Self-publishing by nature is a very personal choice. By
choosing to self-publish you don’t have to listen to publishers, editors, or
anyone else. You are in control. But those aren’t the only choices that you can
make. Who you publish with is also an
important factor.
After doing plenty of my own research into the subject, and
extensively searching self-publishing companies like Lulu.com, in my opinion
self-publishing with Amazon.com is the way to go.
I won’t get into the details of each publishing company,
just know that either it is free to publish, but you get a low royalty, or you
have to pay to publish and get a medium to high royalty.
| Amazon.com logo. |
So why does Amazon.com stand out from the rest? Well, for a
number of reasons:
1.
It is free and easy to use.
2.
It offers high royalty percentages (up to 70%).
3.
You get to set your own price.
4.
Amazon can help with your marketing campaign.
5.
You can sell your book as a Kindle download, or
use Amazon’s print-on-demand feature, which allows customers to order books
that are not printed until ordered. This way, you won’t end up with boxes upon
boxes of unsold books in your parents’ garage.
Another interesting aspect of self-publishing through
Amazon.com is that they have over $1,000,000 in funds that go toward Kindle
Direct Publishing. A portion of this goes toward Amazon’s yearly Amazon’s
Breakthrough Novel Award. Basically, you enter your novel into the contest by
self-publishing with Amazon. Your novel must compete throughout several rounds
against 10,000 other novels before coming down to the first four who receive a
$15,000 advance and then a Grand Prize winner who receives a $50,000 advance on
their novel as well as advertisement opportunities on the homepage of
Amazon.com!
Amazon has been putting a lot of time, effort and money into
encouraging upcoming authors to publish with them. They do profit off of our
blood, seat and tears, but you’re not robbed, as you would be with many of the
other publishing companies, this includes traditional publishing houses that
generally pay an advance of $10,000 for a first time novelist and only give you
a 7-15% royalty.
Check out Kindle Direct Publishing here.
To compare self-publishing with Amazon to other online self-publishing companies, check out these links:
The contest is an interesting idea, but I don't envy the editors that have to go through 10 000+ submissions. I wonder how many novels that won the contest have gone on to do well.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few names on here that I hadn't checked out, thanks for the information!
ReplyDeleteI've considered self-publication only briefly in the past, but now I think I will look more into the subject. Amazon does look like a good place to start!
ReplyDeleteNever knew this about Amazon. It certainly seems beneficial to those looking to self-publish - and ridiculously easy at that. Especially the option to just do it all online...a lot of sites will require you to purchase your published books in bulk.
ReplyDeleteSelf publishing is a popular form book publishing in modern world.
ReplyDeleteSelf Book Publishing
Thanks for reading everyone! One thing to consider is that some people have a negative view on self publishers because of how easy it is in these days. Really, anyone could do it. This is why I think that the contest is such a great idea because your piece (if it wins) has been set apart from the pack as something that is worthwhile reading. And with self-publishing, it's not publishing that is the hard part, it's advertising. So if anyone is interested, make sure you do your research in the advertising aspect.
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