When the final version of your story and the illustrations are ready, then comes the daunting task of trying to get your book published. The dream is so close to becoming a reality, but the next step can take longer than first anticipated. With this in mind, below is a list of five reasons to consider self-publishing your work.

The author can remain in control of all aspects of the book. This includes; the publishing, marketing, promotions, adverts, content and artwork. The book can be exactly how you imagined it would be. Traditional publishing companies often use their own resources and make most of the decisions themselves. This can affect the outcome of your book, from the illustrations to the final edit.

The possibility of being accepted by a traditional publishing company.
Although you and everybody around you believes in your work, it is very difficult to try and get a traditional publishing company to feel the same way. By accepting your work, they are taking a huge gamble. Every publishing company needs to take into consideration the costs involved with the marketing and printing, so they need a guarantee that your book is going to be wanted and sell well. It becomes very difficult and time consuming to try and crack the traditional publishing route.

There are now so many ways in which writers/illustrators can self-publish their work with ease. Companies called Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark offer a great service for self-publishing authors. There are many other companies providing this service, as the self-publishing industry is becoming more and more popular. By publishing via these platforms, authors can sell their work on a print one demand basis and sell as an e-book. Some people do decide to have their final books printed independently and then supply the service provider with the books to sell. This can be a costly way to go, but many have found that this has worked very well for them.

Some publishing companies will not market your work for you. It has become very popular, for publishing companies to provide contracts, stating that the author is to take charge of the marketing of the book (or something to similar). Considering the royalties that they may wish to take for the sales of the book, this starts to feel a little unfair.

By self-publishing your book, there is the possibility to earn more per book sold, than if you follow the traditional route. You will not need to take into consideration the percentage taken by a traditional publishing company. You will of course have the printing and marketing costs, but if the book is successful, then there is the possibility for the author to earn more.

This is very basic list of factors involved in the decision-making process to self-publish. If you would like more detail, then please keep a look out for further articles.

Self-publishing is a large commitment to make, but ultimately, with the correct resources, it can lead to exciting new beginnings.