Self-Publishing--Delightful or Regrets?

Self-publishing becomes bigger and bigger news as time goes by in our writing world. Years ago, we called it Vanity Publishing. Good term for those who felt they had a great book that people should read and were willing to pay someone to publish it. There were plenty of these publishing companies willing to take an author's money and produce the book. Then, the author had a garage filled with boxes of books which he/she had to sell in order to recoup what they put out to have the book put into print. I have a feeling it worked only in a small percentage of cases.

Today, it's pretty easy to self-publish online for nothing, or very little, or go to a Print On Demand publisher so that you needn't invest a huge amount of money at one time. As a result, many authors are taking steps along that path.

One of the problems is that many rush into this self-publishing market without thinking through the entire process. I would encourage you to read, read, and read some more about the how and why, the pitfalls and successes of others who have delved into this method. Use your favorite search engine to find articles on self-publishing. Read as many as you can.

We hear about someone who has had success in self-publishing and it spurs us into thinking we can do it, too. Hey, I know! I've had those same thoughts and have even gone so far as to begin the process. Midway through, I got stuck on the book cover step. How to do it, whether to pay someone to do it for me, how important is it? Lots of questions so I stepped away for awhile.

This morning, I received an article on self-publishing that should make us all step back and take a serious look at whether we want to get into the process or whether we might be rushing into it too quickly. Alicia Rades writes with honesty about the regrets she had in self-publishing her first book. It's well worth the couple minutes it takes to read her article.

I think the biggest thing I took away from the article was that authors who go this route tend to move too quickly. They often do not take the time or steps needed to make sure they have a top quality piece of writing to self-publish.

I could probably write an entire post on taking time to get a piece of writing, whether short story or novel or essay, into perfect shape before either self-publishing or submitting to a publisher. And someday, I probably will write a post on the same. But for now, concentrate on what Alicia Rades learned and is willing to share with us.