Self-Publishing is the Ultimate Freedom
Self-publishing gives you freedom to get your message out.
it’s a terrible feeling to write a great book, only to find that no publisher or agent is interested. Sure, you could pay some company to publish it for you, but then you’ll have boxes of books sitting in your garage and no royalties in your pocket. It’s sad that so many great books sit on hard drives or on piles of paper and never get out there for the world to read. You’ll never see those big royalty checks, and your writing career is over before it even starts. Except you can self-publish your book!
Self-Publishing opens the door for anyone to write their own book and publish anything they want. In the past, you were restricted and censored to a certain extent; in other words, your freedom to write what you wanted was limited based on what an agent and publisher felt would sell enough to justify large print runs. This is no longer true. For the first time in human history, everyone is free to write about anything they desire, and it’s possible to make a career out of writing and self-publishing books.
I’ve been an enthusiastic writer ever since my teachers in elementary school taught me how to handwrite my name in cursive. In fact, in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades I published a monthly newsletter for my classmates, foreshadowing my eventual writing career. I still remember the strong pungent smell of ammonia from the Xerox copy machine. As I got older, I wrote papers on every subject imaginable, including ecology, geology (my first passion), physics and history.
I dreamed of being a writer, but life and other priorities got in the way, as they do for many people. The responsibilities of a family, managing a large computer department, my religion and the community made it difficult to find the time to sit down and write anything, much less a book.
As I got older, I continued writing , mostly technical and business related works for my job. I still wanted to be a published author, but life just got in the way. I’m sure you understand how difficult it can be to find time to do anything except job, family, church and community. There never seemed to be enough time in the day to get my own writing done.
Self-Publishing opens the door for freedom to write about anything you want
Self-Publishing is the Way to Go
After 33 years working as a computer professional and senior manager, I decided it was time to pursue a writing career. I left my job at Trader Joe’s, the place where I’d been safe and happy for 20 years, moved to Florida and settled into a new routine.
These days my routine is spend about 8 hours every day writing books about subjects that i believe will be of value or entertainment to others. On an average day, I can write between 6,000 and 10,000 words, and I alternate between editing and writing – one day I write, the next day I edit with I’ve written. I found the way to fight writers block and to produce material quickly is not to mix writing with editing. In other words, when writing, just write. Then come back later and edit it to make it correct.
In June of 2015, I published my first book, Safe Computing is Like Safe Sex, following a few months later with Real World Survival.These books are now available for the Kindle, audiobook, paperback and hardcover. Early in 2016, I published Focus on LinkedIn and with some well-targeted promotion it reached into the top 100 of all Kindle books for a few days. My book How to Sell on eBay remains a steady seller in paperback.
I thought about hiring an agent and going the traditional publishing route, but I love the freedom of self-publishing. I can publish whatever I want regardless of sales potential or readership. Sometimes, as with Focus on LinkedIn, I purposely targeted a good-selling market. On other occasions, as with Turn of the TV, Get off Your Ass and Do Something, I wrote and published the book because I wanted to get out a message, not necessarily make sales.
Amazon made it simple for me to publish my own books by providing clear instructions and quality tools. Since that time, using my own Indie publishing company (The Writing King), I’ve produced 33 books on Kindle, 24 on CreateSpace and 21 on ACX (Audible). I love self-publishing because I get to pursue my dream of making a writing career consisting of writing and publishing my own books. The so-called “Writer’s Life” is a fantastic way to live, and Amazon, with their free self publishing, has made that possible.
No longer do you have to search through hundreds of agents to find one that actually reads your book and agrees to submit it to a publisher. The days of waiting months or more to get rejected by a publishing company are gone. You can become a published author and establish your writing career by self-publishing your book. Isn’t it time you made your dream of becoming a money-making author come true.
Richard is the Owner and Senior Writer for The Writing King, a bestselling author, and ghostwriter. He’s written and published 63 books, ghostwritten 40+ books, as well as hundreds of blog articles.
I self published a book last year and loved the freedom and control. Now I’m ghostwriting a memoir, and my subject and I will be looking for a traditional publisher. But we also have self publishing as a solid Plan B.
Richard, I implemented many of the strategies you suggest in Focus and LinkedIn and saw a noticeable difference in engagement. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.