Self-publishing

For many writers the idea of self-publishing is like giving up on a dream, selling out. I used to think that until I ran into BookSurge.com a company bought by Amazon in 2005. I came across the print on demand information on Amazon’s site the other day along with publishing information for Amazon’s Kindle. My preconceived notions about self-publishing all went out the window.

Now there are upsides and downsides, of course. The upside, you get your book out there for the world to read. The downside, you book is out there for the world to read and nobody knows about it but you. The upside, you receive a higher return on every unit sold. The downside, you probably won’t sell as many units self-publishing as you would with a traditional publisher, but who knows.

The self-publishing route holds a certain fascination for me. I look at it like an indie rock band, instead of signing with a major label who has a huge overhead and marketing division, they instead do it all themselves. They retain more money and control, in exchange for having to promote themselves really hard. It’s kinda the same way with self-publishing. You are the author, editor, marketing department, and publicist, all in one.

Self-publishing doesn’t preclude anyone from selling out and going with a big publisher. In fact, a case could be made that it gets your work out there for more exposure to the big publishers. So it seems like a win all the way around. I can still look for the super-agent to sell my book to the super-publisher while I self-publish and get my work out there to build a fan base.

The update in all of this is that I’m currently working on finalizing my manuscript. I figured being the editor, the only editor, I should probably go over it once again and make sure I like it and it’s presentable, I’m a little paranoid about this kinda thing. Then comes the cover design and layout, then the actual publishing. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can say, go to Amazon and buy my book or download it to your Kindle.

Tags: kindle, self-publishing, Writing

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