This is exceedingly simple. Now anyone can publish their books using the ebook stores

You can sign up for the various ebook stores and publish your book. Most will take a PDF file or an ePub File and use that to create an ebook available for sale in their ebook store
1) Amazon Kindle Store - sign up at http://kdp.amazon.com . KDP stands for Kindle Digital Publishing
2) Apple iBooks - sign up at http://itunes.apple.com . You will need an iMac or Apple laptop to sign up. Else, you can sign up via a digital distributor (more below)
3) Nook Store (Barnes and Noble) - sign up at Nook Publisher

If you want to sign up once and get into a bunch of ebook stores then you can use a digital distributor such as
1) BookBaby - upload once and get your book listed in Kindle, Nook, Apple and many more stores
2) Draft2Digital - upload once and get your book listed in almost every store other than Kindle Store
3) Smashwords - upload once and get your book listed in almost every store other than Kindle Store

To see your books out in the world, you have to do nothing more than
1) Create an ebook file - ideally ePub or PDF
2) Publish it using the self publishing platforms/sites the various ebook stores provide
OR use a digital distributor to submit once and publish in most of the major ebook stores

Now, anyone can publish



Now comes the tough part. You have made your books available in the ebook stores. How do you sell them?

Step 1: Figure out WHO the right readers for your book are. Spend as much time as required to figure out exactly who the book is suited to

Step 2: Set categories for the book based on who the book is best suited for. Go only by data and what actually works. Do not go by 'I think' or by guesswork

Step 3: Polish Your Book. Get a great cover from a top notch designer like www.GoOnWrite.com or www.Damonza.com
Premade covers from www.GoOnWrite.com are just $30. So there is absolutely no excuse to stick to your old dilapidated cover. Make sure to pick a cover from the Genre you have chosen i.e. the genre you determined your book was best suited to

Step 4: Polish Your Book More. Get it edited and proof read. Get it formatted. Write a great book description. Add your author profile and a photo
Resist the temptation to burn money on marketing a book that isn't polished. First - polish, polish, polish

Step 5: Figure out what are the best marketing and promotion avenues for books in your genre
Step 5b: Set up a promotion schedule using those promotion avenues
Step 5c: Make sure the book is discounted to maximize sales. We recommend $0.99 for new authors, regardless of whatever illusions you might have about readers paying $10 for ebooks from authors they do not know

The first and biggest test is to get readers to PAY for your book. It's fine to go with $0.99. It's the PAYING part that is the big test. Don't make it harder by asking them to pay the same price as a Stephen King ebook. Go with $0.99 if you are new

If you have polished the book, and discounted it, and put it in the right genres, it will sell
If it sells, no matter how much - Great! You've proven you can sell your books. Now you can set better, bigger goals
If it doesn't sell - Go back to the drawing board. The issues are almost always with book being in the wrong genre, or book not being polished enough. Start by addressing those two areas

You wash, rinse, repeat - Polish your book more, improve the genres, improve the marketing - and you will start selling your book

VERY IMPORTANT: Most authors who have a hard time selling their books, can't sell because THEY MAKE EXCUSES. Make SOLUTIONS, not excuses. There can only be 3 reasons your book isn't selling (broadly speaking)
A) Your book is in the wrong genre. You are trying to sell it to the wrong readers
B) Your book is not polished enough. It's not edited well. The cover isn't good. It isn't proofread
C) You are promoting it using the wrong channels

Take 100% responsibility and fix and tweak these three areas


Selling your books is a major, major win. How do you progres to the next level i.e. proving your books are loved by readers, that they are worth reading

Firstly, embrace the fact that you don't need validation from your readers. The minute you let go of your need for validation, everything becomes easier

Secondly, let's see how to figure out whether your books are being read and liked, not from a needy 'I need validation' perspective, but from a simple 'how do I become a better writer' perspective

Q1: What percentage of book sales are turning into reviews?
1 out of every 100 sales is exceptional
1 out of every 1000 sales is par for the course, and good
No Reviews - No Reviews before 1000 sales means nothing.
No Reviews after 2000 or more sales - This usually means your book needs to be edited and proofread
No Reviews after 5000 or more sales - This means you need to write better

Q2: What are the reviews like?
If Reviews are all good or mostly good - Great, the book is great
If Reviews are mixed - You need to work on your writing skills
If Reviews are mostly negative - This usually only happens if you skimped on the editing and proof-reading, or if you put the book in the wrong genre

Q3: Are you getting word of mouth sales and follow on sales?
If readers are buying your other books (other than the one being promoted) - That's great. They love your writing
If you are getting sales even after promotion has finished - That's great. It means you are getting word of mouth referrals and/or readers are finding your book in the book stores and buying
If you are not getting follow on sales for your other books - It means you must improve your writing
If you are seeing sales vanish once you stop promoting - It means you both need to improve your writing and the polish of your book

It's important not to draw any conclusions until you have sold 1,000+ books. After you have sold 5,000+ books then you can draw some very good conclusions

In the interim, take every positive as a positive and keep pushing ahead
Every negative, take as feedback and list out areas you need to improve in. Don't let a few negatives and/or speed bumps in the early months throw you off. You cannot conclusively make a decision on whether or not your book is good until you have sold 5,000 or more copies and gotten a reasonably decent amount of feedback