In an earlier blog post, we looked at some of the advantages of using a traditional publisher for your nonfiction book. In this one, we will be considering another method of publishing – doing it yourself. This can be a lot harder than traditional publishing, but you may find it more rewarding as well. You will have to decide what works best for you and your book, as the publishing process is different for everyone. We will now look at some of the advantages of self-publishing.
Creative Control
One major advantage of self-publishing is that you can do everything your own way, from the front cover to the blurb and title. If you work with a traditional publisher, you will find that decisions like these will be taken out of your hands. In some ways, this is good, as a traditional publisher will have a lot of experience of publishing and marketing books and should know what will appeal to your target audience and sell best.
On the other hand, you might not like how your book ends up looking or the angle the traditional publisher is using to try and sell it. You will have a lot more creative control if you self-publish and will be able to choose how you want to present your book. You may well receive suggestions from your cover artist or editor, for example, but you are under no obligation to follow these. You can do research into what sells in your genre and take this into account in your decisions.
Set Your Own Pace
As well as being able to make all the final decisions, you can also choose your own deadlines and create a schedule to follow. With a traditional publisher, they will tell you when they need something completed by and you have to follow this. There’s no chance to slow down or speed things up.
However, if you self-publish, you can take things at your own pace, whether this means giving yourself plenty of time and spacing out your deadlines or working fast to get your book out in time to take advantage of a current trend. This also gives you more flexibility to plan around your personal life.
Control Over Pricing
A further advantage of self-publishing your nonfiction book is that you retain control of how to price your book and when to vary this. If you are selling your book on multiple platforms and in different formats, you can decide to price some higher and some lower if necessary. This also includes any listings you have for your book in other countries, so you can set the price for these based on what is standard there.
Being able to set the price of your books means that you can calculate how much you need to sell each copy for to make a profit and what margin of profit you would like. You can also do some research to decide what is the highest that most readers would be willing to pay for your book in its different formats. If you price your book too low, you won’t make any profit, but if it is too high, you probably won’t sell enough copies to make a profit.
Additionally, having control over pricing means that you can run promotions as and when you choose. Maybe you would like to heavily discount your book for a day to gain new readers and gather some reviews. Even if you make a loss on the sales, this can be a worthwhile investment to attract new buyers. You might even decide to give your book away for free, especially if you are mainly using your book as a marketing tool for your business.
Choose Your Marketing Options
If you work with a publisher, they will decide how they are marketing your book, what platforms and publications they will be using to promote it and what appearances and talks you will be doing. You will only have a very limited say in this, or even none at all. However, if you self-publish your book, you can have more control over this as well and can decide what you think will work best for you and your book.
For example, you can decide when you want your launch to be, which may be influenced by how long you want to prepare and when you think a launch will be most successful. You can also choose where to advertise, although you may have less choice than if you work with a traditional publisher.
You can also decide what selling platform you will be using and whether you would like to be exclusive to them and gain the benefits from this or publish across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience. You have control over any panels or appearances you will be doing as well, giving you more flexibility.
Wrapping Up
I hope that these two blog posts help you decide how to publish your nonfiction book. In my next blog post, we will be looking at what level of editing your book needs, so come back in two weeks for that!
Want help proofreading your work? Contact Carmine Proofreading for a friendly, professional service from a qualified proofreader.
Email: CarmineProofreading@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarmineProofed
Carmine Proofreading 
1 thought on “Advantages of Self-Publishing for a Nonfiction Book”