How would you like to publish a book and have people all over the internet promoting it?  So many of us who write here on HubPages have a goal of becoming a published author.  Once I put the word out here at HubPages about how writers could get published for free, everyone's been writing about it and it's become common knowledge.  But publishing itself, even with no up-front costs, isn't going to solve all of your problems.  Once you've published, you still need to get it sold - and if you're busy writing, who has time for that?

The sort answer is, "Other people on the internet."  I'll take you through the writing, publishing and promotion process step by step, so everyone can see how it works.

If you're reading this Hub on how to get published and sell, odds are you probably already have an idea of what you'd like to write about.  If not, it's time to get some ideas.  You're looking for something interesting, and preferably ahead of the curve.  Lots of people will be reading what you've created - so wouldn't it be great to write something that helps people do things better? There are a whole host of problems in the world today, and if you can come up with something that helps to solve them your work will be in great demand.  It's also practically guaranteed to be innovative, original and interesting - since the majority of mainstream media is all about mindless sensationalism.  You're writing independantly now; it's time to shake things up!

How you write can be as important as what you write.  Remember, you're on HubPages with a whole slew of other writers.  Has anyone else written on the subjects you're interested in?  Would they be interested in writing with you on the same subject, and letting your book be a collaborative work?  Giving them a cut of the profits can allow your book to be a shared effort, making it far more interesting than something by just one author.  Collaborative books also have the advantage that they tend to see print more quickly as well.

And while what you're writing is eventually going to be published in a book, it certainly doesn't have to start there.  You can write it in segments, make each segment a Hub, and make a little money off of it as you're writing it.  What could be better than that?  I'm so glad you asked!  While you're making money as you're writing your book, your readers can leave feedback on the parts of your book they've just read in the Comments section of your Hub.  This means you can get some early feedback on how your writing comes across to others - little typos, foibles that could use correction, parts that aren't as clear to your reader as they were to you when you wrote it, that sort of thing.  You have some free test marketing and proofreading on your book, while people clicking on ads actually pays you as you write it.

How awesome is that?

Got your book all written and ready to publish? It's time to head on over to Lulu.com. They're a global publisher that accepts uploaded Adobe Acrobat files sent through their website. You send them a .PDF version of your book, tell it how you want them to publish it, and they'll tell you what the manufacturing costs are going to be. You can set the price for your book anywhere above that you like, and the software version of the book will sit there on their servers ready for someone to order a copy. At this point Lulu hasn't really done anything yet, so they don't charge you a thing. When someone orders a copy of the book they'll print one up and ship it off, extract their fee, and leave you with the rest. That means you only pay the publisher with money you've already just made.

Of course, you'll need to format your book into PDF format before Lulu's server will know what to do with it. You can do this easily by pasting your writing and pictures into a file in Adobe Acrobat, then neatening up the formatting. Programs like PDF Creator and PDF Generator Pro will automagically convert files into PDF format for you, and will even merge multiple files into one PDF document. (This is exactly what you want if you're converting a series of Hubs into a book.)

You'll have to decide just how you want your book published - spiral bound? Hardcover? Soft cover? And you'll have to decide whether you even want to publish a standard physical book, or if you'd rather just sell your book in PDF format from Lulu's server. Perhaps you'd like to do both.

How your book should look is another important aspect. If you want some kind of cover art for your book, you're going to have to come up with some. Fortunately, the internet is full of graphic artists. Most of them hang out over at DeviantArt, and it's a simple matter to find an artist whose work you like and drop them an e-mail. "Hey! I think your work is really beautiful, and I'm writing a book I need some cover art for. Would you be interested in working on a percentage basis?" You can cut them into a percentage of your book sale profits if they're willing. If not, you can either move on or pay them a one-time commission fee to design your book's cover.

And there you have it, a finished, published book.

Bragging rights aside, it really doesn't do very much to have a published book just sitting there, not selling. What you need is a way to get that puppy moving! Get people out there buying it - which means you'll need to do some promoting.

At least, it used to mean that. Placing Google AdSense ads (which still isn't the worst idea in the world, actually), paying people to blog about your new book, putting it up on social bookmarking sites and seeing if anyone can hear you above the noise of everyone else trying to promote either their own ideas or someone else's... it's a little like trying to hand out religious pamphlets on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Fortunately, there's affiliate marketing. People on the internet who don't write, who don't have any really interesting ideas to turn into a book, who still want to make money online. They know how to promote, they want to do it, and they're actively looking to promote something worthwhile that people will want to buy, so they can get paid! What they need is a good solid product, something interesting that hasn't been done a million times before. And they're out there every day actively looking for something like that to promote - on affiliate sites. Now that you have a product, a book that nobody else could give the world, you can join up with affiliate sites as a Vendor. You put your book as the product, and allow affiliates to find your book and promote it. They only get paid when you get paid.

Most affiliate sites cost a lot of money to join as a vendor, but paydotcom doesn't. (Most affiliate places are charging vendors $50 in monthly fees? Really?) Here's a quick table of their features. You can get started for free the moment you have your book. Like your Hubs here, people will be out there in the world making you money at all hours of the day and night, for as long as you're selling your book. You can be sleeping, working out, or out on a date and you'll still be making money. Which means you'll have the time to write another book, if you're so inclined.

This also means that the only limitation is how good your book is. Which means if you have a great idea, and can communicate well, the sky's the limit.

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