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Self-Publishing: New Options for Writers

According to an article in the New York Times Book Review, by some estimations upwards of ten million people in North America have written books that have yet to be published. Compare this figure to the fifty thousand or so new titles per year that are brought out by traditional trade publishers of all sizes. In other words, the odds are against any new writer who is trying to get his or her first book published.

But this doesn't mean that first-time authors should give up on seeking publication. Promising newcomers will always continue to be discovered and published--how else could the book business preserve its vitality? But the process of getting into print via traditional publication can be long, difficult, and frustrating.

Just how frustrating it turns out to be is a matter of individual temperament and circumstances. Some authors simply endure all the waiting and the rejections, and eventually achieve their goal. Others reach their limit, and for this reason, many worthy books go unpublished, while good ideas remain unaired and creative voices unheard.

Until recently, the only alternatives to nonpublication were to pay a vanity press to bring out your work or to become a self-publisher and to finance and take charge of every phase of your book's production, distribution, and promotion. These days, thanks principally to the growth of the Internet, authors now have more satisfying as well as less expensive and taxing options.

The principal breakthrough has been print-on-demand book manufacturing. Now authors do not have to pay high fees to produce large numbers of copies of their book, which then might, or might not, sell. With the print-on-demand method, the author pays a comparatively modest fee, receives a few sample copies, and subsequent copies are printed as orders come in. In return for collecting an up-front fee, print-on-demand publishing services typically provide the book's mandatory ISBN (International Standard Book Number), send out press releases, publicize the book on the Internet though search engines and online outlets like amazon.com, and allow for generous royalty payments to authors.

There are now a number of Internet-based print-on-demand (POD) publishing services--for example: CreateSpace (formerly BookSurge), iUniverse, Lulu, Trafford, and Xlibris. These and other similar operations appear generally to give satisfaction, and are among the options now available to authors who want to bypass the old-fashioned lengthy publication process, find more immediate outlets for their work, and retain greater editorial control than traditional publishers might allow. If all of this appeals to you, then you may be a candidate for print-on-demand publishing. But before you commit yourself to a particular service, remember that ultimately it is up to you, the author/consumer, to comparison-shop and decide which POD publisher best suits your needs and budget.

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