Self-Publishing  -  No Longer an Author's Last Option

by Jeanette Fisher

It may not be well known to the average person, but March is Small Press Month, and though the term has traditionally been used to refer to small mainstream publishing companies, it's now most often used in reference to authors who self-publish their books. Over the centuries, the concept of self-publishing has carried a somewhat negative connotation. However, over the past few years, it's become much more common for authors to self-publish their work and market it in a variety of creative ways.

In fact, many authors prefer to control their book production and sales. Authors self-publish because they make more money, faster, without working so hard.

The explosion in self-publishing has been driven by advances in technology, which have allowed authors to print books more quickly and at considerably less expense. One advance has been print on demand (POD). With POD, authors can often bring a perfect-bound paperback book to the market for less than $1,000. That's thousands of dollars less than self-publishing used to cost, and the books delivered by the majority of POD houses are generally of excellent quality. Although these books can be sold on Amazon, POD books still receive negative treatment from reviewers and book stores.

The best advance in technology is digital printing. Today's authors can order small runs of books, from 50 to 250 copies at a time. These books can be sold in book stores just like any big publishing house book.

There are many advantages to self-publishing. First, you don't have to buy a large quantity of books to get a reasonable discount as was the case years ago. (In fact, many POD houses don't require you to buy any books at all.)

Second, your book can be done quickly, which can be important if you're writing about a timely subject or if you need books in your hands to sell at an event or speaking engagement. Sir Speedy in Whittier printed 250 books in less than a week. On Monday, they received the PDF and cover art, sent a proof overnight, received the fax with corrections, printed the books, and shipped to Las Vegas in time for a convention on Friday.

Third, you're in total control of how your book is marketed, which can be a distinct advantage. If you're not a well-known author and you're lucky enough to sign with a major publishing company, you can't expect them to promote your book heavily. They're mainly interested in blockbusters, and all their other titles generally suffer as a result. As a self-publisher, you're free to do radio and television interviews, book signings, seminars, or any other sales-generating ideas you might have--without seeking permission from your publisher.

Fourth, you can easily test an idea you may have for a book. You don't have to go through the formal (and tedious) process of writing proposals and doing market research to prove to a publisher that you have a winner. You can publish it yourself and reap all the benefits, which brings us to the fifth advantage.

As a self-publisher, you get to keep a much larger percentage of the profits. For example, if you sell copies of your book at $20 that only cost $5.00, you quadruple your profit on every book. On the other hand, you'd be lucky to get one-tenth that amount through a standard contract with a mainstream publisher, which means you'd have to sell ten times as many books to realize the same profit. And, if you print more books at a time, you can make even more money because the cost per book goes down significantly.

Finally, self-publishing allows you to call yourself an author, because you can hold up your book and proudly say, "I wrote this!" That may be the greatest benefit of all. So if you've been avoiding self-publishing the manuscript you've worked on so long and hard, it may well be time to join millions of other self-published authors who have a special reason to celebrate Small Press Month every March!

Get your book in print before another Small Press Month celebration passes you by. Join our FREE Speakers and Authors Network and learn how to write a book fast. You'll also learn how to write a book that SELLS and how to promote yourself and your business.