Have you thought of publishing books? Not long ago, authors who wanted an easy way to publish their books would turn to a company that Author Solutions owned: AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and the like. In fact, it seemed as if Author Solutions, which was later bought by Penguin Random House, owned just about all of the turnkey book publishing solutions for authors.
But book promotion can help.
I was just reading a very interesting and informative post written by Noel Griese on the Southern Review of Books blog. Griese points out that, according to the law of averages, authors who use a subsidy publisher will not make money on their books, although other benefits (credibility, speaking engagements, building brand, and so forth) may well accrue, rendering the book publishing effort worwhile. But, on the issue of book sales: Griese points out that many important bookstores shy away from books published by subsidy presses because of their perceived inferior quality. That reputation, in some cases, is merited. But for books that are the exceptions, book promotion can help level the playing field between mainstream books and those published through subsidy publishers.