The Insider's Guide to Self-Publishing:

Why Self-Publish? - Choosing a Path: Traditional Publishing or Self-Publishing.

Everyone knows that producing and publishing your own book can be a tremendous challenge - not the least of which is making money. For self publishing pros and cons both exist. We'll explore the self publishing pros cons will come first.

If you are interested in Custom Publishing services - typically aimed at the business and academic markets, please click this link for an overview of our custom publishing service offerings.

We'll get the tough parts out of the way early - Why not self-publish?

Getting Rich - The vast majority of the books in the "traditional" publishing industry barely ever break even - and an even smaller percentage of self published books ever see a profit. A tiny minority of self published books are ever a big success or achieve fame.

Wanting it to be Easy - Self published authors have to rely on their own resources, be more creative in finding retail shelf space for their books (you'll have far less access to chain bookstore shelves than the big publishers who spend millions on marketing dollars), and you are going to have to work very hard to create any sort of buzz about your book.

Need for "Publishing Cachet" - if you even consider that word (cachet) as something you need in your life, then Self-Publishing isn't for you. If goals are strictly aimed at the prestige that comes with getting published by a "traditional" house, then the more staid route of literary agent/big publisher is something you should try before taking a shot at self-publishing...

Does this make it all seem like there aren't ANY reasons why you would want to discover how to self publish a book? Does that all make it sound much too grim? We said there were self publishing pros and cons, we've got the "cons" out of the way, so here are the main reasons TO self-publish --

Control - is completely in your hands - you call all the shots, but still get access to a wide breadth of experience from your self publishing company. If you want pink flamingos on your book about Kenworth trucks, well we might make some recommendations, but ultimately it's up to you. As you can see from our website, we believe in giving you as much as possible within each package - and letting you have as much control and input as you'd like. No one else offers the absolute freedom that Dog Ear Publishing does...

Speed - your book STILL won't be in the market after nearly 2 years through traditional channels. With self-publishing, we've built books in as few as TWO WEEKS - more typically in about 8... If your topic has any time sensitivity, you can't wait for the traditional market to get your book out.

Rights - In ANY self-publishing contract, you should retain and control all your rights (it's standard with most self-publishers). In the traditional world, you sign your book away to another party (the publisher) - once they lose interest, you won't be able to get your rights back until after the book goes out of print - and even then you'll most likely have to buy them back! No matter how many or few you sell, you can keep your book alive and available long past the point at which a "traditional" house would have taken it out of print.

No more rejection letters! If you've tried publishing the traditional way you know what we mean... Over 750,000 manuscripts are written each year yet less than 3 percent ever see the light of day at a publishing house.

Niche and Regional Markets - The books that make the most money in the self-publishing world are those that are very targeted - either by region or topic. Almost always they aren't products traditional publishers are interested in, but they are extremely lucrative for authors who can target specific markets. You can publish on tightly focused or niche topics without worrying that your editor "doesn't think this market has any real value."

Getting Rich (redux) - The reward is completely in your hands - you took the risk, you made the effort, now 100% of the reward is yours too. Why settle for a "royalty payment" of 5 to 10%? We don't call them "royalties" because it implies we have ownership and are paying YOU a "commission" on OUR sales. We let you set your OWN profit margin - the only money we receive from sales of your book is the printing cost (and some handling & freight fees). You may price your books at any price you wish and make as much or as little profit as you like. That is NOT the case with ANY other self publisher - they all set your retail for you and then give a percentage of the NET sale.And, if your book shows steady success, a publisher just might call. Successful sales track records and demonstrated profit easily put you in control in the contract negotiation.

Passion - The thrill of seeing your book in print - and done exactly as you wanted - is nearly unmatched. Leaving a part of yourself permanently immortalized on the printed page. Your book is the truest expression of who you are.

Compare Dog Ear Publishing - we've done some of the homework for you - click here to see how Dog Ear stacks up against the other major self publishing companies. We compare our services, price, and speed on a weekly basis and report the numbers here.