Waiting is one of my least favorite things. It seems that the pain of waiting becomes exponentially worse the more important the outcome. So as writers, waiting to hear whether or not a publishing house will consider our manuscript or an agent will take us on as a client can be the most painful experience.
There is nothing worse than having the outcome of something important be in someone else’s hands and that is what happens when you chose the traditional publishing route.
First they decide whether your book is worthy of publishing. Excuse me, but who died and made them Fairy Queen of all Things Printed?
Then, if they so deem your manuscript worthy, they decide what the cover looks like, the tone of the book, changes to your story and character description and even in some cases, the point of view. I mean really, who came up with the story idea in the first place? I don’t remember their publisher sitting up all night typing their fingers to the bone while the muse was hot.
Last, they decide when the book hits the stands. Talk about the pain of waiting. It could be two or three years from the start of the publishing process until you see a finished product. Talk about waiting that causes grey hair.
So what is a writer to do?
Stop waiting.
Take matters into your own hands.
Consider taking the self-publishing route. Now, the only time you will be waiting will be for you to finish a task because you are in control. You are in the driver’s seat determining the editing process, selecting the artist, the finished cover and planning/ executing your own marketing strategy.
You are in control.
Sound good?
Earlier this year I published an article entitled the 10 Benefits of Self Publishing Your Book. Here are the first three:
- No rejection.That is right. If you self-publish, the odds of you rejecting your own book are pretty slim!
- No waiting.Forget the process of submitting your book to one publisher after another, cut out the middle man and start the process today.
- Decision making is up to you.You get to decide the cover art, distribution and price. There is no one telling you that the story is good but it would be better from the point of view of the dog.
- Time to Market– Your book can be in your hands within 30 days. You control the turnaround time and with self-publishing your manuscript can go from final edit to printed copy in a matter of weeks.
Click here to read the other seven benefits: 10 Benefits of Self Publishing Your Book.
I also wrote another article comparing traditional publishing to self-publishing entitled The Reality of Traditional Publishing. In the article, I share this comparison graphic:
If you hate waiting – self-publishing your book should be your first course of action.
Okay, I hear some of you saying…self-publishing will never allow my book sales to really take off. Self-publishing is just for fun, not for serious writers.
You may be surprised to hear just how wrong that thinking is. Pete Nikolai “at Thomas Nelson Publishers” has researched and compiled a listing of best-selling books that started out as self-published:
Titles as well-known as:
- The Shack
- Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun
- Shot of Tequila: A Jack Daniels Thriller (Jacqueline Jack Daniels Mystery)
- Still Alice
- Eragon
- What Color Is Your Parachute?
- Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
Read Pete’s article to find more famous books that were first self-published.
Sometimes a writer is interested in learning more about self-publishing but a well-meaning friend or family member sticks their nose in the air at anything less than a book published by Random House or Simon and Schuster. To those, not so supportive people, I recommend you point them to the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame. Let them look through this impressive list provided by the Hall of Fame.
You could stock a superb college library or an incredible bookstore just from the books written by the some of the authors who have chosen to self-publish:
| Margaret Atwood
L. Frank Baum William Blake Ken Blanchard Robert Bly Elizabeth Barrett Browning Lord Byron Willa Cather Pat Conroy Stephen Crane e.e. cummings W.E.B. DuBois Alexander Dumas T.S. Eliot Lawrence Ferlinghetti Benjamin Franklin Zane Grey Thomas Hardy E. Lynn Harris Nathaniel Hawthorne Ernest Hemingway Robinson Jeffers Spencer Johnson Stephen King Rudyard Kipling Louis L’Amour |
D.H. Lawrence
Rod McKuen Marlo Morgan John Muir Anais Nin Thomas Paine Tom Peters Edgar Allen Poe Alexander Pope Beatrix Potter Ezra Pound Marcel Proust Irma Rombauer Carl Sandburg Robert Service George Bernard Shaw Percy Bysshe Shelley Upton Sinclair Gertrude Stein William Strunk Alfred Lord Tennyson Henry David Thoreau Leo Tolstoi Mark Twain Walt Whitman Virginia Woolf |
Impressed? You should be. Can’t you just picture your name on that list of best-selling and influential authors? I invite you to check out the video page on Halo Publishing to learn more about self-publishing your book and the services available to you from the largest Christian Self-Publishing company in the world. Videos from Our Publisher.
Bottom Line: If you have written a book and want to get it published, check out the self-publishing process. You’ll no longer have to wait to get your book in the hands of readers!