Recently I have started to give serious consideration to the idea of publishing The Spiral Tattoo and other tales of Gurt and Fursk in eBook form myself. Yes I am considering self publishing.
Now most of my experience of self publishing has been in the form of having terrible vanity works, printed at the local copy-printers, being hawked in libraries by people impressed with their own non-talent. Yes that is harsh, but so true. As such I have been really reluctant to self-publish my own works in fear that I too will turn out to be a no-talent self deluded ninny.
However, with the growing success of eBooks, and the large number of self published, and quality self published at that, Ebooks within that market, I have been coming to the view that I should give that fear a good boot, and concentrate on being one of the best kick-arse self published eBook authors out there! Cos that’s how I roll!
Sorry, momentary self delusion grandiose vision there. 🙂
So, at the moment I am letting some queries run their course, but there is coming a point where I will need to make a decision. Do I do it myself? Do I try and hook up with one of those burgeoning companies that specializing in helping folks like me, for a cut of course.
I have a cover, which I think would work for the eBook format. I would need to pay for a good editor. That is one thing that is holding me back, I would need an editor I could both afford and trust enough to help me polish my book into something really salable!
So any thoughts most welcome. Which path is best? Convince me off the edge!
The Worlds Of Michael J Parry 
Well, let’s see. A publishing house will assign and editor for you, choose cover art that may or may not be right for you, and after about two years, make it available for sale to bookstores and online. That’s it.
Note I said “available.” There is no guarantee that stores will even stock your book. If they do, as an unknown author, you will get bottom shelf spacing for about six weeks. Also, as an unknown author, the publisher will give zero effort to marketing your work.
On the other hand, you could hire your own editor who will give you final approval of the work. You can choose your own cover art and, with the help of zillions of online tutorials you can have your electronic book online in a couple of hours. Hell, get a paypal account and sell your physical books through your website.
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Thanks Daniel.
I don’t think I would consider trying to self-publish a dead tree version. The economies/risks just don’t really stack up unless you have a market that is already committed to you. But those argument don’t come so much into play on the Ebook front, and from the potential markets are so much larger! Especially when you are in a small physical market like New Zealand. Which is why I am starting to consider doing the eBook myself…
Michael
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