Cailin Riley Books

You make the final call.

Want a dolphin wearing a party hat on the cover? Cool, you can do that. Want pictures in sepia? It’s your call. When you self-publish, you’re the boss so you get to make the rules when it comes to creative choices. That applies to the text too; you won’t have to cut things you don’t want to like a traditional publisher might request.

Similar to making the call on creative choices, you also get to decide how much money you invest in your book, how much time you want to put into it, and how your book will be marketed. Not every author wants to market their book full-time, go to trade shows or plead Barnes & Noble to let them come do a signing. If you’d rather stay low-key and market through social media from the couch, then you can.

You get to show off your creative side.

Many traditional publishers take over your book at the acquisition point so the author doesn’t get to have much opportunity to do the fun stuff. When you self-publish, you have the option to design your own cover and play with formatting software.

You build new skills.

The self-publisher is often an author, graphic designer and marketer all in one. To be successful and save money on outsourcing, you’ll likely have to become decently good at being all of those things. It’s a great way to learn new skills, including editing, graphic design, marketing and possibly illustration.

You set the pace.

You can write for 3 months straight and then take a year to chill before you publish because no publisher is hounding you for that final chapter. You’re not required to wait until a certain time of year if you want to go ahead and publish your fantasy sequel.

You get to decide how much money you make.

The good news is, when you self-publish, you generally get better royalties because you’re not giving a chunk away to your overlord. You also get to set the price on how much your book sells for.

I think self-publishing is a great option for go-getter types that want more control over their writing and publishing process. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows but it’s a great way to feel inspired and hey, when your book is out there, you’ll know it was all thanks to you!