You Can Publish Your Passion, Free
by Average Joe Boomer
All by themselves every Tom, Dick
and Harry can now publish their creations for free (or with very little cost)!
Where do musicians, movie makers, comedians, authors, educators, photographers,
graphic artists, hobbyists, political activists and business speculators
converge for a global audience with no traditional publisher? On websites that
are completely automated, enabling everyone to self-publish using
state-of-the-art technology, of course! These services print-on-demand,
incurring product costs only when they receive an order, so they offer services
at low cost or for free. Self-publishing action is increasing.
Anyone can now publish their passions by printing books, compact discs,
photography or original artwork on posters and framed prints, or graphic designs
for clothing and other products! It is automated so all the content, artwork,
product selection (with some limits), retail prices and profit margins are self
determined and self published at websites like CafePress.com and Lulu.com. This
writer has done it on both of these sites. Of course, the intellectual property
must be your own because all copyright laws apply. How cool is that? It is very
cool and state-of-the-art!
For all of us except traditional publishers, this is a dream come true! If I
were a traditional publisher, I would start thinking a career change toward more
of my own intellectual property creation might be needed, to survive.
Back on point, for traditional publishers and everyone who wants to self publish
and sell something they have created, below is an overview of what it takes to
get it done. What you must do in the case of a book for example, is everything.
You must write the manuscript and prepare it in PDF format exactly as it will
print. Adobe Acrobat is a popular program to convert your text to PDF format.
You must prepare the cover art, spine and back cover artwork files in a graphics
art program, exactly as it will print with margins, bleeds, all of it and then
convert it to the format required by your self publishing service. And you must
set the sale price and profit margins! Costs from the print-on-demand publishing
services are predetermined based upon variables of book size, paper type, book
style, page count and binding options. Options can include hard cover, soft
cover and more unusual choices.
A little reading about copyright, trade mark and trade name laws from easily
found websites through search engines and you will know how to incorporate those
symbols into your files.
Once you have all of that prepared, with your own legal protections on your
intellectual property in place, you upload the files to your online self
publisher(s) of choice. Then order a sample! When you have it the way you want
it, then you have a new task to undertake.
That would be promoting your new self published work, which this article may
assist me in accomplishing. There are plenty of online pay services, and a few
free ones providing minimal distribution, to distribute press releases about
your new venture and creation(s). That is one method of raising awareness.
Another is writing articles as Randall Ulbricht of Article-Outlet.com has so
thoroughly explained to us in the blog at his website. In the case of clothing
and other imprinted products, wearing and using the products yourself in public
is one of the most obvious ways of raising awareness and increasing your brand
recognition.
I never said it would be easy. But really, as people learn photo editing,
website building and graphics art programs, along with word processing programs,
all of this becomes easy compared to the old fashioned way of doing it all; the
way we did it before many of you were born. So pull the pieces together and get
started on your next creation for publication!
If I were a traditional publisher, I think I would start creating something of
my own to sell.
About the Author:
Average Joe Boomer promotes his
vision of boosting troop morale, by influencing voters, with his website at
www.votewithtroops.com. He also promotes his Sly Dawg character at
www.cafepress.com/sly_dawg. His publication names include Average Joe Baby
Boomer and Joe Ostrich (Getting Your Head Out of the Sand - A Baby Boomer's
Reform Agenda). Contact him at: avgjoeboomer@sbcglobal.net Source of this article:
www.goarticles.com
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