Best Aspects of Self Publishing - By: Martha Liu

There's never been a more difficult time to be a traditional publisher than today. And, because these publishers are having such a hard time of it, a new writer has almost no chance of having his manuscript picked up and published. Today, if you are a writer and want to be published, you are pretty much on your own. Luckily, the self publishing field is wide open with many options for the newcomer.

Now, the nicest aspect of publishing your own book is that you get to publish your book exactly the way you envisioned it. You don't have interfering editors taking out parts of your book that they disapprove of and you don't have executives suggesting changes to make the book more commercial. Instead, you get to put out your book exactly as you envisioned it with no changes. And, even better, you don't have to share your proceeds from your book. All the money that comes in - minus the cost of producing and selling the book - flow to you.

But there are also drawbacks and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that you will have nobody to help promote your book. You are all alone and you will live or die based on your ability to self promote yourself and your book. Another is that you have to handle all other functions normally handled by a publishing company itself. This includes things such as taking orders, shipping, returns, and so on. You could easily find yourself doing a whole slew of activities other than the one that you really love - writing.

One really bad thing about publishing your own material is that you have no editor. Many times the most important person determining the quality of a book is the editor. This is why so many self-published books are sub-par. The writer has no editor to go over and correct obvious errors and suggest alternative ways of stating the writer's thoughts. While it is true that you can hire a free lance editor, finding a good one is pretty much a crapshoot.

Some service companies, however, are making the entire process very easy for writers. After you write your manuscript, you establish an account at one of these companies. You then decide what size you want your book to be - large, regular, paper back, etc. You either create or have a graphic artist create cover artwork. You then upload your manuscript, usually in Microsoft word format, along with your cover artwork and the service will take it from there.

The various services, although similar, have a variety of different specialties and sets of skills. Depending on the type of author you are, you may find one service suits you better than another. You should try to match the type of writing you do with a service that has experience in that field. For example, if you write poetry, look for a self publishing company that specializes in poetry. Likewise, some companies are experts at putting out cookbooks, others at producing fiction novels, and so on.

With more and more services appearing on the Internet each day, there are many opportunities for a writer who wants to connect with the world. Self publishing can be great for a person with the right mindset. For the person, however, who wants to just write and do nothing else, then self publishing is probably not for them.

About the Author

Chris Edwards is webmaster and writer for bookauthorservices.com . Please visit his site and find articles on writing a fiction book / rules, steps to writing a book, and other author related information and products.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Martha-Liu/75603

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