It used to be that a writer's greatest dream was to walk into a large bookstore and see their name on a display stand. That gave way to having their book appear on Amazon or one of the other big name booksellers. And quite frankly it was a dream that was beyond the ken of most writers. The big booksellers got that way by selling only the books that sold well. By guessing correctly at what their customers wanted. And most writers didn't fit that bill.

But having a book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble is no longer a pipedream. Technology has changed that situation. Now, anyone can sell a book on Amazon. Or at list it.

When Amazon bought the print on demand publisher Booksurge in 2005 it began a process which has brought book publishing -- and book sales -- to the small publisher. In 2007 Amazon took the final step off the ledge with the release of the Kindle eReader. Since then it has moved resolutely to supporting the small publisher.

So how do you get your book on Amazon?

The process of course starts with a written book. Hopefully, you did your market research beforehand and you've written your book with sales in mind. You've edited it and done all those things that ensure quality.

Now you need to publish it.

The first step is to decide what media you intend to publish it in. You have a choice of print on demand or eBook (i.e. Kindle). If you are publishing for print on demand the book will need to be in .PDF format. If you are publishing for the Kindle it will need to be in HTML, epub or mobi formats. HTML is the preferred format.

The next step is to obtain an ISBN. This can be purchased through Amazon. However, you should investigate purchasing your ISBN directly from your country's registrar. Sometimes, this is much cheaper and gives you greater flexibility.

Once you have your ISBN you need to design your book. There are two parts to design -- the cover and the interior. You can of course do the design yourself. For the cover there are a number of different software programs available that can help you put together a cover design. And most print on demand publishers (including Amazon) provide templates to help you design the interior. Or you could hire a design firm to design your book. Book cover and interior designing is a specific skill and firms exist which specialize in this. Although a thousand dollars seems like a great deal of money, it can be money well spent if you research well and chose the right designer.

So now you've got what is called camera-ready copy. In other words a book that is ready to print in the format Amazon requires. It's time to visit Amazon.

Amazon has an area called CreateSpace -- at least it is this month. The process begins with you creating an account there. It is reasonably straight forward and involves answering the questions.

Once that's done all that is needed is to upload your book in the appropriate format and then register it. That's it. You now have a book published on Amazon.