You’re writing a book! Congrats! Or maybe you’ve already finished your book and now you’re thinking, “What’s next?”

In the old days you would seek an agent, who would pitch you to publishers, and you might get a publishing contract. You’d earn some money – maybe even a lot – and then your book would be published in a year and you wouldn’t really have to do much else. You could take it easy. Go on vacation. Write another book.

These days, that whole process is a myth.

Sure there are still agents and publishers, but they are increasingly risk adverse. It’s not about the book anymore. Because even a GREAT book doesn’t guarantee sales, and nobody wants to spend $10,000 publishing a book that nobody buys.

To lessen their risks, agents and publishers mostly sign established authors with their own platforms.

That means, you need a blog; you need some previous bestselling books; you need contacts with other authors in you genre; you need a Facebook page with 50,000 likes. If you’re coming to the table with nothing but your book, you’re fighting a huge uphill battle.

It’s still possible… but is it worth it?

You can probably get a contract from a small  press and a little advance (around $5000, if you’re lucky).

But as a small company, they won’t have the resources to make a brilliantly designed book or market it well.

Book marketing is changing quickly and you mostly need to use guerrilla marketing strategies that publishers simply aren’t capable of handling.

You need an author platform, but it has to be authentic and genuine.

You need to blog about articles that attract your ideal readers.

And then there’s all the other stuff; formatting your book for mobi and epub; getting print layout done in Word or InDesign – not to mention the book cover design itself which is crucial for managing reader expectation.

And there are so many options these days! Should you sign with Amazon KDP Select, or use Smashwords or Draft2Digital or Ebookbaby?

Should you use Createspace for print on demand or Ingram Spark?

There are arguments for and against every possible choice. Getting started can be tough. There’s a steep learning curve.

This site – www.publishxpress.com – is just one of my I’ve set up to help indie authors publish better quality books, faster than ever, and market them well. I’ll use it to keep sharing resources I find, tools I recommend, or marketing hacks that I’ve used to rule the bestseller lists.

So browse around; use the free ebook making tools I’ve put up or read the articles I’ve posted. If you have questions, get in touch – I’m not hard to find.