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That is at least 3 in the past week.

First, you can choose to publish your book as a print edition, e-book or both. With print editions, the most common system now is called “print on demand.” That means you don’t actually have the book printed until someone buys it.

That’s unlike the old days, say 15 years ago, when if you published your own book, you had to commit to buying hundreds or thousands of copies.

The advent of digital printing means it makes economic sense to print one copy at a time, said Kevin Weiss, president and chief executive of Author Solutions, which owns numerous self-publishing companies, including iUniverse, AuthorHouse and Xlibris.

“Before, you had to fill your garage with books and pass them on to all your best friends,” Mr. Weiss said.

Self-publishing is obviously taking off, but statistics on new titles are almost impossible to come by because so many books counted as part of “nontraditional” publishing include reprints of old books now in the public domain.

But Mr. Weiss said his company was on track to publish 26,000 new books this year, compared with 13,000 four years ago. CreateSpace, the self-publishing arm of Amazon.com, doesn’t release numbers, but a spokeswoman, Brittany Turner, told me in an e-mail that its books increased by 80 percent from 2009 to 2010.

There are many reasons potential authors want to publish their own books, Mr. Weiss said. They have an idea or manuscript they have passed around to various agents and publishers with no luck; they may just want to print a few copies of, say, a memoir for family members; they want to use it in their business as a type of calling card; or they actually want to sell a lot of books and make their living as writers.

“You have to know what services you’re buying, who retains the rights, and realize that getting a book published is not the same as getting it marketed,” Ms. Shanley said. “One size doesn’t fit all.”

Then there’s choosing the right company. If you’re technologically comfortable, Lulu.com or CreateSpace may be good options. CreateSpace, for example, doesn’t charge upfront fees, but you’ll pay if you want additional services like copy editing and design layout. And it costs $5 to $10 for the printed proof.

On the other hand, iUniverse and AuthorHouse offer what Mr. Weiss called “assisted self-publishing.” But the price of that assistance can range widely, starting as low as $400 and going as high as $15,000.

For the lower end, you get help in creating a cover and getting a copyright and ISBN number (the numeric book identifier). You’ll also get one paperback copy of your finished book, as well as an e-book distributed on all platforms, including the Kindle and the Nook. The book will also be sold through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

For $15,000, you get content editing and copy editing, indexing, citations and footnoting, and promotions like book trailers, placement in Google searches and other goodies. And you receive 150 paperback and 50 hardback copies of your book.

I previously blogged about an attempt in Iceland to crowdsource the new Constitution through social media. It seems that process has been completed.

 A group of 25 ordinary citizens on Friday presented to Iceland’s parliamentary speaker a new constitution draft, which they compiled with the help of hundreds of others who chipped in online.

The group had been working on the draft since April and posted its work on the Internet, allowing hundreds of other citizens to give their feedback on the project via the committee’s website and on social networks such as Facebook.

“The reaction from the public was very important. And many of the members were incredibly active in responding to the comment that came through,” Salvor Nordal, the head of the elected committee of citizens from all walks of life, told reporters.

Katrin Oddsdottir, a lawyer who had shared her experience on the committee through micro-blogging site Twitter, said she believed the public’s input was “what mattered the most” in preparing the draft.

“What I learned is that people can be trusted. We put all our things online and attempted to read, listen and understand and I think that made the biggest difference in our job and made our work so so so much better,” she said.

How did the group go about crowdsourcing the Constitution?

The committee’s website (www.stjornlagarad.is, in Icelandic and English) quickly became an incubator for comments, with more than 1,600 propositions and comments on the suggested text.

Moreover, the council was present on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, allowing Iceland — and the world — to follow its progress.

Most of the suggestions had to do with an economic model for the island nation of 320,000, committee member Silja Omarsdottir told AFP.

“The other proposals … that form a noticeable trend have to do with the Internet, web neutrality, transparency and freedom of access to the Internet,” she said.

Some citizens also gave specific suggestions.

“It would be be more natural that a parliamentarian would have to resign from parliament should he take on the position of a minister,” Bjarni Kristinn Torfason suggested on the council’s webpage.

Helgi Johann Hauksson thought the council should be more specific: “who we ‘all’ are needs to be defined when it is written ‘all of us are equal in the eyes of the law,” he posted.

Are children safer after this massive piece of black swan legislation named after a victim? CNN has a lengthy report.

I wonder if Kentucky allows #hashtags on vanity plates. If so, I think I know what my new license plate will be.

My old one from Pennsylvania will go on the wall.

Update: Yep, it’s available!

Live by the gun. Die by the gun.

 Holy Smoke has a very niche business. For $1,250, they’ll cram the incinerated leftovers of your dead amigo into a nice load of ammo. And there’s something for everyone! One pound of human ash plus your bereaved cash will yield 250 shotgun shells, 100 rifle cartridges, or 250 pistol cartridges.