The future of self- publishing.

This poppy is just 'blowin' in the wind'

The future of self- publishing.

Nina Jasilek 

Recent figures have revealed that 2012 was a record year for the publishing industry,

with the highest ever revenues recorded of £3.34 billion. Self-publishing has been thought

to have been a great contributor to this figure, by providing new ways for books to be accessed.

The sub-industry of self-publishing is rising steadily, providing a large audience with a wider diversity of texts than they receive from traditional publishers. In particular, the genres of fantasy

and soft porn have shown to be under-represented by the industry’s official output,

with E.L. James’ notorious Fifty Shades of Grey being originally self-published.

For those struggling to publish through traditional means, self-publishing can be a new innovative way of getting books into the market.

2012 was a record year for the publishing industry,
with the highest ever revenues recorded of £3.34 billion

The process of self-publishing has advanced in recent years. Instead of an author having to

be their own publisher, editor, publicist, designer and everything in between,

authors can hire out companies to provide a variety of these services for them.

In particular, as publishing houses no longer have their own copy-editors and instead outsource

to freelancers, this allows self-publishers to hire freelance copy-editors easily.

Outsourcing services is of course a complicated process, so in order to self-publish

you need to do your research – find out how long it will take and exactly how much it is going to cost before you jump in.

As meticulous and challenging a process self-publishing is, it can offer many benefits

over traditional publishing. Self-publishers can release limited editions of their books

available from the authors directly. Authors also no longer rely on publishers

to establish relationships with readers – by attending literary festivals and book fairs,

blogging and tweeting, authors can interact with their readers directly. Many self-publishers

choose to publish online only, saving costs in print publishing, and reaching a wider audience.

Through Amazon’s Kindle Direct program, authors can publish their works directly into the Amazon Kindle Store, making them quickly available to a global market. This scheme also offers

the options of publishing in other languages, the ability to edit at any time, and 70% royalty.

Another Amazon company, CreateSpace, offers the opportunity to self-publish books in print,

and also connects to professional self-publishing services, such as design, editing and marketing. Amazon appears to be at the fore-front of programs to assist with self-publishing,

as it also has the White Glove Program, yet this is only available to authors with agents.

Through Amazon’s Kindle Direct program,

puthors can publish their works directly into the Amazon Kindle Store

Windsor Public Library has a new unique approach to self-publishing –

they’ve introduced a self-publishing machine into the building.

This machine allows authors to print their own books in-house,

and is increasing in popularity steadily, with April having been its highest selling month.

Although there are many new innovative ways to get into self-publishing,

it can still be a gruelling process. Depending on which services you’ve purchased,

you may still have to do a lot of your advertising and production yourself,

which can be demoralising and hard work, and cannot guarantee success.

However, there are those who are making it through this method,

with two self-published books through the White Glove Program making it into Amazon’s top 10

in April.

Nina Jasilek is the Assistant Course Director for London School of Publishing

and London School of Public Relations. She deals mostly with course enrolment,

but also research and social media-related tasks.

Nina studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield, and graduated in 2012.

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