What about self-publishing-is it worth it?

Question

What about self-publishing-is it worth it?

Answer 1

nwarner, for most self-published books, regardless of quality, total sales remain below 100 copies. More often, the number hovers somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of your total number of friends and family members. This compares pretty unfavorably to 5,000 copies sold any moderately-selling book from a conventional publisher can anticipate.

Non-fiction and poetry are different, poetry because it almost never sells well enough to turn a profit for the publisher, and non-fiction because *some* of it fills a niche market and can sell briskly to that market if you can contact them. Your town's history, a family genealogy, or a study of railroad stations in Colorado all might do okay self-published.

But for novels, it's a conceit, never the way to do unless your only goal is to spend hundreds to hold you novel in your hands, or give it to your mom.

That money is better spent learning to write novels publishers will pay *you* for instead of the other way around.

Answer 2

No, it's not worth it. If  you just want one copy for yourself, go ahead. But if you actually want to get your book out there, find a real publisher

Answer 3

It depends on several things:

-- how much you hone your craft first to be up to publishing standards

-- how much time you're willing to market

-- whether you're willing to prove yourself by having plenty of excerpts available online

-- whether you're in it for the money or for the love of writing (that's true whichever way you go)

-- whether you mind going up against the odds and fighting those who rail against it

Publishing is a business, and that includes self-publishing. You need to know how the market works first, what you're up against, and to understand that only about 20 fiction writers in America make a good living at it. Now, if you write non-fiction, you have a better chance of it being financially worthwhile.

Whatever you do, make sure to check out companies thoroughly before using any POD service! They are not all the same.

Lulu has a good name for quality and low cost publishing setup, but the cost of each book is quite high.

Infinity Publishing is one of the best names in the business, with a return policy for bookstores and personal service, but setup cost is $499 for each book. (Some setup costs can range up to $1500 per book, though, so it's still one of the lesser expensive.)

iUniverse is lower cost and good quality but doesn't have a return policy or personal service.

Booksurge belongs to Amazon and has an iffy record, but with their new policy it's harder/more expensive for any other POD company to be listed on Amazon (I refuse to support them at all anymore). They also only distribute through Amazon, so I hear.

Avoid Publish America.. way too much negative publicity.

There are tons. Do your research.