No. 22: The Power (& Joy) of Self-Publishing

I just finished the second companion book in my two book series for Professional Service owners, this one for the next generation prospects or G2s/G3s, and before I move on to my next book, I want to share with you my writing experience. I now have two books formally or traditionally published, and two books self-published.

In hindsight, both publishing routes were difficult, rewarding, time consuming, and exhilarating for different reasons. But, in short, I’m sold on self-publishing and that is how I’ll handle book no. 5. The reason(s) why, for me, are complete creative control and the ability to update my books, practically, as often as I like. In fact, my third book, Building With the End in Mind, will be re-published next month with a number of important and suggested improvements from supportive readers including illustrations, and I’ll likely update my books once a year from now on. My first book on succession planning for financial advisors, written in 2013, has never been updated. I can’t do it because with a traditional publisher, I have no control over the publishing process. It is a good book, but that just seems wrong to me in an ever-changing world.    

I have been very pleasantly surprised with the support system for a self-published author. At first, I thought I was all alone out here in the publishing wilderness but nothing could be further from the truth. I find myself surrounded by experienced, qualified and very affordable help, from all over the world – everything from cover designers, to typographers, to illustrators, to editors and more. I have also found that the self-publishing route is faster to market. If speed is an issue, one can take a book “to market” in less than 30 days after it is written and edited, and it can be pushed out globally through dozens of distributors in less than 60 days. The same timelines apply to republishing at an author’s discretion. Finally, I also keep a much larger share of the royalties as a self-published author.  

Four books into my non-fiction writing career now, and with countless white papers to help hone my craft, it takes me about 250 hours to write a 75,000 word manuscript, and with the help of more than one editor, another 250 to 350 hours to rewrite that same manuscript, at least several times over. My first two books took twice as long. One of my favorite authors, the late Michael Crichton, said “Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten.” That’s for sure. My point is, however, that as a self-published author, I will continue to rewrite my books as long as I live, greatly extending their shelf life and relevance to the reading public.

Granted, I have been solely responsible for all of the upfront costs of writing, editing, and production, but with so many helpers out there, the actual production costs (it technically costs nothing up front to publish through the various book distribution sites) were much lower than I anticipated. There was a time, I think, that self-publishing was seen as having less prestige – a short-cut route taken by those who weren’t good enough or capable of attracting the approval and support of a formal publishing house. There probably is still a little truth to that notion, but Amazon currently releases about two million new books for sale in the U.S. alone every year and, although Amazon doesn’t release exact numbers, there are over 1 million new, self-published eBooks through the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) system every year, so about half of all books are now self-published.    

The great equalizer, or humbling factor, is on the marketing front. Amazon offers over 44 million book titles globally, with more than 20 million available in the U.S. alone at this time. As a self-published author, I expected to feel like a needle in a haystack. How about a needle in over 44 acres of hayfield! And it is up to you, as the writer, to get noticed and do something about it. Regardless of how or who publishes your book, for most of us mere mortals, the writer has to handle all of the marketing and that, for me, is the hard part and the expensive part. You have to sell your own book if you want it to be a success. For what it’s worth, I received zero help and no marketing budget from my traditional publisher on my first two books. I’m sure it is very different in Stephen King’s world, but that’s not where most of us live.

Frankly, I am glad that I started on the formal or traditional publisher track because I really didn’t know where to start or how to write a book. With a traditional publisher, writing the book and contributing to editing it is pretty much all you have to worry about. The publishing house took care of all the rest (in terms of production). But having had that experience, twice, I doubt I’ll ever do it again.