Just like the world of film / video / DVD has changed…. And just like the world of music / cassette tape / CD / MP3 has changed…. The world of book publishing is changing.
Self Publishing... there is a deeper pond of information under the surface.
It used to be very expensive and difficult to produce a hard copy book, and producing a single copy of a hard copy book was out of reach. Getting that book into readers hands used to be very expensive and difficult too… and this is what has changed the most in book publishing.
It is now much easier and more cost effective to produce a book and get it into readers hands. Authors can do it themselves. They can publish themselves.
It is the technology that has changed, giving anyone with the determination to learn access to the marketplace. But the fundamentals of publishing have not changed. The book still has to be well written, on a topic someone wants to read about, and well produced so that it sells at a profit.
Self publishing is the act of the author becoming a publisher, and therefore taking on all the concerns and expenses of a publisher. This immediately created a market for companies offering to take over all the headaches of publishing on behalf of the author… for a fee. Those companies are called vanity or subsidy presses.
Those services are not the same as self publishing… but they do have a place. They can be a good solution depending on the book project, (more about that topic in my upcoming post about vanity and subsidy press). But self publishing is the process of the author taking a book from conception to sale, themselves.
Self publishing a book is an adventure… Is it the right adventure for you?
(see my post… Should I self publish?)
