Traditionally, publishing a book has meant selling your idea to a publishing house. In recent years, many authors have chosen another option: self-publishing, now commonly referred to as custom publishing. Custom publishers such as iUniverse produce professionally designed books at a very affordable price, allowing authors to print books on demand in whatever number they require, from a few dozen to thousands of copies.

Custom publishing makes sense for many authors:

• Businesspeople seeking to establish their credibility in a particular field
• People who want to publish a family history
• Corporations looking to commemorate an anniversary or document the organization's history
• Companies in need of an effective marketing tool
• Memoirists

Authoring a book is especially important for businesspeople who want to expand their professional life to include lecturing, teaching seminars, or motivational speaking. A book gives you credibility and highlights your expertise. During the process of writing, you'll distill your best ideas into a single outstanding package. When you're done, you will have an invaluble marketing tool as well as a platform on which to build the next phase of your career. You can sell custom-published books on your website, at your seminars, and on commercial sites such as amazon.