Self-publishing offers you as an author an alternative to preparing and releasing your works without the lengthy processes and delays, lack of content control, revenue limits, and rejections you might otherwise face with a traditional book publisher.
For decades, self-publishing was considered the way forward for those whose titles could not make the cut into mainstream publishing. By comparison, traditional publishing involves a contract that a publisher offers an author to print, publish, and sell your works through booksellers and retailers, buys the rights to your work and pays you royalties of the sales. Then there’s hybrid publishing where an author enters into an agreement with a traditional publisher to share a percentage of the production costs of book publishing for higher royalties. Fast forward to nearly a quarter century into the millennium and the industry finds even the most widely-known and prolific among you are opting to self-publish your books.
Additionally, independent publishers are catching up in recognition, revenue, and reputation with the more long-since established, traditional ones. For example, about 25 percent of Amazon e-book sales stem from books published by the major houses while 45 percent—nearly half—of such works come from independent publishers. Clearly, the industry has responded and you, the independent author, are taking notes.
On some levels, self-publishing even surpasses the perks of traditional publishing but it is not without its own challenges. However, we will focus on the five advantages of self-publishing: quicker exposure, more creative control, bigger royalties, more presence and staying power and more options.
Advantage #1: More Creative Choice and Control
One of the many rewards you can expect to enjoy with self-publishing is you get a greater say in the direction of the cover design and the content inside your book.
By contrast, with traditional publishers like HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Viking Press, you must adhere to their preferences because they acquired the rights to your work.
Self-publishing allows you to generate and oversee the direction of your text and visuals, including the formats or shapes they can take such as pamphlets, workbooks, or guides.
Advantage #2: Quicker Exposure
Another benefit or second advantage to self-publishing is that your titles hit the market much more quickly than they would through traditional publishers.
The presence and use of the Internet to introduce and promote your work empowers you to finish your book on one day and publish and publicize it the next—as no other marketing phenomenon would.
Surely, we would not advise that you go down this path because even the most gifted authors should have time to review and revise their manuscripts and proofs.
However, it can’t be denied that self-publishing can accelerate the production, release and promotion of your work and lead to faster publicity and sales.
By comparison, the timetable for traditionally publishing your work ranges from six months to a year and a half—at the very least.
Advantage #3: Bigger Royalties
The third advantage to self-publishing is that you increase your share of the profits from your mighty works.
In traditional publishing, you may be paid 10 to 15 percent of the list price of each copy sold.
Meanwhile, self-published authors fetch up to 70 percent off the list price in profits.
Among the many other boons of self-publishing with Amazon or the other companies identified earlier in this blog, you secure primary publication rights for your books.
Then you hold subsidiary rights for such ventures inspired by your work as films, documentaries, Netflix shows, anime and manga cartoons and movies. You also win foreign rights to have your work used in international markets.
Advantage #4: More Authorship Presence and Staying Power
Another advantage of self-publishing is that your titles gain a longer shelf life.
In so many words, you can buy more time for your books to find its way to its rightful audience.
With the traditional big houses, your book may only last a month or two in physical brick-and-mortar structure bookstores—though these are disappearing as more bookstores move online—since they always push out old stock and make room for new ones.
In comparison, if you are an indie author, the paperback or hardcover versions of your books occupy the shelves of brick-and-mortar bookstores for much longer as you keep writing and releasing new e-books on a print-on-demand basis.
As you may know, print-on-demand, also known as POD, enables you to print copies of your work only after they have been ordered.
In this manner, you don’t need to worry about physically storing your books for future sales as you would have with traditional publishing decades ago.
As a result, your digital works stay on the platforms of such ebook stores as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Google Play Books, Harlequin, Kobo, Red Shelf and Smashwords for good.
Advantage #5: More Possibilities
The final boon and the fifth advantage to self-publishing is the room you are granted for experimentation and leeway in writing, editing, and designing cover art for your finished product.
As an independent author, you can write your work for any genre or subgenre or on any subject you wish. This is because independent companies are more open than traditional outlets to publishing works in a wide variety of topics, including controversial ones or ones of an underground nature. They are likely to consider an array of subjects for publishing and to retain titles that reflect this form of diversity. On the other hand, traditional publishers have a set list of genres and subgenres for which they accept manuscripts and works for mainstream audiences, largely to generate sales and not much controversy unless it’s profitable.
Ready to Try Self-Publishing? Let eBooks2go Get You Started!
Are you prepared to enjoy quicker exposure, more creative control, bigger royalties, more presence and staying power and more options as an independent author? Then let ebooks2go help you grab the reins of self-publishing and its five advantages as described above.
With our consultation and multiple production and promotion packages, our publishing and marketing team helps you take command of the trajectory of your self-publishing journey.
Consult our free publishing guide, and learn the ins and outs of self-publishing your works and your options today!