Part One: Advantages

When you hear “self publishing,” do you cringe or does it make you want to learn more? Do you automatically say to yourself, “No, I don’t want to self publish; I want a real publisher to love my book, pay me to write it and get it mass published out there for everyone to enjoy”? While it is definitely possible with the right amount of patience and perseverance to get your talents noticed by big name publishers tomorrow, you may be squandering the opportunity to get your book to market today.

Or are you?

Self publishing offers a viable alternative to traditional publishing. But how do you know that choosing to self publish is the best option for your particular work? Just like with anything, the DIY publishing route has its good and bad points. So, in this two-part series, we take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of leveraging the DIY option.

Advantages:                                             

1.It’s Easy!—Almost anyone with knowledge of Word Processor formatting and access to graphics software, such as Photoshop, can create a book for print. Many self publishing companies provide a detailed guide that walks you through formatting the pages to fit your book size option. Once the book is formatted and cover art has been created, they are saved as PDF files and uploaded to the site. The process is taken over from there.

2.Wealth of Services—Many of these publishers have turned into full service providers. This means they are offering everything from writing and editing to design and marketing. If you have a great idea, but don’t know how to write, edit, design your covers, or get the word out afterward, then you need not worry.

3.No Inventory—When working with a traditional publisher, many have investment requirements of the author to purchase his or her own book. With self publishing, however, the process is print-on-demand (POD), so only the amount of orders that are placed are actually printed. No huge investment, no waste.

4.E-Access—Did you know that the number of individuals who use ereaders has grown by 167% over last year? Self publishing is a great way to reach this growing audience because some companies offer to produce both a print and electronic version of your book.

In part-two, we’ll discuss the disadvantages of DIY publishing. For a special treat, I’ll also give you my personal opinion on which book types benefit from DIY and which should be reserved for the traditional publishers.