Self Publishing A NovelSelf publishing a novel in today's world couldn't be EASIER! Companies like Wordclay have automated systems and processes that keep self publishing costs minimal. When I decided to try self publishing a book with my memoir: Desperately Seeking Jude: Confessions of a Sex-Mad Beauty Queen my considerations were as follows: I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to find a literary agent. I didn't want to waste reams of paper sending my manuscript all over the world in order to find said agent. I didn't want to wait for years to see my book on the market. I wanted to be in control of everything! So when I found Wordclay and discovered how it all works, I was thrilled. Self Publishing Costs With Wordclay There are no automatic charges. HOWEVER: IF you would like to do your own cover - i.e. not use their truly terrible templates, THEN you have to pay 50 dollars for them to upload it. IF you would like your book to have an ISBN number so that it can be made available from Amazon and all other retailers, THEN you have to pay 100 dollars. $150 dollars later and you have a book available for purchase anywhere! Wordclay ONLY prints each book when an order has been placed, and they then take the price of production out of that payment, paying the balance to you as a royalty. For example, if your book has around 300 pages, it will cost roughly 10 dollars to print. Therefore if you sell it for 20 dollars they keep 10 dollars and credit the remaining 10 dollars to you as royalties. If the book is ordered through a third party however, such as Amazon, then the cost to you is higher. They will charge you another 7 dollars or so for getting the book to Amazon's warehouse. So if you're selling the book for 20, in that case you'd only get 3 dollars as a royalty. So far so good! I decided on self publishing a novel through Wordclay, and I was very impressed by their service. They are extremely helpful and friendly, and royalty checks are sent out promptly every quarter. Would I recommend self publishing a novel? Yes, AND no. While it has been great to be in control of the process of self publishing a novel, unless you're really into marketing yourself and your work, the size of your audience is very unlikely to be big. If your work is non-fiction and highly niche focused then you may have much more success. However, with fiction or memoir, you NEED to get that book into bookstores if it's ever going to have a chance of major success. And often the only way to get your book onto the shelves of the bookstores, is to have a big publishing house behind you. Self Publishing Ebooks So what about self publishing ebooks? Again, if its non-fiction and highly niche-focused then this is a FABULOUS way to self publish. There are lots of options available on the internet, but for niche-focused non-fiction work there can't be anything better than E-Junkie Their set up process is so simple and easy to understand. You simply upload your PDF, enter all your details, set your price and you get code for 'Buy Now' buttons that you can place on your website that take buyers directly to your product download. Your book is then also available for purchase directly from the E-Junkie site. You receive the full purchase price, paid into your paypal account. Your only self publishing costs are the 5 dollars a month you pay for your e-junkie account. And for this 5 dollars you can upload a total of 10 ebooks. This is a GREAT deal. For fiction or memoir, the best option is
Smashwords
The best thing about this is having readers on this site browsing for new fiction and non-fiction works, so you have a chance of attracting some new readers to your work. The site claims a very small portion of the royalties. I have self published a novel - my memoir - as an ebook with Smashwords, and I have self published ebooks - non-fiction niche focused - with E-Junkie and I recommend them both. So if you're interested in self publishing a novel, then there just couldn't be a better time than now! Go for it!
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