In Part One of the Self-Publishing review, I discussed the background of self-publishing and brought up many retained prejudices which authors must consider prior to self-publishing. In True self-publishing, where an author does everything and actually forms their own publishing company, one of the largest negatives is that an author invests all their own capital to publish their work.
However, and this is the huge benefit of being their own self-publisher, in return for their investment, the author owns all the rights to their book and has all the freedom they want when dealing with content, editing and cover. They have the final say in what their book looks and sounds like. They have control over all the production and how their book gets out into the world. True freedom!
Also, having full control of their work means the author has full control over all the profits from the sale of the book. There is no share of cost to an agent or publisher because the author is the publisher. The author can choose what to sell the book for and how much in discounts they are willing to give. Generally, the goal of the self-publisher is to make money on their books and they will make money on every book that they sell.
The author also has control over the timing of their book. With traditional publishers, it sometimes can take up to two to three years to get a book out. Depending on how persistent an author is, it can take just a couple months to see their book if they are self-publishing. This timing aspect can be very beneficial to the author if, for example, they want to use their book in their business immediately such as in back of the room sales.
Unfortunately, for marketing purposes, it is very difficult to get self-published books into regular brick and mortar stores as those stores buy through wholesalers who rarely carry self-published books. Also, and although this is slowly changing, it is difficult to get a self-published book reviewed by well known reviewers. Despite that, a true self-publisher is willing to put the time, effort and money into their book. In return they get to keep control over their creativity and style. They do not have to conform to the standards of others. For some authors, that is well worth their time and money and marketing limitations. It is a choice they make, not because they could not get published elsewhere, but because they want to keep control of their own success.
For some people, self-publishing is the only viable option. Despite the negative bias against self-publishing, authors who choose to take the responsibility and risk of publishing their own book under their own publishing company, can realize their dream the way they want it to be. As the publishing world evolves, there may come a day, that self-publishers will be looked at for their quality of work and not dismissed just because they self-published.
Although there are semantic arguments over names, there are several other types of self-publishing included under the self-publishing umbrella where an author does not have to do everything completely on their own. In other articles in this series, I will discuss these different types of self-publishing, such as the various forms of vanity publishing, POD (print on demand) and e-books.
Candace C. Davenport is a retired attorney and published author whose love of writing led to co-founding a small independent publishing company, Our Little Books. Our Little Books (http://www.ourlittlebooks.com) is dedicated to publishing inspirational, educational and fun little books for pocket or purse. Candace encourages all people to find their inner muse and become published authors with their own little book, either for pleasure or for their business. Sign up for a free report on how Becoming a Published Author Will Improve Your Credibility and Make You an Expert in Your Field at http://www.ourlittlebooks.com/free-report. Enjoy!
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