There have been many changes to the self-published book, in recent years. It used to be a process that people just couldn't handle because of the up front costs, for one thing. Also, though, people often had no idea how to advertise and distribute their books, even once they had copies made. There have been many self-published book changes in recent years that have changed all that, though.

The Old Process:

The first step of the old self-published book process was to pay a lot of up front costs to have books printed. Then, it was usually the author's responsibility to try to market and sell their books in order to make their money back, plus profit, if they were lucky. Often times, they didn't make what they had invested in their product.

What That Meant:

What that meant was that only the very rich could produce a self-published book without going deep into debt. For those without the ability to pay upfront for self-publication, the only option was to seek the help of a well-known publishing house.

Of course, publishing houses had their advantages. They had connections and could produce a high volume of sales, usually, for example. The problem with the big publishing houses is that it was difficult, if not impossible, for many first-time authors to get accepted by such places. So, many people were forced to give up their book writing dreams.

The Digitally Printed Self-Published Book:

These days, though, people are much more fortunate, thanks to technological advances. The digitally printed self-published book is much much easier to print and market. Thanks to technology, in fact, there's no more need for self-published authors to pay upfront costs.

POD:

One of the great things about digital printing is the POD concept. POD stands for "Print On Demand". POD means that people can market their books online and copies are printed as they are ordered. That eliminates the need for authors to pay for many books to be printed ahead of time. That, in turn, prevents authors from being stuck with a bunch of books that they can't sell.

Internet Marketing:

Another benefit of the digitally printed self-published book is that authors can easily use Internet marketing to sell their books easily and globally. Rather than just selling books at the corner store, now people can market their works to everyone all over the world, which generates many more sales. That translates to a much better profit for each author.

Of course, self-published book aren't limited to just novels. People are also using software programs to quickly and easily create high-quality photo books. Those photo books can then be e-mailed to friends and family, who can print them quickly and easily. So, the self-published photo book is a great way to share family memories and pass them down for future generations.