Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
I often see writers on Twitter decide to give up publishing their books because of a constant slew of rejections. I often wonder why giving up is even an option when there are so many benefits behind self-publishing. Today, let’s take a closer look at those benefits.
Now, keep in mind that I only have one book published thus far. However, I am nearly done with my second book and am exceptionally excited to keep up the series.
With that being said, you don’t need to have a library as vast as Stephen King’s to see the pros of publishing something yourself.
Still, there’s no reason to give up if you can see your book in print next week.
8 Realistic Benefits of Self-Publishing a Book
I’ve always been interested in self-publishing. And in 2021, I put out my first book. Although it’s a very niche novel about how to become a freelance writer without experience, I’m still quite proud.
So, what benefits have I experienced since self-publishing my first book?
1. It Doesn’t Cost Much If Anything to Self-Publish
The primary focus of A Freelancer’s Tale was to see if I could publish a book without spending money. Since my friend and I performed all of the work ourselves, that’s exactly what I did.
However, there’s nothing wrong with putting money towards editing, cover design, and/or marketing. In fact, you’ll need to spend a bit of money and time advertising your book.
No one is going to buy it if they don’t know it exists.
Still, it doesn’t cost much to get your book up on platforms like KDP or by selling it from your own website, which I’ll talk about in a moment.
2. You Don’t Have to Worry too Much About Rejections
If you plan to use platforms like KDP or Barnes & Noble Press, you’ll need to follow guidelines for what’s acceptable. But unless you’re being overly hateful or otherwise breaking the law, the guidelines are not all that strict.
As I said earlier, you could also sell the book directly from your website and remove those guidelines altogether.
My point is that self-publishing eliminates those query rejections so many new authors experience every day. You don’t have to worry about publishers or agents turning you down.
I feel this is a better system considering how agents and publishers can be biased and not reflective of an audience who may love your book.
3. Publish When you Want
When I uploaded A Freelancer’s Tale, it was ready within hours. And since KDP uses print-on-demand systems that are wicked fast, I was able to buy my book and have it shipped to me within three days.
My friend got her copy within two.
One of the biggest benefits of self-publishing is that you can put out the book when you want. It also cuts out the amount of time you’ll spend looking for an agent, who will then spend more time looking for a suitable publisher.
From the moment I finished writing the book, I was holding a printed copy of it within a month.
4. Lots of Online Tools and Resources Available
The Internet is full of sites and apps specifically to help self-publishing authors. Everything from writing tools to affordable cover design is literally at your fingertips.
The best part is that there are a lot of great free tools at your disposal if you can do some of the work yourself. For example, Canva is a great platform for cover designs even if you don’t have a graphic design background.
Using Reedsy in conjunction with Grammarly’s free Chrome extension makes for an effective writing platform.
The bottom line is that you have an incredible amount of options available to you for self-publishing. And it is possible to put out a good book without spending thousands of dollars upfront.
Currently, I’m putting together a list of self-publishing tools to help others.
5. You Control ALL Aspects of the Book
Another one of the finer benefits of self-publishing is being able to control every element of your book.
Sure, you have a bit of creative control when going the traditional route. However, self-publishers can control the price, marketing, absolute cover design, and preferred markets.
The trade-off, though, is that this means you are completely responsible for everything.
If you’re not good with marketing, hiring an expert will be a good use of money. Otherwise, everything falls squarely on your shoulders, which could be a good and bad thing.
Don’t let that scare you. Having absolute control over the entire publishing process of your book can be very rewarding. At least it was in my case.
6. Benefits of Cutting Out the Middlemen when Self-Publishing
It’s possible to make greater royalties when publishing the book yourself. If you use Kindle Direct Publishing, you’ll have to pay Amazon a cut. The same goes for Barnes & Noble and many other online retailers.
However, you could also use print-on-demand services while selling the eBook version directly from your website, as I mentioned earlier. This cuts out the middlemen altogether, which means you keep the vast majority of the income.
Well, outside of the normal operating expenses and costs, such as printing the book and advertising.
Nonetheless, there is potential to make more in royalties through self-publishing than if you were to hire an agent and go through a publishing house.
7. Getting Your Name Out There as an Author
If you were to Google your name with the word, “author” at the end, what would you find on the first page of the results? For me, the author page from Amazon shows…just under the work I do for GreenGeeks.
Perhaps one of the most important facets of gaining notoriety as an author is making sure your name gets out there on the Internet. And once you go through the process of setting up your Author Central page on Amazon, it doesn’t take long.
As a writer, your name is your brand. This means you need to get it out there on the Internet in any way you can. And self-publishing a book or two greatly helps.
In my case, I own all of the top results on Google, even though I compete with a lawyer and a doctor of the same name.
8. Boosts Your Self-Confidence
Boosting your level of confidence is one of the greatest benefits of self-publishing. Once you get that first book in hand, the world just seems to change around you.
I’ve found myself more motivated, focused, and confident in every aspect of my life. My life-long dream of having my name on the spine of a printed book on my bookshelf came to realization in 2021.
Feelings of self-doubt were quickly replaced with assertiveness.
Needless to say, I found the entire experience one of the greatest achievements of my life. And I am looking forward to self-publishing the next few books.
Do the Benefits of Self-Publishing Outweigh the Drawbacks?
So, there are a lot of great benefits to publishing the book yourself. However, it does all come with a pretty hefty caveat.
The success of the book rests purely on your shoulders.
This means everything from writing to marketing is your responsibility. And if you don’t have a lot of disposable cash at the moment, it can take a lot of grinding to get everything organized.
For example, editing for context, grammar, and story continuity is vastly important for entertaining the masses. Do you have help in this regard?
What about marketing? Do you have a plan for getting your book in front of as many eyes as possible? How much time can you dedicate throughout the day to advertising your book?
Sure, I was able to publish A Freelancer’s Tale completely for free. Nonetheless, it doesn’t sell a lot of copies…mostly because I haven’t had the time or money to put into proper marketing campaigns.
Throughout all of this, though, the benefits of self-publishing far outweigh the drawbacks. Especially since you can put a bit of money into certain things as you go.
For instance, there are quite a few ways you can edit the book properly without dumping four grand on an editor. For me, reading the book out loud as I would an audiobook helps me find all kinds of issues.
Not to mention automated tools like Grammarly and beta readers can help streamline the storyline.
My point is that yes, there are a lot of responsibilities to self-publishing. However, you’ll be able to see your name in print and hold a copy of your own book in far less time.
And while spending less money.
What Benefits of Self-Publishing Interest You the Most?
Perhaps the biggest impact self-publishing has made on me is the inspiration I get from looking at the book. It’s sitting next to my mom’s and sister’s books on the shelf with my name on the spine. It fuels me with pride and confidence that I can continue to write.
The confidence boost alone is more than worth the amount of time I spent putting A Freelancer’s Tale together. And I’m looking forward to a similar feeling once Kingmaker is out.
Before you call it quits and “shelve” your book because agents or publishers don’t want to help you, consider publishing the book yourself. With so many tools available nowadays, it’s not as difficult as you might think.
- How to Write, Edit, and Publish a Decent Book for Free - December 2, 2024
- Breaking My Record of 95,393 Words in a Single Month - November 29, 2024
- How Long Does It Realy Take to Write a Good Book? - November 27, 2024