When I meet an author with a great book concept, one who’s definitely
right person to write that book, right away I’ll often encourage him or her to self-publish. This is because I know that, if an author is thoroughly invested in what they have to say, and if they’re determined to create a buzz about their message, they’ll discover . . . 5 Fantastic Benefits of Self-publishing 1. Control. When you enter into a contract with a major publishing house, you’re signing an exclusive agreement that prevents your having input into most of important decisions that will affect your book’s perception by public, and its sales. You’ll have very little say about look and feel of your book cover, endorsements that appear on back of your book, or wording of your press release, for example. And since all of above elements are critical to giving your book its best chance for bestseller status, such loss of control can pose significant problems. “But don’t publishers know better than I what to do to sell a book?” you may ask. Not necessarily. Authors usually know more about their book’s subject—and hence, about their target audience (market)—than anyone else. Hey, they wrote book!
More food for thought about signing with a major publishing house: If for some reason your book doesn’t sell quickly and publisher lets it go out of print, there’s often a “waiting period” before author is allowed to self-publish book to get it back on shelves. In meantime, reading public sees that your book is “out of print” and a great deal of word-of-mouth damage is done. Self-publishing means that you are at helm of your book project. Of course, it also means that responsibility for its success rests in your hands. But when you believe in your message and know that you’re going to do everything in your power to get that message out to your target audience, isn’t it a good feeling to know that you’re one driving its success in marketplace?
I suggest a balance of control and delegation. The right publishing ally can coach you through process of writing and editing your book, and will also advise you to design and market your message in a way that gets optimum results. Your publishing ally may be a book editor, a publishing consultant, a published author, or all three. If she’s worth her salt, though, she’ll know what it will take to get your book published, and she’ll know how to help you make it happen.
2. Money. Why does it make good business sense to self-publish? Consider following: a contract with book publisher doesn't give you an ironclad guarantee that your book will ever and upon shelves. If you’re a new author, your publisher will allocate zero marketing dollars to promote your book. It's sink or swim! If your book does sell well, it will be due to your own hard work and ingenuity—and your reward will be a tiny fraction of book’s total profits. Self-publishing admittedly involves more capital risk, but it also means that extensive footwork you do to market your book will go to producing income for person who most deserves it. After all, you’re one who’s doing all work to ignite word-of-mouth about your book. Not only that, you wrote it! Don’t you deserve to reap 100% of profit?
3. No Waiting, No Rejection. The Cinderella story of little book that gets discovered by a publisher and becomes an overnight bestseller is mostly just that—a fairytale. Yes , it happens. But it hasn't been happening a whole lot lately. In current publishing climate, with major houses paying gigantic advances to celebrity authors—their “cash cows”—not much is left to spend on developing new talent. Let's be honest: a publisher isn't going to spend a dime marketing a book by an as yet unknown author. To get your book considered for publication in first place, you'll need to have an extremely convincing marketing strategy in place which you intend to implement on your own, at your own expense! Such as case in every genre from children's books to alternative health to historical novels. First-time authors are being turned away en masse. And since many nonfiction book projects are time-sensitive—well-placed offerings intended to respond to a specific market trend—their authors often while way their precious window of opportunity waiting for agents or publishers to respond to a proposal. It isn't impossible to get a major publishing house interested in a book by a first-time author, but it’s getting more difficult all time. Self-publishing removes wait (and accompanying weight from your shoulders) and discomfort of rejection from process of getting your book into print.
