Perhaps it’s the desire for fame and fortune, the need to earn the respect of others, or maybe it’s just the wish to leave some mark on the future, a permanent record of a life lived.

Whatever the reason, for those who actually complete a manuscript, the odds of seeing it published by a reputable firm are slim.

For the estimated 2 million manuscripts currently completed, there are only 64,000 publishers of record, and only a fraction of those are actively seeking new manuscripts.

So what are the millions of hopeful authors to do?

Well, the first step would be to ensure their manuscripts are the best they can be. This can be done by re-writing, editing, proofreading by an outside firm or even by a well-read and literate friend.

Even then, most of those two million books stand no chance of being accepted by a traditional publisher. Those authors that do make the cut are not necessarily the best writers, but rather are those who can sell themselves and their stories most convincingly.

Some authors, after rejections from the trade, will find themselves victims of vanity publishers, who take advantage of the hopes and aspirations of writers to extract an exorbitant fee to ‘publish’ their book.

Luckier will be the writers who publish through firms like iUniverse and Lulu, for although their books will likely never see wide distribution, at least their losses will be minimal.

And finally there are the select few who decide to become publishers themselves, even if it is only to self-publish their own book.

These publishers will find great obstacles, and a great deal of work in this route, but the challenge and reward of having one’s success or failure entirely in one’s own hands is a powerful feeling.

Whether they choose to publish electronically, or use short run printing service like Lightning Print, or even to go full boar with a print run of 1,000 or more, their success depends on how well they sell themselves and their story to others.

And so, if you are about to embark on a new manuscript, educate yourself thoroughly about the industry, its scams, and potential pitfalls. And more importantly, learn to market yourself well, for this, more than any other skill, is the determining factor in your success or failure.

Finding a publisher (or agent) is admittedly hard for an unpublished author – but it does happen. After all, go back far enough and you’ll find a point where Stephen King and J.K. Rowling were unpublished nobodies.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.

The basics of promoting your book include letting people know the title, cost, and publication date. How do you promote these details in the most effective manner to massive audiences that will want to buy your book? Read on to find little known tips from top Internet gurus who have traveled this path before you.

Book Launch Tip #1: Focus on Amazon.com first. It is more difficult to drive traffic to Amazon.com so you want to conquer that task in the beginning. Then focus on sending traffic to Barnes and Noble.com. Plus, achieving an Amazon.com bestseller designation is worth its weight in gold.

Book Launch Tip #2: A great way to drive traffic to either Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com is to have an opt-in page on your website. Once people subscribe to your list automatically send them to your Amazon.com (or Barnes and Noble.com) landing page where they can buy the book.

Book Launch Tip #3: Verify that your book information appears correctly on Amazon. Make sure that the title, author, price, etc. are correct before people are sent to your page. If your page has errors then it will look unprofessional and may turn away customers.

Book Launch Tip #4: Don’t make your book launch schedule too short. Some people try to complete a book launch in 45 days which is very difficult. There are so many details to take care of that people don’t realize how long they actually take. For example, obtaining an ISBN number can take a long time.

Book Launch Tip #5: Don’t wait until the last minute to find joint venture partners. Try to find these partners well in advance because you want people to commit to your book launch right from the start. In order to obtain joint ventures you need to establish and build relationships earlier as well. For example, the minute you determine that you are going to launch a book is the minute you should get on the phone and call your friends and colleagues for their support and joint venture possibilities.

Rule number one: Every book is guaranteed to the bookseller, meaning, if they don’t sell at the bookstore, the publisher guarantees they’ll take them back. Returned books are as common place as paper and ink. Books have always been returnable. There are few if any retailers still in existence that will purchase newly published non-returnable books. The fallacy of this is that today, 2008, there are still some publishers that force their authors to pay several hundred dollars for the right to have their book considered returnable. Returnable books should be standard for any book contract. This is a clear example of how some publishers are not fluent in the ways of the business, and as a result they take advantage and prey on the pocketbooks of unsuspecting, and uninformed authors.

Rule number two: The business is about revenue, selling books. However there are two ways to look at revenue. For the Independent publishers and authors, revenue is when a book is sold and the money changes hands, that is a sale and represents the cleanest form of revenue. For the biggest publishers and all the others that want to compete in the marketplace, revenue is both gross and net. Gross is the number of copies multiplied by the cover price. This does not account for the returns that will eventually arrive at the publisher’s warehouse. The net price is what is left after all those books have been returned and counted. The big companies play with these numbers in a variety of ways and if you plan to compete in this market, you must be aware of this fact.

Rule number three: Bookseller real estate is for lease. When you walk into a bookstore and notice all those wonderful displays with multiple copies of the bestsellers, then you stroll down the aisles and look at the covers laying face up on the tables, keep in mind — this is not accidental. These retailers aren’t doing any favors. All of that space has been leased by the publisher of those titles for a specified period of time. In fact, virtually all of the floor space is for lease, if you can afford the price. Typically the front of the store is the most expensive real estate and the price goes down slightly as you move to the back of the store. Bottom line, retail space in major retailers, including bookstores and mass merchants, is for lease.