Published using Nook for the first time for my latest book. It was about as easy as Kindle, with a few less international options. That’s pretty promising, as I’d usually have Lulu.com do the job.
It’s still a pain to self-publish merely for the amount of options, platforms, and issues one has to face. There’s what to put the document in when you write, any conversions you have to make, then what tool to publish it in (I go from Libre Office to Jutoh myself). It’s nice to be able to self-publish, but I wouldn’t call it simple.
The strange thing is self-publishing is basically it’s own skillset. It’s not a gateway to easy publishing if you’re a writer since you’ve got to be more than a writer – or hire someone that can do the conversions for you. Yes, the barrier to entry is far lower, but what was once insurmountable financially or business-wise is still a challenge because you need the skills to self-publish.
Writing well is still never enough. The barriers and challenges to publishing have changed and even lowered, but they’re still there. Success is still a lot of work.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.