by Dale Cox

Created on: August 22, 2007

The answer to this question really revolves around your book, its market and your willingness to work hard. Self publishing can be an outstanding way of getting books on local history, travel, sports and more into print. With the advent of computerization and print on demand (POD), there are some significant advantages to doing it yourself. Provided, of course, you are willing to do it right.

I have now self-published three books and am working on a fourth. All have proved profitable and I have been able to maintain control of the editorial process and quality of each project from start to finish. All of these were books on lesser known historical events and none would have offered the wide appeal that most standard publishers seek.

There are some things you should know. First, be careful about this process. There are good companies out there to work with and many that are not so good. Some will charge you thousands of dollars and give you very little in the process, while others will print as few as one or two books for you at a price of under $10. It rally depends on how much you want to spend and how easily you allow yourself to be led by someone who is simply interested in making as much money off of you as possible.

If you are serious about self-publishing, it is important to remember that you should treat the process as a business venture. Keep your expenses low, ask lots of questions and make sure you understanding what you are getting for your money. Most self-published books are not stocked by bookstores unless they are of interest to the local community where the store is located. If a company tells you they will make your book "available" to bookstores, that is exactly what they mean. That isn't the same thing as saying they will actually stock it.

If you hope to sell in bookstores and online marketplaces, you need to have an ISBN number for your book. Some companies will charge you a great deal for these, while others will provide them and a listing in Books in Print for as little as $50. Shop carefully.

Don't go into self-publishing with unrealistic expectations. You are probably going to sell a few books at a time. Don't order 1,000 books if you are likely to only need 50. You can always order more if the book does well. You also should understand or be willing to learn the basics of book design. By doing this yourself, you can save hundreds of dollars but you need to know enough about it to make sure your final product is professional in appearance.

Don't expect newspapers and television stations to run stories on your book just because you send them a press release. They usually won't. But if your book is about a topic that is of legitimate local interest, then you have a much better chance of getting favorable press coverage.

Finally, make sure that you have someone with a command of the language read over your book before you put it into print. You will be glad you did because, as the old saying goes, two sets of eyes are better than one when it comes to finding typos, mistakes and bad sentence structure.

Self publishing, I believe, is an excellent venue for books on topics of limited interest, including local history, biographies of lesser known individuals, local travel publications, family history books and even family photo albums that you want to share with a limited number of people. The odds are you won't get rich at it, but if you do it carefully and right, you can at least break even and maybe even make a profit.

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