When most people hear the words book publishing they instantly think of traditional publishing. Which is quite understandable because this type of book publishing is the most popular and has helped a multitude of authors achieve success.
But traditional publishing can be a difficult option because it is notoriously hard to get a publishing deal with traditional publishing houses. Not to mention the fact that you will have to give up a majority of your rights to your book. Luckily there are now various options that new authors can choose.
One of the best alternatives to traditional publishing being self-publishing. This is because self-publishing is a great new concept that can totally revolutionize the publishing industry, But before you jump onto the self-publishing bandwagon there are a few things that you should know about self-publishing and the advantages and disadvantages using it. Here are the pros and cons of self-publishing.
Pros of self-publishing
- You get to keep a majority of your book rights.
One of the most annoying things about traditional publishing is that you will have to give up a majority of your book rights to the company. Which is unfair if you think about it.
You slave away on your book for hours on end and just because you don’t have the means to publish your book yourself, now you have to give away a majority of it.
But with self-publishing you now have the chance to keep all the rights to your book and choose your own publishing destiny.
- You get overall control of the publishing process
Yet another setback in traditional publishing is the fact that you lose overall control of the publishing process. You can’t choose how you publish your book, because the company owns a majority share of your book.
Which simply means you lose a great deal of control over your own book. But with self-publishing you retain overall control of the publishing process.
You get to choose how you publish it, how to print it, how to market it and how to distribute it. In short you are your own boss.
- You no longer need to stock-pile your books
Yet another great advantage that you can have as a self-published author is that you no longer have to stock-pile your books. Thus you will no longer have to risk the chance of losing your copies to termites and other unforeseen circumstances.
With the new print-on-demand services available, you can now keep your books in digital form and only have to print them out when there is a need, thus the term print-on-demand.
- You can choose how you market your books
One of the best things about being a self-published author is that you have full control of the book marketing process. Thus your success all really depends how hard you work and what marketing strategy you take.
Fortunately there are various ways that you can market your book in this internet dependent age. From creating your own blog site to utilizing every social media marketing strategy available.
All of these options are open to you. All you need is the willingness to work hard and stick to your strategy.
- You can get started right away
Getting a deal with a traditional publishing house is notoriously difficult. This is because most traditional publishing houses are very well established and don’t want to take any chances with unknown or new authors.
Which is why many would be authors finds themselves in limbo, while waiting for a chance to have their books published. But should you opt to self-publish your book, you can get started right away.
You don’t need to wait for a call from some traditional publishing company. You don’t need to get rejected multiple times just to get a publishing deal.
By self-publishing your very own book, you are technically forging your own destiny as a writer.
- Self-publishing companies
Self-publishing can be very time consuming and it can get difficult if you don’t know what you are doing. So there is really no shame in asking for some advice and some help.
Luckily for you, there are a myriad of self-publishing companies that you can turn to for help. Self-publishing companies are publishers specifically designed to give self-published authors the help they need.
This includes giving great self-publishing advice, support and a number of self-publishing services that will make the process so much easier. And seeing as they are quite affordable and give great services, they are surely a good investment.
Cons of self-publishing
- You will have to work extra hard
One of the setbacks of being a self-published author is that you will have to do most of the work for yourself. Where authors who have traditional book deals can relax and let the company do most of the work for them, you will need to do a great deal of work.
You will need to find professionals to edit your work, you will need to find a way to publish your work and you will need to market your book yourself.
All in all, you do get the freedom to publish your book yourself, but you will have to do twice the amount of work too.
- You will have to finance your publishing campaign yourself
Yet another setback you will face when you self-publish your work is that you are expected to pay for the entire publishing process yourself.
And seeing as publishing a book is a long protracted process where you will need to pay for various miscellaneous expenses, you should expect to cough up a good sum of money if you want to publish your book successfully.
So before you set out and self-publish your manuscript, remember that from here on out you are on your own. That you will have to pay for the entire process, so you had better save up first and have a strict budget.
Because you can get into debt pretty fast if you don’t stick to your budget.
- Bookstores will be wary of your books
If you are planning on getting your book a spot in your local bookstore or any bookstore, then you might get disappointed.
This is because most bookstores prefer to sell books that are already well known in literary circles or they already have connections with traditional publishing houses.
And they would usually not take the risk of selling a self-published book. So if you are thinking of self-publishing your own book, you should look for alternative ways to market and distribute your books.
All in all, self-publishing is a great publishing option. But like any other option there are pros and cons. It is up to you to weight them out and decide for yourself.