There has been a huge growth in self publishing in recent years. The greatly increased numbers of self publishing web sites over the last ten years have allowed millions of people to self publish books that might not have seen the light of day.

It is really the development of digital printing that has allowed self publishing authors to flourish. The advantage of digital print technology over conventional printing methods is that an author (or publisher) can order as many copies of their book as they see fit. Although the cost per book is often higher, because smaller quantities of books are being produced the overall cost of printing is much lower and there are no storage costs. This is very appealing for self publishing authors who do not have access to a warehouse as it allows them to print the books as they are required (or print on demand, POD).

The downside of POD printing is that the quality of production can be lower than it is with conventional (litho) printing. However, the quality of digital print is improving all the time and with the latest technology it is often impossible to tell whether a book has been printed conventionally or digitally.

We will examine in more details the advantages and disadvantages of self publishing in future entries.