Have you thought of publishing books? Not long ago, authors who wanted an easy way to publish their books would turn to a company that Author Solutions owned: AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and the like. In fact, it seemed as if Author Solutions, which was later bought by Penguin Random House, owned just about all of the turnkey Book publishing solutions for authors.

A turnkey book publishing solution was especially important for professionals who wanted to raise their visibility and build their brand, and who knew that they could use a published book as a calling card. These folks didn’t want to know more about the world of book publishing than they had to. They just wanted a book with their name on it to be published, and they were willing to pay for it — even if giving up some of their autonomy was part of that price.

But, as SellBox reports, fewer authors these days feel the need to hire Author Solutions to publish their books. CreateSpace, Amazon’s print-on-demand arm, is making it almost as easy to publish a book as it is to order a meal from a menu.

Authors who want to self-publish their books can do the book production (editing, proofreading, page design, cover design, etc.) themselves, or the can choose from CreateSpace’s offerings. In any case, authors will be doing business directly with Amazon, and there will be no interference between the author’s vision and the book that results from it.

Author Solutions will still be there to provide a one-stop shop where authors can have someone publish their books, and they can simply cut a check. As long as people are too busy or simply disinclined to learn the mechanics of book publishing, Author Solutions fills a need.

But, for all other authors who want to publish, promote, and market a book, print-on-demand companies (and I will tout CreateSpace as the smartest choice for most authors) provide a truly empowering alternative. It’s a wonderful time to be a self-published author. Independent publishers: your time has come!

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