Why Self-Publish?

Today’s blog topic is why self-publishing may or may not be for you.

I personally chose to self-publish because the most important thing to me is getting my books into the hands of readers. I want to write and share my stories with the world. For me, being an author isn’t about the prestige of publishing through a traditional publisher it is all about creating new worlds, new characters, and new stories for readers to fall in love with, but for others it’s about creating the next great American Novel that will win prizes and prestige.
If you’re like me and just want to write and create and share with readers, self-publishing is for you. If you want to be able to say that you were chosen by a big time publisher and they believe in your great novel, then traditional publishing is obviously the better choice for you.
Also, as a self-published author, I do not have to take time from writing and interacting with readers to query agents and publishing companies. When you are trying to become a traditionally published author you can spend weeks, months, and years writing letters and sending submissions to publishing houses and agents, praying for the miracle of one person seeing potential in your book. Waiting for rejection or acceptance letters, sometimes not receiving any replies whatsoever. Or, you can go into self-publishing where getting your book published requires just a few clicks on a website.

When you self-publish a novel you retain control of the novel. If you traditional publish there is the possibility that you won’t even recognize your novel by the time that the publishing company is done having you make changes to it. Change you character, change your beginning, middle, and end. Change the name of your character. Change their gender. Change the title. As a self-published author you make all of the decisions about your book, about cover art, about where it is published, and how you market.
Another aspect that you have control over is when and how often you publish. If you are under contract with a publishing house they determine your deadlines for chapters and books. They want you to work at their pace, not your own. The publishers will also decide if they want more books from you and how soon. As a self-published author you work with the deadlines that you set for yourself and you determine if and when you publish every book. If you want to publish one or one hundred it is up to you.
As a self-published author you CAN make more money. There are fewer people taking percentages of the profits. No agents. No publishers. Just you and the company that produces and sells your e-books or paperbacks.
With self-publishing you also have immediate access to your reports on sales via whichever company’s website you are selling on. This allows you to see how your marketing is affecting your sales. The websites that you sell through also allow you to play with pricing which both can immediately help or hurt sells and your profits. As a traditionally published author you do not control the pricing of your books.

I hope that you have found this post to be informative and helpful in your decision to self-publish or go the traditional publishing route.

XoXo

Michelle