(+) Authors: Sell Your Books on Amazon

Did you write a book detailing your family's history? Perhaps you wrote about the history of your town or perhaps a Civil War battle or almost any other topic. Another possibility is that your local genealogy society has extracted records from old documents and now wishes to publish them. Perhaps you self-published your book, had it printed, and now you have hundreds of copies stored in the basement. Indeed, one of the most difficult parts of self-publishing books is the marketing: how to advertise and sell the books. You may not know there is a powerful ally that would like to help: Amazon.

Amazon is the world's largest online retailer. The company started as an online bookstore but soon diversified, and now sells all sorts of retail goods, from jewelry to toys to computers. In fact, Amazon is very willing to sell your books as well. The fact that Amazon already has hundreds of millions of customers provides a sales avenue that you probably cannot duplicate on your own.