The Big Question: Why Self Publish?

What do you think when you hear the words “self publishing”?

It’s okay, you can be honest here, if only with yourself. If you’re like many people, your first thought might have been, “Were they not good enough to get published traditionally?”

Like it or not, self publishing has had quite a stigma attached, and while its image is improving, there are still negative connotations to fight through, not to mention a major lack of knowledge on the subject. That’s why I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about what led me to the decision to self publish and let you in on the questions I asked myself, as well as the process I used.

My Journey to Choosing Self Publishing

Like many new writers, I had only vague notions of how the publishing industry worked. I had heard you would send your work to an editor, who would take it to the lead editor, who would decide whether the publishing company would take it. From there, you could get paid an advance and expect the publishing company to help you market.

That’s completely outdated, however, and if you want to be published traditionally, the first person you have to go through is an agent. No matter how amazing you think your story is, anything sent directly to a publishing house is headed straight for the recycling bin. End of discussion.

So for a year or more, I researched how to find the right agent, how to write a query letter (that’s right, they don’t want to see your manuscript unless they’ve asked for it), and even sent query letters to several agents.

They all ended one of two ways: a handful of template rejection emails and a whole lot of radio silence. While I recognize that someone who receives thousands of letters a month cannot possibly be expected to respond personally to them all, I knew a dead end when I saw one.

My family started asking whether I had considered self publishing, and I took the time to figure out why I hadn’t. It came down to a few basic reasons that, if you’re a writer yourself, you might recognize:

1. I wanted the validation of being chosen by an agent and accepted by a big publisher.
2. I knew I needed a good editor to help polish my novel before it saw the light of day.
3. I needed help marketing the book and wanted to be able to get it in bookstores.

My next step at this point was to unpack each of the three.

Why did I need to be chosen? What was the most important aspect of being published for me? Aside from the services I thought a traditional publisher would give me in reasons 2 and 3, I mostly wanted the reassurance that my work was good enough to warrant the kind of work it would take to publish it. Presumably if it wasn’t good, it wouldn’t be published, or else someone would tell me what needed to change. I love my friends and family, but as much as I appreciate their enthusiasm about my work, I knew I needed the outside world to like it if it was going to sell, and I thought a traditional publisher would tell me that.

But I came to realize that I believed in my work already. I didn’t need someone to tell me it was worth publishing. That may sound cocky and arrogant, and probably every author ever feels that way about their work, but I truly believe in my heart that my work is ready to publish and that if I could just find the people who will love it, I could have my own little reader community. With amazement, I set aside the need for validation.

Reason 2 seemed trickier until I did some research. I had initially thought that the rough manuscript would be represented by an agent, and the publishing company would provide an editor. The truth is that they all expect your work to have been through a professional editor before they ever see it. So no matter what I did, getting a professional editor was my next step.

The third reason, having to market my own work, still intimidates me, but I am in no doubt that self publishing was the right decision. I’ve spoken to and read articles by others who had been published both traditionally and independently, and they said the same thing. First, traditional publishing takes away a lot of your control. For instance, you will most likely not get to choose the title or get a say in the cover of your book. Second, the onus is on the author for most of the marketing anyway.

The most poignant takeaway from these authors’ experiences is probably the scariest thing anyone could have told me: that when these authors held their own traditionally published work in their hands, they didn’t love it. They got their dream, published their baby, and they didn’t even like how it turned out. Chilling!

The Bottom Line

So let’s recap: Everything I thought traditional publishers would do, I would have to do myself even with their help. For the authors that they do take on, they take years to do so, eat up immense portions of the profits, and still require the author to do most of the work. If I did the work they offer for myself, it would be cheaper, faster, simpler, and allow me to have more control. So the only two things standing between me and self publishing were a vague stigma and a crapload of work.

I love my fiction. The prospect of tenderly laboring over every detail of the process is exciting to me. And I’m not afraid of hard work, not for something I love. This is how I want to spend my life, wrapped up in my favorite activity and the work it takes to package it lovingly and get it to readers.

So I took the plunge.

So You Think You Want to Publish a Book?

What I have to say first will be hard to hear.

Most of us spend at least part of our lives thinking, “I’ve got my career and my relationships and stuff going on, but one day I’ll finish writing that book and publish it.” And if that’s your mindset, you never will.

This is not a weekend endeavor. It’s not something you can accomplish during a week or a month when things have died down a bit. It will take you several months and likely more than a year, right smack in the middle of everything. Life is never going to let up and lend you the time to do this. You will have to steal it. You’ll have to say no to people you care about and force yourself to work when you’re exhausted. It really does mean working two jobs at once: whatever you do to pay the bills, and then coming home and doing this. Most of the time it is not easy, and sometimes it will downright suck. But your reason why is what will get you through if it’s strong enough.

If you’re in it to make a quick buck, play the lottery. Your odds will be better and that’s the only place such minimal effort and shallow motives belong. If you want to be famous, get on the internet and do something stupid. Again, your odds will be better.

But if you want to tell your story and are determined that nothing on earth can stop you, even your own feelings of insecurity, confusion, and exhaustion, then you just might have what it takes to write and publish a book. But the only way you’ll ever know for sure is if you knuckle down and do it. It all means nothing until you prove it.

My Best Book Publishing Advice

If you’ve made it this far, probably you have a dream that’s too stubborn to be scared away. That’s good, but only if you’re willing to work for it. Otherwise, it will always remain a dream.

So here is my best advice for anyone who is thinking about publishing a book.

1. Figure out what you really want out of publishing.
   This was some of the best advice I ever received, and I heard it from presenters at a book festival. Some are in it for money or to get famous, while some just want to cross it off their bucket list. There are plenty of reasons, but your approach to publishing will be completely different based on what you conclude. For me, I want my stories to be read by other people who will love them. I want to make money at writing, mostly so that I can quit my day job and spend more time doing what I love.
2. Finish writing the book (and don’t believe any articles that claim to tell you how in five steps).
   If you haven’t finished, finish. It will tell you so much. If you haven’t got the self-discipline to finish writing the thing, you certainly won’t have the self-discipline or patience to get it published. As far as the addendum about articles, while there is plenty of value in looking for advice on writing a book, just make sure you stick to writers who give actual advice instead of giving you vague summaries of several steps at once. At some point, you have to stop reading advice and just do it.
3. Research, research, research.
   The good news is that there is a ton of information out there about self-publishing by authors who have done it. The bad news is that there is a ton of information out there, and it will be a lot to sort through. If you don’t know how to recognize a reputable source, talk to a librarian. Seriously, they know everything. Genuinely commit to taking the time to research and don’t let your impatience make you skip steps or just take all of the advice in the first article you read. Also beware of scammers, because so many people are out looking to make a quick buck off of naïve authors. For example, you’ll need an ISBN for every edition of your book (paperback, e-book, hardback, audiobook, etc.) and you have to purchase them through Bowker. That is literally the only place you can get these, and yet many sites will offer ISBNs so that you buy through them and they get a cut. Always go straight to the source.
4. Find out what’s really worth spending money on.
   Once again, everyone wants to make money off of you, and you seriously don’t need all of them. In fact, I would say you don’t need most of them. However, some expenses are absolutely necessary. This is where it’s especially important to do your research so you know what your options are and narrow them into a single plan. Some examples of what you will definitely need to invest in are a professional editor, buying ISBNs, paying to register your copyright, and hosting a website. Check out this article for my official list of expenses to self publish.
5. You need a professional editor, and it can’t be someone you know.
   Just trust me. Our friends and families are here to support us, and while they may be blatantly honest about mistakes or plot holes when they see them, they’re not professional editors and quite frankly, they know you too well. You need to hire a professional editor, someone you don’t know, and have them go over your manuscript. There are several different types of editing, and which one to get depends on whether your book is finished and how polished it is. I found my book’s editor through Reedsy and she is an absolute gem. It took a few months from start to finish, searching Reedsy for editors in my genre, generating a proposal, getting quotes from the ones who were interested, and finally the actual editing process, but the investment was absolutely worth it.

So there you have it, a little peek into the world of publishing! Thanks for reading and please share this with any writers you know!