Downloadables for this Module

• Ebook - To Self Publish or Not to Self Publish

Why You Should Self Publish

Self publishing is when you retain the rights to your book, and you organize all the formatting, design, publishing, distribution and marketing yourself, with your own money and without the involvement of an established publishing house. Essentially, you become the publisher and the author at once.

Pros

1. It can be faster.

The actual time to self publish is about the same as traditional publishing, but it saves you the months or years it takes to find an agent to represent you and/or sell your work to a publisher. Most people self publish in 3-6 months, whereas the traditional publishing process will take at least 18 months including the time it takes to find a publisher.

2. You won’t need to write a book proposal, secure an agent or find a publisher.

As mentioned above, the lengthy timeline of traditional publishing is largely due to the time it takes to jump through all of the required hoops, such as writing a book proposal which will sell your idea to an agent. That agent agrees to represent you and pitch your idea to a publisher, who will then agree to buy it. However, writing a book proposal can be a long, tedious task that might be better spent on just writing the actual book. Plus, the search for an agent and/or publisher can be a challenging one at best, and it can take months or even years at each stage of the process. With self publishing, there’s no need for any of this.

3. It can be cheaper.

Some publishers require you to buy thousands (3-5,000) copies of your own book to mitigate publishing costs so you won’t have to: 

• Be out money
• Be stuck with boxes of unsold books in your garage

4. You can make more money.

While traditional publishers will cover all editing, printing, set up, and design costs for you, they will take 90% of the royalties.

What is a royalty? In short, the royalty is calculated by taking the retail cost of your book less any printing costs to come up with a profit margin. The publisher will take 90% of that, and you’ll only see 10% (or less).

They may pay you an advance on your book, which is based on an estimate of how many copies they believe they can sell, and after the publisher gets their money back, you’ll get a better royalty rate, but not as much as you’ll get with self publishing.

When self publishing, you can keep 60% of the royalties for print and 70% for ebooks.

5. You’ll retain full creative control.

Agents and/or editors can often sway authors to change direction with their book to satisfy what’s ‘popular’. This might include minor character changes or complete storyline changes that require several rewrites. With self publishing, you’re the judge. You can publish your book whenever you’re ready. 

Cons

1. You won't get into bookstores.

Most people don’t know that if you self publish, your book will not be available in bookstores. It’s possible to negotiate terms with your local bookshop(s), but it is very difficult if not impossible to convince the major retailers to carry a self-published book.

2. You might not be taken as seriously by media and other promotional platforms.

When it comes to marketing your book, which you will definitely have to do if you choose to self publish, you’ll have a harder time being seen as a professional author if your book is self published. It won’t carry the stamp of approval that traditional publishing allows for. However, it’s quite possible to run successful marketing campaigns around a self-published book, especially if it satisfies a niche market, you’re a well-connected author, and/or you have a large platform. 

3. You'll pay for everything yourself up front.

While traditional publishers cover your editing, design, printing, and distribution costs, that expense falls on you when you self publish. This course will teach you exactly how to do (or hire out) the necessary steps to seeing your book to print, but it can cost several thousand dollars to do it professionally.  

Do your goals align with self publishing?

• You don’t care about the validation / ego boost
• You just want to publish your book
• You want to retain full creative control
• You don’t care if your book isn't in bookstores