It used to be that anyone wanting to self-publish a book didn't have a lot of options. There were only a certain number of printing facilities, after all. Most of those facilities charged a lot of money for printings, too. Those fees could be lowered by ordering larger numbers of copies at once, but many would be authors couldn't afford that.

Even for those who could afford it, their money was often depleted by just having the copies printed. Advertising their work was often out of the question. That meant that authors often lost money on the process.

The only other alternative authors had was to seek help from publishing companies. Such companies were often very picky about manuscripts, though. They might reject manuscripts entirely or insist on changes that authors didn't want to make. Although such companies had good advertising connections, many authors couldn't get their work approved by such places, at least not without revisions that they didn't want to make.

In the early 21st century, that all began to change. The digital era was ushered in and, along with it, can self-published book customization and advancements. Printing companies, for example, now offer great software to help first-time authors.

In fact, many printing companies offer software that also helps with photos. So, authors can add photos to their works. In fact, lots of people are using such software for the sole purpose of making photo scrapbooks for their family to enjoy. That all adds up to a lot more creative works being published.

Digital printing costs are also so much lower now that printing companies don't have to insist on bulk orders. Combining that with Internet sales, there's been a new movement. It's called POD.

POD stands for Print On Demand and is a great new way for authors to market their self-pulished books. Publishing websites allow authors to sell their books online with the author and the site splitting the proceeds. The tracking software used allows the website to track when orders are placed and print copies after they're paid for. That means no more initial costs to authors, which is a great thing.

The nice thing about such publishing websites is that they aren't choosy about what manuscripts they advertise, generally. That's because it doesn't cost them much or take much time to do that advertising. The great thing for authors is that that means not having to get rejected or go into debt. Also, though, it means reaching a world-wide audience in a matter of minutes. So, it's no wonder that the self-published book is making