The Good Side of Self-publishing

After all the writing done, writers would love to see it come to life and be published. Yes, published! And wouldn’t it be ideal to have all the rights of the book? Sounds good? That’s self-publishing.

In self-publishing, the author is in control of everything in relation to the book. The author gets the book published without the involvement of an established third party publisher. The price, distribution, formats, marketing and publicity can be can be made by authors on their own or outsource some or the entire process to companies who offer these services but still with the author’s upper hand.

The self publishing company gives all the rights of the book to the author. Entailed with this that authors can terminate the agreement they have with the company anytime since no duration is specified in the contract. All because every single piece of the process is owned by the author.

There are different types of self-publishing. There is the POD or the Print-on Demand, a type where printing is of high quality and more economical than printing a hundreds or thousands of books all at the same time. There is, also, e-book publishing where various formats can be used to create one. The most popular formats are .mobi, PDF, HTML and Amazon's .azw format. Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. For self-publishers, e-book is popular since there is no per- book costs.

The process of self-publishing does not stop on publishing alone but the book also needs to be marketed. This is how self-publishing services can be of assistance to authors.

According to a source, in 2008, for the first time in history, more books were self-published than those published traditionally. In 2009, 76% of all books released were self-published, while publishing houses reduced the number of books they produced.

Authors who self-published include , Martin Luther, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jane Austen, and Derek Walcott. Contemporary writers, J.K. Rowling had her Harry Potter series sold through e-book versions. In 2013, James Altucher's Choose Yourself sold 44,294 copies in its first month, is a Wall Street Journal bestseller and debuted at #1 on Amazons top non-fiction list.

More options to writers in publishing books entails freedom to your work of art. It doesn’t stop in the writing process but continues until publishing it. Self-publishing is a wonderful opportunity to be in the best shape to fulfill what the heart desires the most. It’s all in your hands. Put the book to life and make the most out of it.