250 Revisited

Go read that last post on the number of books a self-published author can expect to sell. Given that, would I advise someone to self-publish? If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, then you know my answer is an unequivocal yes. Why? Aren’t I advising people to do something bound to fail? Not if you do it right. Getting a fiverr cover, avoiding paying for any editing or consulting, and just uploading your book to Amazon is guaranteed to put your book in the category of <250 sold. I’m not saying you’ve got to spend a ton of money because there are plenty of publishers who will be glad to take it. I’m saying that you need to find a happy medium, something you can afford that will result in a professional-looking and -reading project. I’ve covered this before, I think. Where was I going with this? Oh, yes, self-publishing. We live in a strange world where a lot of us don’t fit the profile of what an agent or big-house publisher is looking for. What does that mean? It means our chance for the world to experience our book lies in our own hands. And that’s a good thing. It’s a lot more work, but again, that’s a good thing. Nobody can tell you what you should or shouldn’t say, you have control over your own release dates and timelines, and you control the expense and frequency of advertising. That last one is the tough part to figure out and it definitely can be costly. You just have to set boundaries and limits for yourself, but to me, that’s better than letting someone else figure it out for you unless they’re giving you plenty of dough up front. And let’s not kid ourselves - unless you fit that profile they want, it’s not going to happen. Now go forth, and self-publish and be happy.