Chris A. Baird | July 12, 2020
What Are The Self Publishing Pros And Cons?

At first, it can be challenging to self-publish but as you go along the journey, you'll be learning a lot of things about it and even mastering most of it. Find out the self publishing pros and cons to help you decide on which route you must choose.

Today's question has three answers. The third answer is a secret to how self-publishing can lead to you succeeding both in self-publishing and traditional publishing.

So, let's get into it. The question that was sent in was what are the self publishing pros and cons? This is an outstanding question because when we are first getting started publishing, we don't know where exactly is strategic for us to begin.

We're trying to figure out, should we start with self-publishing? Or should we go with traditional publishing? What are the pros and cons of going the self-publishing route?

Before we get into the answers, check out my free Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist to help you get started on your self-publishing journey.

When I first started self-publishing, I had to decide well obviously was going to go self-publishing, or was I going to go to the traditional route? In my case, I chose the self-publishing route.

That was because it's by far the easiest route. The path is a lot clearer to what are the different steps you're going to need to take. I didn't know anybody who has traditionally published at the time and I wasn't completely sure of the process.

Check out this related article: What Does Self Publishing Mean?

It seemed a lot more confusing even though I did understand that to self-publish, it can take a lot more time. There are a lot more things to figure out. So, that was some of the barriers that I was looking at at the time.

But that brings us back to the main question, what are the self publishing pros and cons? The answer to that is one, the cons are some people look down on authors who decide to self-publish.

Talking About Quality

Because why are they self-publishing if they were good enough and the quality of the book was good enough wouldn't have been accepted and published already? The problem a little bit with that is that many famous authors were rejected many times like the Harry Potter series.

Or even Stephen King on his original book Christine, getting rejected many many times as it was sent in. Was the quality low on that or is it the fact that there are these gatekeepers?

That brings to the next one which is that the other con would be that it can be viewed as lower quality. For the most part, that is true. There are fewer editors involved in the process and there are really no gatekeepers.

Those who would suggest that "we've checked this book and it's a good book or a poor book". Nobody has to verify that the quality is good, beyond that it passes the basic tests that Amazon itself may establish.

Just to make sure that the book isn't going to be so disappointing for the readers that they are going to complain. To make sure that the book is original content, they will also look for spelling errors and other things like that.

They would not allow it to reach the actual market. The pros, that would be you get higher royalties. The royalties of 70% are what you can expect with Amazon Kindle books if they are sold between $3 and $10.

Check out this related article: How Much Do You Make Self Publishing On Amazon?

It will teach you the entire process of self-publishing. You are going to learn about covers and you are going to learn about costs and revenue. Also about running ads, descriptions, keywords, and markets.

Impressing Traditional Publishers

It's very exciting. All of the things there are to learn which could be a con. You have to learn to do everything yourself. The final thing is it's less demotivational. You aren't getting rejected over and over and over.

That then brings us into the third answer and this is the secret answer of the day. It is the best way to get traditionally published is to self-publish. The traditional publishers are looking for books that are going to sell.

They don't want to take a chance on helping you to traditionally publish your book only to find out that nobody wants to buy the book. That is to say, they will not get their money back on helping you publish your book.

But one way to make sure that they will get the money back is if they already can see that your self-published books are already selling. So, they may buy the rights to one of your self-published books. Or they may understand that you have an audience who loves the books that you have.

Check out this related article: Self Publishing VS Publisher Debate?

They will understand that there are people who like and trust you. So when you publish a book through a traditional publishing house, they already will have an audience in place.

And that will keep them excited because they will know that they are going to get their money back, a return in investment if they go with you. This is a very motivational side of things. It is that we know for a fact that we are going to be able to do it.

So, by self-publishing, you can get the traditional publishers to pick up our books and be willing to give us a chance.

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