Self publishing why

All book profits are yours! By self publishing, you own all book rights. A traditional publisher would own the rights, and if they lose interest in your book, you cannot print your book unless you purchase those rights back.

Traditional publishers are less inclined to take on a book that is topic-specific because they prefer books with mass market appeal. However, your book may fill a niche that has not been met, and you can "test the waters" with short-run book printing.

Books about local or regional topics are usually produced by local authors in short-run quantities. Learn my strategy to improve your odds here. Have you ever noticed that after an author has a runaway best seller, their next book stinks?

No matter how you publish, take the time to do it well. But I feel like crying every time I hear a writer say they shelled out a ton of money to publish their book hoping it was the route to a traditional book deal.

Then consider the handful of self-published books that have ever gone on to get book deals. I've got news for you, McFly. Assuming your book is going to be read, you will be rejected by a healthy portion of readers. Take a look at Goodreads sometime. Even your favorite books, even Pulitzer Prize winning books disappoint a lot of people. You will get bad reviews. One of my reviewers said my book was so depressing it made her want to kill herself.

Another said it was light chick lit. You cannot, will not, no way, no how, please everyone. If critique partners, instructors, readers, agents, and whoever else are telling you the book needs work, it needs work. Readers will be much more judgmental, especially on the internet.

Instead, go write a good book. Then decide how best to publish it. The good news is that the money they will bring in by their fame helps publishers spend money on riskier propositions like no-name authors with good, quieter books.

It happens all the time. Writing a book is an art, but publishing a book is like a business, and businesses need support, which necessitates expenses. Think real estate. You could go For Sale by Owner, but a good realtor will sell your home more quickly and for more money. And if you're writing romance, this may be an excellent reason to self-publish. If genre fiction is chart music, literary fiction is opera: the audience is small, and there are limited ways to reach it.

Self-published books are not eligible for major prizes like the Baileys, the Costa and the Man Booker , and getting shortlisted for major prizes is the only way a literary novel will become a bestseller. The chance of a self-published novelist getting their book reviewed in the mainstream press is the same as the chance of my dog not eating a sausage.

The chance of an indie author being booked for a major literature festival? Donald Trump apologising to Mexico. Good writers need even better editors. They need brilliant cover designers. They need imaginative marketers and well-connected publicists. They pay you! And I mean serious. Providing these services to indie authors is a lucrative business.

My final caveat is fiscal. You can put all of that effort in, do all that marketing, and still not make a living. Fiona Veitch Smith made the transition from self-publishing to traditional publishing.

I do not earn much as a traditionally published author but I earn more than I did as a self-publisher. But the reality is, of dozens of self-publishers I knew, I was probably the most successful.

Many authors find this is too much work for them to tackle and hire a PR firm. Usually, you will need the help of a PR firm for three to six months, given that the work publicists do doesn't always bear fruit the first month. If you work with a large commercial publisher, they will have an in-house public relations team and assign someone to promote your book. I worked with Random House for my first book and found their PR team to be very energetic and well-connected.

However, they are one of the largest publishing houses and have more resources than most. With smaller publishing houses, you may need to supplement what the in-house PR team does by hiring a PR firm or doing the legwork yourself.

If this all sounds like a lot of time and effort, it is. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Nov 12, , pm EST. Nov 12, , am EST. Nov 11, , am EST. Edit Story. Oct 31, , pm EDT.