Overview: The Evolution of Self-Publishing

Print Self-Publishing

Electronic Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing or Traditional Publishing?

Bad Reasons to Choose Self-Publishing

Cautions

A Special Warning: Publishing and Marketing Scams

Links

Until relatively recently, if you wanted to self-publish, you faced a labor-intensive and costly process.

You had to handle every aspect of producing your book yourself, including hiring and overseeing editor(s), designer, cover artist, and printer. You had to order a print run, which meant you also needed somewhere to store a lot of boxes. Then, at the end of all that work and expense, you had to find a way to get your book into readers’ hands—an uphill struggle, since bookstore and library distribution wasn’t available to individual authors, and paid publishing carried a powerful stigma.

Except for authors who had direct access to a niche audience, or were extraordinarily talented promoters, or simply caught a lucky break, it was a rare self-publisher who ever came close to recouping his or her investment.

Things began to change in the mid-1990’s, with the appearance of the first Internet-based publishing service providers. These took advantage of a new digital technology called print-on-demand, which eliminated the necessity of traditional high-volume print runs by making it possible for books to be produced one at a time or in small lots.

The new publishing service providers made self-publishing simple: all you had to do was upload your manuscript, choose an interior format and a cover, and the service turned your book into a digital file that could be printed and bound when ordered and never had to be stored or warehoused. They were also inexpensive: since the entire process was automated, and production costs could be recouped at the point of sale, the services could keep fees low and still make a profit.

The resulting books were flimsy and cheap-looking—as I recall, books from Xlibris, one of the earliest print-on-demand publishing service providers, didn’t even have cover images—and available only from the services’ websites. Building a readership did not become easier—bookstores were no more interested than before in shelving pay-to-publish books, especially when those books didn’t carry standard wholesale discounts and weren’t returnable. But for the first time ever, authors could self-publish with relative ease and at minimal cost.

Through the late 1990’s and into the early years of the new century, publishing service providers continued to evolve. Distribution expanded to include online retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Many services added an ebook option–though ebooks, back then, were a niche market with very limited readership, and print was still self-publishers’ primary focus. Other options expanded as well—not always to authors’ benefit, as the services realized they could make a huge profit by offering premium-priced (and dubiously effective) marketing services. Fees ballooned: some services were still cheap, and a tiny few were free, but others offered packages costing nearly as much as the old-fashioned vanity publishers.

What didn’t change: the challenge of discoverability. The pay-to-publish stigma was still alive and well–and together with high cover prices (print-on-demand is an expensive production method, and POD books must be priced higher in order to make a profit) and limited distribution (online only, with little or no physical shelf presence), the average self-publisher was lucky to make more than a few hundred sales over the lifetime of his or her book.

Then, in 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle, and with it, the first exclusively electronic self-publishing platform: Kindle Direct Publishing. KDP offered a new self-publishing model: it was ebook only; it was free; and it granted self-publishers control over the pricing of their books. Even more important, it gave them access to the exact same distribution channels as traditional publishers. Self-publishers could now launch their books into a marketplace where the two biggest shortcomings of print self-publishing—high cover prices and sharply limited availability—simply didn’t exist.

Of course, none of this would have mattered much if ebooks had remained the tiny, enthusiast-only market that they were pre-Kindle. But as we all know, the Kindle was the tipping point. Ebooks took off—and electronic self-publishing with them.

Self-publishing hasn’t become easy. It’s still a difficult, demanding way to go. As with traditional publishing, major success is still an outlier event. But for the savvy, motivated, entrepreneurial author, it is now a viable alternative career choice. Today’s self-publishers are building audiences and making money; they’re receiving traditional publishing offers—and sometimes refusing them—and crafting innovative distribution and subsidiary rights deals. Self-published books represent a commanding portion of sales in certain ebook markets, particularly genre fiction. The successful self-published author can no longer be dismissed as a fluke.

There are still many pitfalls and “bewares,” however—some arising from technological and logistical issues, and others, paradoxically, from self-publishing’s explosive popularity. The sections that follow address these.

* The above is excerpted from my Introduction to Choosing a Self-Publishing Service.



A rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats. The runaway success of electronic self-publishing has not been duplicated for print self-publishing—mainly because no one has figured out how to overcome the twin challenges of price and distribution.

Many self-publishers choose to forgo print entirely and publish only in ebook form. But there are still good reasons to self-publish in print (though never only in print):

– To give readers alternatives. The more formats you can offer, the more readers you can satisfy.

– To exploit real-world sales opportunities, if you’ve got them. You may have a way of selling directly to your audience (a restauranteur who wants to make a cookbook available to his or her customers, for instance), or of exploiting “back of the room” situations (someone who lectures or conducts workshops and can sell books at these occasions).

The easiest–and potentially least expensive–route to print self-publishing is through one of the many print-on-demand-based publishing service providers. There are a number of issues to consider with these.

Cost

The most popular print publishing service providers, such as Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly CreateSpace) and IngramSpark, are free, or cost no more than a few hundred dollars. Others are much, much more expensive–and possibly less reputable. What you get for those very large amounts of money may not be worth what you’re paying, especially considering the issues outlined below.

Real-world presence

Many authors choose to self-publish in print because they hope to gain brick-and-mortar bookstore and/or library presence. However, limited distribution and nonstandard sales practices make that unlikely, or at best, very difficult.

Most publishing service providers claim to provide “worldwide distribution”–and generally they do, through wholesalers such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Bertram. But wholesalers are only half the distribution picture. The other half is a distributor with a sales team that sells books directly into physical bookstores and libraries. (For a more detailed discussion of the differences between wholesalers and distributors, see this post from Writer Beware’s blog.)

Without that direct sales component, libraries and booksellers will never know your book exists, unless you tell them yourself. This is a frequent source of disappointment for authors, who often assume that wholesale distribution equals bookstore presence.

Another reason booksellers may not want to deal with print self-published books: by long tradition, they’re accustomed to a particular set of buying protocols, which include discounts of 40% or more, 60- or 90-day billing, and full returnability. Many print publishing service providers don’t offer industry-standard discounts, and most require that orders be pre-paid. And while some services do offer returnability if you pay an extra fee, it may be a restrictive policy that booksellers won’t find attractive.

Libraries may be willing to accept donations of books, especially from local authors, and authors who are willing to go door-to-door can be successful in persuading local bookstores to stock their books (though usually they must sell on consignment, or agree to buy back unsold copies). Some bookstores have special programs for self-published authors (though there may be a fee for service). By and large, however, self-published print books don’t see the inside of bookstores or libraries.

Pricing

Publishing service providers use print-on-demand technology to produce books (POD allows books to be printed one at a time or in small lots, rather than in larger print runs of several hundred or several thousand). Because it can’t take advantage of economies of scale, POD is a more expensive per-unit printing process than traditional offset printing.

Publishing service providers recoup their production costs and overhead at the point of sale by including them in a book’s retail price. The more material it takes to produce the book, the more expensive it will be; at longer page counts, POD-produced books can cost more than twice as much as their offset-printed counterparts. Even where the author (rather than the service) determines the retail price, they must do so on top of a fixed production cost.

In other words, your self-published print book may cost more–possibly a lot more–than a similar book from a traditional publisher. A price tag of $25 or $30 for a trade paperback-size book is a major disincentive for readers.

Physical quality

POD-produced books can be almost indistinguishable from traditionally-printed trade paperbacks. But some publishing service providers skimp on paper and cover stock, and don’t pay enough attention to production standards. Books from these companies can be shoddy in appearance, with covers that curl and pages that fall out as you’re reading them (a good reason to order a book or two from any publishing service provider you’re thinking of using, so you can assess quality). Also, POD-produced books are often bound with a narrow spine, so that they look more like pamphlets than books.

Low Sales

For most authors, the corollary of all of the above is low sales. It’s estimated that the average self-published print book sells around 250 copies over its lifetime (for a look at some old but still meaningful statistics, see here). This may not matter much to self-publishers who are focusing primarily on ebooks, and making print books available only as an adjunct. But if you’re self-publishing in print, you need to be aware that ebooks will likely be your main source of sales.



There are a number of options for electronic self-publishing.

– Direct to device. Amazon makes it possible (and free) to self-publish to the Kindle via Kindle Direct Publishing. Also free is Barnes & Noble Press (formerly Nook Press) and Kobo’s Kobo Writing Life.

– Epublishing distributors or aggregators. These services allow you to publish simultaneously to a variety of platforms, and will often provide conversion and formatting as well. The best ones charge no upfront fees, making their money by taking a cut of your earnings. Smashwords, Draft2Digital, and Bookbaby are examples.

– Publishing service providers. Many publishing service providers offer electronic publishing across a variety of platforms, usually in tandem with print self-publishing. The downside is an often-hefty fee and less flexibility and control.

Issues to consider:

Epub only, or epub plus print?

As noted above, publishing a print book as well as an ebook gives readers alternatives, and that’s always a good thing. Even so, many authors choose to forgo what’s typically a low-selling option for self-publishers, and publish exclusively in ebook form. There’s no right or wrong here—but it is something you need to think about.

Platform or package?

If you decide to go with both an ebook and a pbook, should you publish them individually to separate platforms (for example, ebook to Smashwords and KDP, pbook to IngramSpark), or buy a package from publishing service provider that will produce both formats for you? Publishing to separate platforms is more work but gives you far more control; buying a package may be easier but can be expensive (see the Cautions section, below). Again, there’s no right or wrong, but you do need to carefully investigate your options.

Cost

These days, the best self-publishing platforms are free of charge. You don’t have to spend any money to for basic self-publishing.

That’s probably fine if writing is just a hobby. But if you’re serious about launching a career, you do need to consider investing in the services necessary to produce a professional, high-quality book. Today’s self-publishing is an extremely competitive field, in which authors have to work hard to stand out. Quality editing, design, cover art, and publicity are no longer optional.

It’s not hard to find freelancers who are offering these services, often at very reasonable prices that will cost you far less than the inflated packages provided by publishing service providers. However, hiring freelancers is an area in which you really need to be careful. See the Cautions section, below.

Terms and Conditions

Any electronic publishing service provider or platform will have Terms and Conditions or Terms of Use to which you must agree in order to use the service. Be sure to read these carefully—and make sure you understand them. They typically give the platform sweeping control over your books and your account—including the right to delete your books or your account, or both, for violation of often vaguely-stated content guidelines—and the right to make changes to these terms at will, including changes in payment.

Some examples: the Great Erotica Panic of 2013, in which Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers deleted hundreds of self-published ebooks over content guideline violations; and Amazon’s 2014 reduction in royalty rates for self-published audiobooks.

Format and Genre

For most authors, self-publishing success depends heavily on what kinds of books they write, as well as the number of books they have on offer and how fast they can produce them.

For instance, this chart from Hugh Howey’s Author Earnings Report indicates that in 2014, romance and science fiction/fantasy–in that order–brought in the most revenue for self-publishers on Amazon (which then and now commands by far the largest share of the self-publishing market).

That was still the case in 2017, according to Smashwords’ annual survey. Of best-selling titles, romance accounted for 73%, with fantasy next at 9%, and YA following at 5%. Over 87% of Smashwords’ sales are fiction, and series titles sell better than standalones, especially if the first book is free.

See also this analysis of a 2012 survey of self-published authors–it’s several years old, but there’s still some interesting information about who self-publishes, how they do it, and what makes them successful.

Competition

As already noted, the explosive success of electronic self-publishing has attracted legions of authors, creating an intensely crowded marketplace where it’s harder than ever to stand out. Be aware that you’re launching yourself into a crowded and highly competitive field.



Whether to self-publish or publish traditionally continues to be one of the most polarized areas of discussion in all of publishing.

Many self-publishing advocates portray traditional publishing as backward, elitist, and abusive. Traditional publishers, they say, hold writers’ rights captive and add no value beyond, possibly, print distribution. Self-publishing, on the other hand, is at the forefront of digital innovation, offers unlimited freedom and control, and pays better (at least, on a per-book basis). Self-publishing is the best way to start a writing career, regardless of what kind of writer you are or what kinds of books you write.

In the traditional publishing community, there are still those who see self-publishing as a gigantic slush pile, a realm of narcissistic losers unleashing a tsunami of bad writing on the world. They decry the cheapening of literature and the loss of traditional values. They dismiss self-publishing successes as flukes and outliers.

These highly biased views miss the point of the self-publishing revolution—that writers now have options. Where once it was traditional publishing or nothing, now there are multiple possible paths to publication and success. The great thing about being an author in the twenty-first century is that you get to choose.

Both self-publishing and traditional publishing offer benefits and disadvantages. Which is best for you depends on your needs and goals. They’re also not mutually exclusive–plenty of writers are choosing to become hybrid authors, self-publishing some books and traditionally publishing others.

Some tips for making this very important decision–especially for first-time authors:

– Understand your options. Invest some time in learning and research, to make sure that you have a solid basic knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of both self-publishing and traditional publishing. Unless you are familiar with the whole range of options available to you, you can’t truly make an informed decision.

– Think about what kind of writer you are. What you write, how you write, and where you are in your writing journey all should factor into your choice. For instance, are you prolific or slow? Self-publishing can be a good choice for prolific writers, but is less certain for slow ones. Do you write genre fiction or literary fiction? Self-publishing can work well for genre writers, but for literary fiction, the traditional publishing route may be a better way to go.

– Decide how comfortable you are with DIY. Successful self-publishing is entrepreneurship. It’s also a lot of work: self-publishers must not only do everything an author does, they must do everything a publisher does. For authors who like being their own bosses, that may be ideal. For those who aren’t comfortable with the idea of running their own businesses, traditional publishing may be a better option.

– Be skeptical of the hype. There’s a tremendous amount of hype and proselytizing around self-publishing, and not all the information you may find is accurate, complete, or representative. Beware of self-publishing evangelists who claim that any author can make a living by self-publishing, or who present self-publishing as the only viable (or honorable) route to success, or who spend a lot of time decrying the horrors of the traditional publishing model and insulting authors who aspire or choose to publish traditionally.

Self-publishing is an option and a choice. Like traditional publishing, it isn’t right for everyone. Which you select should depend on your abilities, your goals, and your writing, not on someone else’s word for what’s “right” or “best”. There’s only what’s right or best for you.



There are good reasons to choose self-publishing. There are also bad ones.

– Because you think traditional publishers aren’t interested in new writers. This is false. Every publisher is looking for the next big thing, and they are well aware that breakout authors often come from the ranks of the previously unpublished. If you have a marketable manuscript (which really is the biggest “if” for any author), never having been published won’t prejudice your chances.

– Because someone told you that self-publishing is the best route to success. Also false. It may be the best route for some authors, but not for all, and not necessarily for you. Make your own decisions.

– Because you think it’s easier. If you just want to slap your unedited manuscript up on Amazon, self-publishing is indeed pretty easy. If you want to produce a professional product, however, there’s a lot of work involved. From hiring editors and copy editors, to procuring cover art, to marketing and promotion, you must take on the entire burden–and expense–of the services that a traditional publisher would provide for you.

– Because you’re impatient. Self-publishing will get your work on the market a lot faster than traditional publishing will. But it still requires time and care to create and market a quality product. Rushing a book into the world doesn’t benefit you–or readers.

– Because you don’t want an editor tampering with your golden prose. Every writer needs an editor. If you want your self-published book to stand out in an extremely competitive market, hiring a competent editor is one of the best investments you can make. (There’s more on editing, along with tips on vetting freelance editors, at Writer Beware’s Editors page.)

– Because you want to make a living. Many authors are making a living wage–or even getting rich–from their self-published books. Will you be one of them? Maybe–but there are no guarantees. Bear in mind this important fact gleaned from a recent sales survey by Smashwords: “The ebook sales power curve is extremely steep…A few titles sell fabulously well and most sell poorly.” In other words, as with traditional publishing, self-publishing is not a golden ticket. The battle against obscurity must be fought by all writers, no matter how they decide to publish.

– Because you think it will make you totally independent. Self-publishing gives you far more control than traditional publishing does. But you’re still subject to the policies and content guidelines of whatever service or platform you use. You’re only as independent as your service provider will allow you to be.



The growth of self-publishing options has spawned an explosion of services aimed at self-publishers. Problem is, not all of them are worthwhile or legit.

Always check the reputations of any platform or service provider you’re thinking of using. Good resources for doing that: the Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Check forum at Absolute Write, and the Kindle boards.

Scams

They’re out there. Some examples, drawn from Writer Beware’s files:

Bait and switch editing schemes, where someone posing as a reader contacts a writer about (sometimes imaginary) errors in his or her book.

Fake PR services, charging a premium for, basically, junk mail.

Conman publicists, soliciting successful self-publishers, taking the money and running.

Fake blog tour companies. One that Writer Beware knows of of took authors’ money and vanished without ever arranging the tours. Another created a closed loop: dozens of fake book blogs posting identical material.

Unqualified/inexperienced service providers

Far more common than scams, but just as bad. Like unqualified literary agents, unqualified editors, publicists, designers, and artists are often entirely well-intentioned, but just don’t have the skills to do a professional job. They may seem appealing because their fees are often lower than the professionals’, but don’t be tempted–you get what you pay for.

Always check the credentials of any service provider you’re thinking of hiring (and those of their staff). People who offer a service should have relevant work experience; a love of reading, a degree in English, or a career as a teacher doesn’t necessarily qualify someone to be an editor, for example. If you can’t find information on a provider’s background, or you request it and encounter resistance or refusal, walk away.

Look for samples of their work (book covers they’ve designed, books they’ve edited, etc.; a reputable provider should be glad to share this information). Ask for references. Plug their names into search engines to see if you can find recommendations or complaints. Check Absolute Write.

Marketing packages

Many companies, and almost all publishing service providers, sell marketing services and packages. These are typically heavily based on ineffective methods (“search engine-optimized” press releases, email campaigns, book trailers, book fair presence, print and online advertisements) or things you could do yourself (setting up social media accounts, creating websites). This is an extremely lucrative area for publishing service providers, since most of these items cost little to provide and can be sold at a huge markup. For writers, however, it’s rarely worth the money.

Other marketing strategies to avoid range from the pointless (posting your book and/or information about you on websites the marketer owns–the odds that such websites will get much traffic is slim) to the exploitative (offering you vanity radio spots, or interviewing you for the marketer’s own radio and TV shows–these shows are usually on public access channels or pay-to-play stations, and have tiny audiences) to the downright deceptive (claiming to pitch your book to Hollywood producers or market it to traditional publishers–this may a spam-style mass-mail approach or a listing in a catalog-style publication, but either way it will be ignored). And they can be eye-poppingly expensive. For instance, Outskirts Press (one of the larger publishing service providers) charges over $15,000 for its “Book Your Trip to Hollywood” service. AuthorHouse charges nearly $7,000 to produce a TV infomercial and book video.

Deceptive publishing service providers

Publishing service providers can be quite deceptive in the way they present themselves, implying a greater potential for success than actually exists, glossing over the challenges of self-publishing, and overstating the value of the overpriced, ineffective marketing services they sell. When evaluating publishing service providers, it’s important to remember that you are a customer purchasing a product. Sales pitches are not intended to benefit you, but to motivate you to pull out your credit card. Be skeptical of promises. Investigate before you buy.

A special case: Author Solutions

The Author Solutions conglomerate owns a galaxy of assisted self-publishing imprints, including iUniverse, Xlibris, Trafford, AuthorHouse, Palibrio, Partridge, Booktango, and Alliant Press. Author Solutions and its imprints have among the largest number of author complaints, and poorest reputation, of any similar company in terms of customer service, product quality, and transparency.

This blog post, which I wrote in 2012 after Author Solutions was purchased by Pearson (the parent company of Penguin), provides a rundown on these and other problems. Pearson sold Author Solutions to a venture capital company at the end of 2015, but other than that, nothing has changed.

Author Solutions is notorious not just for quality issues, but for its hard-sell sales tactics and its out-of-the-blue solicitations. It employs a variety of deceptive marketing tactics to promote its services, including sockpuppet social media accounts and an extensive network of fake publisher-matching websites whose sole purpose is to steer authors to Author Solutions imprints. While it was owned by Pearson, it aggressively used the connection with Penguin in sales calls, falsely suggesting that using an Author Solutions imprint would get authors closer to a Big 5 publisher.

In addition to its branded imprints, Author Solutions runs an array of assisted self-publishing divisions for traditional publishers: West Bow Press (Thomas Nelson/Zondervan), Balboa Press (Hay House), Archway Publishing (Simon & Schuster), and LifeRich Publishing (Reader’s Digest Association). These divisions all emphasize their connection with their parent publishers, and Writer Beware often hears from writers who believe that choosing Balboa Press will give them access to Hay House’s marketing department, or that their books will become part of Simon & Schuster’s distribution network if they use Archway Publishing. Again, this is deceptive marketing. Simon & Schuster and the rest collect a percentage of profits, but otherwise have no hand in running the divisions, which are entirely administered and staffed by Author Solutions. All authors are really getting is an Author Solutions publishing package plus the glamour of a famous name.

As DIY self-publishing via KDP, Smashwords, etc. has grown in popularity, the customer base for Author Solutions and its imitators has shrunk. Output for all Author Solutions imprints, including those it runs for traditional publishers, has dropped by more than half since its high point in 2011.

As noted above, Author Solutions has been losing business for some time. Unfortunately, whatever space its contraction has created is being filled by a slew of imitators. Why not, when hoodwinking authors is as easy as setting up a website and opening an account with Ingram? In many cases, the copycats have first-hand experience: they’ve been founded and/or staffed by former employees of AS’s call centers in the Philippines (as well as by ex-employees of other disreputable companies, such as Tate Publishing and BookWhirl.)

Although based in the Philippines, the copycats employ spoofed phone numbers and fake addresses (virtual offices, PO Boxes, randomly-selected residential addresses) to convince authors that they are located in the USA. Their primary targets are self- and small press-published writers, whom they attempt to poach from whatever platform or press the authors are currently with. The copycats’ approaches aren’t merely deceptive, but blatantly false: claiming writers’ books have been recommended by Amazon, or spotted by a literary scout, or given a favorable review by a conveniently unnamed industry expert; claiming staff with Big 5 publishing industry experience, touting their supposed connections with traditional publishers, even impersonating specific publishers and in one case, a well-known literary agent.

Like Author Solutions, the copycats hawk overpriced publishing packages and deceptively-described junk marketing services (services that cost little to provide and can be sold at an enormous markup). What writers receive is frequently substandard. Just as often, the copycats simply take authors’ money and run, or close down without notice, leaving authors high and dry. I’ve heard from writers who’ve spent thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars with these scams, in many cases for good and services that were never delivered.

Fortunately, the scams share a set of reliably recurring markers that can help to identify them.

1. Solicitation. Like the Author Solutions imprints, the copycats are big on out-of-the-blue phone calls and emails hawking their services. Phone solicitors frequently have foreign accents (most are based in the Philippines, and many previously worked for an Author Solutions imprint). Email solicitors use a recurring set of job titles: book scout, literary agent, Senior Marketing & Publishing Consultant (or Senior Publishing & Marketing Consultant), Executive Marketing Consultant.

2. Offers to re-publish authors’ books. As noted above, a big focus for the copycats is poaching authors who are already published or self-published, especially authors who’ve used Author Solutions imprints. They claim they can do a better job, or provide greater credibility, or even get authors in front of traditional publishers. Since so many of them actually worked for Author Solutions, they have an excellent grasp of AS’s deficiencies, and use that to bolster their sales pitches.

3. Claims of skills and experience that can’t be verified or don’t check out. A copycat may say it’s been in business since 2008, even though its domain name was registered only last year. It may claim to be staffed by publishing and marketing experts with years or even decades of “combined experience”, but provide no names or bios to enable you to verify this. A hallmark of the copycats’ “About Us” pages is a serious lack of “about.”

4. Poor or tortured English. As noted, the copycats are based in the Philippines; English is a second language for most staffers. Websites and solicitation emails typically contain numerous (and sometimes laughable) grammar and syntax errors. Phone solicitors may appear to be calling from US numbers, but commonly have foreign accents, and often get authors’ names or book titles wrong.

5. A major emphasis on junk marketing. Press releases. Paid book review packages. Book fair exhibits. Hollywood book-to-screen packages. These and more are junk marketing–PR services of dubious value and effectiveness that are cheap to provide but can be sold at a huge profit. It’s an insanely lucrative aspect of the author-fleecing biz, not just because of the enormous markup, but because while you can only sell a publishing package once, you can sell marketing multiple times. This is a page right out of the Author Solutions playbook: AS basically invented junk book marketing, and most of the marketing services offered by the copycats were pioneered by AS. The copycats, however, charge even more and do an even more substandard job (if they do a job at all–non-performance is a common complaint from authors who’ve gotten involved with the copycats).

Finding a Publishing Service Provider or Platform, Checking Reputations

Mick Rooney’s Independent Publishing Magazine provides detailed reviews of many publishing services, as well as news and commentary on the world of digital publishing. Mick also maintains an extensive index of publishing service providers.

Choosing a Self-Publishing Service is the Alliance of Independent Authors’ guide to publishing service providers and platforms; it also offers helpful advice for self-publishers. (Full disclosure: I’m one of ALLi’s advisors, and I wrote the introduction to this book. I don’t receive any remuneration or other benefit from sales.)

ALLi also provides this excellent annotated list of publishing service providers (including not just publishing services, but ebook discovery services, editorial and design services, and more) with advisories about those that are the subject of complaints.

Another excellent guide: Joel Friedlander’s A Self-Publisher’s Companion.

Good advice from editor and author Jane Friedman: 10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any Epublishing Service.

From author and attorney Helen Sedwick, 7 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Self-Publishing Service.

Novelist Piers Anthony maintains an internet publishing resource that lists and describes publishers and publishing service providers, and flags those that have problems or are the focus of complaints.

Another good spot to research the reputation of publishing service providers: the Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Check forum of the Absolute Write Water Cooler. Check the index to see if the service you’re interested in has already been discussed.

The Writer Beware Blog provides alerts and cautions on publishing service providers (and a lot else). To see if we’ve written anything about a company you’re interested in, plug its name into the search box.

E-mail Writer Beware. We’ve assembled a large archive of documentation on companies and services that engage in questionable practices. Send us the names of any company or service you’d like to know about, and we’ll summarize for you any data that’s in our files. If we have no information, we’ll let you know that too.

Self-Publishing Experts

The blog of author and authors’ advocate David Gaughran is an excellent information source on self-publishing and issues of interest to self-publishers.

The Book Designer, Joel Friedlander, offers excellent practical advice for self-publishers. Especially helpful is his e-Book Cover Design Awards, which feature and analyze successful ebook overs.

Author Joanna Penn offers advice on self-publishing, marketing, and writing at The Creative Penn.

Author Lindsey Buroker’s blog features many posts about self-publishing.

At the Smashwords blog, Smashwords owner and founder Mark Coker offers valuable information and commentary on the self-publishing industry.

Author and attorney Helen Sedwick maintains a blog focusing on legal issues for self-publishers.

Facts and Figures About Self-Publishing

This 2018 survey of self-publishing children’s authors from author Hannah Holt includes lots of data here about sales and earnings, as well as how self-publishing compares to traditional publishing.

Smashwords conducts a yearly survey of its sales data, providing a wealth of facts, figures, and trend analysis to help self-publishers make informed decisions. The latest version is for 2017.

In 2016, author Marie Force received survey responses from more than 2,000 self-published authors (half were exclusive self-publishers, the rest were hybrid authors). Results are summarized on her blog. Ms. Force is a romance author, and the survey seems to have self-selected for that genre–which is not as much of a distortion as you might think, since romance is the biggest-selling genre for self-publishers. There’s a lot of interesting info here, including the very wide range of income.

BookBaby, one of the low-cost digital distributors, conducted a survey of over 7,500 self-published authors in 2016-17. The resulting report is partly an ad for BookBaby’s services, but it includes some intriguing information on self-promotion as well as differences between low- and high-selling authors.

Old but still instructive, since the situation for print self-publishing hasn’t changed much: a gathering of sales statistics for print-on-demand self-publishing.

General Resources

The Alliance of Independent Authors is a global professional advocacy group for self-publishers. Its Self-Publishing Advice blog covers subjects of interest to self-publishers.

The Kboards–news and discussion from Kindle self-publishers. This is a treasure trove of information on just about every aspect of self-publishing.

Self-Publishing Basics, from author and self-publishing expert David Gaughran.

From author and editor Jane Friedman, an excellent overview of self-publishing resources and options. Jane’s website is a fabulous resource.

Practical advice on self-publishing, from expert Joel Friedlander.

A professional product requires financial investment. Digital expert Miral Sattar provides an overview of the real costs of self-publishing a book.

More on the potential costs of self-publishing from author and self-publishing expert Joanna Penn.

This survey of author-publishers reveals how much they budget on their books–and what they invest in.

Editor Lauren Bailey on the 13 most common self-publishing mistakes to avoid.

A 2016 survey by Library Journal assessed librarians’ views of self-published books: what they’re most likely to buy, obstacles to acquisition, and issues of quality.

The Digital Reader provides up-to-the-minute coverage of the latest news on ebooks, publishing, and self-publishing.

Many self-publishing authors have unrealistic expectations of what self-publishing can accomplish, and assume that low sales indicate a scam. Here are some reasons why your publishing service provider probably didn’t cheat you.

Links checked/Page updated: 2/22/20

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