Self-Publishing was almost unheard of in the mid 1990s. Now, it is everywhere.

Readers tend to come in two groups. Those who cling to a physical book, complete with that old book smell and dog-eared pages. The second  group is good to go with an e-reader and all of an e-book’s convenience. There are of course, outliers, opportunists who will read a cereal box if that is the only thing available.

Authors used to come in two camps. Traditionally published and Vanity Published. The latter was an especially good idea if it was an Ancestry type book. Maybe a cook-book for gifting during a holiday.

Then during the great transition to all things internet, self-published books became an option. Many people having been stung by the Vanity Press heyday or those who had submitted a book to publishers time after time only to end up with enough Rejection Letters to paper their walls, saw the option of self-publishing as something acceptable. 

We began the Month of February looking at Contracts, we tuned them inside out and attempted to de-mystify their contents. We learned a little about how to get into a contract and how to get out of them.

For the rest of February I want us to look at Self-Publishing as a viable alternative to Traditional Publishing. With any kind of Writerly Topic, the more you know, the better able to make decisions you will be.

This Sunday, 16 February, we are going to look at the difference between Self Publishing and Vanity Presses.

A vanity publishing company is a business that an author can pay to essentially be their book publisher.

A self-publishing company is a business that gives authors the ability to publish their books themselves and pick and choose the needed services to do so.

During the Next Few Topic Chats we are going to talk about 5 Important Steps Before You Self-Publish and A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Publishing and by the end of the month we will tie things up with a topic chat about Steps for Getting Started. I’ll be using Amazon Direct Publishing as an example because I have experience there.