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  • What is Self Publishing?


    Keen to know the exact meaning of self publishing? Want to know the self publishing concept in more details? Keep an eye on this Ask Experts thread to gain information from our experts.

    I have heard the term Self Publishing a number of times. I have browsed through a couple of websites who promote it. Though they are quite clear about it, but there are some grey areas, which I am still not able to decipher. How Self Publishing is different from Traditional Publishing? Which one is better for budding writers and why? Please explain.
  • Answers

    4 Answers found.
  • Self Publishing refers to the publication of content - be it a book, or the digital content - by the author himself/herself without having anything to do with a publisher of any sort. The author will be in charge of the entire process of the publishing task including but not limited to the design and pricing.
    In the earlier days, self-publishing meant authors engaged the editors, cover designers and binders along with the printers to get the book printed. The authors had their own publishing houses. However, the things have changed now with the advent of the internet. Now, the authors upload the PDF file of their work to the self-publishing hosts. The company will then publish the content and sells it on their website. The author will need to pay for the costs of the publishing. In most cases, the author has a right to the pricing of the final product.
    With a host of EBook readers currently available, the concept of self-publishing has changed yet again. The authors have been publishing the their own EBooks and uploading them to the readers.

    Who would be better with Self Publishing?
    • Self Publishing is well suited for those authors who have a niche audience. They are already well established in their profession and people flock to listen to their views. It better suits non-fiction writers.
    • If you want just a few copies, you can opt for self-publishing. It can be good idea for those who do not want to reach a wider audience.


    Why you should go for self publishing?
    New authors can be well of with self publishing. Traditional publishers are most likely to expect a minimum guaranteed return for the publications they undertake. That would leave the new authors struggling to get a good publishing house, yet make a little profit.
    If you currently have not made any name in the market as an author, self publishing should be a great idea to come into limelight.
    Other than the points mentioned herein, self publishing can also be good option for marketing.

    Live....and Let Live!

  • Traditional publishing route is one of the routes where the author of the content has little to work apart from his written content. For example, when you are writing either fiction or non fiction content, you have to send the initial draft to the publishing house. If the publishing house approves that, then you get to work with editor on content. Publishing house takes care of the design of cover, content formatting, editing, marketing and finally splitting the revenue. In case of traditional publishing the writers get anywhere from 43-57% of the royalty. If the publishing house is popular then the revenue split is going to be low like 34%.

    In case of self publishing all the process of the book release is on your shoulder.

    1. Content writing - You have to pass the quality of your own content here. The twist, cliffhanger, technical words at right point, all this has to be managed by you.

    2. Editing - You have to take care of typo and tone change, grammar and other stuff. You can outsource this but it can be costly depending on number of words.

    3. Book formatting - Publishing your content on sites like Amazon KDP, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble etc requires formatting and end result in file format such as epub, mobi, etc. You have to modify word document and use software such as Sigil and Calibre to convert into mobi, amzw and epub.

    4. Cover Design - This process is tough as you have to select the right cover for your book. It can be tough to find such book cover designer. But fiverr and other places have shown some option of such good designers.

    5. Marketing - One of the hardest part where publishing house performs better than self publishing. Here you have to network with people and the business. This way you can go ahead with marketing and start getting some leads to get reviews. More reviews that favors the book, more the sales.

    These five points pretty much describe the current self publishing world. This is broken down into small steps. But it has lot of work in it. You have to outsource these steps to professionals. And you have to cut the costs down too.

    Self publishing or Traditional Publishing?

    If you are small time author, just getting yourself out there. It's better to go with the route of self publishing. The more popular get with some books, better approach traditional publishing. The reason is the royalty from traditional publishing usually helps writers reach retirement early. But it takes to reach that level.

  • Self Publishing is mostly done by the young writers. The writers would convert the file into a pdf file and publish them on few social networking websites. Few publishers contact the writers and buy the articles from the writers and sell them through their websites. Writers also create a blog and post the articles on a daily basis or weekly basis. These days most of the writers are opting to write a blog and share them within their friends circle. The more number of shares equal to more publicity. Once they get a good enough followers, they just post the articles on their personal blog.

  • Self Publishing
    Self publishing means publishing content both online and offline. Self publishing denotes the publisher or the author who is publishing the content by himself or herself. The publisher or author needs to take care of publishing the contents like a book, document or article. He is responsible to carry out the funds, marketing, and advertising and finally needs to get through to the people. The entire distribution has to be taken care by him or her.

    Traditional Publishing
    Traditional publishing means the author of the content submits his or her documents to the publisher or agent to publish the book. The book will get funds, marketed and advertised by the publisher or agent. For this process, the publisher or agent buys the rights to publish the book with his or her knowledge. They will pay for this process. Finally the book will be published and distributed to the people.


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