Why you should self-publish your book – Publishing Push
Self-publishing is a great way to take control of your publishing process and become an author in as little as 10 to 12 weeks. We know that self-publishing can be a daunting task. In this article, we will address the following points.
Table of Contents
WHY should you self-publish a book?
Most articles on self-publishing start by discussing the benefits of self-publishing. The first question you should ask is why self-publish.
Your Readers
Think about your readers. Who is going to enjoy your book or gain value from the knowledge you have to share? Sharing a personal story can help so many people, particularly those that describe how you overcame something challenging or achieved something extraordinary. The main goal can be to entertain, and for the vast majority of readers, that is why they pick up a good book.
Income
Publishing a book can be a great source of additional income. This will all depend on how your audience responds to your book.
Personal Brand or Business
Publishing a book is an amazing way to make more people aware of you and what you offer. Whether that is consulting or something you do personally. It might be your business. A book has, in many ways, become the new business card. If you give someone your book, they are more likely to remember you and your business.
Family
Writing down and recording your memoir is something more people should do. The process makes you reflect in a way that we wouldn’t in normal day-to-day life. It can be a great way to access those memories and really explore events and experiences. Once complete, you can share this with friends and family. It will allow you to share your experiences and your story with friends and family in a new way.
A dream
The most important reason of all. Many people have dreamt of being published authors. Self-publishing is a way to take action and fulfil your dreams. I know some of you might think, but my dream is to be professionally published by a huge publisher such as Harper Collins or Penguin. The reality is that to achieve this, you have to start by self-publishing. 0.0001% of the authors in the world will be lucky enough to get a deal right away. For most of us, you have to prove yourself, prove your writing, and that starts with self-publishing.
More reasons to publish
When we put this post out to our Instagram and LinkedIn followings, we received more amazing stories about why people had chosen to self-publish. Here is one in particular that stood out:
“Publishing a book was one of the best decisions I ever made. It gave me focus, a means to channel my passions, reason to travel, learn and, amazingly, grab some work opportunities too. The income has always been secondary and a welcome bonus. Tithe Barns, in particular, has allowed me to add something meaningful to non-fiction work that I hope readers can enjoy for many years or even decades. If you’re considering writing or publishing your own work… Just do it. It’s worth the effort…I started with two self-published efforts to get used to the process and get feedback – self-financed between jobs….Tithe Barns (and my current job with We Are Railfans) is the culmination of all those projects, each time learning something new and polishing my prose.” – Joseph Rogers
These are just a few of the reasons to self-publish. Everyone has a different reason and you never know what might happen once your book hits the shelves.
What are the benefits of self-publishing your book?
Time
You no longer have to wait for an agent to read your book, decide they want to work with you and then wait years while traditional publishers faff around trying to make their minds up about your book. If you self-publish with Publishing Push, we can have your book completed in just 10 to 14 weeks.
No more gatekeepers
Agents and publishers no longer hold the key to your success in their tightly clenched fists. This means more incredible stories and important information can reach readers. It also means more diversity and a chance for underrepresented groups to share their work.
Control
With traditional publishing houses, they own the rights to your book when they pay your advance. That means they own the creative direction of your book. Ultimately, it means you, as the author, are no longer in the driving seat. With self-publishing, you control every aspect of the process. This means your published book is not diluted or altered in any way. You get to self-publish your book exactly as intended.
How does self-publishing work?
Writing
This is the most obvious but also the most important first step. We had to mention it because not to would have been a large oversight. Writing a book is really hard. You should be very proud of what you have achieved. There are readers all over the world waiting to read your book so let’s take a look at the next steps.
Editorial
There are a few different options when it comes to editing your book.
Manuscript Review
We provide this service free of charge to all authors who submit their work to us. We don’t read the whole book with our free service, but if you choose one of the editorial services, then we will, of course, review the entire manuscript.
The purpose of the review we conduct is to assess your manuscript and provide guidance on the editorial work required.
Copy-edit
Professional copy-editing is there to make sure your manuscript isn’t riddled with bad grammar, spelling mistakes, or glaring inconsistencies (when paired with proofreading). They won’t enter into big-picture issues such as characterisation, plot or pacing; instead, they will go through the manuscript line by line and focus on all the little things you might not have thought about. They’ll catch scenes in which your antagonist is wearing sunglasses and spectacles at the same time. They’ll pull your book together page by page.
Proofreading
At Publishing Push, we have an array of experienced proofreaders who are available to carefully and promptly proofread your work for incorrect capitalisation, formatting issues, grammatical errors and inconsistencies.
Typesetting and Formatting
The part of the process where we make sure your book displays properly in all formats. Electronic books are viewed on such a wide range of devices these days. Phones, tablets, desktops and Kindle devices, to name a few. Your book needs to be formatted correctly to ensure it looks good across all these devices.
Physical copies. It is often presumed that when it comes to the printed book, either in hardback, paperback or both you just need to make one version of the internal files. With print on demand, your book is being printed by a variety of printers. How do we make sure it prints exactly the same every time by all these various retailers? We have to create versions that satisfy all their various templates. Adhering to these templates ensures your book prints correctly with all retailers and distributors.
Book Cover Design
We all know the famous saying involving judgement and a book’s cover. I won’t repeat it. The truth is that we all judge books based on their book cover. It is critical to the success of your book that you have a great book cover design. You need a cover that catches people’s attention and then intrigues them, so they buy a copy of your book.
This is not something you want to scrimp on when it comes time to publish your book.
Go to your local bookshop or library. Have a look at your own bookshelves at home. What covers do you like? What are the covers like on the books that are in your genre? What trim sizes, fonts and colours have been chosen.
You know your book well, so communicate key scenes, characters and excerpts to your designer. Do leave the designer room to be creative and produce something great for you. They do this professionally and know what works for certain genres.
Authors who self-publish with us get unlimited book cover designs until they are happy with the end result (subject to a fair use policy).
Metadata
The word data is often followed by a large groan. It needn’t be feared. Book metadata are all the key items that describe your book. These include your book’s description, title, subtitle, price, trim size, genre, author name, and more.
Publishing
There are a number of ways to self-publish but here are a few reasons why we are the UK’s highest-rated self-publisher.
- Keep 100% of royalties. Once your book has been published, you’ll keep 100% of the NET royalties from the book’s sales – we won’t take a penny!
- Sales Dashboard. We’ll provide you with a sales dashboard that is available 24/7 so you can keep track of book sales and royalties.
- Quick Turnaround Time. Our typical turnaround time for book publishing is 10-12 weeks, so you won’t be waiting long before you’re a published author!
- Global Distribution. You’ll have global distribution to over 40,000 retailers and libraries including Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo and more.
- Social Media Promotion. We’ll promote your book to our 40,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to kickstart book sales.
- Split Cost Payment. Don’t worry about paying the full amount upfront – you can split the cost of payment at the start and end of the publishing process.
- Onboarding Call. We’ll answer any questions you may have about book sizing, pricing or any other publishing-related queries.
- Retain Ownership. Retain complete ownership of your copyright and your work so you don’t have to worry about losing any royalties.
- Self-Publishing Formats. Unlike other self-publishing companies, we offer you the option to publish your book in paperback, hardback and eBook formats.
Distribution
Don’t just publish a paperback and eBook on Amazon like everyone else. In order to stand out from the crowd, you will want to distribute through a number of retailers. Publishing solely on Amazon doesn’t look very professional either.
With our self-publishing package, we ensure global and professional distribution for your self-published book. In addition to Amazon, we distribute your book to Bertrams, Blackwell’s, Foyles. Gardners, Waterstones and many more.
You can see the full list here.
Marketing
You should start marketing your book before you publish it. There are a number of ways to promote your book. They don’t all have to cost money either. We would advise that you start marketing your book as you write it. You can do this by documenting your writing process, posting on social media, setting up a website and a newsletter. We offer a free book marketing guide on our website with a number of tips to get you started.
There are lots of paid options for marketing your book, but really what’s important is ensuring your potential readers are invested in you as the author.
How much does it cost to self-publish?
Price varies when it comes to self-publishing. As with any service you purchase, very often the price you pay dictates the quality of the work produced. There are some very cheap options around for self-publishing which I want to address immediately. These will be serviceable options, but it’s important to pay attention to what you are receiving for your investment.
Your publishing goals will play a big role in what you spend on self-publishing. If you are taking your project seriously and want to give it the care and attention it deserves, then it is worth paying for a more premium service.
Here at Publishing Push, we only offer a premium service as we want to deliver the best possible product for every author we work with. In order for us to do so we need to charge a premium price. You can find out more about our services and pricing here.
How should I price my self-published book?
Pricing is a hotly debated topic. It is going to come down to a few factors such as your genre, book size, trim size, first book or one in a series, the page count and more.
I would recommend that you assess other books that may be similar to yours or that you may be competing with. When you first launch your book, especially as a first-time author, you want to start on the low end. Don’t overcharge at the start. Keep the price low while you build up sales and reviews. Once you have a solid number of reviews and your book is selling well, start to up the price at that point. Don’t raise the price to an unreasonable level, but once your book has established its value with readers, you can raise the price.
How much money do authors make?
We have helped thousands of authors to self-publish. The vast majority make a profit or at the very least break even. It is quite rare for authors not to recoup the money spent on getting their book self-published within the first 12 to 18 months. Some make their money back in the first few weeks and go on to make a very good living.
We even worked with one gentleman who was earning in excess of £100K per annum from his self-published series. Ultimately, how much money you make will come down to readers loving your book and wanting to share this with friends, family, colleagues and other readers online.
Self-published author incomes are on the rise! In a recent study, it was found that self-published authors were the only authors currently earning more money. As the publishing landscape continues to change, more and more traditionally published authors are choosing to self-publish. This gives them creative control of their books, their royalties, and ultimately, their livelihoods.