We live in a pretty crazy world nowadays with AI tools, social media, and more. To be fair, the internet has made a lot of things possible that we thought could never exist before. It’s easier now more than ever to have a name and to have lots of people know about you. This phenomenon applies to writing too, and especially in publishing. When I first started writing, it was pretty much a general consensus that everyone needed to go through traditional publishing houses and all that. However, over the course of a few years, indie publishing became a big hit. Now, we all know about self-publishing.
Self-publishing is not a super new trend, but its certainly gained some traction over the past couple of years. Not to be that person that has to bring it up, but the pandemic and the lockdown definitely helped a lot of people get into the business of self-publishing. It’s also the route I elected to use for my own books.
But a lot of people question this route. After-all, there’s still a small but existing stigma that self-published books are all poor quality and mass produced. However, people are moving away from this sentiment and it looks like self-publishing might just be the future of books.
But should you self-publish a book? Or is this a risky route? Well, let me give you a few reasons why self-publishing is actually much better than you think it is and why you might not like it all the same:
Pros:
1. You Have Full Control Over Your Works
I’m starting surface-level here because this is the most obvious reason, but traditional publishing is notorious for forcing authors to change a lot of artistic vision from their original works. Traditional publishing and editors want to sell a product in the way that they think it should be sold. The problem here is that writing is an art form, and censoring/restricting art is a tough bargain for most people.
When you have complete control over your book, you can write it how you like, find an editor that suits your needs, and publish it in the way that you want to. Nobody can tell you that you’re not allowed to publish your own book when you own every part of the process.
Be careful not to overlook mistakes and certainly don’t ignore any advice people give you. Even if you think your works are perfect, someone might point something out that is super helpful.
Now, don’t just take other opinions as gospel and apply it immediately, but don’t discredit all other opinions automatically either. Strike a good balance that helps you.
2. Self-Publishing is Much, Much Faster
Traditional publishing is quite a lengthy process because you not only have to reach out to an agent (which can take time and plenty of rejections), but you also have to reach out to publishers. And guess what, they can reject you dozens of times. Even if your book is really, really good, it may take you years to get someone to take a look at it and recognize its potential.
Self-publishing is an extremely fast process because it’s basically your decision. If you want to publish your book today or in two months, you can do that. If you think your book is ready, it’s been edited, proofread, and more, then you can just hit publish and move on.
There’s no need to wait for an agent and publishing house to care about your works–it’s up to you now.
3. You Keep Most of the Royalties!
Look, let’s be frank with each other: Most people write books because they want money. Yes, you probably love books and that’s what got you into writing them, but for the most part, it’s a business. If you want to keep writing, you need to make money.
With traditional publishing, you keep very little royalties. Most authors that are traditionally published may not see more than the advances for a book they spent ages working on. Sure, they might end up becoming bestselling authors, but do you know how few of those actually exist? Yeah, exactly.
Meanwhile, when you self-publish a book, the vast majority of those royalties are yours to enjoy. For example, you can keep up to 75% of your sales through Amazon KDP, which is a huge deal. You may not make The New York Times bestsellers list, but you can still make a great amount of money when you keep most of the royalties for yourself.
Cons:
1. The Cost Can Be A Lot Sometimes
Sure, self-publishing is often pretty cheap, it still requires some level of a financial investment. For instance, you will need a good writing software–Google Docs really isn’t the best for formatting entire books. You’ll probably also need editing services, cover designers, formatting help, etc… and marketing! All of these things do add up at the end of the day.
Now, you can create a cover for your book for free using something like Canva, which I’ve written about before. However, it may not be as cool/fancy as the ones you see in Barnes and Noble. For those, you’ll probably have to hire somebody like a freelancer on Fiverr to do it for you.
Marketing is probably going to be the priciest bit here, because without proper marketing, nobody’s going to know about your book. You may need to pay for ads through Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, etc… These costs will add up too. However, you will probably make more sales than your costs, so you may net out more than you spent–which is great!
2. There is Still a Stigma Around Self-Published Books
There is, to some extent, an unfortunate stigma surrounding self-published books to this very day. A lot of people view them as being lower quality than what traditional publishing houses produce. You don’t get a professional publishing house to do all the hard work for you like editing and cover design, so a lot of it falls on your shoulders to make work.
However, I want you to know that just because this stigma exists, it should absolutely not dissuade you from self-publishing a book. At the end of the day, a traditional publishing house may never want to pick up your book because they might think it’s “unmarketable.” Well, just because they have fancy job titles, it doesn’t mean that they can decide if your book is worth reading or not.
If you poured a lot of time and effort into your book, don’t let a silly stigma bring you down–it’s an inaccurate one.
3. Distribution Is Limited Sometimes
Self-published books often rely mainly on online sales, which can limit your reach. Some people really like to browse and brick and mortar stores. However, this is a concern that is seemingly fading away lately.
After the pandemic, everyone has been switching more and more to the internet. Sales online boosted a lot in that time and they’re still at their height. For the most part, even if you exclusively sell online, your reach will likely be wide enough to get yourself a name.
Overall Verdict
To sum this whole debate up, I think that self-publishing is still a very viable and very good way to get your book out to the world. There may be a few hurdles at first, and it can be a learning process and financial investment, but once you figure it out, it’s a much easier process than you think.
You have the creative freedom to express yourself and your works and you can earn higher royalties per sale. The biggest challenge is likely marketing, but leveraging platforms like Instagram and TikTok will bring a ton of benefit to your sales potential and reach.
Ultimately, whether your try to go through a traditional publishing house or self-publish, this is a decision that falls on you and what your goals are. I would like to mention that a good amount of bestselling authors were able to find great agents because they already knew famous authors. So, unfortunately, it’s really reliant on your connections. And if you’re lacking those connections, it might be a tough ride. Not impossible, but tough.