Do you have a literary work that you would like to publish? Have you considered self publishing your book? Self publishing offers a number of advantages that may not be readily apparent on first glance.
Complete control of the presentation details of your book is the most important of these advantages. Obviously, if you have taken payment from another person to get your book published they will have control over many details that affect how your book is perceived by the public. Details such as, editing of the title and content, marketing decisions and even what the cover should look like. There are too many stories of authors having titles that they can’t stand just because they gave up control to their publisher. There are many reasons to change the title of a book but shouldn’t that be left to the author not the publisher’s marketing department?
Speed is another key advantage self publishing has over going the traditional publishing route. Finding a publisher for your short story, or novel can take months or even years in some cases. Not only do you need to find one interested in your work but then a contract needs to be agreed upon. It is often many months later that the book is ready to be released to the public. For many authors that wait can seem like an eternity.
If you self publish you will be able to keep all the profits your work generates. Even though this method will require you to invest your own money on the frontend to get the book into print the income will begin much sooner. You may not know this but the majority of publishers pay royalties one or two times per year and they are a fairly small percentage of the sale price of the book. This is one of the greatest advantages of self publishing – once your publishing and distribution costs are covered every future sale is profit for you and you alone.
Obviously if you self publish you are don’t have to wait for an editor to deem your work worthy of being published so you are giving yourself a better chance of becoming a succesful author. Competition is very high in the publishing market so many wonderful manuscripts and many talented authors will never find a publisher. This is a loss to the public and I’m sure it has caused the end of many promising writing careers.
Of course if self publishing was easy everyone would be doing it. Truth is self publishing is not for everyone. Be sure your book is completely ready to be published before you go down the self publishing path. You can find writing groups or freelance editors to help you polish up your work to make it truly ready for print. If you were to self publish a book that wasn’t ready for publication it could be very costly to your bank account and your writing career. On the other hand if your work has been positively critiqued you should really consider self publishing it.
To summarize the advantages you will enjoy complete control, quicker publication, and much higher profits. Not to mention modern technology has made it a very easy process to do on your own. If you are still looking for a break in your writing career self publishing is something your should seriously consider.
Learn more about writing and self-publishing and selling books here at SellingBooks.com.
