As any unpublished writer knows, getting a mainstream publishing house to consider your book is next to impossible. You can try getting an agent to promote your work, but they typically won’t take on any new writers who haven’t been previously published. So, what’s a new writer to do?
Do you continue to knock your head against the wall and chase agents and publishing houses? Do you pay for one of those services that show you step by step how to get your work noticed?
Or do you try and self publish your work?
Many writers think self publishing your work is not legitimate, any one can self publish anything these days and where is the merit in that? Will anyone take my work seriously if they knew it was self published? However, the perception that your work is not good enough to be published traditionally so you had to publish it yourself is flawed. Many mainstream authors are self publishing because they have more control of the finished product and keep most of the sales proceeds compared with ten percent or less from a mainstream published book sale.
Today, there are many self publishing options for both ebook and paperbacks to choose from and it’s up to the author to decide which one fits their needs. Some charge an upfront service fee to take care of all the technical details such as formatting, isbn creation, and cover design. Others are free to use but you will have to do all the technical set up using their website tools and utilities. Creating an ebook from your manuscript is free, but you pay to create actual paperback copies of your work.
Here is a list of five free to use popular self publishing ebook sites :
And here is a list of four free to use sites that also provide free paperback publishing services and you only pay to create actual paperback copies:
Good luck with your writing and self publishing!