DIY Publishing

Photo: Seen a typewrite before? We used them to type our stories! (Image from Pixabay.)

Pros

CREATIVE CONTROL: Authors have total creative control and can do anything they want with it, limited only by their creativity.

COPYRIGHT: Author owns all copyright.

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS: The author owns all subsidiary rights.

COST CONTROL: The author has complete control over costs.

ROYALTY: All proceeds from direct sales belong to the author. That is 100% royalty!

SELLING PRICE: Author determines the selling price of the book, as well as how and where it is sold.

DIRECT SELLING: The author retains all proceeds; no one else gets a cut (apart from third-party resellers).

Very importantly: This is not as difficult as you might think. (My mother learned desktop publishing at 65, and went on to produce 5 good-looking books for her temple.)

Cons

UPFRONT COSTS: Authors are responsible for all publishing costs. (They can be as frugal as they want or as extravagant.)

THIRD-PARTY COSTS: Author may incur third-party costs for editing, proofreading and design if it’s outsourced.

DISTRIBUTION: Local bookshop placements can be a challenge, as stores tend not to deal with individuals (unless it’s your favorite village/town store), but this may be overcome with some vigorous legwork and persistence if the author thinks it’s a really important book. However, direct selling is better.

LISTING: Listing on major sites, like Amazon, might be difficult for a novice, no matter how easy people say it is. But do you really need them? You will sell two books, tops.

E-BOOKS: The author may incur third-party costs for e-book production. But it can be done by DIY with some Googling. Selling them is not too difficult to set up; not sure you’ll be able to sell very many copies. If you have 1000 titles and you sell 5 of each, it might be worth it. But if you have only one or two? E-books are good for school text though.

ISBN AND CIP: The author will have to manage this, but it is not that difficult. But read about CIP here:https://www.loc.gov/publish/cip/faqs/#self

SELLING PRICE (RRP): This is determined by the author and will depend on the local market. Survey some bookshops.

FACE TIME: The author will have no face-to-face contact with any publishing professional. Only well-meaning friends who often give terrible advice.

MARKETING: Authors will have to promote their own book. Social media and flea-markets are good.

AUTHOR COPIES: Hey, the author owns everything!