If you are thinking about delving into the self-publishing arena, don’t let any anxieties you might have about the industry frighten you from seeking your publishing dreams. However, I must offer you a word of caution – don’t jump in with rose-colored glasses expecting sunshine and rainbows. Self-publishing can be a brutal arena. Though it is seemingly easier to navigate than traditional publishing avenues, it can still be a quite tumultuous path.
5 Challenges of Self-Publishing
Before you dip your toe into the unpredictable world of self-publishing, ChatEbooks suggests that you take the time to first understand the many challenges that you may encounter as a result of this decision.
Isolation
Self-publishing can be a very isolating field. It falls upon your shoulders as the author to execute every aspect of the publishing process. Without the assistance that publishing firms provide, you’ll have to toughen up to successfully bring your book to the masses. Don’t make hasty decisions especially when it comes to shunning traditional publishing avenues altogether. Better take into consideration the various hats you’ll need to wear in order to prepare your book for publishing. You’ll not only need to acquire knowledge about the literary arena. You’ll also need to research options to outsource other tasks (book cover design, editing, etc.). If you cannot operate in this sort of isolation, you cannot expect to succeed as a self-published author.
Marketing and Selling Your Book
As a self-published author you are responsible for marketing and selling your book. This means finding your audience, mastering marketing concepts and performing tasks that an entire division of a publishing house executes. Selling your book on your own will consume more of your resources than you can possibly imagine. Expect to spend numerous amounts of time, money and energy before seeing the fruits of your labor.
Expensive
Self-publishing can be expensive. While traditional publishers risk producing a book, as a self-published author, you’ll have to invest in your book up-front. From hiring editors to paying a marketing team, be prepared to dig deep into your pocket to self-publish your book.
Stigma
As popular as self-publishing is becoming, traditional publishing still garners more respect. This is the simple and unfortunate fact. Publishing is one arena that the literary market still stigmatize, often shunning self-published books for being poorly-written and designed. Because of this, readers assume that if you self-published your work, it’s because a traditional publisher rejected your manuscript. They have a difficult time trusting the quality of self-published books because these books do not go through the same vetting process as their traditionally published counterparts. Though these beliefs may have little to nothing to do with the quality of each book, the stigma remains.
Stiff Competition
The competition in the self-publishing arena is brutal. Just think about the disturbingly large number of books being self-published every year. Now ask yourself if you have the ability to overcome all those rival marketing campaigns to win the hearts and minds of readers. Without the backing of a publishing house, employing the right marketing tactics to make your book successfully standing out from the masses is what will eventually determine its fate.
With all that said, there are many success stories in the self-publishing world to draw upon so don’t be too discouraged. Yes there is a lot of time that you’ll need to spend on research – spend it. Yes there is a lot of marking you’ll need to do once you’ve published – do it. And yes there is money that needs to be invested throughout the whole process – invest it. If you go into the self-publishing field equipped with the knowledge of its challenges, your chances for success will be that much greater.
