|
 “Are
you a writer or do you want to look like one?” If so, then welcome
to the 21st century world of self publishing! Yes, you too can
produce good quality printed works for a pittance – especially with
the advent of self-publishing the internet way. On the Internet,
there are a number of self-publishing or “publish-on-demand” sites
available and in this week's
Tech Tip, we’ll look at some really cool things that you can do
by self publishing via the Internet – the geeky way.
Make You Own Calendar, Photo Book or Print up a Family History
 Making
your own bit of personal memorabilia can be fun, easy and exciting.
Whether it’s a cool calendar that you hand out , a personal photo
book for the coffee table or even a family history
that you create with the help of
Ancestry.com (see the Tech Tip on
15 cool websites) you’ll find that self-publishing sites help
walk you through the process. Not only make it as painless as
possible, but offer top notch on-demand printing that looks terrific
and is relatively inexpensive. Many will even grab your
Facebook,
Twitter or
Flickr Photos.
 Sites
such as
Lulu.com have cool and creative step by step “wizards” and
“creators” that walk you through making a terrific calendar
or photo book that will be the envy of your friends
and family. Such self-publicizing sites are very up-front with
costs (for example, for a standard calendar or a 20 page letter size
photo book, on Lulu you’ll be looking at under $20). If you decide
to venture into reselling your work they’ll help you with that too.
So in an afternoon, from the comfort of your living room you can
design your calendar or photo book and then have it shipped to you –
geeky fun for all.
Get that Novel Published (kind-of)
 Four
years ago, I participated in a wonderful experience of tossing
together a 50,000 word novel in just one month – by participating in
“National
Novel Writing Month” held every November (see
www.NaNoWriMo.org for details if you think you’re up to it).
Typically, if you reach the magic 50K mark, one of the self
publishing sites will print out a free copy of your novel for you.
Obviously, since these are self publishing websites, any services
such as editing and layout are extra, but in this modern computer
age, many of us are up to that task. The last year (November 2008)
www.CreateSpace.com kindly stepped up to the plate to make this
offer available to NaNoWriMo participants.
 If
you have a novel already done up, why not have a self-publisher site
print up a copy for you – it’s something that you can look at for
inspiration as you submit copies of it to commercial publishers for
their “slush piles.” - or If you are an enterprising type, feel free
to try these sites for posting/selling your work – it usually (for
the most basic services) will not run you anything to have it up for
sale. Self printing novels is actually pretty cheap considering how
much you pay for paperbacks these days. For example, for many novels
of around 100 pages – you’re looking at under $10.
Look around at what some other people have done
Despite the knock that some uninformed people may give the
self-publisher businesses, you’ll be surprised at some of the really
good quality items you’ll run across (and how cheap some of it is –
some publishers will even let you have e-copies free).
Self-publisher websites are kind of like the “America’s Got Talent”
of the writing world – you’ll never know what you discover! True
there may be some duds but you’ll be sure to run across some gems as
well in the process.
Concluding words
In truth, this Tech Tip just scratches some of the cool things that
you can do in the world of self-publishing. For example, some sites
allow video and musical content as well as the written word. So get
cracking and go ahead and explore this very cool, very geeky and
very 21st century version of self-publishing – the Internet way. |
