Why I'm self publishing my next book

For the last year, I've been working on Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds. It's a collection of my best short works and essays to date. I decided long ago I'd self publish it, and it's almost done (pre-order here).

Here's why I'm self publishing:

I have crazy ideas for books. Books I doubt any publisher would accept. I don't want my creativity gated on someone else.
I expect to write books for a living the rest of my life. The more I know about every part of the process, the greater my odds of success.
The more I know about every part of the process, the better I can negotiate what a publisher can or can not do for me in the future.
I don't know how well I can promote a book on my own. There is only one way to find out.
Every author complains about compromises with their publisher. Self publishing is one way to not to have to compromise on anything. If this book sucks, I have no one to blame. I like having no one to blame.
The tools are amazing. Kickstarter, BookBaby and Lightning Source. The hardest part will always be writing the book, but all the other tools make self-publishing easier and cheaper than ever in history.
Even if I never self-publish again, I'll never look at a book the same way again. I love books. I want to look at them with great understanding of what's involved in their creation.

The book is almost done and should be out in late October. You can help support the book on kickstarter, or if you want to help with PR, please join the berkunfan group.

Over the next few weeks I'll be talking more about the book and lessons learned.  Have questions? ask below.

If you want to be notified when the book is out, join the mailing list.

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