Self Publishing vs Publisher

A word about Self Publishing vs getting a Publisher for your Book:

Are you searching for how to publish your book? Have you finished writing (or you think you have finished) and want to take the next step to have you book officially available for people to buy and you think you need a publisher?

Let me come right out with it: using a publisher instead of self-publishing your book because that makes you a ‘real’ author and gives your book ‘status’ or gets you more sales is rubbish.

Have you EVER asked who has published a book you have read? Or NOT bought a book because of the publisher?

A reader is interested in the book topic and the book title attracts them to want to buy and read the book NOT who has published the book.

(…and I said above: ‘you think you have finished’, by that I mean: did you consider who the book is for, how they will look for it when you have published it and what title would attract them?

These are parts of marketing your book and most people do not think about this or plan it into their book BEFORE they publish! Publishers may say they take care of marketing but that is limited to their own database and does not mean YOUR book buying prospect is amongst them)

Let’s take a look at a couple of publishing examples I have dealt with.

A health coach had carefully chosen a well-known online brand publishing company and paid $13,000 up front to have her book published.
The promise was to have her manuscript proofread, formatted, a cover designed and the book fully published with this company and then have it available online to a global audience, on their website. (the coach could choose to link to the purchase page from her own website, of course)

This had appealed to the coach because her book was a combination of healthy eating tips, her method around eating well and fast and simple to prepare recipes.
$13,000 paid up front and 8 months later still no book in sight ….

She came to me, an utter mess! She was desperate to deliver on promises she had already made by putting her book up for pre order sales because the publisher’s agent had told her the books were just a couple weeks away…. (they never came)

She was frustrated that her money was lost when she discovered she had entered into a water-tight contract and would get nothing back.

When she came to work with me, she told me that she needed her book published ASAP in order to get these pre ordered books to people as promised.

To be clear, I am not a publisher, my unique program takes people from Planning what they want to achieve with their Book, to a clearly defined Writing Process which includes sessions where we work out how exactly you will market your book which is revealed when we dig deep into who will want to read it, long before you actually start writing, and the entire process takes just 6-Weeks or less.
So, what should this health coach have looked out for?

Here are (3) Ways to Publish your Book

(1) You search, and search and search until you find a traditional Publishing House that will offer you a contract to publish your book.

Traditionally, this meant you would get paid an up-front sum for your book in anticipation of sales.

This option has become a rare path for many because the publishing house wants the financial return first and therefore it is probably a good option for someone famous.

The publishing house is looking at how many social media followers you have on various platforms and how much interview and public speaking experience you have, because those are promotional avenues for the publisher to get book sales.

The process to be accepted by a publisher can take years. I have a client who insisted on this process and after, now more than 4 years, he’s still not found a publishing house that will accept him, despite him being connected to many very famous people, he lacks the social media followers and positioning as expert in his coaching field.

(2) You find a boutique publisher. There are many of these and for a price, your ready written manuscript will be edited and published. In most cases you keep the royalties, but NOT always. You may have to share them and you also do not always have full control over your Marketing activities.

One client of mine had her book published with a boutique publisher and discovered, when she came to me for marketing, that she was by her contract restricted to how she could market her book.

Lucky for her, the publisher was bought out by a larger one and her contract became void, which allowed her, working with me, to self-publish and market her book to be a number one bestseller on Amazon.

In some cases, this type of publisher will offer you a large quantity of printed books, the more you order the cheaper the individual book gets. You are looking at several thousand dollars and stacks of books taking up storage space, in some cases. You then need to find ways to sell them, spending time and money on this activity.

(I wrote about this in detail here: https://www.facebook.com/sigrid.dekaste/posts/4045670848776257 )

(3) There is the self-publishing path, where you keep all the royalties, can use any marketing you wish and keep all the money you make with your book, in whichever way is best suited to your situation.

Often Authors shy away from this option for several reasons:

• One – they don’t know where to start
• They don’t know how to go about it and what is involved
• They think self-publishing is less reputable

None of those reasons are valid when it comes to your reader. They want to read your message NOT know who the publisher is!

Here is a post where I explain in detail where this misconception about publishing with a publishing house comes from:
CLICK HERE

Self-publishing your book simply means you take control of where your book is available to purchase for readers. You are in control of making changes any time you wish. You can use whatever marketing is appropriate to getting the outcome you want to achieve with your book.

For example, the health coach got her book finished and published within 2 weeks and had so much fun learning the steps from writing with purpose to planning her marketing and publishing on Amazon, that she wrote three more books. On her own, because she’d learned how to in my program and as a client, everyone maintains access to the online how-to modules of the program.

If you want my help to Write and Publish your Book, Marketing ready, in 6-Weeks or less just connect and DM me and we’ll messenger chat to see if it’s a good fit for you and your business.
(here is my offer in detail, who it is for and who it is not for: CLICK HERE

And if you’re interested in checking out my methods more first, go through some of the posts HERE