Amplifying Your Message: How to Publish Your First E-book pt.1
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Are you ever so captivated by a subject that it becomes almost all you talk about? You dive deep into books, spend countless hours scrolling through YouTube, and research extensively to soak up every detail about this topic. That's exactly how I feel when it comes to human rights through the lens of scripture and my fascination with the Bible and God's kingdom.
My interest in these areas isn't driven by what I can gain from God, contrary to the focus of many contemporary preachers. Instead, it's fueled by a genuine curiosity about the kingdom God has established for His people and figuring out my place within it.
We live in a world shrouded in darkness, and it's our duty to illuminate it with God's light, helping those who are lost find their way. This can be achieved by elevating our voices and utilizing the unique gifts God has bestowed upon us. Here are some ways you can join in this mission.
Publishing Books
Podcasting (audio)
Youtube (video & audio)
Blogging/Articles
Education (Online Courses)
Social Media
Let’s start with publishing your first book:
The Advantages of Self-Publishing eBooks Over Traditional Publishing
For aspiring authors, the choice of whether to pursue traditional publishing or self-publish an eBook can be a difficult one. While the prestige and infrastructure of traditional publishing houses is appealing, the rising popularity and proven success of indie authors is making self-publishing an increasingly attractive option. In this post, we'll take a look at some of the key advantages of the self-publishing route.
Control and Creative Freedom
One of the biggest draws of self-publishing is the level of control it affords authors over the creative process and final product. With traditional publishers, the publishing house gets the final say on everything from book cover design and formatting to content edits. Authors have very little autonomy.
In contrast, self-publishing authors maintain complete control. They get to make all the decisions about design, layout, formatting, pricing and more. They aren't beholden to the visions of publishing house editors and designers. For authors who have a strong creative vision and want their book to align with that precisely, this creative freedom is invaluable.
Speed to Market
The traditional publishing process is notoriously slow, with books routinely taking 12-24 months to make it from contract to printed copies on shelves. For authors who have already built an audience and momentum through self-publishing early works or a blog/platform, this publishing timeframe poses risks.
Most self-published authors would agree that compared to digital publishing, traditional publishing is a very, very slow process. Many authors such as Amanda Hocking gained excellent momentum selling ebooks on her own. Going with a traditional publisher would have caused that progress to slow down significantly.
By self-publishing ebooks, authors can get new content to market in weeks or months rather than years. This allows writers to rapidly build their catalogs and reputations while feeding content to their established audiences at the ideal pace.
Higher Royalties
The issue of royalty rates is where the two publishing paths diverge most sharply. With traditional publishing, physical book royalties for authors are typically just 7-12% of the cover price. Royalties for ebooks are a bit better at 25-50% of digital list price, but still conservative compared to the indie author route.
Indie authors who self-publish ebooks can earn royalties of 70% or more through platforms like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. Combined with the ability to set their own list prices, this opens up vastly greater income potential. While a $25 traditional book might earn $2 for the author, a self-published $5 ebook could earn $3.50 or more.
Marketing Ownership
A common misconception about traditional publishing is that the publishing house will comprehensively market an author's book. In reality, the bulk of marketing and publicity work still falls on the author.
I recently took a Coursera course on self-publishing which was an excellent course; and I learned that authors are largely responsible for marketing their book, regardless of being signed with a publishing house.
Since authors take on the marketing workload either way, self-publishing allows them to at least maintain full ownership and control over those efforts. There's no need to coordinate plans with a publisher. Authors are free to execute their own vision and try creative marketing tactics that might be limited by traditional publishing constraints.
The Path to Success
While traditional publishing offers benefits like prestige and established infrastructure, the significant advantages of the self-publishing path cannot be ignored. From creative control and speed to market to higher royalties and marketing autonomy, self-publishing ebooks gives authors a level of ownership over their work that the traditional approach simply cannot match.
Many authors find success by pursuing a hybrid strategy. They may start by self-publishing to establish themselves and build an audience. This traction and proof of excellence as an author can then open doors to traditional publishing opportunities if that's a goal. As Jessica Fisher noted, having successfully self-published ebooks offers "street cred" that can lead to new opportunities like TV appearances that traditional publishing makes easier.
Whether serving as a launchpad to traditional deals or the sole approach, self-publishing ebooks is an empowering path for authors to get their work into readers' hands efficiently and lucratively while maintaining full creative freedom. As the publishing world continues evolving, we can expect to see more and more writers embracing this option and if you are a beginner, I encourage you to do the same.
Next topic in the book series will be Writing from Your Expertise and Passion…
Until next time, stay faithful, stay curious.
