Self publishing involves the act of an author publishing books or magazines at his or her own expense. If the author self publishes, the author has control over content, editing, printing, marketing and distribution. In traditional publishing, the publisher invests money prior to publishing for marketing, printing, binding and promotion of the publication. Because the publisher wants to recover the cost of the initial investment, the publisher researches to make an educated guess about whether the author and the book will earn enough money to recoup the initial investment after its release. The publisher will only select the author’s writings if a profit can be earned.

The author will assume all financial responsibility of the project from marketing to distribution and storage. The writer will receive all of the profit from the sales and maintain all rights to the publication. In this case, the author typically will not accept pre-prepared packages, but will submit a bid for each aspect of the publishing process. In some cases, because the author has full autonomy and receives all proceeds, the author can yield a much higher quality product.

Vanity publishers will publish the work of an author without regard to the quality of work or its potential to be marketable. The vanity publisher is only responsible for printing and binding the publication. Since, the responsibility lies solely with the author, vanity publishing is often more expensive than traditional publishing, but offers more autonomy. Vanity Publishers make their money from the fees charged to the author, rather than on sales from the publication. Therefore, it is the author’s responsibility to market and advertise to gain exposure.

Print on Demand allows authors who have a desire to self-publish to do so for a small fee and in some cases, for free. Print on demand companies typically offer to print and ship a book only when the book is purchased. Their services can also include collecting royalties, listing in online bookstores and in some instances, formatting, proof reading and editing. Because the process is digital, the initial investment required by the author is generally less than vanity publishing.

Print on Demand companies such as Lulu, xLibris, and Trafford Publishing all require a small initial investment for each of their packages. Companies such as Yudu.com, Amazon’s Booksurge and CreateSpace offer self publishing services for free. When publishing a work with these companies, the responsibility of getting a work to submission ready status generally lies with the author. These companies allow the author to design book covers, as well as, choose whether the publication will be an eBook, hardback or paper back.

These low cost services give amateurs, as well as, seasoned authors independence from publisher demands, editorial control and more profits or royalties than with traditional publishing.

With subsidy publishing, the author pays for the printing and binding of the book, but the publisher will contribute a certain amount to the author to cover expenses such as editing, distribution, marketing and storage. Because of the publisher’s contribution, the publisher possesses, owns the book and also has a portion of the rights, while the author only receives royalties on the copies that are sold. In this scenario, the author will possess little or no autonomy in certain production decisions.

Martin Alan enjoys writing on subjects such as literature, online publishing, digital magazine, publisher software, file sharing sites and how to self publish. He also enjoys keeping up-to-date with the latest developments and innovations in technology and online marketing. For more information on online publishing click here; http://www.yudu.com.

Author: Martin Alan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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