by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: December 29, 2008

Self publishing was long regarded as a dodgy way to break into print, only pipped at the post by vanity publishing. With vanity publishing, the quality of your writing meant nothing as long as the vanity publisher got paid. With self publishing, not only was the writing questionable, but the resulting books looked amateurish as well.

Then the Internet opened up a whole new world as far as self publishing goes. You could start small, with a blog, or go all the way and publish your own book online. While writing quality still varies, the plethora of self help writing sites on the Internet makes it less of an issue. If you are prepared to do your homework first, you can easily learn what makes a good, readable writing style.

Self publishing is not just an act of desperation anymore. Traditional publishers no longer have the edge when it comes to producing quality books that people want to read. Nor do the authors have to see most of their profits skimmed before a penny goes into their bank account. The Internet has changed the concept of self publishing.

No longer is a writer tied to the current needs of traditional publishers. No longer do they have wait months or years for a decision. If you have an idea for a book, you can write it, convert it to .pdf and have it for sale within hours - all it will cost you is the time.

What should you write about? Anything that interests you - chances are it will interest many other people as well. If you have some specialized knowledge, all the better. I love making miniatures - and one of my most successful ebooks is How to Make a Miniature Gypsy Caravan. But you needn't stop at instructional books. You can print and market your short stories, poems or novels. You can write your memoirs, if you have a great life story to tell. The possibilities are only limited by what you can write, and what you want to write.

Actually writing the ebook will take the longest time. Marshall your thoughts and your information and get to work. Make use of the many self help writing sites and advice on the Internet to help you shape your book according to your vision, and to acceptable puiblished expectations. Then proof it over and again until you are satisfied it is the best you can do.

You can convert your document online for free to a .pdf format suitable for ebook publishing. Try createpdf.adobe.com or look up other sites where free conversion is available. Once you have converted your document you can look at options for publishing.

The option

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