Self Publish or Be Damned?

Once upon a time, if a publisher rejected your book (and there might be a string of them), you either put your manuscript in a drawer to gather dust, or you went off and found a vanity publisher to do the same sort of thing, to a narrow audience, thus, as the name suggests, trying to make you feel better.

All that has changed.

It has become possible to choose yourself.

Take a bow, Jeff Bezos, for giving us KDP - or Kindle Direct Publishing - and changing all that. 

Let me share some key facts:

• Nobody gives a damn who publishes your book

• If, and it’s a big if, you get taken on by a publisher, you will be controlled. Controlled as to:

1. Genre and subject

2. Title

3. Length

4. Content

5. Editorial control

6. Proof reading control

7. Cover design

8. Marketing

9. Timing of publishing

10. Advances, royalties etc

• Do it yourself and you are suddenly liberated. You choose yourself. You decide to publish. You back yourself. You take back control of 1-10. above. And that is a really big taking back of control. NB. You will be largely in charge of marketing even with a publisher – whatever they say – but you will have far less control over how you do it.

• Amazon is easy – the cost of the actual publishing itself is almost zero. Amazon print for you, in paperback, on demand. And/or they put the book out for you on Kindle. Audible, too, if you want that, and you get generous royalties whichever way you publish.

We will help you, as an author, bring your book to the market in this way. As a team, we will handle the following for you:

1. Editorial advice on content, length and construction

2. Advice on layout, look and size

3. Book cover design

4. The technical bits – getting the book onto Amazon, with ISBN number, pricing and royalty calculations, and with your own Author Central page

5. Getting forewords and reviews

6. Marketing – video, website, email and social media

We hold your hand all the way. Through every single step.

So, S.P.O.B.D. – ‘Self Publish or Be Damned’. Whatever type of book YOU choose – autobiography, history, how to, fact, fiction, books that can help people (my personal favourite) etc. We are only ever limited by our imagination.

People are hungry for knowledge. They are hungry for entertainment. They are hungry for a good read and they are hungry to better themselves.

Why should your book have to be consigned to gathering dust as a manuscript in a drawer somewhere? Why should your audience – whoever they might be – family and descendants, colleagues, everybody else – be deprived of the chance to read your creation?

They don’t need to be, any longer. I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate a ‘no’ from a gatekeeper.

It’s important to write a book. We live in a world where ideas are the true currency. And, your ability to share those ideas is how you spend that currency.

Everyone has a book inside him or her. But, most people are too scared to do anything about it. Too scared of starting. Too scared of rejection. Too scared they are not good enough. Too scared that they don’t know how to get a book out there.

You can stop being scared right now. Get in touch with us. We will help rid you of that fear. And, you can enter the light, and fun, of getting your book out there.