There are thousands of manuscripts in drawers and cupboards who have yet to see the light of day because writers and authors are uncertain about how to get them published. Some have approached Publishers and rejection slips have discouraged them from trying again.

Thousands of manuscripts land on the desks of Publishers every day and it is a fact that very few of them are accepted - or even read. Unsolicited manuscripts are often returned unopened or even find their way into dumpsters.

Technology has advanced to such a degree that it is now possible for authors to bypass regular publishers and publish their work on the internet in a very short time period.

Formal publishers generally take in excess of a year to publish your book. Unless your book is a best-seller, publishers do not spend much time and money marketing it. After two or three months, it usually finds its way to the sale table of local bookstores.

Whether they publish, or you self-publish, marketing is basically your responsibility and the rewards for self-publishing make the effort well worthwhile.

There are two effective ways to becoming a published author on the internet.

1. Use a print-on-demand company, for e.g. Createspace.com (an Amazon.com company), to prepare your manuscript for printing, publishing and distribution at a very competitive cost.

The quality of print-on-demand books is excellent and the company handles all the details of printing and publishing. When orders are received from companies like Amazon.com, the books are printed and distributed within 24 hours. They take care of selling, reporting to the author and pay very generous royalites.Createspace even have an online facility for designing your book cover as part of their service.

2. Publish your book in digital format. Electronic reading devices are becoming more popular and there is a growing demand for eBooks. Amazon's Kindle is proving so popular that Amazon is welling more eBooks than hardcovers.

There are companies like smashwords.com who will change your ebook into the various formats required by Kindle, IPad, Blackberry and other electronic devices and sell it for you. This is a free service and they pay a generous royalty.

It is so easy to buy an eBook. The advertisement usually includes a "Buy Now" link which, in turn, delivers a private web address for instantly downloading the eBook to their computer. As easy as that!

eBooks, also known as digital books, are cost-effective to write, publish and market. If you are doing the work yourself, it is possible to write and publish eBooks absolutely free-of charge. PDFs are a popular format for ebooks, allowing you to sell them from your own website.

Millions of people are "surfing the web" every hour of the day, looking for just the kind of expertise you have to offer.

Why not share your passion with the world?