In the digital age, the ability to self-publish has become available to most any writer with the drive and determination to get it done.
While traditional publishers may be focused solely on one niche that they believe is most profitable, self-publishers are free to pursue the audience that connects with their work, no matter the size.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be looking at some of the benefits, challenges, and mechanics of self-publishing. First, the benefits, which we at Strange Angel Press believe far outweigh the challenges.
Control & Freedom
In self-publishing, the author controls every element of the process, including timing, design, final cut, marketing, and distribution. You do not need to stress about finding a publisher that will “get” your vision and take a chance on your book. It can be challenging and demoralizing to receive rejection after rejection because we all know that major publishers can get it very wrong – just look at the 12 of them who passed on Harry Potter!
You also don’t need to worry with self-publishing that some corporate organization is going to take your vision and chop it up beyond recognition. Your creative product will retain the flavor and flow that you intend. That said, it is still very important to utilize outside resources for copy editing and proofreading. Your work will only improve if you heed the informed opinions of readers who live outside your own brain. But the publishing deal is not contingent on giving away control over the final product.
Self-publishing also offers the freedom to manage the timeline in a way that is comfortable to you. In the beginning, you will probably not be able to call writing your full-time job. That’s true whether you go with a publishing company or self-publish. But a traditional publisher will set a very strict timeline that you will need to work around, whereas the self-published author can choose when and how to allocate their time.
Keep a Bigger Cut of the Income
When you publish through a publishing house, the company assesses the sale potential of the book in order to determine an advance but also keeps the majority of the eventual revenue. They do this so that they can still make a profit after covering a lot of the publication expenses, including production, accounting, distribution, legal, marketing, and warehousing costs.
A self-publisher assumes the role of a traditional publisher and retains a much bigger percentage of any income earned, but also bears the full expense of production. And, as we will discuss in a later post, you must effectively market your books to generate sales.
One of the most popular self-publishing platforms is Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), and you keep 35% or 70% of Amazon ebook sales depending on the option you choose. Learn more about publishing with KDP here. CreateSpace is the Amazon platform for printed books, and you may want to use it in conjunction with KDP. With CreateSpace, books are printed only as they are ordered, and your royalty represents the remainder after Amazon takes a percentage of the list price for each sales channel, a fixed charge, and a per page charge. You can dig more deeply into the CreateSpace royalties structure here. Another option is Smashwords Direct, which offers a cut between 60%-80%, depending on whether or not the sale goes through a distribution partner.
Personal Satisfaction
It can be immensely satisfying to take on the challenge of self-publishing and succeed. The online tools available today mean that you can do it with a bit of research and determination. You don’t have to be especially tech savvy, but there will be a bit of a learning curve.
At Strange Angel Press, we can help you navigate this process and offer access to editors, graphic designers, formatting specialists, and marketing professionals. Feel free to drop us a line anytime to learn more about self-publishing.
The Strange Angel Press imprint is also available for use by authors of fantasy and counter-cultural fiction or whose work contains metaphysical or paranormal elements, is utopian in nature, or is based in or inspired by the American Southwest.
