Essential Reading for Those Considering Self-Publishing

Looks like this will be Publishing Week on my blog. After my post yesterday, I seem to be on a bit of a roll. So, without further ado…

One of the questions that I often hear from people is, “What are the benefits of self-publishing?”

I should know.  A little over a year ago, I self-published my first book, Why New Systems Fail (since picked up by Cengage as a revised edition). A full description of the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing is way, way beyond the scope of this post. I’ll list my top five, though.

Five Major Advantages of Self-Publishing

• You control everything, including the cover, marketing, content, editing, bells and whistles, etc. (Note that you’ll probably have to pay extra for some of these features.)
• You’ll probably make more money per book. Royalty rates can be 35%, give or take. This tends to be two to three times higher than books published by big firms.
• In theory, you can get your book to market faster than with a traditional publisher.
• You retain the rights to the content after publication. If you want to pitch the book to a proper firm…

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