People planning to self-publish are often advised to\u00a0target a commercial genre and write a book that matches its readers\u2019\u00a0expectations. Many indies have built\u00a0successful\u00a0careers on\u00a0that principle,\u00a0e.g.\u00a0JD Kirk, Rachel Maclean and LJ\u00a0Ross.\u00a0However,\u00a0self-publishing\u00a0can also be\u00a0a brilliant\u00a0channel\u00a0for\u00a0non-commercial\u00a0manuscripts\u00a0in small niche markets that\u00a0you want to get into the hands of readers for your own reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, you may have had a remarkable life experience that you\u2019d like to share to benefit or inspire others. Or you might wish to leave a printed written record of your family or local history for the benefit of future generations. Unless you\u2019re a celebrity, such projects are unlikely to appeal to traditional publishers, whose business model is to acquire only those books that will make a significant profit on their investment in editing, design, production, and marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an indie author who calls the shots, you are free to publish whatever you like, regardless of profitability. Profit and sales are not the only justifications for self-publishing. Professor Dr Alison Baverstock, teaching the publishing degree at Kingston University, once said self-publishing can be justified even for a print run of a single copy. Scale and financial gain aren\u2019t everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, some of the most rewarding self-publishing projects I\u2019ve been involved with have been low budget and low profit. In some cases, the resulting books haven\u2019t even been put up for sale, but given away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My very first self-publishing project was a collection of blog posts raising awareness and understanding of what it\u2019s like to live with Type 1 Diabetes, which affects my husband and our daughter, and by extension our whole family. No commercial publisher would have touched it, but it was a sufficiently worthwhile project to gain endorsement from the CEO of JDRF, the Type 1 Diabetes charity, and BBC Radio 4 Today anchor Justin Webb, whose son had recently been diagnosed with Type 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More recently, I self-published a funny little novella \u2013 a quirky blend of second-chance romance, magical realism, and a tribute to the beauty of the Cotswold countryside in spring, and a complete departure from my established line of cosy mystery novels. Mrs Morris Changes Lanes<\/em> (the title a cheeky take on Christopher Isherwood\u2019s classic Berlin novel, Mr Norris Changes Trains<\/em>) was so niche a proposition that I knew it wouldn\u2019t sell in huge quantities, but I loved the story so much that I was prepared to invest in a beautiful hand-drawn cover by Rachel Lawston (www.lawstondesign.com<\/a>) and a professional edit by Alison Jack, who had provided design and editorial services for all my self-published books. I was very proud of the resulting books. The novella took years to break even, but I\u2019m so glad I had the skills and courage to make it happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was also involved with a series of local history books in my home village, for which I was one of the contributing writers. We had a very limited target market: local residents and the village diaspora. Yet sales have not only covered production costs, but made enough profit to fund substantial donations to local causes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve worked on two books produced to be given away, both memoirs of terminally ill men who wanted to turn their typescripts into printed books before they died. Perhaps the most rewarding moment of my whole self-publishing career was receiving a photo of one of these gentleman with a huge smile on his face as he held the printed proof of his book. He died the next day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n