Everything you ever wanted to know about self-publishing (but were too afraid to ask…)

An article in The Bookseller recently argued that we’re now in a “golden age” of self-publishing – and if you’re currently debating the best way to get your novel into readers’ hands, taking the ‘DIY’ approach has almost certainly crossed your mind.

Self-publishing is rewarding in a wide variety of ways if you can do it successfully – not least because you’re likely to make much more money per book sale than if you published traditionally.

It’s also worth noting that self-publishing no longer places you and your work beyond the purview of traditional houses. Far from it. Many successful self-publishers are now taking a ‘hybrid’ approach to putting their work out there – in some cases selling audio or foreign rights to their books while retaining self-pub rights elsewhere. There’s also what The Bookseller describes as ‘a pipeline’ developing, with self-pubbed authors using their previous success as incredible leverage when negotiating trad deals.

With self-publishing in the spotlight, and as we approach the deadline for applications to our Simply Self-Publishing course, we asked tutor and indie publishing expert Debbie Young to answer some of the burning questions you might have about how it really works…

Jericho Writers: One fear we know people have – despite the changing landscape – is that self-publishing is for authors who simply aren’t good enough to get traditional deals. What do you say to that?

Debbie Young: Self-publishing is not the home of second-rate writers! There are a lot of authors now self-publishing by choice, for the autonomy, for the control, and because they don’t want to compromise their vision to fit whatever narrow mould traditional publishers are pursuing.

JW: What about the idea that self-publishing a novel is essentially a vanity project?

DY: Forget the word vanity – when you self-publish seriously, you are not pursuing a vanity project. This isn’t just about printing a book or getting an ebook up onto Amazon so you can say it exists. You are – or should be – publishing a high-quality book because it will appeal to a real market. Your intention should be to reach that market and achieve sales. Basically, if you’re doing it just to see your name ‘in print’, you’re doing it wrong – and you’re almost certainly not making the most of it.

JW: It sounds as though your best chance of success as a self-publisher is to be quite businesslike – to see it as something entrepreneurial.

DY: Exactly. But that doesn’t mean you have to do absolutely everything yourself. You’re not going to have to learn to design covers, format ebooks or print books, or edit or proofread. Instead, self-publishing means taking the same responsibility as a publisher would in a commercial firm – and assembling a team of experts to get your book off the blocks. They can provide any special skills that you don’t have, under your management and direction.

JW: One thing we know people worry about is approaching the ebook market – especially if they are not Kindle or ebook readers themselves.

DY: This comes back to being businesslike. Sell ebooks, even if you don’t read them yourself! Self-pubbed authors typically make around 95% of their money from ebooks, so it’s not a market you can afford to ignore. This is a good example of how a course like Simply Self-Publish can make all the difference to people embarking on this journey: it’s going to expose your blind spots, help you avoid mistakes and arm you with the knowledge you need to move forward successfully.

JW: And what about Kindle Unlimited? People are confused by that, too – particularly how (and even if!) authors get paid when their books are included.

DY: You do get paid as a self-published author when your books are in Kindle Unlimited, or KU. You must agree to exclusivity with Amazon, but you’ll earn ‘page reads’ income for every page of your prose that’s consumed by a KU reader. KU is a really important platform to understand properly as a self-publisher, so we cover it in some detail on the Simply Self-Publish course.

JW: And how does print-on-demand (POD) work? This is another key question we know would-be self-publishers are keen to have answered…

DY: It’s a good, and important, question! POD is the lowest-cost method for printing books, and POD printing though a service like Kindle Direct Publishing or IngramSpark allows just-in-time ordering. This means there’s no upfront cost and no need to hold hundreds of copies of your book in your spare room or a pricey warehouse. Thanks to POD, you can now publish a book with a print-run as low as one. Again, we go into detail about POD on the Simply Self-Publish course.

JW: This final question is probably the biggest one: how do you know if self-publishing is right for you?

DY: I think it’s about being honest with yourself, in terms of your goals and ambitions, the level of control you want to have over your own work, and how much you’re prepared to put into the process. I’d never tell anyone self-publishing is easy, but for many authors it is now their preferred option. And to some degree, it’s about what you’re writing, too: self-publishing works especially well for writers of genre fiction, for books that form part of a series, and so on – but less well for children’s and academic books, which are still mostly consumed in print.

JW: Do you have any final advice?

DY: Learn as much as you can before getting started. Think about doing a course like Simply Self-Publish and consider it an upfront investment in the business of becoming an author. Through Simply Self-Publish, my students create actionable strategies and marketing plans for their books – and that’s exactly what you need to organise upfront, before you even consider putting your book up for sale. Approach it in the right way, and self-publishing can be the starting point for a super fulfilling writing career. I wish you all the best!

Interested in learning more from Debbie?

You can find out more about Simply Self-Publish and apply for your place right here on our website.

About Debbie Young

Self-publishing expert Debbie Young is the author of thirteen novels, two of which have been shortlisted for the prestigious BookBrunch Selfies Award for best independently-published adult fiction in the UK. She now combines licensing selective rights for her books to various publishers including Boldwood Books, DP Verlag, and Saga Egmont, while continuing to self-publish. Debbie has seven years’ experience as Commissioning Editor of the Alliance of Independent Authors’ daily self-publishing advice blog. She is also an Ambassador for ALLi and has written several advice books and pamphlets for indie authors.

A renowned champion of indie authors everywhere, Debbie now shares her passion for self-publishing and her enjoyment in supporting and nurturing other authors as a mentor and course tutor for Jericho Writers.