Our next LWC Live is with the author and co-founder of Queen Bee Press, Miranda Glover. She has published three of her books withTransworld Publishers and last year self-published a collection of short stories with five other writers with Queen Bee Press. With the ever changing Digital World, authors are becoming more aware of the opportunities that self publishing brings. So what are the benefits of self publishing?
1. You’ll make more money per copy – a traditional publisher will offer an advance against future earnings but those advances are decreasing sometimes by up to 50%. The royalty income on a £10 book from a publisher is approx 50-70p per copy sold. If you self publish you can make as much as 6 to 7 pounds per copy sold. NB Publishers are offering between 15%-25% royalties for ebooks – sell on your own site and you get 100% of any income after any cover design costs.
2. Ownership - You will own the rights to your book absolutely. You can spin off the content of your book into many further products. If you are canny this means more money. For example, you could sell the ebook version from your site, and translation and US book rights can be sold on to other publishers.
3. Greater control - You will control all aspects of the publishing process - from the cover to the publication date; all decisions will be made by you. Time and again, authors get into disputes with publishers about the way a book is published especially concerning covers – if you self publish; you take control of the publishing process completely.
4. Shine in your niche - Instead of being rejected by publishers for being too specialised, you turn this into a strength and hit your target market head on. This is vital for non-fiction writers but we are finding more and more fiction writers who are making the decision to self-publish or go with a small, independent publisher.
5. Use it as a launch pad – If you self publish your book successfully and the sales are good but you have exhausted your immediate database and means of selling, you might want to consider approaching a traditional publisher. The author of Imagine This, Sade Adeniran self-published her first novel before she managed to secure both an agent and a traditional publisher.
6. Speed is of the essence – traditional publishers have a timeframe of anywhere between 18 months and two years from delivery of manuscript to publication, depending on the available slots, with self publishing, your book could be ready for selling within a month or two of your final edited manuscript.
7. Blow your own trumpet – with the growth of social networking, it’s become far easier to be in touch directly with your audience. Twitter, facebook and the use of author websites, means that the big boys of publishing can be cut out of the equation if needs be. Time to stand up and shout a bit.