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Home | Writing & Speaking | Book Marketing Although self-publishing has been an option for writers since the very beginning of the invention of the printing press, and although many very famous writers in the past self published some or all of their works, it is still nevertheless true that traditional publishing companies maintained a virtual stranglehold on the book publishing industry. Because of this, traditional book publishers could be very selective in their choice of authors and book titles. But this is all changing now, thanks to the self-publishing phenomenon. Let me be very clear right from the start: most traditional publishing companies do not want you to learn how to publish a book on your own; they would rather you remain in the dark about all of this, as a way of keeping you dependent on using their book publishing services. Self-publishing advances have been largely technologically-driven. In particular, book publishing software has become more and more advanced. It has become widely recognized that this software enables self-published authors to put out books with a quality of printing that rivals the big boys. A good example of the incredible technological advance is seen in the field of print on demand publishing technology. The print on demand allows for the real-time publication of books. Gone are the days when a publishing company must maintain extensive inventories of books, physically storing the copies in a warehouse for sale in the future. Another area of the self-publishing world which has experienced a lot of changes is children's book publishing. In the past it was difficult for writers to get children's books published because a glut of these books on the market meant that they could be difficult to sell. As a consequence, traditional publishing companies would not take them. The advent of print on demand publishing means that children's books can be printed as they are ordered and paid for, whether 100 or 10,000 copies are needed. There is not, of course, complete agreement among all the experts that self-publishing is always the best option. For one thing many self published books (most of the ones printed in the past, and far too many printed today) are of very poor quality. The self-publishing field continues to be plagued, for example, by books that have not been properly edited or laid out, as well as by books that just look plain ugly. For this reason -- and let the budding self-published author take note! -- many bookstores will not place self-published books on their shelves. As a majority of the book buying public still purchase their books in bookstores, this effectively cuts the self-published author out of a major part of the retail book market. However, many authors still find that self-publishing provides benefits that far outweigh the risks. Writers who are publishing on highly controversial matters may find that no traditional publishing company is interested in publishing a book. The same thing is true for those who have written books on highly specialized or very technical subjects. For these books the potential market can be far too small to justify the kind of up-front financial commitment than a traditional publishing company will have to make. For these authors, self-publishing may be the best -- indeed the only -- option for them. If you are an author who is considering self-publishing as an option, make sure you understand the potential risks as well as any possible benefits before making a final decision. Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
This article provided courtesy of www.self-publishing-world.com/
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