Today is a Great Time to Be A Writer

Today is the greatest time to be a writer because you no longer need agents or publishing houses to get published. You don't even need guidance from companies who promise to get your work to market. All you need is desire and hard work. There are still a number of myths about the benefits of having a publisher. I'm here to tell you that for most of us those are just myths.

Self-publishing is all about money, time, control and power. In the olden days before Amazon opened Kindle to the indi writer, when getting an agent and a publisher were all there was, publishers would pay you 7-15 percent of the money your book brought in. Today you can earn 65-70 percent and you get paid every month. Indeed, you charge less but you earn more and in the end it breaks even. You have control over your cover art which - since it's the first thing anyone sees and is the grabber - can be incredibly important.

Publishers take two years to get your books from contract to market. It takes you ten to fifteen minutes to get your book up and selling. So for those two years your book is earning money and you are being paid for your work. You are in control of what you write, how your book looks and ultimately of your success.

But, you say, publishers do all my PR for me, they make me famous. Not really. Publishers do PR for people like the Clintons who are already out there doing their own PR and are already famous....you do PR for yourself even when you have a publisher unless you are a big name. Indeed, unless you are a big name, who is already doing PR, you generally don't get a publisher. Publishers want names not dreams.

Finally, books that get into bookstores from publishing houses have very limited shelf life - weeks - sometimes months. Rarely is a book available years after it has been published. If you use companies like Create Space for your paperbacks, Ingram Spark for distribution to bookstores and the digital platforms like Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords and Apple to publish and distribute your books, your books have an unlimited lifetime of availability - that is particularly true with the Amazon companies like Create Space which guarantees space on Amazon in perpetuity. Most importantly, you get quality product unlike some of the xerox, stable and glue that used to be what self-publishing looked like.

There is definitely a learning curve with self-publishing. There are pitfalls. But, it is a marvelous opportunity for everyone who loves to write and wants to get their books out to market. More and more indie publishers are making huge sales and winning awards, recognition and honors. More and more writers who used to be with publishing houses are moving into the indie market - some of them have even turned down six figure advances to be independent.

Today publishing isn't about a few having access to limited opportunities. Today publishing is about how hard you are willing to work and how good you are. These are indeed very exciting times.