Five Reasons You Should Self-Publish

There will always be arguments from all sides about the value of self-publishing. There are traditionally published authors who complain that self-published authors are sloppy and lazy. There are self-published authors who complain that traditionally published authors are snotty and elitist. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion when it comes to the pros and cons of publishing.

At the end of the day, your writing career is yours alone. You are in charge of your own career. You can steer it in whatever direction you desire. And these days, you can be in full and complete control of every step of your writing career if you so choose.

Many authors choose to self-publish because they don't want to wait months or years for agents, editors, and publishing houses to get back to them. Others are impatient. Others want control.

There are dozens of reasons you should self-publish your book just as there are dozens of reasons you should NOT publish your own book. However, here are five reasons that some people use when they choose to self-publish.

1. You are in control of your own content. 
No one is going to tell you to remove chapter sixteen because it sucks. No one is going to tell you that the story doesn't have a proper ending. No one is going to squash down your idea of telling your story from three points of views in one paragraph. No one is going to tell you that your choice of genre is dead. You can tell your story in whatever manner you desire in as many words and chapters as you want.

2. You are in control of your own cover.
Gone are the days when authors freak out over cover art that doesn't reflect their books. You can hire and fire as many cover artists as you desire in your quest for the perfect vision for your opus. You can even save money and design your own cover. Many of the self-publishing platforms provide templates to do just this. Your book cover art, author blurbs, and book description are under your complete control. You no longer have to suffer with cover art that you hate.

3. You don't have to wait years for your book to be published.
The minute you type "The End" you can upload that baby and have a published book within a day or two, depending on which platform you use. You don't even have to invest any additional money for the print version if you use a platform such as CreateSpace.

4. You earn a way bigger royalty.
You will discover that if you self-publish you can earn huge royalties. If you publish e-books, you have virtually no overhead except for hiring your developmental editor, your copy editor, your proof-reader, and your cover artist. After those expenses, every penny you earn goes back to YOU! No publishing house is scooping the majority of your royalty money. No agent is scooping up 15 - 20% of your earnings. Nope, you get to keep every single shiny penny for yourself! Forever. Unlike traditional print publishing houses, your e-books and p.o.d. books will never go out of print until you unpublish them.

5. You are in control of your own career.
If you burst awake in the night with an idea for a sequel to your book, you can spend a few weeks writing it, send it off to your favourite freelance editor for a month of vigorous editing while your favourite cover designer works on your new cover, and boom, your sequel is ready within weeks. If you wanted to write a sequel with a traditional publishing house, you would have to pitch it, wait for the sales team to crunch your numbers, your editor would decide if it's financially viable, and then you would have to wait for a contract IF you passed all the financial hurdles. After the contract, you can get started on your sequel which likely won't see print for another year or two. When you self-publish, you can get your work out to your fans at your own pace without wasting time for others to dictate your fate.


Self-publishing isn't for everyone but it can be way for authors with entrepreneurial spirit and a bit of money in the bank to get their work out into the world. If you approach your writing career like a business, you will likely have some measure of success. As long as you write the best book that you can, and get it professionally edited and proof-read, you have as good of a shot as anyone else for a long and possibly even financially successful career as a writer.

If you need a developmental editor, copy editor, line editor, or proof-reader, please contact us today at Scarlett Editing.  sephgiron @ gmail.com