Self-publishing involves publishing and marketing of any book, album or other media by its author without the involvement of an established publisher. Typically, in self-publishing, the author will come up with the topic, research it, compose the findings into a readily accessible format, edit and proofread it, format it for distribution, decide where it will be sold, upload it to those venues, produce synopses and extracts for marketing purposes, actively promote it and conduct the actual sales. In fact, it is better than traditional publishing in some ways. Nowadays, many e-book conversion companies help authors to convert their book into a well-designed and readable eBook, thereby helping them to self-publish their e-book. However, there are several advantages and disadvantages in publishing an e-book of your own. Here are some advantages of self-publishing an e-book.
- Greater Potential Income – Publishing houses usually pay authors royalties on the books they sell. Authors may receive only 10 percent to 15 percent of the list price of each book sold if they are working with a publishing house, while the rest of the profits will go to the publisher. On the other hand, if they are self – publishing they might receive up to 70 percent of the list price.
- Authors Will Have Complete Control – Self-publishing offers greater creative control over the book’s content and appearance. It allows authors to experiment in any way they see fit, without someone looking over their shoulder and pressuring them to take a particular tack. However, if the author is publishing the book through one of the larger publishing houses, then they will have to meet the requirements of multiple parties, including editors, marketers, and designers. Self-publishing provides authors the opportunity to craft and control the content every step of the way. It also allows them to choose their own editor, proofreader, and designer.
- Quicker Exposure – Self-publishing may help bring the book to market much faster than it would via traditional methods. With the availability of the internet, the author could (theoretically) complete a book today and publish it online tomorrow. The speed of self-publishing can facilitate faster exposure and quicker rewards. On the other hand, traditional publishing houses can take 6 to 18 months to publish the books.
Here are the few disadvantages of self-publishing an e-book.
- Author must do everything – Self-publishers must not only do everything an author does, but also almost everything that a traditional publisher does. Cover design, layout, editing, proofing, formatting, and all other aspects of producing and marketing the book fall upon their shoulders. In addition to that, they will have to come up with their own distribution strategy for getting it into e-books online stores or setting up one of their own.
- Upfront cost – Usually, the upfront costs are paid by the traditional publishing house. But in the case of self-publishing, the author will have to produce this cash and hope the book generates enough revenue to recoup the investment and enjoy a profit.
Taking into consideration all the pros and cons, you should decide which method works best for you. If you are considering self-publishing, then there are several self-publishing tools and resources available such as Amazon KDP, Kobo, Calibre and so on, to help you realize your dream of a launching a successful book. Prior to publishing an e-book, the first thing to consider is to convert the book in to a format that are compatible with all the most popular e-Readers including iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook, and others. Partnering with eBook conversion services is a good option when you want to convert your data from any source file such as Word, PDF, HTML, scanned files, Text, Rich Text, ASCII Text, or any other source file within the specified turnaround time.
