Ever dream of being an author? You can be, get paid and advertise your business, all in one package.

Think about it. Your name on a book that people will pay for and read with all the enthusiasm of a pro cheerleader. And you will be entered into the annals of official author-dom for eternity.

It's no coincidence that author is the root for authority because that's what you'll be the minute your name appears in print.

Welcome to the age of the Internet, also known as the information superhighway. Next to food and sex, information is the most in-demand item of the century. And that's why you can make a killing with your knowledge and sell your products and services in the process. The big wigs call it "branding."

No matter what industry you are in, you have special knowledge others can benefit from and you can sell that knowledge at a price that is fair and people will gladly pay you for it. They will revere you as an expert in your industry and when it comes time to make a purchase in your area of expertise, who do you think will come to their minds first?

It doesn't have to be huge. The book I mean. It can be a few measly pages. Some books are just a dozen pages - or less. It can be an electronic book or a print book people hold in their hands. Either way, people will pay you good money to gain access to your special knowledge. Or you can give it away for free and still get paid. Here's how:

1) First, you need a good word processing program. Microsoft Word will do. Good alternatives include WordPerfect and MacWrite, for the MacIntosh. If you Google "word processing" you'll find some freeware and shareware you can try.

2) Make sure you keep a hard copy. No matter how good your word processor is, something can always happen that will cause you to lose your information. Print it and put it in a notebook somewhere. Even if you never look at it again, you'll have it in hard copy just in case.

3) Get organized. Write an outline. You don't have to stick to it religiously, but you should know what you are going to say. An outline will at least give you a good idea of where you are going and that's half the battle.

4) Next, write down everything you know about your topic. Try to stick to the outline you wrote. You don't have to write in the order of the outline but keep your topics that are related to each other together. You can always go back and rewrite it later.

5) After you have everything on paper that you know about your specialized topic, go back and see if anything is misplaced. Did you put information about socket wrenches in a section on types of drywall? Make sure you categorize your information accurately. Your reader will be confused otherwise.

6) After you've made sure all the information is in the correct drawer, go through and write a rough draft. If you did steps 1-5 well this should not be difficult. Now you are organizing the information within their categories, trying to make your prose readable and understandable. Don't worry about spelling and grammar. Just write to be understood.

7) Did you write your draft from beginning to end? Good. Now let it sit a couple of days and look at it again with fresh eyes. Does it make sense? Rewrite any passages that don't. Have someone else read it to see if they can understand it. Get someone who doesn't know anything about your topic and who will be brutally honest with you. Ask them to read it to see if they can understand it.

8) Now, you want to go back and write the manuscript again. This time, try to write it so that anyone - even a third grader - can understand it.

9) Finally, polish your work. Correct spelling and grammar. If you need to, consult a dictionary and refer to "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk and E.B. White. It's the definitive source on how to write with style.

Now that you've written a good book - it can be 10 pages or 250 pages - look around for a publisher. If your book is nonfiction you can send a book proposal to an agent or editor and hope they will publish it. This can be a long process and it could be awhile before you get published, but it does carry some prestige when you do.

Another way you can ensure your book gets published is to do it yourself, or you can hire a subsidy publisher to assist you. There are several subsidy publishers you can use and if you Google "book publisher" they will appear on the first page.

A program called Clickbook will organize your book into pages for you. You can print from most word processing programs two pages per one sheet of 8-1/2 X 11. Get a graphic artist to do a cover design for you and print it on cover stock. This way you can publish your own book at a very low cost.

A third option is to publish your book electronically. Adobe Acrobat is the best e-book publisher but it's expensive. Why spend all that money when you can get cheaper programs that will convert your document to a .pdf file so that anyone with Adobe Reader can read it easily? One such program that is free is CutePDF.

You can market your book over the Internet easily and inexpensively. If you have a web site you can sell your book there or give it away for free. Be sure that your company logo, address and other contact information is on the book and easy to find. Many authors are raking in thousands of dollars giving away free e-books online. Why not you? Today is your day to be a published author.