Why I Chose to Self-Publish, Part One

The title of this blog is very important. It includes the concept of choosing self-publishing, instead of coming at it as a last resort. The main problem of seeing self-publishing as your last option is that you may be angry and resentful about the process with traditional publishing, and it may set you up to self-publish for the wrong reasons. This is a hard enough battle already without having it more difficult by the emotions you may fight.
Let me tell you a bit of my story first. I went into writing a book with the full intention of getting a traditional publisher. I went to a conference and pitched to three editors and three agents. I had a very mixed response. Some hated it. Some loved it. After I finished the book, I carefully followed the guidelines for writing a book proposal and sent it to the one editor who was most excited about it. The response? “Sorry, we’re not accepting young adult fiction right now.” I researched the market and found that very few (and mostly unknown) Christian houses were accepting proposals for young adult books. During this time, I had started reading online about self-publishing and eBooks. I was astonished by what I found.
Today if I met the editor that rejected my book, I would be tempted to hug him. I’m kind of shy, so I’d probably just shake his hand and say a huge “Thank you!” I certainly didn’t feel that way when that rejection email came back, but it saved my day and brought me to self-publish. Everyone looks at me like I’ve lost my mind when I say that, but here’s why... 
 1. Traditional Publishing      Notice that Borders is gone? How about that independent book store? I’ll be they’re on the brink of extinction. Thanks to the digital world and recent releases of technology, there is no reason to go into a bookstore that is probably going to charge you more money. If you have a Kindle, most books are around $2.99. A printed book cannot compete with this, and the publishing houses are having difficulties keeping up with eBooks as well. What does this mean to an author trying to decide between self-publishing or traditional publishing?  Earnings. The golden age of publishing is gone. Gone are the $500,000 advances. Gone are the red carpet treatments. Gone are the high earnings. Royalties are now about 7-10%. An agent will take 15-20%. If this sounds okay to you, check this out... On a $20 book, you’d earn $1.60 per copy sold. If you sold 10,000 copies, you would receive $16,000. And, by the way, an advance is just a loan on your royalties. If you got an advance of $5,000, you won’t see any royalties until you make over $5,000. Considering you will probably be getting a whopping 7%, that might be a while.Agents. Think you find a publishing house without an agent? Nope. A large commercial publisher will not consider a manuscript unless it is represented by an agent. Most houses have closed their doors to unsolicited manuscripts since they receive between 3,000 and 5,000 a week. However, agents get 200+ queries a month, so around 99% of submissions are rejected, even if the manuscripts are great. Time. Let’s say your luck holds. With good luck, it can take up to 6-12 months to hire an agent because they are almost as busy as the editors. Figure another six months to convince a publishing house to take your book. Then it can take up to 12-18 months to actually have it on the shelf. It is very likely that it will be over 2 years until your book hits the shelves...if you’re lucky. Control. Okay, so you’ve made it over the hurdle. You have your agent and a publishing house. Then you sign a contract. With this, you sign away the final say on the title, the slant of the material, the cover, the content, the pricing, the promotion, distribution, timing, and a multiple of other things, including in most cases, the copyright. They hold the power. Let’s say they want you to change the name of the protagonist. You don’t want to, and so you refuse. They will probably say, “Then we won’t print your book,” leaving you all the way back to square one. They also decide how long your book stays on the market. If it’s not selling, they can take it off the shelf and not sell it anymore. Depending on your contract, you may have to either buy back the rights to your book or wait for years (I’ve heard up to five) for the company to release it back to you. Marketing. The publisher doesn’t really do marketing. That’s for the bestselling authors. They expect to have your own platform already before they will think about your book. Your book proposal is often required to include a marketing plan. And if you are going to have to market anyways, why not do it for yourself and earn more money?

2.      Self – Publishing          What does life look like on the other side of the coin? As you can well imagine, I have many things to say about this, and I will continue this topic in later blogs. But, for a fair comparison, let’s just look at the issues I raised in traditional publishing and compare them to self-publishing. Earnings. When you self-publish, you earn a higher profit (25-100%). The amount you receive depends on how you sell your book and can be complicated by several layers of distribution. For example, I had my book Toxic for sale on Amazon Kindle (as an eBook for those of you living under a rock) for $2.99. When someone buys that, I get 70%. If someone buys the paper copy from Amazon, I get 40% because Amazon and Createspace both want a bit of the pie. However, when I sell it off my webpage, the royalties go up to something like 60%. If I sell it to a person face-to-face, it’s close to 80%. Here’s a fun fact. If a self-published book hits a level of 10,000 copies, that author will make more than three times an author who went through traditional publishing. That means you would make $48,000. Now, there are doubters out there that say they never will sell that many. If that’s your attitude, then it doesn’t matter which route you take. Agents. There are no agents with self-publishing. You decide which company to hire, how the book will be laid out, and all the other decisions. This means that you don’t have to share royalties with anyone - except maybe your family. Time. This is a tricky one. Since the company doesn’t proceed without your approval or feedback, it lands on you to keep the ball rolling. It also depends on what you want your cover to look like. If you can find a stock photo that you love and can use a template, then I would say it’s possible to have your book in about a week. Maybe two if you include shipping. If you want a cover designed, the process could take from about a month to six months. Again, it all relies on you and your desires. Control. Obviously with self-publishing, you are the publisher. You retain all the rights for the book. The decisions, the mistakes, and the success are on your shoulders. Sounds like a lot, right? But think of it this way. Who else knows your book like you do? Who else has sweated and cried over it? Who else is as motivated as you to see it sell like those proverbial hotcakes? The answer is...NO ONE! This is why YOU make the best publisher and marketer for your book. And, if something is not working for you, you can change direction. Don’t like self-publishing...well then, there’s nothing stopping you from trying traditional publishing. The direction of your book can be modified by you anytime you want. Marketing. Sometimes I think this is the biggest obstacle for authors. I hear these cries come up “But I’m not a salesperson!” Great! I’m not, either. Marketing is not about sales. (Did I surprise you there?) Marketing is about communicating and relationships. It is letting people know that your book is for sale and why they should buy it. Here’s another thing. Amazon and all the other eBook places allow you to put your book on their site for free. EBooks are hot right now. USA Today reported in January 5, 2011 that eBooks are outselling print. In December 2011, Amazon sold 5 million Kindle Fires. Barnes & Noble sold around 2 million Nooks, and Apple’s iPad sold about 40 million last year. That is approximately 47 million people who will be looking to read something on their device. EBooks have brought people back to reading while they’re on the road. Some people enjoy reading more broadly and more often – getting free classics to books they never knew existed! One of those books could be yours.
As you read through the information I am giving you and do your own research, keep in mind that this is your decision to make. If you want to try traditional publishing, go for it. I would urge you to keep your eyes wide open and not get discouraged if you get rejection letters. As you will see in the next blog, many famous people have been rejected. I would also recommend you carefully read through the contract, perhaps even getting a lawyer to explain everything, so that you are not blindsided by something. I’m not saying that the traditional publishing houses are out to trick you, but you hold the responsibility to know exactly what kind of deal you are getting. Look the gift horse in the mouth and anywhere else to get the full picture before you sign anything.
This is not a process of throwing the dice and seeing what happens. This is your career - your future. It is up to you to carefully consider what is best for you. Take control of it. Make informed decisions and act wisely on them. As Malcolm X said, “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”