Everything You'll Ever Need to Know About Self-Publishing a Book
The hype is high for self-publishing. But is it worth it?
Several years ago, I had an old Army friend turned writer try to convince me the self-publishing revolution would allow most wannabe authors a chance to quit their day jobs. At the time, I’d been working on a resource book for the company I worked for, and was fascinated by the prospect of earning revenue through Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) program. For the unaware, Amazon KDP allows anyone to upload a manuscript and artwork to Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon then prints and ships the books to anyone willing to shell out money (for a cut of the profit, of course).
My friend sent me videos by author Hugh Howey—the author of the acclaimed Silo sci-fi series—talking about his success with self-publishing. What my friend conveniently left out was that Howey got paid six figures by Simon & Schuster after his initial success on Amazon KDP. Given that one of my Gallups StrengthsFinder skills is “context,” I found that within the self-publishing apologist world, a lot of context was missing. Men and women had created online programs convincing writers that by following certain steps, you could turn a book idea into a cash cow.
Curious, I purchased Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula (not an affiliate link. Just for info). Dawson is somewhat of a poor man’s James Patterson who churns out spy thrillers on Amazon KDP. Still, Dawson has over 2 million downloads and was a USA Today bestseller. He seemed to have a grasp on how the whole self-publishing model worked, so I broke out the credit card and began learning. To tell you that self-publishing is a colossal undertaking is an understatement. Anyone who claims “it’s easy” is feeding you a half truth mixed with bullshit because what it takes is nothing short of a herculean effort to effectively become your own publishing house.
So with this premise, let’s dive in to everything you have to know about self-publishing.
The Benefits
Before I break any bad news, let’s start with what makes self-publishing so lucrative. If you’re a writer, you can craft any book you dream up, and then sell it online. That’s the best part about self-publishing. Anyone can now become an author, just like anyone can become a musician by tossing a song up on Spotify. The real question, however, is whether that actually makes you an author? Or perhaps a more pressing question: is your book any good and will people read it? Those questions aside, self-publishing allows for a lot of freedom you won’t get in the traditional publishing world.
By self-publishing, you’re not required to get an agent who snaps up 15% of all your earnings and advances. Nor do you have to query a publisher with a book proposal only to face rejection (often multiple rejections for years). You’re free to write whatever, whenever, and on your own timeline. You are effectively both boss and God. Wanna take ten years like George RR Martin to put out a novel? Do as you please. Wanna write a book in a week and slap a photo of your butt on the cover? No one will stop you. You own all intellectual property and you’re free to market and sell as you please.
The other bit of good news is that all royalties are yours and Amazon gives you a monthly payout, whereas a traditional publisher only pays you twice a year and only once you pay back their advance. That said, Amazon, IngramSpark, and other self-publishing platforms are still going to take roughly 60 to 70% of the cost of the book for printing, shipping, and their cut. So if you list a book for $10.99, you’ll get roughly $3 to $4 in profit per book. Still, this is often more than the royalties traditionally published authors receive (for reference, my traditional publishing contract states I’ll receive 10% in royalties from the retail catalog price for the first ten thousand 10,000 copies sold. Oh, and my agent gets 15% of those royalties forever unto infinity too).
So to recap:
All royalties are yours and you’re paid monthly
You own your intellectual property and are free to do with it as you like
You have complete creative control
There are no deadlines except what you impose on yourself
You don’t have to face rejection by agents and publishers
Now for the cons
Because authors don’t have to play by traditional publishing firm rules, many set out to write the next great American novel like it’s the movie Field of Dreams—if you write it, the audience will buy it.
Not true.
According to the 2019 ProQuest Bowker Report, close to 1.7 million books were self-published in the United States in 2018. For reference, since 2013, that means book publication has increased by 264%. What this effectively confirms is that the self-publishing revolution saturated the market with books. However, despite the explosion, book sales have stagnated and declined since 2007. In effect, you can write a book, but the chances of you tossing it into an endless void of other noise and books runs extremely high. So you may have written something, but the better question to ask before writing it is “how do I plan to sell it?” Bear in mind that experts estimate most self-published books never sell over 100 copies… ever.
Here’s why this matters. If you sell 100 copies of your book with royalties at $4/book, you’ll make $400. The part that no one tells you about is the cost of marketing, cover designs, layout, copyediting, purchasing ISBNs, and copyrighting your book. For the four books I either self-published or ghostwrote/edited for the company I worked for, on average we spent $3,000. Here’s an average breakdown:
Professional copyediting: $800 to $1,200 depending on manuscript length
Cover design: $400-$600
Professional typesetting/layout: $1,000 (more depending on length and images)
Marketing (this includes Amazon Ads and social media): $500 to $1,000
Filing a copyright: $50
I published even cheaper because I’m a graphic designer by trade (and now run my own design company). Eventually, though, we outsourced the cover designs and marketing because of time constraints. There’s also a distinct cover design formula you must follow based on the genre. Ever noticed how all romance and sci-fi covers use the same typeface and look similar? People subconsciously buy what appears similar. If you try to break out of the mold, they rarely sell as well.
Realistically, you might get away with your costs being around $800 if you did it bare bones, but if you’re not a jack of all trades, it’ll A) look like garbage and B) you’ll still be out $400 if you manage to sell 100 copies with $4 royalty estimates. Two of the books I self-published sold close to 6,000 copies combined over four years. To drive home the point, it took those 4 years to recoup upfront costs. I don’t tell you this to discourage you, but to point out the glaring reality that most authors aren’t exposed to when self-publishing. Most times, they become crushed after a book launch because of meager sales and a ton of out-of-pocket expenses. This is why it’s vital to grasp these concepts upfront.
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Marketing & Fake Bestsellers
By now, you’ve probably seen me hammer away on the marketing aspect. While that’s not my forte (it’s Gorman’s in case you’re wondering), marketing is vital if you plan to self-publish. If you take the Field of Dreams model and assume people will pick up your book in a sea of other traditionally published and self-published books, you’ll get buried. What I hated about self-publishing is that it required me to learn how to market and sell books. I realize marketing is something people do with any product they develop (even this newsletter), but that doesn’t mean I have to like it or want to learn that skill set. My point, however, is that if you plan on dropping a novel on Amazon KDP, then you better get fantastic at building an audience and selling to them—like it or not.
Last, please please don’t become another fraud when self-publishing. Lots of authors now claim the title of “best seller” when they self-publish. They’re able to do this because Amazon calculates rankings by the hour. Thus, if you launch a book and then have 20 friends buy it, you’ll become the #1 new release and a “best seller” in whatever category your book is in.
If you think I’m making this up, look no further than Brent Underwood. Underwood grew tired of people claiming to be bestsellers on Amazon along with shady publishing practices, so he undertook an experiment. He self-published a book entitled “Putting My Foot Down” which literally had a lone picture of his foot on a single page. He and his friends then purchased some copies and within five minutes he was a bestseller (according to Amazon rankings).
When speaking to Business Insider, Underwood recalls:
“I knew what they [other authors] were doing… I knew they were just doing this Amazon best-seller game where they’d pop on for an hour, sell a bunch of books, screenshot that, and call themselves a best-selling author for the rest of their life.”
That’s why the publishing world doesn’t take certain ranking seriously unless you’ve been on the Amazon top 100 book rankings for weeks. At that point, you’re competing against the Harry Potter books, which says something. Thus, if you plan to self-publish and reach Harry Potter fame, you’re going to have to do a lot yourself to get your book in front of eyeballs while also convincing people to buy it.
Which ultimately begs the question... is self-publishing worth it? As stated, there are pros and cons, but writing—and selling—any book is going to be a massive undertaking. All I want to do is to inform you so you’re not left walking into the book world blind.
Thanks for reading,
—Sledge
In the coming weeks, we’ll also tackle the traditional publishing model, agent queries, book proposals, and much more. Stay tuned.