Traditional vs. Self Publishing
When someone writes a book and decides to publish it there is a pretty big decision that needs to be made. Are you going to make a go of it yourself? or are you going to seek out a publisher? When I first learned about self-publishing my immediate thoughts were something like, “There is no way I could figure that out!” But after some time and research I noticed quite a few benefits to doing it myself.
- Less Upfront Rejection – We’ve all heard the stories of authors that send out tens of hundreds of queries just to be turned down time and time again. As someone who was already questioning if I could do this, the idea of multiple rejection letters sounded awful. Now this is not to say that people haven’t success, they do. But it take a lot of work to get an agent or publisher bought in on your vision.
- Creative Control – “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” … Riiiigghhht. I do it all the time, how about you? Book covers are so important. Traditional publishers offer different levels of support. Some offer editing, some offer marketing, cover design etc. For me the only thing I was willing to give up was advertising or marketing support. My book covers and content needed to be my own. With self-publishing it’s all your own so this was a huge benefit for me.
- Timing of Releases – If you’re a romance reader like I am then you may be a one or two book a week person. So many of us consume massive amounts of books on a regular basis. I had 6 books pretty much ready to go. By self-publishing I get to set my own releases dates. Which I did, and I chose to rapid release my series which was timing of 1 book a month until they are all out. I’m sure many traditional publishers do the same but when you are dealing with outside forces (editors, proofreaders, cover designers etc.) it can be hard to keep up with.
- Satisfaction of a Goal Achieved – Nothing feels better then clicking that publish button on Amazon. When you put your time and energy into a project for months seeing it completed is an amazing feeling. My fourth book, Unreasonable, is releasing on April 1st and I still regularly pull up my author page on Goodreads and Amazon just to smile when I see what I have done. For the first time in a while, I’m pretty darned pleased with myself.
How many writers are out there? Did you decide on self-publishing or are you a traditionally published author? Share your experiences below!
Happy Reading.
-Nikki Rome