Dear O'Abby: Is self-publishing becoming more acceptable?

Dear O'Abby,

I've been writing a long time now - well over 20 years - and when I started, self-publishing had a real stigma about it.  It was like people thought you only self-published as a last resort, if you'd been rejected by agents and traditional publishers time and time again.  So it's not something I've ever thought very seriously about.

Now it seems like self-publishing is a very legitimate way to publish, and self-pubbed books can have as much success as traditionally published books or even more.  

Is this actually true?  I've been publishing with a small press for several years, but they put very little into marketing or even properly editing my stuff for the 45% of sales they take, so I'm wondering if I'd be better of self-pubbing.  I just want to make sure my books won't become second-class citizens, so to speak, as a result.

Kind regards,

Uncertain

Dear Uncertain,

There are lots of things to consider when thinking about self-publishing, but you're correct in your assessment that it has become much more acceptable in recent years. I mean, the Pulitzer Prize is now open to self-published authors and there isn't much that's more prestigious than that!  

And self-published books are selling well too.  Around 30-35% of ebooks sold are self-published and there is an increasing number of self-pubbed authors earning over $100K a year.

On the downside, with this surge in popularity, the number of self-puubed books out there is growing year on year, meaning there is an increasing number to compete with in the market.  While the number of authors earning a good living from their books is growing, on average 90% of sell-pubbed books sell 100 copies or less.  So it's important to keep your expectations realistic.

The self-pubbed authors who do the best are writers who can write and publish quickly.  Once an author's work is popular, readers want more and unless the writer can provide more on a regular basis, they're quickly going to fall out of favour.  The most successful self-pubbed authors have at least 10 books for sale, usually series.

And genre is important too.  The majority of successful self-pubbed books are fantasy, romance or crime thrillers.  If you're writing outside these genres, it may be harder to break through as a self-pubbed author.

Of course, the other thing about self-publishing is that everything is on you, from sourcing cover art, to editing, to formatting the actual book to marketing and publicity.  And all of that stuff takes time (and money if you're going to do it professionally).  You need to have that time and money available to you to make a success out of self-pubbing and that often means taking time away from writing.  Which in turn, means you may not be able to publish new books as frequently as you might like to.

So while there isn't the same kind of stigma around self-publishing as there was 20 years ago, there are still a number of things you should consider before choosing to go this route.

Hope that helps!

X O'Abby.