost each of these writers thousands of dollars to have their books edited and published by these so-called publishers. A large portion of the fee went towards the purchase of a pre-determined number of books that the authors were then responsible to try to sell themselves.

How Internet Can Help

Now, writers can utilize print-on-demand services offered by sites such as blurb.com or createspace.com to print their books as needed, or in small quantities. These merchants typically offer additional assisted self-publishing services (individually or in different packages) such as:

• Cover Design
• Editing
• Formatting
• eBook Publishing
• Promotional Materials
• Book Fairs
• and more…

That’s the reason that we can see more self-published books being released as compared to their traditionally published counterparts. According to a rough estimate, more than half of the total numbers of books released are self-published. These numbers represent astounding figures, which is wonderful news for writers and authors of all genres.

The Advantages of Self-Publishing

In addition to the speed at which a book can hit the virtual shelves (print books can take up to 2 years before they are actually available) there are many advantages to self-publishing. They include but are not limited to:

• Total control of content. There is no specific word count to adhere to, no need to make unwanted editorial changes and writers have the option to add elements such as numerous photos and interactive links.
• Total price control and a higher per book profit margin. Books sold online typically net the author a royalty of 30-70% per book. Traditionally published titles typically net the author a royalty of 5-25% per book, minus agent commissions.
• Ability to retain exclusive rights to content. This includes movie rights, foreign language rights, television rights and digital book rights.
• Total control of promotional efforts. This includes everything from creating a blog and/or Facebook page, tweeting about a book, joining general author forums and forums relating to the subject of the book, giving away free books for review, book fairs and more.
• World-wide readership. In the past, many traditionally published writers considered themselves lucky to have their books displayed in stores in their local area. However, publishing with the help of the Internet allows authors to promote to a global audience.
• Indefinite availability, regardless of sporadic sales. The majority of brick and mortar bookstores remove books that aren't selling well, after a period of four months.

Whether an author decides to publish completely on his or her own or work with an online company that offers self-publishing assistance, there are many options to choose from. Before making a final decision in regard to this type of outsourcing, it is crucial to research each vendor, and go through the reviews, to ascertain what will be the best service for the job?

Is it the real deal?

Well-known authors who have recently taken advantage of self-publishing and the Internet include J.K. Rowling, who exclusively markets the digital versions of her books from her website Pottermore, Catherine Cookson, and Deepak Chopra.

Of course, like any other accomplishment in life, successful self-publishing holds no guarantees. Many authors sell a few copies of their book and then simply decide not to pursue it further. However, with patience and due diligence many individuals manage to generate a reasonable, if not insanely big income from their writing efforts. There's absolutely no reason you can't do the same.

In particular, authors who take the time to learn all that they can about publishing and marketing their own work will generally prosper the most. But given the wonderful marketing opportunities offered by internet in general, and social media to be precise, there’s no reason why you cannot earn substantial profits by writing and self-publishing books.

This is a guest post by Farah from http://verybestsoftware.net/. 

Why The Kindle Fire Is Better Than The iPad

Since the introduction of the iPad no other pad device has come close to being able to make a dent in the pad market. Hands down the Apple iPad is the best pad device around, but its $500 price tag has kept many customers away, including me. Now the Amazon Kindle Fire is making a stir with its $199 price tag. I purchased my own Kindle Fire and this review is my opinion of its usefulness.

Around the Internet the reaction to the Kindle Fire is luke warm to say the least. When you only have the iPad to compare it to it will not really impress anyone. It isn't supposed to be a iPad competitor but it will take potential sales away from it. The Kindle Fire is a well made, well thought out device that will perform all the functions the average customer needs to do.

What can the Kindle Fire Do?

A Content Device.
Through the Amazon music and video store you can purchase content and consume it on the Fire. Amazon has a music store and video store much like iTunes. You can store your media on the device or in the cloud to stream at anytime. As a bonus, you get a free trial to Amazon Prime with your Kindle Fire. That means you get free two-day shipping when you buy stuff from Amazon, plus free streaming access to thousands of movies and TV shows. If you decide to keep Amazon Prime, it'll cost you $79 per year. Not a bad deal considering there are 1000's of TV shows and movies to watch. If you are using Netflix now you don't need both, cancel the Netflix and use Amazon's streaming movies and save money too.

If you have an Android phone you are already familiar with the interface, if not you will still find it very easy to navigate. The video and audio plays smoothly. The built in speakers are small, but adequate enough for individual use. A headphone jack is available for private listening.


Apps are Plentiful.
Again like your Android phone, apps are easy to load and use. The Android App Store is not included on the device but Amazon's App Store is and it has many apps for you to download and use. Some free, some at a low cost. There are apps of all kinds. Though iPad does have many more apps the Kindle has more than enough to satisfy the average user. Receiving your email on the Fire is a snap, too.

There is a Kindle Reader Inside.
Above all the Fire is a Kindle tablet. The Kindle book reader is the ultimate device to read ebooks. If you have been wanting to get back into the habit of reading, the Kindle will help you. It makes reading books very easy. You can adjust the font size, color, and background color. Since I got mine I have been reading like never before. The Kindle book store has thousands of free books and many only $.99. Your local library also lends Kindle books. Reading has never been made so easy to do.

The "Silk" Internet Browser.
Amazon spent the time to get the Internet browser just right. It is smooth and quick to load pages. It has tabbed pages, bookmarks, and everything else a well made browser needs. No skimping here.

Should You Buy it?
In my case the iPad selling for $500 will never be worth it to me. If I was going to spend $500 it would be for a 42" LCD TV. It doesn't make sense for a casual electronic product. At $199 it's worth it, because of all the functions it performs that I don't have to use my desktop for. The portability and functionality makes it a great idea to own one.

Other pads from Blackberry, HTC, and Samsung sell at $400 or more. At that price I would go the extra $100 and get the iPad. Remember, with the iPad and the Amazon Kindle, you have large companies in the market for the long haul to support it. Will these other companies be there in a year or two down the line when sales don't do to well. Remember HP dumped there pads at $200 when they wanted out of the business.

Bottom line the Amazon Kindle Fire gives you the best value and provides you access to the best content. You have the support of one of the biggest companies behind you. That's more than enough to make it worth considering.