After you have written your book, there are several avenues to self-publishing.  If of course you have found a royalty publisher, this blog is not for you.  HOWEVER, many authors who have published with royalty publishers choose to go the self-publishing route for their next book.  Reasons vary, but usually come down to a desire for more control over their work, including pricing, marketing and royalty payments.  They simply did not have a good (or lucrative) relationship with the royalty publisher.  (Another reason is that the royalty publisher who took their first book doesn't like the second one.)

Before getting into the avenues of self-publishing, you need a mirror.  Look into it and ask yourself this question.  How much do I want to do on my own as opposed to hiring or contracting other people to do the work?  That single question should determine the path you take to self-publishing.

AFTER THE WRITING:
--You can do practically everything yourself to get published (from editing to cover design).
--You can do some parts yourself (editing, which is usually the most expensive contracted service) but have others do the cover and interior design.
--You can hire a book producer to do everything for you, once you submit a Word or pdf file.

BEWARE!  With millions of self-published books, the market is huge and many businesses have sprung up to help you publish.  Like anything else, you need to investigate before you jump into any deal to publish your book.  You could end up spending very little or several thousand dollars, with the same result.

IF you don't want to bother with any learning curve, or want someone to do everything or most everything for you, there are many companies willing to "publish" your book.  CAVEAT!!!!  They are NOT publishers in the traditional sense, but are what I call book producers.  They will produce your book, but how it turns out very much depends on how much you are willing to spend. 

A true publisher cares (or should care) about the end product, because the only way they make money is selling books.  A book producer doesn't have the same interest.  If your book is poorly edited, they'll still produce it.  If your book has a crappy cover they'll still produce it.  Run-on sentences, unreadable prose, sloppy grammar?  Same thing.  They'll still produce it.  Why?  Because they make money selling you services.  They don't expect to make any money selling books.  That's NOT their business model.  Their business model is selling you services, which can add up to thousands of dollars.  With a royalty publisher, the business model is selling books.

ROYALTY PUBLISHERS - business model is selling books.  You pay nothing, they take all the risk. Examples:  Random House; Simon & Schuster.

BOOK PRODUCERS FOR SELF-PUBLISHERS - business model is selling you services; you pay for everything, they take no risk. Examples:  Author Solutions (many affiliates, including Author House, iUniverse, Archway); Create Space (an Amazon.com company); Ingram Spark and Lightning Source (Ingram divisions)

Always keep this in mind.  It will help you navigate the plethora of companies out their barking "We want to publish your book!"  Nah.  They don't.  They want to sell you services.  They don't care all that much whether your book sells or not.  Yes, they will make a little more if you do sell books, but they don't count on that to make a profit..

Larry Martin