What is Self Publishing?

Self publishing is a way for authors and artists to get their work published, produced, and recognized, without the help of a traditional publishing house.  Self publishing has been around since the begining of publishing, however, within the past 10 years, it has been growing in popularity and become a great way for an artist to get their work published and sold.  The benefits of self publishing include increased profits for the artits, because they can be in charge of selling the work and avoid paying royaties and commissions to publishers.  The artist also gets to keep the rights to their work (depending on the terms of the contract), and doesn't have to worry about their work being modified or manipulated to fit the policies and practices of a traditional publisher.

So why is it growing in popularity?

Lets take a look at how things used to be for self published artists.

In the past, printing books required large production runs to take advantage of dollar cost averaging, and achieve a low cost per book.  Heres an example, lets say an author wanted to sell their book for $10, and make a profit of 40% on each book ($4), and only print 100 books.  The author would go to a printing company and request a quote for 100 books.  The printer says it will cost $4000.  That means each book costs the author $40 ($4000/100).  Now the author has to sell the book for $56 in order to make a profit of 40%.  The reason why it would cost $4000 to print 100 books is because of the setup fees invovled in printing books.  If the author printed 1000 books, the printer would do it for the same price ($4000).  So you can see how risky it used to be for an author to self publish.  The author would have to put up $4000, and then try to sell the book themselves, which would probably require more investment in advertising and a lot of time to get the awareness they need.  They would also have to warehouse the books somewhere, and inventory is basically money on the floor.

Nowadays, printing technology has become so advanced that it is now feasible to print books in low quantities (100 or less).  Let's look at an example.  The same author wanting to sell their book for $10 and make a 40% profit approaches a self publishing company and requests a quote for 100 books.  The self publishing company quotes $400, and also gives the author the option of printing one book at a time as they sell, for a price of $5 a book.  Now the author has the option of getting 100 books done at $4 a book, or printing one at a time as they sell ( this means no inventory) for $5 a book.  The author also holds all rights to the book, and doesn't have to worry about their book being modified or screened.  The author now has options, and that's exactly what they want, they don't know if their book will sell like hotcakes or sit around in boxes in their garage.

So now the question is, is the book going to sell?  Well, thats up to the author.  The author can market the book themselves however they want, or they can employ the marketing services of a self publisher to get their book into stores and the hands of readers.  Self publishing companies offer a wide range of marketing services, ranging from press releases, promotional items, book reviews, advertising, flyer distribution, e-marketing, etc...

Keep in mind that self publishing isn't just for authors, it's for any artist that wants to sell their work.  This means bands, musicians,singers, poets, painters, cartoonists, and basically, anyone that has created a piece of work that they want to make a living off, and become recognized as an artist.

So here’s where it all happens. This is where you put your ideas into physical form and take it to the masses. You can publish your manuscript in paperback or hardcover, with full control over how the covers look and the price it sells for.

You can be sure that you won’t be charged any hidden fees, or have to read any fine print. No bull, no frills, that’s our philosophy.