Although self-publication is an option available to any author, it is a painstaking job to master the process. At the end of the day, there are many options available to an author who wants to get published. Whether or not an author wants to experience the teething problems of self-publication is a matter of preference. There are many things that an author needs to know before dealing with independent publishers or starting his own publishing house.

Type of book that can be self-published

Sometimes an author can have his book rejected by big publishing houses because there is not a big enough audience to meet the publisher’s sales targets. However, this does not always mean that the book is not worth publishing; it only means that the publisher thinks that sales of the books will not make them the kind of money they are used to. Books meant for a niche audience are usually difficult to get published by big publishing houses. The best way to get them to an audience is therefore self-publishing. If, however, a book appeals to a wide audience, an author should query about 100 agents before going it alone.

Which types of publishers or self-publishers are there?

In traditional forms of publishing, the publishing house assumes most of the financial risk. Therefore, any form of publishing where an author assumes most risk can be considered to be self-publishing. There are many forms of publication as we shall now explain.

Print on demand (POD): As the name suggests, a book can be printed at a moment’s notice by a publisher. These publishers can print between 2 and 2,000 books on demand. Mostly self-publishing companies provide POD publishing.

Commercial publishers: These are well-known big companies that publish and mass produce books. They don’t charge the author for printing, distribution, or artwork for their books. They also pay authors up front before making significant sales. Authors retain the rights to their books.

Vanity publishers: They print books at the expense of the author. An author pays the publisher’s overhead costs and profits. Vanity publishers print virtually anything from anyone as long as the author can pay their fees.

Subsidy publisher: As the name suggests, a subsidy publisher does not lay the entire financial burden involved with publishing on the author. These types of publishers are selective because they bear some of the financial risk if a book fails to make much money. Subsidy publishers are generally not considered to be traditional publishers. One big difference between subsidy publishers and traditional publishers is that subsidy publishers keep completed books until they are sold. After selling the books, the publishers pay royalties to authors.

True self-publishing: As mentioned earlier, if an author absorbs most or all publishing expenses, it can be considered to be self-publishing. In the traditional sense, self-publication used to refer to an author who starts his own publishing house. In this case, the author bears all costs including: marketing, distribution, printing, etc. Although these authors publish their work using publishing houses, they are not considered to be traditionally published because they own the publishing houses.