The Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit

At one time, self-publishing meant commissioning a printer to make up 5,000 copies of your book, then storing them in your basement until you sold them. Not any more. CreateSpace, a subsidiary of Amazon, will print just a single copy of your book at a time, and only in response to a customer order on Amazon. Christy Pinheiro’s and Nick Russell’s text walks you through the steps of self-publishing in this new and digital way.

The authors encourage you to think of self-publishing as a business venture. This means they give all the steps necessary to register and plan a business, and at the same time, they discourage the publication of fiction, memoirs, and personal opinions that really aren’t viable as commercial propositions.

This is a very practical book — precisely the kind of specialized how-to guide the authors say the CreateSpace process works best for. The only thing missing, I felt, was information on book design and typesetting, for which the authors refer the reader to volumes covering these subjects. All in all, this is an excellent guide for the publishing beginner who wants to be walked through the process of self-publishing from conception and planning to production and marketing.

C. Pinheiro and Nick Russell. The Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit! Start Your Own Home-Based Publishing Company and Publish Your Non-Fiction Book with CreateSpace and Amazon. Pineapple Publications, 2009. Paperback. 189 pages. ISBN 0982266006. $18.95.