Some think that self-publishing your book is almost like admitting your defeat as a writer: you cannot get published, so you do it yourself. That is not so. While there certainly are some authors who have no chance of getting published because of their poor writing and therefore turn to self-publishing, the amount of good quality books produced that way grows continuously. Many self-published books make their way to the market and compete quite successfully with their traditional counterparts, sometimes even leaving them far behind. Judge for yourself, here are just a few examples provided by www.bookmarket.com at their Self-Publishing Hall of Fame:

• Craig Alesse began Amherst Media by self-publishing his own how-to photography books. His company is now one of the premiere how-to photography publishing companies in the world, distributing to photography stores across the country.
• In a little over two years, author Laura Duksta and illustrator Karen Keesler sold 130,000 copies of their first book, I Love You More.
• William Byham self-published the bestselling business book, Zapp: The Lightning of Empowerment. The book has sold more than 2.5 million copies in self-published and Crown Publishing editions.
• Richard Paul Evans self-published 8,000 copies of his little holiday story, The Christmas Box, in August 1993. That fall he sold many thousands of copies in the Salt Lake City area alone. When the major publishers became interested in the book, dozens of them participated in a two-day auction. Simon & Schuster came out the winner. They only had to pay Evans a $4.2 million advance (which included the rights to a prequel as well). He retained the rights to his softcover edition. The next year, both editions ended up on the bestseller lists. The book has sold more than 7 million copies in 17 different languages.”

Like I said, these are just a few examples, there are hundreds of them in the above mentioned Hall of Fame. As you see, self-publishing can be a successful endeavor, but, of course, it has its drawbacks as well as advantages. Let us take a look at those. First, we will talk about subsidy publishing, then we’ll discuss a newer technology called print-on-demand publishing.

Subsidy Publishing

Subsidy publishing has been around for years. Authors who could not or did not wish to use a traditional publisher would go there, pay for the publishing costs, and have their book printed.

Advantages

• You will save time and frustration of rejections. It might take years to push your book through if you go the traditional route, submitting your work to publishers, waiting for their response, and gathering your collection of rejection letters. When and if your book is finally accepted, it will take another year, if not two, before it is at last printed and available in bookstores. For many authors, that alone is enough of a reason to consider self-publishing.
• You will have full control over your work. No one will change your title (many traditional publishers do), no editor will tell you to add or remove 10,000 words, rewrite certain episodes or change certain parts of the plot. You will have the book cover done exactly the way you want it – a luxury most traditional publishers do not give to their authors.
• You will have a chance as a writer. This is probably more important than anything else. If you have written a good book and have done a great job of publishing and promoting it, you have a chance to get noticed as a writer. If people like your book and start buying it, traditional publishers might become interested in it as well and offer you a contract.

Disadvantages

• You pay instead of getting paid, and you pay a lot. With a traditional publisher, you sign a contract and receive your advance and/or royalty payments. With a subsidy publisher, you pay for all the publishing costs, which can easily be over $10,000.
• You risk having a poorly edited book. Editors can be a pain, but they do help. Even the best writers have their works edited, and many new authors need it done. You might think that you know exactly how your book should be written, and I can understand you. I am an author myself, and I disagree with many of the modern-day editing rules. My take on it is that editing is often a matter of opinion: this person (or group) thinks this would be the best way to have written a certain passage, and that person (group) thinks that. There is no such thing as a perfectly edited book. Where one editor has done his best, another might disagree and point out things that he thinks should be changed. With all that said, editors often see things we authors don’t see, and help to improve the book. I have read some works of new authors that were, in my opinion, very good and did not need to be changed in any way, but I have also seen some that made me think, “Boy, if they publish it like this, the book has no chance…” So, if you are a 100% sure in the quality of your writing, then go ahead, but if you are not, you might want to consider hiring an editor. Many subsidy publishers offer editorial services, or you can do some research and find one yourself.
• You will have to do all the marketing and promotion. Traditional publishers have marketing departments and sales people who will work on promoting your book and placing it into bookstores. With a subsidy publisher, you will have to take care of that yourself, and you might end up with a garage full of unsold books (I bet you’ve already heard this phrase before). Sometimes subsidy publishers offer some book promotion and distribution, for which you will have to pay extra, but generally, you need to remember that the subsidy publisher’s job is to print your book, not sell it. The seller is you.

Print-on-Demand Publishing (POD)

Print-on-demand, or digital publishing, is a relatively new technology that has made self-publishing fast and affordable. Here is how it works. Your manuscript is formatted into a book, and the book file is stored digitally, together with the cover and all the necessary information like ISBN, barcode, etc. Printing it out will only take a minute or two. Yes, just like that: a button is pressed, and a finished book comes out. POD publishers do not print hundreds or thousands of copies, they just have the book ready and wait for orders. When a book order comes in, the required amount of books is printed and shipped to the customer. The publisher will take their share to pay for the production costs, and you will receive your royalties, the amount of which is usually specified in the contract.

Advantages

• Affordability. Forget about $10,000+, print-on-demand publishers offer packages starting at as low as $200-300. Usually, POD publishers have several different programs/packages, with different distribution and marketing options, standard or customized cover design, etc. If you choose your publisher well, you will have a high quality book, in no way inferior to those published traditionally. Your book will have an ISBN and a barcode, it will be listed with major book distributors like Spring Arbor and Ingram, and it will be available to order from any bookstore.
• Speed and control. A POD publisher can have your book done and ready to order within 3 months, some even do it in weeks. That is lightning speed compared to the traditional press. And, just like with subsidy publishing, you will have your book done exactly the way you want it. You can submit your own images for the cover, or simply tell the artist what you wish to see on it, and there will be no editor telling you to change or remove certain parts of your masterpiece.
• No garage full of books. Since your book is stored electronically, you don’t have to turn your home into a warehouse. Unless you decide to buy some copies at your discounted author’s price and sell them yourself, you don’t even have to touch the books: your publisher will take care of all orders, printing books out and shipping them to the customers. All you need to do is to spread the word, and refer potential book buyers to Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other stores where your book is available.
• Your book will not go out of print. With the print-on-demand technology, your print run is virtually unlimited. If an order comes in for 5,000 copies, your publisher will handle it, and be ready to print as many more as needed, any time. And if you only sell just a few books per month, no one will tell you that the book is not selling well and therefore needs to go out of print. Your book will be around as long as you want it to.
• Once again, you will have a chance as a writer. Readers don’t care how the book is published, they only care whether it’s good or not. If it’s good, they will start buying it.

Disadvantages

• You pay instead of being paid. Yes, POD is much more affordable, but you still pay. The cheapest POD publishing packages usually have limited distribution and marketing options, and I don’t recommend to save on that. After all, that’s the whole idea of self-publishing: you publish your book in order to get it into the readers’ hands, not to sit around without being noticed.
• You risk having a poorly edited book. (See above.)
• You will have to do all the marketing and promotion. Even if you choose the best publishing package, most of the work of promoting the book will be yours.
• POD Stigma. Unfortunately, there is some prejudice towards POD-published books. Some reviewers refuse to take them, and many bookstores will not stock POD titles. The latter has a reasonable explanation: many POD publishers do not accept book returns, which means that if the bookstore has some unsold copies left they cannot send them back to the publisher. This is a serious drawback. Stores need to be able to return unsold books, and good POD publishers are now providing this service. But the sad thing is that the stigma is still there. A bookstore manager will often look the book up in their computer, see it listed as a POD title, and refuse to stock it “because POD’s are non-returnable,” without even checking. So if you choose a POD publisher you will need to: A) Make sure they accept book returns; B) Make sure you tell that to each and every bookstore you contact.

General Advice

As you see, self-publishing your book has some good potential, but it also requires hard work. Overall, I would say there are two keys to success if you choose to go that route: Quality and Promotion. You will need to make sure that your book is done in the best possible way, that it has the look and feel of a professionally published book. Pay special attention to your cover design, that’s the first thing the book will be judged by. Choose your title just as carefully. Make sure the blurb on the back cover is an attention-grabber, something that will make the person who had picked up your book want to know more. And do not spare any efforts to promote your work. Mark Twain, who had also begun his writing career through self-publishing, walked around his town wearing a bath robe, hoping to draw media attention and get some publicity for his books. I am not suggesting that you should go that far (although after a few unsuccessful attempts to contact local newspapers you might be tempted to); I am only saying that you will need to do your best.

External Links:

• Book Market - all kinds of good info on book marketing and promotion