Today I have a short guest post by fellow fantasy author Vanessa Finaughty. She is doing a blog tour during October to promote her upcoming fantasy adventure series Wizard of Ends.
The two first books will be released during this month and the blog tour will be packed with exciting giveaways from both Vanessa and other fantasy authors(myself included), so it would be well-worth your time to keep an eye out.
There will be more info on Vanessa and her blog tour at the end of the post. For now, I’ll shut up and let her have the word.
There are as many reasons to self-publish as there are to go the traditional route. Which route you choose depends largely on your personal needs/wants – just don’t think going the traditional route means you won’t have to market your books. Nowadays, authors are the ones who do most of the marketing regardless of the publishing medium.
Below are five of the main reasons I chose to self-publish my books without sending a single query to an agent or traditional publisher:
- I have full control over my books, who edits them, when they are published, how they are priced and everything in between.
- I can set my own deadlines in a way that allows me to pace myself, so I can easily fit in writing, publishing and marketing along with work, baby time and life’s myriad other responsibilities.
- I retain full copyright of all my books and don’t need to ask anyone for permission to do xyz.
- I can discount my books or give them away as I see fit.
- Let’s not forget the royalties – self-published authors see a much higher percentage of their royalties.
So, now that you all know I’m a control freak when it comes to my books… I’ll end by saying I’m so happy with my publishing choice that, even if a traditional publisher had to approach me with an offer, I would very likely turn it down. I say ‘very likely’ rather than ‘definitely’ because hey, everyone has a price 😉
I hope this post encourages some aspiring authors to take the leap!
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That’s all from Vanessa in this round, but she will be back here the 30th to talk about how to introduce and write about nameless characters!
If you wish to follow the rest of the blog tour, check out the tour itinerary for dates, links and giveaways!
You can also follow Vanessa Finaughty to find out more about her books:
Author website
Author blog
Twitter
Facebook
Nice post, and very convincing reasons why anybody would want to self-publish. I also think self-publishing is so much easier as an option than sending off potentially lots of submissions.
The submission process does seem tedious, yes. Then again, book marketing can have the same effect! :p
Of course, there are also many publishers doing both – publishing traditionally and self-publishing certain of their works. Especially if they think there isn’t really a market for a particular type of story. I’ve a mind to self-publish certain stories I’ve written at a later stage. One market that I’m thinking would be good to self-publish – and that comes to mind – is what’s called “furry creatures”. These are characters that aren’t human or alien but are based on certain animals and have certain characteristics given to them in the story, for example: they’ve been augmented in some way or have magical powers.
I’ve seen references to ‘furry creatures’ as a genre, but I had no idea what it was until now. It just goes to show, you never stop learning! Is there a high demand for that type of story, then?
Never read a novel with furry creatures as main characters, but they seem very popular in comics, especially webcomics.
If Gummi Bears was a book, that might count.
I agree! It is much better than choosing the traditional publisher… Although, I have to admit, I tried going that route in the past. Got rejected, because there was no South African culture in it. Self-publishing is better, because I can publish all of my work whenever I want 🙂
I saw a friend’s bad experience with traditional publishing in South Africa and chose the self-publishing option from the start. Sadly, you’re right – if the book isn’t about SA or SA culture/history, many SA publishers won’t be interested.
Well, J.K. Rowling was rejected lots of times 🙂 It just shows that readers and publishers don’t always want the same thing.
So true!
Thanks for hosting me today, Michelle. The tour banner looks awesome against your blog’s background 🙂
Yeah, it does! Dark backgrounds have many downsides, but sometimes it just WORKS 🙂
I must admit, I’m a fan of dark backgrounds. The only reason my sites have light backgrounds is that all the ‘experts’ recommend it and I finally caved in and changed them.
Yeah, light backgrounds are much easier on the eyes on sites where you do a lot of reading and you should never use them unless you have some knowledge of web design. I sometimes have doubts about my choice as well, since it’s not good for the blog part, but it works amazingly for my covers and artwork.
But seeing as web design is actually what I do for a living(I know, rather embarrassing what I have never gotten around to moving my personal website off WordPress.com), so I know a bit about making it a bit more friendlier on the eyes.
Well, I have weak eyes (have to wear glasses on the PC), and your blog/site doesn’t hurt my eyes, so you must have done something right 🙂
Glad to hear that! 🙂
At last, somnoee comes up with the “right” answer!