Why Self-Publishing?

My current plan is to self-publish. But why?

Doesn't self-publishing have a reputation for being full of trash traditional publishers wouldn't consider or books that need editing so badly that they could make you cry?

It did. But it's becoming less and less the case as authors learn how to do the job that traditional publishers do to produce a work of quality. And more and more authors are choosing self-publishing. There are several reasons for this.

Artistic Control

By self-publishing, the author keeps complete and total control and ownership over what they've created. One author friend received a book deal from a large, prestigious fantasy publisher. But during the editing, they requested changes to the story that weren't in line with where the author wanted to go. That forced a decision: make the changes and compromise the integrity of the story and artistic vision or walk away from the book deal.

Marketing

Publishers only throw their marketing dollars behind their top-tier authors. The ones that are nearly guaranteed to make them money. Most authors, and especially debut authors, are still responsible for marketing their book and finding their own audience even after they've been picked up by an agent and landed a book deal.

Time to Market

Unless the author is one of those previously mentioned top-tier authors, the time to traditionally publish a book is measured in years, not months, and definitely not weeks. Self-publishing can move as fast as the author.

Ownership

Let me paint the dream scenario. Let's say you got a book deal, and it did reasonably well. You end up with a small, but loyal, fan community and you want to produce a deluxe version of the book for them. Your publisher, however, isn't keen on the idea and they own the rights (because they got greedy when you were negotiating and you couldn't even dream of having a fan community when you signed the deal). Or, and this is a much more likely scenario, you wrote a story that you love and the publisher loved it too, but it didn't sell very well. Now the publisher is hesitant to sign off on a sequel. Never mind, the small group of fans that have been reaching out asking for it. In both cases, unfortunately, you, the author, are stuck. Not only are you handcuffed to the restrictions of the publisher, but you are also the one that gets to go disappoint your fans.

This isn't to say traditional publishing is bad. It has some real benefits too and I plan to do a different post about that. But I've concluded that it depends on the author, what they want, and what the story needs.

I want to have the choice about what I write next, how the story goes, when I publish it, and how.

That's why, currently, I'm planning on self-publishing.