The advantage of self publishing: you do everything yourself.

The disadvantage of self publishing: you do everything yourself…

Let me explain:

Advantages of self publishing:

·      I get to write the book I want to write.

·      I have full control over the appearance of the book.

·      I can work at my own pace.

·      I enjoy the different stages of creating the book, although some of the technical side of it was a steep learning curve.

·      When I talk to people at book signings, I can answer questions on every stage of my books, because I did everything except the printing and binding.

Disadvantages of self publishing:

·      Harder to reach a bigger audience without the contacts and advertising budget of a mainstream publisher.

·      Online book sellers will list self published books as unavailable or with a long lead time to order.

·      Financial outlay, though I keep this to a minimum by doing as much as I can myself.

·      Storing books.

·      Weighing up the price of a big print run, which will be cheaper per book, against a smaller print run, which is more affordable. I get a quote for several print run options, do some maths and make a decision based on what I can afford at the time.



In conclusion:

I’ve had a go at submitting to agents and received some positive feedback, but no offer of representation, so it looks like I’ll be doing it all myself again. Next job is illustrations – it’s going to get messy, characters to be drawn, paint to splash about, scanning, formatting… it’s going to be a blast!