Have an idea for a book? Unless you can find a traditional publisher to finance it (no small feat), your only alternative is desktop publishing. Basically, there are no standards for what you can publish on your own. Of course, you finance the project yourself.

There are several companies that offer packages for around $ 4,000. Among the leaders in the business are:

• Lulu, a very popular desktop publishing platform.

• CreateSpace, a subsidiary of Amazon.

• Kindle direct publishing.

For your investment providers, please provide the book ID (ISBN), carefully edit the text, set the style, and deliver a hard copy on demand (POD). An alternative is offset printing, a process that runs in quantity. With this you enter the business of inventory management.

Few authors get by with the standard package. The publisher’s marketing resources come at an additional cost and I think they were a total waste. With compensation there are also warehouse fees.

Marketing packages offered included services such as professional reviews, Google marketing, and Publisher’s Weekly (PW) ads. Paid reviews tend to be positive, whether the book is good or not. PW is an important resource for library purchases.

Still, you are ultimately the primary marketer. Set a marketing budget and develop a marketing plan. Get closer to potential buyers, the target market. Evaluate what works and what doesn’t.

The average self-published book sells 250 copies during its lifetime. In addition, the eBook competes with the printed copy. I mistakenly printed 2000 copies of my book.

After realizing the mistake, I tried to back off and the supplier was not very cooperative. I took them to small claims court and they gave me almost half of my purchase back.

Social media can be very helpful. I have over 500 friends on Facebook and over 1,100 connections on LinkedIn. You should post comments and articles and occasionally become a “consumer” on these sites by making comments, asking and answering questions.

I write a lot of articles and have a library of previous articles. These I present to the site EzineArticles. Make sure to use keywords that are relevant to your book.

So what advice would you give him? Do not print offset. Live with the POD even if the return is less. Investigate more than me; Less expensive alternatives exist, especially if you are comfortable managing your own marketing. Pick an unattended topic; mine is about business start-ups and the selection is huge.