With thanks to Kate Pool for coordinating a meeting for the Society of Authors on self publishing.
Pitfall 6. Value for money in a publishing package. Book publishers and distributors like Gardners, authorhouse and ebookpartnership provide support and advice for self publishers. A full colour Testament package at authorhouse costs £1500. How can you tell if their packages are cost-effective? Talk to other authors. Some had a good experience: 'it didn't look self-published', some were pleased with their 'client person' or facilitator, others less so.
Pitfall 7. Thinking you have to commit to a specific platform indefinitely: KDP, kindle direct publishing, KDP Select or smashwords. You commit for a certain period but it's not like a contract with an agent. You can still 'unpublish' your book but not delete it on Amazon. To re-publish for another format you will need a new ISBN.
Pitfall 8. Losing touch with sales. Some authors feel uninformed about how the book is doing. Keep pressing. All publishers can tell you the exact origin and route of your sales.
Pitfall 9. Uncertainty over borrowing ebooks. Authors might explore borrowing an ebook from a public library to find out how it works. For expensive textbooks and hard to find book this route may be ideal.
Pitfall 10. Narrow profit margin. You can calculate how much your book will cost if you self-publish a tree book with Lulu here: Cost per book: Lulu It might surprise you how much a book costs.
More on Pricing and Marketing to come next time.
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