How to Publish Your Book For Under $100 (or even FREE!)

Introduction

Have you've always dreamed of seeing your poems, stories or non-fiction book in print? Have you imagined what it would be like to see your name, as the author of that book, write there at the bottom of the front cover? Have you felt hopeless, like 'that' would never happen? Well, take heart. It can be done and for a whole cheaper than you've likely thought.

Step One

Get OpenOffice Writer. ITS FREE!

Just go to www.openoffice.org and download their entire suite of software. OpenOffice is a great program. Don't worry about adware or viruses. This program is offer by Sun Microsystems, the same people who created and own Java. They are a huge company and highly respected in the industry. The program is free. You'll have to download the entire suite, however, you'll get some amazing components that will be highly valuable and useful for you for FREE as well.

Step Two

If you have your book or collection of poems in a MS Word, Wordperfect or other file, all you have to do is open that file with OpenOffice.

It will open almost any kind of word processing file.

Then, go to www.lulu.com. This site and company is going to blow you away. They are going to be the 'key' to getting your book in print for less than $10-20 in most cases. When you go to www.lulu.com, you are doing to download a template. Go to http://www.lulu.com/en/help/index.php?fSymbol=templates and you will find several doc templates.

Once you've downloaded the template for the size of book that you want (I use the 6x9 template) then you'll want to open the template in OpenOffice Writer.

You'll then import your MS Word file or whatever you have your book or collection of poems in, right into this template. Once you've imported it, you'll need to get the pages, print, format, etc., looking exactly the way you want it to look.

I recommend the you start all chapters on the right hand page with odd numbers.

Step Three

You'll save your document once you get it exactly like you want it.

However, you want to save it as a PDF (portable document file). You can do this on the 'Save as' window or by selecting the PDF icon at the top on the menu bar.

Step Four

Now you'll need to set up a FREE account at www.lulu.com. This is easy. Just like you would do in most places that you set up with basic information.

Once your account is set up, you will go to 'Publish' and start the process of creating how your book is going to look. Don't worry about having a cover. Lulu will provide you several template covers to choose from.

Take it step by step. Lulu's publishing process takes you by the hand and leads you through each step. If you have any questions, Lulu has on-demand live help available. (Remember, you've not spent one thin red cent so far; not even given a credit card number).

Step Five

Once you complete this process, Lulu will give you a page where the offer and info on your book will appear. It will be something like my first book at http://www.lulu.com/content/400603. Go take a look (and you can buy my book if you want to. It will change your life. Just read some of the reviews.)

Step Six

You are set. You can offer your book right there from the offer page (just like mine), copy the link to where ever you want and Lulu will pay you a very generous royalty each time one sells. I get around $5.50 on my $15 book. Trust me. Anything about 20% is a very generous royalty. And, Lulu will actually pay you. I get checks from the all of the time.

Step Seven

Now remember, you've still not spent any money.

The only way you're going to spend any money is to order a copy of your own book. If you order it while you're still logged into your Lulu account, you will buy it at a discount. You buy one book or several. But do noticed that you've not spent anything at all to get your book into print. Other services charge anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars to do what Lulu does for free.