I’ve been in the self-publishing game for a few years now and can honestly say it’s come a long way, with the biggest advantage being that you can now get your book(s) on Amazon without the need for an ISBN.

The two major players for those who want to self-publish are Lulu and CreateSpace. Both of them are fairly straightforward in the way they work.

Bear in mind that both these services do much more than just book publishing. You can also publish DVDs, pay-for-file downloads (such as selling a PDF), audio CDs, audio downloads and more.

There are a few things you have to consider when either either of these:

You will be required to give personal information

When I say personal information, I mean full name, mailing address and social security number in addition to your email. Why all this info? It’s because all profits are reported to the IRS. If you do not operate a business, your tax ID is your social security number.

You may be required to give banking information

Both services allow payment by paper check (Lulu also has a PayPal option), but if you decide to go direct-deposit, you will have to provide banking information in order to receive money from any profits made.

You will have to have a better-than-average knowledge of word processing, DVD creating, etc.

Both services adhere to strict formats in order to ensure that books, DVDs and other media are published properly. Since you’re not going to physically see the product before it goes out, following the instructions is very important.

Fortunately, both services has excellent how-to documentation on how to format your stuff properly. Lulu, for example has ready-made downloadable templates for Word and OpenOffice concerning books in multiple formats (standard letter, A5, etc.)

Have you published your book, audio or video yet?

You should. Now that you can get this stuff on Amazon easily and have two great choices to choose from (or use both), there’s really no excuse.

The Amazon availability is the big deal here. Amazon is a huge site, successfully survived the dot-com crash years ago and has proven to be a stable marketplace for books and other types of media.

It’s out there waiting for you. Go make some money!