| Authors have been self publishing their own books | | | | payment of around 10% for every book sold. It |
| successfully for over one hundred years. | | | | can be 10% of the net amount, which is what the |
| Just look at this list of just a few of the | | | | publisher actually sells the book for, or 10% of the |
| well-known authors who all began by self | | | | price on the cover of the book. |
| publishing their own book - | | | | Vanity Publishing |
| - Oscar Wilde | | | | This is sometimes called Subsidy Self-Publishing but |
| - Rudyard Kipling | | | | whatever you choose to call it, it means that you, |
| - George Bernard Shaw | | | | the author, pay a vanity publisher to do all the |
| - Mark Twain | | | | work that a traditional publisher would have done. |
| - Beatrix Potter | | | | You do get paid higher royalties, usually from |
| - Deepak Chopra | | | | 25% to 40%, but it can still take quite a while |
| - Virginia Woolf | | | | before you break even, depending on how much |
| - John Grisham | | | | you paid to have your book published in the first |
| - Christopher Paolini (Eragon) | | | | place. |
| ALL these authors began their careers by self | | | | POD Publishing |
| publishing their own book. And you can do the | | | | Print On Demand publishing lets you self-publish |
| same. All you need is access to a computer and | | | | your book with minimum expense. POD books are |
| an internet connection. | | | | individually printed when an order is placed which |
| There's never been a better time to easily publish | | | | means no warehousing costs and this dramatically |
| a book and sell it internationally. And the really | | | | reduces production costs. But Print On Demand |
| great thing about being a published author is that | | | | companies are usually only printers not publishers, |
| it never has to end. Not only can you utilize | | | | although they can offer some publishing services. |
| modern publishing methods to keep your book 'in | | | | And so it's still up to the author to market and sell |
| print' for as long as you want, but you can | | | | their own work. |
| expand your writing talent and publish more and | | | | So before you approach a company, your |
| more books every year - or every month if | | | | manuscript must be what they call "copy ready". |
| you've got plenty of time to write. | | | | This means that your manuscript must be |
| But publishing books isn't just about writing them, | | | | formatted correctly, all the necessary pages are |
| you have to sell them too. | | | | included (e.g. copyright page, disclaimer page, etc) |
| But you need to know where to start and how | | | | and you have a book cover ready for printing. |
| to do it. | | | | Self-Publishing |
| Different Ways to Self-Publish | | | | When you publish a book yourself you take on all |
| The problem with reading anything about | | | | the work that a traditional publisher would have |
| self-publishing is that there's conflicting statements | | | | done for you. This includes having your book |
| on almost any website and it's all written in so | | | | printed, shipped, distributed and you also have to |
| much jargon that the more you read the more | | | | take care of all your own paperwork. |
| confused you become. But I will cut through all | | | | Which is best for you? |
| the technical terms and publishing jargon and help | | | | As we are dealing here with self-publishing, we'll |
| you to understand the different opportunities | | | | only be discussing the latter 3 ways to publish a |
| open for you to self-publish your book. | | | | book, that is, Vanity, POD and Self-Publishing. |
| There are 4 different ways to publish a book: | | | | Which of these ways you choose will depend on |
| - Traditional Publishing | | | | several different factors. |
| - Self-Publishing | | | | Firstly your choice will depend on how much of |
| - POD Publishing | | | | the work you want to do yourself. If you just |
| - Vanity Publishing | | | | want to get your book published and then carry |
| Traditional Publishing | | | | on with writing the next one, then you may opt |
| With traditional publishing there is no cost to the | | | | for vanity publishing. |
| author. You can pitch your book to an agent or | | | | On the other hand if you're a bit of a control |
| directly to a publisher to try and encourage them | | | | freak and like to be in charge of the publishing |
| to publish your book for you. | | | | process, then you may decide to go the whole |
| Currently only about 1 out of every 50,000 books | | | | self-publishing route yourself and deal with every |
| submitted are successful. But if your book is | | | | company and every aspect of publishing |
| accepted for publication it will probably be 18 | | | | personally. |
| months to 4 years before your book is in print | | | | But whichever way you choose, the choice is |
| and you will still be expected to market and | | | | now entirely yours. |
| promote your book yourself for a royalty | | | | |