If you’re a writer, you’re going to want your voice heard and your work published to an audience. However, agents and sending your script to major publishing houses can be a messy process that only a very select few get to experience. There are many positives to skipping these steps and choosing to publish yourself, and here are five of them.
1) More Creative Control
With traditional publishing, the house gets a say on what the title of your book is, how it is edited, its design, movie rights, and the rights over any other versions such as its public relations and marketing, and audiobooks and ebooks. With self-publishing, the author gets one hundred percent control over these aspects, especially in business and marketing, meaning the book is one hundred percent there’s and no one else’s. You also get to pick your own staff who will assist you with your book.
2) No Deadlines
In the publishing world, there are always strict and stressful deadlines the author needs to adhere to, with dire consequences if they cannot complete this within a certain time period. With self-publishing, there is less pressure to fit your book writing and editing on a certain timeline, giving you more freedom and the ability to work at your own pace. That way, you can give your script the attention it needs without having to rush things, likely increasing its quality.
3) You Can Find Your Niche
If your book is quirky or unique in its genre, it can be very hard to get traditional publishers on board with this, especially if it’s something that isn’t selling particularly well at the current time. But with self-publishing, you can appeal to a certain market where you can find your community, without having to worry about certain trends.
4) Quicker Process
Even after the long process of finding an agent, getting your book to a publisher and on the shelves can take several years. With our quickly evolving times, some books may be considered dated by the time they hit the shelves. But with self-publishing, the process is much quicker, and you have more control as to when your work is released to the general public.
5) Better Odds
With traditional publishing, you’ll have an extremely high amount of competition. Major publishing houses oversee thousands of submitted manuscripts per year, and as many as less than one percent are selected. However, with self-publishing, your chances of getting your work to an audience are 100%, that is if you do everything in the process correctly.