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Why Writers Must Self-Publish Their Novels

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GM Books

The book industry is thriving. As an aspiring author, you dream of getting published, but you can spend months or even years waiting to hear back. If you are lucky, you might get a rejection letter, but most of the time, you might not even get one. Rarely do top publishing companies and agents consider newbies. They often reject most submissions from newbies for a ton of reasons. Sometimes even established authors have a hard time getting their manuscripts accepted. Hence as an aspiring author, it's better to try your luck with self-publishing. Here are reasons you should try it out.


More control


When you self-publish your novel, you have complete control over your work and the publishing process. You pick the title, length of the book, cover design, and more. Traditional publishing houses are full of gatekeepers who govern the content, cover design, and even the title of your book. This can critically impede your creativity and even cause writer's block. However, if you self-publish, you have full creative control. 


Faster publishing times


Another reason you should self-publishing is the faster publishing times. The amount of time between finishing the manuscript and publishing the final sellable product is greatly reduced as there fewer hoops to jump through. You can even get your novel in less than a week as it takes about 6 hours to upload an ebook to digital marketplaces and print-on-demand services are available in 24 hours. 


More profits


in traditional publishing, royalty rates are a lot lower than what you would get if you self-published. You can earn anywhere between 30 to 70% of the royalties, unlike the 10 to 15% maximum you get when working with traditional publishing houses.  


It's a great way to test things out


Self-publishing a novel is a great way to test the waters as you can write short books and see how you would do as an author. Nowadays, audiences prefer concise, easy-to-read information, so the short, direct self-publishing process allows you to put out books and hone your writing skills. This is also a great way to figure out what genre you are good at and easily gauge your success or failure. Self-publishing allows you to know if your book is a hit or a miss a lot faster than you would if you used traditional publishing methods. 


It's a great way to make a name for yourself



Lastly, it is hard becoming a New York Times bestseller overnight, especially as a first-time writer. That's because not many readers know who you are or your work, and it's a lot harder to get the attention you need. Self-publishing lets you create a fanbase and build up the audience you need to show that you have the potential to be big. It's no secret that many authors started off self-publishing before making it big, and building this following can help attract the attention of traditional publishing houses in the future. 

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