Is it easier to succeed in self-publishing?

With the ever-growing popularity of independent publishing, you might be lead to think that this form of publishing has a higher success rate than traditional publishing and is thus more attractive to authors. Or, depending on your view of independent publishing, you might instead think that it’s an easy option for authors who couldn’t get published in the traditional manner.

So which is it?

I’d suggest that it’s not really either. First of all, self-publishing – if you’re serious about giving it a good go – is definitely not the ‘easy option’ for writers who failed to get traditional deals. The fact that so many are actively turning to independent publishing suggests that it isn’t just a second choice or a fall back plan. It’s something that lots of authors clearly want to do.

But it definitely isn’t easy. A huge amount of work goes into independently publishing a book if you want to do it properly, and you have to take responsibility for everything yourself.

And there isn’t necessarily a guarantee of success, either. Of course, there have been some excellent independent publishing success stories, and I’m lucky enough to have done very well out of it myself, but just as it isn’t an easy option for writers who want to be published, so it isn’t an easy option in terms of achievement, either.

Like traditional publishing, there are plenty of factors that affect whether your book is successful or not, and the author only has control of some of them. Whether readers like your book, for instance, is not something we can ever properly predict. The fact of the matter is that while independent publishing definitely has a huge roster of benefits – from the control to the creative freedom to the fact you get to keep more of the profits from sales – if you don’t write a good book that people want to read, it will be hard to achieve success from it.

In that way, independent publishing can never be an easy option by any definition. Writing a good book – not to mention a good book that people want to read – is a very difficult thing to do. Success, if and when it comes, is wonderful, but no matter how someone chooses to publish their work, we can never forget that it won’t by any means have been easy.