I have been an aspiring writer for quite some time. My mom always encouraged me to write, she's an aspiring writer herself. I have written many projects, but I wrote my short story, "The Key", to test the waters. I wanted to know if I have what it takes to be a writer and to understand the whole process involved in self-publishing.

Here is what I've learned so far:

1. Amazon will publish to Kindle (Kindle devices, Kindle apps, and Kindle Cloud Reader) or even print on demand your books.

Amazon has a pretty great system where you can upload as many revisions as you need and there are two different royalties options. It's great because it costs you nothing to actually upload your book and get published and you get to tailor your prices.

The problem I've been coming across is that the process is a bit slow. It makes perfect sense too, they have to review it and make sure there are no viruses or copyright infringement issues. The part I wasn't expecting to be slow was that my book is not searchable. Right now, if you go to Amazon and type in my name or my book title, my book will not come up.

On the forums - so I've been told - the process will take 72 hours after my book is "live" for my story to be searchable. I am currently within that window so it's not searchable yet. I understand that this is part of the process and I can't ask Amazon to be any quicker on this, with no cost to me to upload it, but I just wasn't expecting it. Will this stop me from publishing to Amazon again? No, but now I know.

2. You have to create an Author Page in Amazon (or wherever you publish).

This process I thought was automatic, but it makes sense that it isn't. It's separate from the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing in that books not made by Amazon also need an author page. This is also a free service, I'm just waiting for my book to be searchable before I can create mine.

I have not looked at Nook or Apple yet for this because I've got an exclusive contract with Amazon Kindle for the first 90 days. This leads me to my next topic.

3. Publishing to Amazon directly and first can allow you to join the Kindle Lending Library.

This is pretty self explanatory  For the first 90 days, your work can be part of the Kindle Lending Library (for Prime members) if you are exclusive to Amazon. After that time, you can publish to other places of course.

The reason I decided to do this was because, right now, I want to get as much feed back as possible. Making my first few stories free, I can get more reviews (in theory anyway). Also, I want my work to be shared right now. I want as many people to read my books. I want to utilize word of mouth advertising right now, so I chose this option. You can opt out of it if you don't want to.

4. There are sites out there who can cross-platform publish for you.

This I learned from a friend, there are sites that will upload your work to multiple websites. These include Smashwords, CreateSpace, etc. My friend uses Smashwords, I created my own account and will probably use them when I want to publish to Nook and Apple. You should definitely do your own research as well!

5. Whoever you publish with, do research on who retains the rights.

With Kindle Direct Publishing I get to keep the rights. I believe most ebook formats do. They want you to keep your writes so that publishers will upload their clients books too. Just be aware that some self-publish services that publishes to multiple formats for you may require the rights to your work. Just keep that in mind. I prefer to keep my own rights, so I will choose publishers that will allow me to do so.

6. You have to market, market, market!

This one I was most unprepared for. I was hoping that Amazon would help me promote my book. The truth is, no matter who you publish with, you are often on your own. This means that you should create your own website (with your own domain or through a blog), start a twitter account, start a facebook page, join writing forums, contact independent book reviewers, and mingle as much as you can with as many people as you can. If need be, you may need to review other people's work to get yours reviewed too. That is perfectly fair. Often times the people willing to review your book for free are also self-publishing.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing allows anyone to publish their work. That means it isn't impossible for your books or stories to be shared and enjoyed. This is what I've learned so far in the process of publishing my own work. If you'd like to add your own notes in the comments please feel free to do so!

Happy Writing!