7 Reasons Why You Should Self-Publish Your Book
7 Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book
"A self-publishing author is a creative entrepreneur".
An author who decides to self-publish must have the heart and mind of a businessperson. They should enjoy working for themselves, not only as a writer but also as an entrepreneur.
Self-publishing is a common way to go for budding authors, but is a very misunderstood and understated avenue. When your book is the product, you become not just the author, but also the seller. So your skills and minset should expand in the horizons of not just writing, but also selling. And that calls for a detailed process to be followed. Now that you know the self-publishing route entails a fairly large list of self to-dos, let's enumerate them. They include editing, designing, proofreading as well as marketing. Since all these activities require smart imagination, a self-publishing author can easily be called a 'creative entrepreneur'.
During the last 2 decades, with the advent of social media and advanced digital technology, e-books have become a huge rage. Due to this boom, publishing is no longer available to only a few select authors. Almost anyone who has a fair bit of idea about the basics of book publishing can indulge in it. Having said that, let us understand the benefits of self-publishing.
Listed below are 7 important advantages :
Higher and better odds - With scores of manuscripts being submitted to traditional publishing houses every year, the odds of getting selected go down considerably. Researches reveals that the odds of finding an agent and then a publisher is 0.01%. On the other hand, the chances of getting a book self-published are 100%.
Shorter turnaround time for publishing - Finding an agent can take time and even if/when you do find one, they cannot guarantee they’ll find a publisher. It may take years if it happens at all. And if they do find a publisher, the publication cycle can take a year or more. Self-publishing mitigates this long wait and books can be made available to readers within a short time.
3. Creative control - This item tops the list of any self-publishing author. The editing can be done their way. The title remains unchanged. They have full control over their cover design and copy. They have full creative control over future editions, e-books, audiobooks, marketing and public relations.
4. Business control - Self-publishing allows the author complete control over the business of the book. Entrepreneurship is key here. As the owner and founder, you decide on all the business aspects. The pricing of the book, the production and marketing costs and the various kinds of promotion one would do, fall in this category. Since the onus of the success of the book is totally on the author, handling the business efficiently can be a challenge as well as a motivation.
5. Longer shelf life - Self-publishing allows the benefit of long-tail marketing. That necessarily means that a book can be promoted for as long as one wants and at a speed that suits you. Since book marketing involves effort, time and finances, self-publishers can do it the way that seems the best to them as per the available resources and time.
6. Online marketing - It is the self-publisher's prerogative as to what kind of campaigns should be run on social media. There are no restrictions and one can explore all possible marketing avenues. Quite a few self-published authors have success stories to tell about self-publishing and about promoting their books via the social media route.
7. No profit-sharing - On average, traditional publishers pay royalties of between 5% and 12% of the book’s cover price. On the other hand, for a self-publishing author, of course, the initial production and marketing costs will be higher if a freelance editor and/or a digital marketer is hired. But it is a pretty thought when one knows that they get to keep 100% of the profits after expenses.
To sum up, self-publishing is about jack of all, master of non. It is the journey from the stepping stone of being a budding writer, to a seo specialist, to an entrepreneur, to a technical and marketing expert. As heavy and tiring as it may sound, the journey is worth relishing as the end result is much fulfilling.