For the longest time, one of my life goals is to write a book.  Well, just last Friday, I published my first book!  It seemed that long ago, getting a book published would take a lot of work and money.  But in today’s web-connected society and just-in-time printing capability, self-publishing is within easy grasp of anybody.  I made that leap last Friday.  I published my book.  It was really a very easy and stress free process.  If you wish to publish your own book, please read on.  I’ll keep this article as lean as possible, so that you can get to the meat of the subject matter.

The image and link on the right is for my book titled “How to Use the Internet:  Seven Essential Internet Tools and Skills Anyone Can Learn to Use.”  This is the book I published on Friday.  Below are the top level steps I took to get this done.

1. Figure out a topic to write about.
2. Write it.
3. Sign up for an account at CreateSpace.
4. Sign in to CreateSpace and follow publishing instructions.
5. Done

Figure Out A Topic To Write About

The second toughest part about writing a book these days is figuring out a topic to write about.  Whether you are going to do this for fun or profit, you need to figure out what to write about.  Here are some ideas you can use to help with this:

1. Pick a topic that you are good at.
2. If you’ve solved a problem and you think others can benefit from it, that would be a good topic to write about.
3. If there is a subject matter you are very interested in, and you are willing to seriously learn about it,  that too could be a potential topic.

Regardless of what topic you pick, you need to pick one that you really enjoy, like, or really knowledgeable about.  Otherwise, you will quickly lose interest, and never finish.

Write It

As noted in the previous section, the second toughest part about writing a book is picking the topic to write about.  The toughest part about writing a book is the act of writing and editing the book.  This part takes time, effort, and a lot of perseverance.  It also ideally needs another set of eyes for editing, at the very least.

Depending on the subject matter and whether you are already a subject matter expert and the amount of time you have available daily to put into it, the writing efforts could take up to several months to do.  In my case, I took some of my weekends and early hours of the working day to complete it.  I completed it within six months.

Signup for a CreateSpace Account

This is the easiest part of the process–signing up for a CreateSpace account.  It’s free, and you just need to provide them enough information about you so they can pay you royalties and be able to report your income to the IRS.  To signup for a CreateSpace account, just go to https://www.createspace.com/Signup.jsp.

Sign in to CreateSpace and Follow Instructions

The third toughest part of the process is going through the CreateSpace process.  The steps involved here are relatively easy.  You can even download a MS Word file template so that you can setup your content according to the proper book format that would fit the dimensions of the book you selected.  Things you need to keep in mind is a good bio and picture so that you’ll have something to put on the back of the book regarding you as the author.

You also need to worry about the images you place in your book.  CreateSpaces recommends images with 300 dpi resolution.  As for a book cover, if you already have something you prefer, make sure you have an image ready; otherwise, you can pick from several stock photos and images available from CreateSpace.

Done

Once you’ve published your book, it becomes immediately available from CreateSpace.com.  They become available at other distribution channels from 3 to 5 days.  The good thing about all this is that no one has to maintain any inventory.  CreateSpace prints them as they are ordered.  The entire process is completely free; although you can use some of their services to help you with various aspects of publishing a book.

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