Shakespeare once asked to be or not to be? And the question I am asking today is publish or self publish?

Writing Hitting The Target A 12 Month Guide To Distinction was an extremely thought provoking, challenging and life changing experience.

I remember when I first had the Vision to write a book I was so excited that I started to Google companies that publish books for people. I found at least three publishing companies and was excited at the prices quoted, some of the prices quoted ranged from £750 to £1000 and my I excitement was at a all time high. Looking at some of the packages I couldn’t believe that they would print and market my book for as little as £750 and I would soon be an Author known across the world.

After doing research and speaking to a friend who also wanted to write a book I came up with a few questions that needed answering. Some of the questions are below

What level of marketing do these companies do and how soon do they start?

Do I own my ISBN numbers?

Do I actually own my book?

If you are a budding Author these are some important questions you need to ask yourself. What happens if you sign with a publishing company and they use Amazon as an outlet to market, how much would you get paid from your book? These are such important questions that you really need to answer.

I’ve heard so many horror stories of people signing up to publishing companies. I’ve heard of companies not replying to emails or calls, threatening not to market and even stating that if you don’t like the service you can go elsewhere. I‘ve even heard of people doing their own marketing because the level promised by the company wasn’t as stated.

Some of you might be reading this blog thinking am I anti publishing companies? It’s not that I’m anti publishing but in the 12 months from the deposit to the birth of my book I haven’t heard one positive story about using a publishing house.

Now many budding Authors will scrap the idea of using a publishing company and decide to self publish. Self publish is great but here are some important questions that you need to answer

Who is your market?

As a potential Author what are you known for?

How large is your network?

Can you afford the cost of self publishing?

These are some questions that you need to answer but there are so many more if you want to self publish your book and become a successful Author. Six months before I had the Vision of writing my book I was constantly posting quotes on Facebook about Goals, Excellence, Distinction and Vision so as a Life coach and a Speaker people wasn’t surprised that Hitting The Target A 12 Month Guide To Distinction covered these four areas and so much more.

As a budding Author who wants to self publish it’s vital that you use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to your advantage. I don’t know any other platform that you can have 5000 contacts plus another thousand who will possibly buy or refer your book. It took me nearly 12 months to establish my subject matter and that has made it so much easier to market my book. For the record don’t just rely on Facebook as a way of selling your books but start to find and use other platforms.

I’ve also heard of so many stories of people going down the self publishing route, printed 1000 copies and haven’t actually got a market, marketing strategy and just hope and wish that all their Facebook friends will suddenly buy their book.

Some rules to remember when self publishing your book.

Always have the Spirit of Excellence.

Think Global.

Remember to insert an ISBN and barcode.

Have a prepared market.

Have a marketing strategy.

Connect to other Authors.

The first question I asked on this blog was publish or self publish? It’s now time for you to answer this question.