Benefits of self-publishing

If you feel you have a viable book idea, don’t wait around for a traditional publisher to take a chance on your book. Trade publishers are becoming increasingly reluctant to publish authors without a track record or back books that only appeal to a niche market. If that wasn’t motivation enough to spur you onto self-publishing, here are some benefits to sway your decision.

1. Self-Publishing provides greater creative control: When you self-publish your book you get to make all of the decisions to get your book into the reader’s hands. You can choose which format versions to release, your distribution network, which retailers your book is available through, the look and feel of your internal formatting, your cover design, and your list price.
2. Self-Publishing provides better royalties: Traditional publishers pay authors royalties on the books they sell, and you might receive 10-15% of the list price of each book sold, and the rest of the profits go to the publisher. But when you self-publish you receive higher royalties. For example, if you publish direct with Amazon you can receive up to 70% of the list price.
3. Self-Publishing provides a longer shelf life for your book: Traditional publishers put most of their effort into new releases and the first couple of months of a book’s life is the most critical, if sales during this period are disappointing it will quickly disappear into the back catalogue. But as a new author it can take a while to build a following for your book, and when you self-publish you are in charge of the marketing and promotional activities that support the ongoing activity around your book.
4. Self-Publishing supports your writing brand: Self-publishing a book in your travel niche is an excellent vehicle for putting the spotlight on your knowledge and expertise and developing your writing brand. Once you’ve written your first book your can create companion content to build momentum around it, which is what I’ve done with my Freewriting for Travel Writers book.
5. Self-Published books are grabbing more market share: Here’s some stats from the Author Earnings Report for Q2-Q4 2017 which shows that e-book authors are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the top selling charts.

• 7 of the top 100 selling e-book authors in the US were self-published indies
• 50 of the top 250 selling e-book authors in the US were self-published indies
• 121 of the top 500 selling e-book authors in the US were self-published indies
• 284 of the top 1,000 selling e-book authors in the US were self-published indies

You have the power at your fingertips to self-publish your travel guide, and in Book 3 of my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide series I navigate you through the five self-publishing steps you have to go through to make your travel guide available to your readers.

I also covered this 5 reason why travel bloggers should self-publish topic in the first episode of my new How to Self-Publish a Travel book podcast.

Read more articles in my How to Write a Travel Guide Series

I’m putting the finishing touches on my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide Series, which details a step by step approach for writing and producing your own travel guide. It’s part of a four-part series aimed at helping travel bloggers achieve passive income based on their passions and existing content.

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