How To Self-Publish Your Genealogy Book

You can self-publish a book and sell it on Amazon.  They have a service to help anyone self-publish books, and list them in Amazon's catalog.

Here's how:

1.Go to Amazon's self-publishing web site, CreateSpace, and create a free account.

2.Select the size of the pages in the book you wish to publish and then download a Microsoft Word template for that size of book.

3.Copy your manuscript into the template. That template will determine left and right side pages, generate page numbers, generate the table of contents, and other formatting.

4.Make a cover. You can do all the artwork yourself, hire it out, or use one of CreateSpace's pre-defined formats.

5.Save the result as a PDF file and then upload it to CreateSpace. The CreateSpace service will even assign the ISBN number You also need to determine the price of the finished book.

CreateSpace will send a proof to you. If you approve, the finished book will be in Amazon.com's catalog within two or three business days.

The royalty paid to you varies widely, depending upon the price you set and the size of the book.

CreateSpace has excellent customer support.  Click on the Call Me icon  and, within 30 seconds, a customer service representative will call your phone.

No products are manufactured ahead of time so there is no inventory to worry about, and your titles are shipped directly to the end customer.

Marketing and promoting the book is entirely up uo you.  But the Glenview Public Library has many wonderful books about marketing your product that you can check out.  Try A Simple Guide to Marketing Your Book by Mark Ortman 808.02 ORT;  The Complete Guide to Book Marketing by Cole David  070.5 COL. or The Complete Guide to Book Publicity by Jodee Blanco  002.068 BLA.