First off, is self-publishing worth it? If you have a story idea that would appeal to a lot of readers, or is considered more mainstream or genre (think romance, science fiction, mystery), or if you have a non-fiction story that many people can relate to, then you should try to find a publisher. And an agent.

Finding a publisher (or agent) is admittedly hard for an unpublished author – but it does happen. After all, go back far enough and you’ll find a point where Stephen King and J.K. Rowling were unpublished nobodies. They got their chance and so can you. It’s easy enough to get dispirited when you see the likes of Nichole Ritchie or Madonna getting book deals just because they’re famous – but publishers also like to take chances on unknowns, often because it costs them a lot less to sign.

Having said that, if your book will only appeal to a very small market, or if you have plans to sell it yourself (as an adjunct to lectures, for example, or in conjunction with your crafts), it may make more sense to self-publish.

There are four basic methods to self-publishing your book:

1. Lay out the book yourself, design the cover yourself, and pay a printer to print 200-1,000 copies which you’ll then have to keep on hand while you try to get them stocked in bookstores or sell them yourself.

2. Pay a vanity press a lot of money for them to lay the book out, design the cover, and print a small number of copies. Why a small number? Well, they don’t think you’ll be selling (or giving away) more than a few.

3. Pay a print-on-demand company like iUniverse or Xlibris some money for them to layout the book and design the cover, and have it ready to be printed whenever someone buys a copy (‘on demand’).

4. Sell it electronically.

You may not have considered selling an electronic version of your book, but you should. Here’s why:

1. No upfront costs. You can download templates to format your manuscript, and you can also download free software that will convert your word processing document into Adobe PDF (portable document format) files, the most common type of files for ebooks.

2. No worry about printing or reprinting. You can sell as many or as few copies of your ebook without having to figure out how many books to print ahead of time. It simply doesn’t cost anything to duplicate an electronic file.

3. Easy to set up. There’s no need to contract with booksellers or distributors; sell the ebook yourself on your own Web site or blog, or even your Facebook or MySpace page.