So grateful for what we have now. Technology has come
a long way hasn’t it? If it wasn’t for technology, Independent Authors, aka
Self-published authors, would never be able to publish their books so easily
and get them out there for readers. Think about it for a moment. 15, 20 or 30 years
ago, an aspiring author would have to go through traditional publishers to get
their books published. Some never got the chance to see their books published.
It would take more than six months for their manuscript to be looked at and maybe accepted. It would take another six months for it to be edited and published.
How long did it take to get published?
There is no easy answer
to this question. One book might take a year to produce while another is
designed and printed in three weeks.
It is sensible to allow at least three
months for the process – six months is even better. The benefit in publishing with a
traditional publisher is that you do not have to pay to get your book
published. However, the wait time for some authors is disheartening.
There were some
subsidiary publishing companies at that time but only a few. After an author who was turned down
through a traditional publishing company, he/she might publish through a self-publishing company
but not without expenses.
How much does it cost?
If you decided to self-publish back then, you’re looking at $500-1,000 to
publish each book. It was and is a GAMBLE because many authors have to do their
own advertising/promoting. As for distributing your books, the best that you can do would be to take a few copies to the local mom and pop bookstores and let people know your books area available there. If you wanted your book to be distributed to major bookstores, you would have to hire someone like an agent to do the job. Not an easy thing to do, trust me. When I first published
Chandra’s Quest book 1 through a subsidiary publishing company, back
then, it cost me $300. At that time, Amazon Kindle wasn’t around, so I did not
publish for free. Later, when
CreateSpace came around, I revised my books and published them without paying
for the printing. eBooks came into play and it became easier to publish.
Benefits of traditional
publishing:
Monetary advance before
publishing
Potential for
traditional media coverage
Social
signaling/feelings of acceptance
Some Bookstore placements
The cons:
Very hard to get a deal
Huge time investment
Loss of ownership
loss of marketing control
loss of marketing control
Loss of creative and
content control
Limited financial
upside, depending on the genre that is popular at the time.
Self-published books:
Some companies have incorporated self-publishing tools to their online websites and if you pick the right one, you won’t have to pay to get it published. When your book is published, some websites will post your book on their site for readers to see and possibly buy. Kindle publishing is one of the biggest publishing companies out there. They do offer marketing and promotional deals. Of course, for the services you'll have to pay, but you still don’t have to pay to get your book published.
Some companies have incorporated self-publishing tools to their online websites and if you pick the right one, you won’t have to pay to get it published. When your book is published, some websites will post your book on their site for readers to see and possibly buy. Kindle publishing is one of the biggest publishing companies out there. They do offer marketing and promotional deals. Of course, for the services you'll have to pay, but you still don’t have to pay to get your book published.
Let’s talk about why we take this technology for granted. Why some
people no longer find it amazing to know an Independent Author.
Well, when self-publishing first was available through the internet, it
was a God sent to self-published authors out there. They now had a way to show
people their written work. As a matter of fact, when the internet came around,
a lot of authors took advantage of it and posted their written work on their websites,
forums, and chats.
So, how do people take technology for granted? In the
beginning when independent authors published their books, people thought it was
a BIG deal. It was “cool’ to know an author, however somewhere along the way, it
got around that independent/self-published authors were not good enough to be
considered as real authors and to add acid to the fire, some people started
posting negative comments about books written by independent authors, especially
if they knew that author and jealousy came into play. Publishing your own book becomes common so therefore, Independent
authors became common but not noted/recognized.
Example: if I had told my cousin 20 or 25 years ago that I was a self-published
author and that I wrote a book, she would have thought it was “cool” however
because of time and how we take technology for granted, it’s not a big
deal anymore.
Can anyone write a book and publish it?
Yes, I suppose they can, but
they need motivation and commitment to the art. Writing should be second nature
to them.
Options: Authors have many options now and traditional publishing isn’t the only way to go. I am grateful that we have the technology to publish our own books.
Food for thought: Self-published authors have courage and they did what they said they would do-- publish their books, despite of unwelcome comments.
So Grateful For....
I am
grateful that I live in this time and I am grateful for those who have taken
the time and read books by independent authors. Give them a thumbs up because they did what they wanted to do.
