To Self-Publish or to Seek a Publisher

Things have really changed for authors. It used to be that self-publishing, or indie-publishing, was the domain of those who couldn’t get a “real” publisher or agent to take them on. But with advances in electronic publishing and a subsequent shift in the culture of the book publishing industry, it’s now extremely popular to self-publish, without any stigma.

However, researching the options can be dizzying, and you have to know what you’re getting into.

Choosing a Platform

There are three basic ways you can self-publish:

1

Pay a printer up front to print a big batch of your books. You then take those books and try to sell them on your own. You will get a better deal per-book this way, but it’s a big investment, and then the pressure is on to recoup your cash.

2

Print-on-demand—if someone buys your book, the company will print it and ship it for you. You will make less of a profit on each book, but if you have no idea how your book is going to sell, this is a much safer bet, and it’s also way less of a hassle for you. They take care of fulfillment, and you can simply send interested readers to a web site to click a button. Amazon recently started offering this option, called CreateSpace. There are other print-on-demand companies, but the bonus about working with Amazon is your book easily and automatically gets listed on Amazon.

3

Electronic publishers, like Amazon and Kindle. In this scenario, there is no hardcopy of your book. This is by far the least expensive option for you, and is a good one if you’re simply using your book as a free marketing tool to promote your business. Amazon’s KDP Select is one way to do this. I personally used this service to “publish” and sell my book Cooking for One, which I wrote under a very obvious pseudonym. Once you format the book into their system, you basically don’t ever have to deal with it again (besides marketing it, of course). They simply send you a check every few months.

Getting It Properly Edited

When you self-publish a book, it’s up to you to make sure it’s flawless before it makes its debut. And that means hiring an editor. No matter how many times you’ve personally pored over the thing, you need an outside eye. See what I did there?

For more information, I’ve written about how much it costs to get a book edited and how you can make sure your manuscript is in fantastic-enough shape before you hand it off, so you spend less money on an editor.

Getting It Properly Designed

The other thing you’ll have to invest in up-front is a designer to lay the text out and create a book cover and back jacket. No matter what anyone says, everyone judges a book by its cover, so make sure yours is original (no stealing art!) and captivating.

Marketing Your Book

When you self-publish, you are entirely responsible for marketing your own book. The truth is, even when you a publishing house prints your book for you, as an author, you’re expected to prostitute yourself to sell your work: book-signing engagements, social media, a web site. Agents won’t even consider you unless you’ve demonstrated that you can sell yourself online. So if  an aversion to self-promotion is the thing keeping you from self-publishing, I’m afraid that’s not a good enough excuse.

But without a book publisher at your back, the onus for marketing is all on you. This is not as scary as it sounds. I’ve seen a lot of my peers pull it off, thanks to the free, democratic social media platforms Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

If you’re still stymied about which publishing option is right for you, email me and we can chat.