Self publishing

Definition

Andy Weir is the author in this image. He self-published the Martian at its initial release. It became a huge hit in the book world, receiving many awards. It was later turned into a award winning movie.

Self- publishing is when an author decides to publish there own work without the use of a publisher.

Purpose

There are many reasons why authors self publish. One reason they decide to go the self publishing route is that they have more control of their book. They get to decide when it goes public, who has access to it, and how it gets released. Many times when authors use a publisher, they don't have control over these things, and it can feel like the book has lost its personality within the author. It also allows the author to retain control of all creative decisions, publishing costs, and royalty profits. Another reason that authors self publish is the speed of market. Self-published authors can go from a finished manuscript to published book quite quickly (like a matter of a couple months), while a hybrid publisher’s timeline will vary depending on its publishing schedules and its relationship with its distributor.

Pros and Cons

There are definitely pluses to self-publishing, but at the same time there can be issues. When self-publishing a book you have more control over the release of the book. Many authors have an issue with publishers holding or delaying the release of their book, but when you self publish this problem ceases to exist most of the time. If there are errors when its published it will be easier to fix the errors because you simply have your manuscript updated by your formatter (with whom you've by now developed a wonderful relationship) and you reupload to Amazon and/or Ingram Spark. Voila! Every paperback or eBook distributed from that point forward will reflect the changes.With a publisher they are most likely not going to change the errors you made, because they have already made hundreds if not thousands of copies of your book. A pretty obvious issue with self-publishing your book, is that your personally funding your book. The editing, the copies, and design of your book is most likely going to be funded by you without the help of a publisher. This can be a problem because if your book doesn't do well you would have lost a lot of money and be in financial loss. Another issue is that your not going to get the distribution of your book to as many places and stores if you didn't publish your book. A publisher's main job is to get as much distribution and hype around your book as possible. and without the help of a publisher your not going to get as much of that.