Self-Publishers to Get Recognition

So we've heard and talked about and analyzed and weighed the idea of self-publishing. Everyone who wants to be published comes up against this idea sooner or later, and you have to decide: to self-publish or not?

There are many pros and cons for either side. Traditional publishing is, well, traditional. You can research how it works and know what should happen. The publishing company takes on the majority of the work for you, so that you can stick to writing books. If you can land a deal, at least the main payout is basically guaranteed, and if you do well enough, you can really get boosted up there.

Self-publishing you take into your own hands. You get to keep more of your profit. You can decide where and when and how. But you also have to sacrifice more time. You keep your rights, but you may not be able to sell them to another publisher who insists on having 'first-rights' to your book in order to publish it. So if you get really big, your choices may be limited later on if you want to turn your self-published book in to a publishing house. Then again, if you get really big, will you care about going to a publishing house afterwards? Difficult to say. Self-publishing is also time consuming and not 100% proven.

Then again, publishing houses aren't either. Not everyone gets put on the New York Times Bestseller list just because they get picked up by an 'official' publisher.

So what do you do? Well, you have to do the research and work with your own bias and your own evaluation of what is important to you. For me, my time is important. I can't spend a lot of time advertising and working on selling my book. I need to be writing my book, and also finishing my degree and getting a full-time job. Not many spare hours in there to spend social networking a potential novel. I'm also more traditional at heart and want to have a publisher's stamp on my novel. It's just the way I am.

You'll be pleased to know, however, that self-publishing is starting to make its way into the noticeable news. Leslie Kaufman wrote an article featuring "Apple to Highlight Self-Published Books". Apple along with it's i-products is going to feature up-and-coming authors on their iBookstore, essentially giving them prime advertising for their popularity. How's that for a reward for your success?


Kaufman explains,

"On Tuesday Apple will include a feature that organizes a group of popular self-published e-books together and then gives them prominent display on iBookstore...This kind of display, known as 'front-of–the store' attention, is greatly coveted by publishers because it helps books get discovered, driving sales."

Essentially, the prime placement that publishing houses pay extra for or crave is going to be rewarded to the books that get the most 'hits' and rise in the scales of popularity. The books will then remain on the front of iBookstore for two weeks, and will also remain on the top list after that, though not so prominently displayed.

So if self-publishing is something that you're interested in, perhaps you should look into Apple as a means of doing so. If you get enough rave reviews, you could be boosted into prime placement and up your sales.

Some tricks to self-publishing that have worked in the past? Sell it to friends and family; try serializing your book online, releasing a single chapter or two to get readers hooked, and then offer them the full book for sale; make a facebook page and get followers there all the while updating information on the book, the publishing, the process, and any potential sequels that may arise; use twitter, email, make a blog, use social media to get your book up and running.

Amazon.com has a publishing platform, as does Apple, as seen above. Who else can you research to weigh one against the other in the self-publishing industry?