4 lessons from self-publishing

I’ve looked before on this blog about what writers can learn from getting involved in independent publishing – new skills, new marketing techniques, a deeper appreciation of writing and so on. As a constantly evolving industry, there are always new lessons to learn, and old lessons to see in new ways. With this in mind, here are a few of the most important lessons a writer is likely to learn from independent publishing – but which they should always keep an open mind about all the same…

Professional cover design is worth it

There are books with author-created covers and books with professionally-created covers and, on the whole, it seems fair to say that those with professionally-created covers look much better than those that the author has designed.

In some ways, this is a more important lesson for those authors with some design ability than those without it; if you can’t design at all, you probably won’t ever entertain the idea of doing it yourself, whereas if you vaguely know your way around Photoshop, you might. And that might not be wise. There’s just something about professional book covers that really elevates the look of a book.

That said, if you’re able to create the perfect cover for your book yourself, go for it.

You don’t need to stick to the rules

One of the great lessons of self-publishing is that you don’t need to write what you think you should be writing. You can write what you want. In many ways, you can disregard the rules and be a lot freer with the whole creative process. You cut out a lot of the players typically found in the traditional publishing industry – the agents, the publishers, the marketers – and effectively take on the roles yourself. It can be hugely liberating.

Don’t think you have to do absolutely everything yourself, though. It’s fine to bring in other people to help improve the quality of your book – probably the most important rule of independent publishing, like traditional publishing, is that no matter what else you do, make sure you write the best book you can.

Don’t worry about setting low prices

When you’ve spent much of your life seeing books in the shops priced at £7.99 and upwards, it can be a bit of a learning curve when you first enter the world of independent publishing and low priced books. However, it’s an important lesson: you don’t need to price your book high. Actually, a high price might actually put off readers.

That doesn’t mean you should feel pressured to price your book insanely low if you genuinely don’t want to, but it does mean you might need to accept a trade off in terms of sales. It’s all about finding the right balance for your book: for some independently published books, the balance might be £2.99. For others it might be 99p.

Be confident in talking about yourself

Self-promotion is one of those things that often feel a bit odd at first. Parents tend to teach their children not to boast, but then you rock up in independent publishing where the only way to sell your book is to effectively market yourself and your writing, and it can be a challenge. However unused to promoting yourself you are, it’s something you need to adapt to.

Of course, you could choose to hire someone to do your promotion for you, or take your chances and not do any at all, but it’s highly likely that at some point, you’re going to need to talk about yourself. Start practising.

What do you think are the most important independent publishing lessons new writers need to learn?