WHY SHOULD I SELF PUBLISH

WHY SHOULD I SELF PUBLISH

This simple question haunts many aspiring authors and writers. Why should I self publish, and why should I pay get it published? My book is great, and any publisher will publish it and pay me handsome royalties. Typical author's dream. Those royalty payments and fabulous six figure advances would be great to buy a new Mercedes or BMW, is it not? Will I have time to attend all those TV interviews, and book signing tours? The dreams are endless.

In the beginning of every writing career, all authors strongly believe that it is an easy matter to get their manuscripts accepted by big publishers. After all, every writer believes his or her writing is simply superb, and every reader on earth would love to read it.

Sadly, the reality is just the opposite.

Consider the following facts of the publishing industry.

v An aspiring author can spend months, or maybe years just to get a fancy rejection letter from a reputed publishing house or agent. Most of the time, one does not even get a rejection letter. Therefore, you do not know whether to wait or contact someone else.

v Top publishing houses and agents do not look at new authors. More than 95% of all submissions are rejected for myriads of reasons. Even established authors cannot guarantee that his previous publisher will accept their next manuscript.

v Even if a manuscript gets accepted it will take at least 18 to 24 months to see daylight, with a strong possibility of it getting rejected, or postponed at the last minute because the chief editor did not like something about it.

v Each literary agent has different and often complicated submission & rejection procedures. Most of them do not respond to emails, phone calls, faxes, and prefer the traditional snail mail submissions with a turnaround time of several months for a reply. You have already spent months (or years) writing your book. Would you again want to wait months and years for someone to accept or reject it?

v Though many reputed agents and publishing houses do not charge any money for the basic process, there are bound to be various hidden costs for faxing, photocopying, mailing, etc. In addition, an agent may refer a particular proof reading service, or some other service that will charge you a bomb to make some minor changes here and there.

v Unless you have a revolutionary book, most books do not sell more than a few thousand copies. Of the millions of books published at present, only a few thousand titles cross sales of over hundred thousand copies in their lifetime.

And many more.

Hence, it is always better for aspiring writers and authors to try their luck first with self-publishing by spending a small amount of money.

Consider the following benefits of self-publishing.

v Speed: You can get your books published in a matter of weeks & months, not years and years.

v Control: You will have complete control over the layout, design, cover page, pricing, etc.

v Profits: You normally make more money by self-publishing and promoting your own book.

v Costs: Self-publishing need not be expensive as some people portray it to be. For less than $500/- one can get a sizeable number of trade quality copies printed and self promoted. Secondly, just by selling a hundred copies to friends, relatives and colleagues the author can recover the investment within weeks. Alternatively, if you choose a print on demand publishing one can have the book listed and available on book giants like Amazon, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, etc., to order by practically anyone. Any number of books can be printed and shipped. The book will never go out of print, and the author can promote his or her book using the unlimited possibilities of the Internet.

v Test the waters: You can write small books initially and test the ability to portray yourself as an author. People today want concise and simple information. Fill a need, a void, and write something that people want. Create a catchy title and cover. An author is an author, whether you write an eighty-page book, or a four hundred-page book.

v Success or Failure: An author can easily find out if the book is a success or a failure fast. If the book is something unique, has a catchy title, fills a void it will soon become a success. If not, well ...., maybe the next book will be better.

v Promotion: Bookstores are not the only places where books are sold. Many office goers buy business books online by searching for the type of books they want. There are hundreds of ways to promote your book. Friends, relatives, word of mouth, office newsletters, postcards, websites, email campaigns, etc. Checkout the wonderful book “1001 ways to market your book” by John Kremer. Several books that are now international bestsellers were all self-published initially by their authors.