Where do musicians, movie makers, comedians, authors, educators, photographers, graphic artists, hobbyists, political activists and business speculators converge for a global audience with no traditional publisher? On websites that are completely automated, enabling everyone to self-publish using state-of-the-art technology, of course! These services print-on-demand, incurring product costs only when they receive an order, so they offer services at low cost or for free. Self-publishing action is increasing.

Anyone can now publish their passions by printing books, compact discs, photography or original artwork on posters and framed prints, or graphic designs for clothing and other products! It is automated so all the content, artwork, product selection (with some limits), retail prices and profit margins are self determined and self published at websites like http://CafePress.com and http://Lulu.com. This writer has done it on both of these sites. Of course, the intellectual property must be your own because all copyright laws apply. How cool is that? It is very cool and state-of-the-art!

For all of us except traditional publishers, this is a dream come true! If I were a traditional publisher, I would start thinking a career change toward more of my own intellectual property creation might be needed, to survive.

Back on point, for traditional publishers and everyone who wants to self publish and sell something they have created, below is an overview of what it takes to get it done. What you must do in the case of a book for example, is everything. You must write the manuscript and prepare it in PDF format exactly as it will print. Adobe Acrobat is a popular program to convert your text to PDF format. You must prepare the cover art, spine and back cover artwork files in a graphics art program, exactly as it will print with margins, bleeds, all of it and then convert it to the format required by your self publishing service. And you must set the sale price and profit margins! Costs from the print-on-demand publishing services are predetermined based upon variables of book size, paper type, book style, page count and binding options. Options can include hard cover, soft cover and more unusual choices.

A little reading about copyright, trade mark and trade name laws from easily found websites through search engines and you will know how to incorporate those symbols into your files.

Once you have all of that prepared, with your own legal protections on your intellectual property in place, you upload the files to your online self publisher(s) of choice. Then order a sample! When you have it the way you want it, then you have a new task to undertake.

That would be promoting your new self published work, which this article may assist me in accomplishing. There are plenty of online pay services, and a few free ones providing minimal distribution, to distribute press releases about your new venture and creation(s). That is one method of raising awareness. Another is writing articles as Randall Ulbricht of http://Article-Outlet.com has so thoroughly explained to us in the blog at his website. In the case of clothing and other imprinted products, wearing and using the products yourself in public is one of the most obvious ways of raising awareness and increasing your brand recognition.

I never said it would be easy. But really, as people learn photo editing, website building and graphics art programs, along with word processing programs, all of this becomes easy compared to the old fashioned way of doing it all; the way we did it before many of you were born. So pull the pieces together and get started on your next creation for publication!

If I were a traditional publisher, I think I would start creating something of my own to sell.