EP23: Self-Publishing My Books - Or Eating Elephants

ANNOUNCEMENT: Every now and then, I host a sale, or give my books away for FREE! Until July 15, 2021, you can grab free copy of Apartment by filling out this survey on enhanced ebooks to help me out with some academic research.

In which I discuss the elephant I am currently trying to eat, as well as possible future elephants I may want to eat.

To learn more about why I'm self-publishing Apartment, check out my blog post here.

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Disclaimer: I am not an expert on self-publishing or traditional publishing! I'm merely speaking based on the little experience I have and am currently having, as well as what I've learned from my months and months of research online.

Thanks for tuning in!

TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT:

Personally, I lean more towards self-publishing for various reasons. In fact, I actually wrote a blog post about why I'm self-publishing Apartment, which I'll link in the episode details. Most importantly, I get to keep total control of how my books are presented, advertised, marketed, where they're published, how much they cost, and so on and so forth. That's really important to me. Having that control will allow me much more flexibility as well, since there are a lot of decisions that aren't up to you if you go with a traditional publisher. For example, the book cover is probably in large part going to be a result of marketing research on what kinds of covers are most popular in a particular genre and for a particular audience. Where the book is sold - in which bookstores, for example - is also up to your traditional publisher, as well as how much it costs.

But self-publishing is a monumental task, and over the years I've realized that it's a full-time job, no doubt about it. You're in charge or everything with self-publishing, and the tasks really seem to add up into this mountain of things that need doing, and it is intimidating. These days, I won't lie - I have really been feeling that colossal amount of work! But we'll keep this episode more theoretical, because I'm planning on making another episode in the future, after the launch of Apartment, discussing my experience in more detail and lessons learned.

So, let's just talk about self-publishing in general and what it takes. Here are just some of the steps that I've learned about, and I'm going to list them all but I'm sure it's not an exhaustive list, and I'm also sure that depending on the choices an author makes, some of these things could potentially be ignored.

Of course, you have to write the story. Then you'll need to edit it - and it's up to you whether you'll be hiring a professional editor to do that or if you'd rather self-edit. If you'd like to give it a test run with beta readers to get feedback, then that's an entire process that you have to put in place - a process that can include non-disclosure agreements and forms and meeting with beta readers to discuss their thoughts and a variety of other things. But so far, it sounds pretty manageable, right?

When you're set with your book and the writing part is done and you've got yourself something you can publish, there are even more things to consider. First and foremost, you've got to made a decision: are you going to be selling via established marketplaces like Amazon and use its KDP publishing, or are you going to lone wolf it - as in, sell your books directly on your website?