More and more books are becoming self- published as the years go by. The basic definition of Self-publishing is the ability for the author to publish his work may it be books or any other media without getting involved with an established third-party publisher. But which method to choose? The traditional way or self-publish? The team has listed down the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing so you as a writer will know which method would best suit you when the time comes that you want to take your work into the public eye.

Advantages:

1. You can be guaranteed that your work will be published because you are self-publishing your work
2. Traditional publishers tend to have writers sign a contract, which sometimes makes an author give up some of his rights of various types. With self-publishing, you retain all your rights and there is no contract that you have to sign in order to get your work published.
3. You control what goes on with publishing your book, including how the cover will look like, how much do you want to sell it for and many different aspects that usually traditional publishers take charge on.
4. No pressure of a contract
5. You don’t need to take the long process of publishing, such as getting an agent. As a self-publisher you don’t need to hire one therefore you don’t need to pay them that 15 percent commission when your book gets published.
6. Availability of your book will be there for a large audience

Disadvantages:

1. t is more expensive. As a self-published author you basically handle all the costs associated with getting your book printed, designed, distributed. Of course this isn’t the case for e-books
2. It is very difficult to get your books in bookstores; if you happen to get it you would get very limited shelf space
3. All of the marketing that is done for the book has to be done by the author.
4. People still have this negative perspective about self-publishing for some reason. Think that the book was not good enough to grab publishers attention therefore it was self-published therefore the quality of the book is questioned
5. Self-publishing does not have the same satisfaction that an author has when a publisher and an agent wants to publish their book.
6. Your book is not be as available as a published one is

Given the points listed above; it is really up to the authors themselves to decide what sort of publishing to pursue as per what suits them

Happy Writing

– Untitled Chapters Team