Earlier, if an author wishes to self-publish his book, he needs to put a lot of effort to get his book self-published. He needs to invest a lot of money or else need to learn how to become an independent, small publisher. This method is quite old and outdated now. Since 1990, with the emergence of POD, i.e., print-on-demand technology self publishing a book is accessible and affordable. This technology allows books to be printed at one time, results in low-cost self-publishing packages for authors.
The cost is low because there is no print run cost, inventory cost, and warehousing cost. The only cost incurred is in creating and designing the book. Many outfits offer a range of packages to help authors get their books in print. This books are not often found in bookstores and sold a few dozen copies at best.
Rise of eBooks sales
Self- publishing market is also transformed due to the growth of eBooks. Majority of self-publishing authors are earning a handsome amount from eBook sales. Today, everyone has access to the same level of online retail distribution for print and eBook as a traditional publisher through various services available. You need not pay anything to these services until your books start to sell. You need to pay to the retailer and distributor only when the copy of your book is sold. As an author, you will have full control to manage the publishing process and hire the people of your choice for editing, designing, publishing, and distribution of your book. You hold the right to keep your all profits and can act as an individual decision maker.
How do Ebook Self-Publishing Services work?
The important thing one needs to know here is that eBook retailers or distributors are not publishers. They are not responsible for the quality of your work, content you wrote and also do not take credit of your work. The main characteristics of self-publishing service providers are as follows:
– You rarely pay an upfront fee and most of the times earn 100% net. When you do not pay an upfront fee, then expect a % (percentage) of your sales to be kept.
– At any time you can upload you’re and make it available for sale. Other things you can do is at any time you can take your book down, upload the new version, change the cover, description, price, and most important to this is you can even sell your work through multiple services or you website.
– You do not require much of the technical expertise, as the majority of services offer automated tools for everything whether it is related to converting your files, uploading your files, listing your work for sale or something else. Also, free guides and tutorials are available to assure that your data are formatted appropriately.
By using these services, you do not lose any of your rights to the work. If in case any traditional publisher approaches you after your ebook has gone on sale, you can freely sell rights to the services you’ve used without any obligation.
Most e-publishing services fall into one of these categories:
– Ebook retailers
– Ebook distributors
– Book builders and distributors