How to Publish Your Own Book

Video Transcript

"There are many factors to consider when choosing self-publishing or subsidy publishing versus traditional publishing for your book. Self-publishing is when the author owns his own ISBN number and then pays someone to do the layout and printing of his book. A subsidy publisher is someone who is paid by the author to get the ISBN numbers and assigns them to the author's book, takes care of the layout and gets the book to the printer. But the ISBN number is in the publisher's name. Published By Westview is a subsidy publisher, we also help market books and pay royalties. Traditional publishers also pay royalties, but the difference is is that a subsidy publisher is paid by the author to do the work and a traditional publisher is not. When you're trying to decide what type of publisher to use for your book, be sure to examine such things as who owns the rights to your book. Some companies will tie up the rights for as many as seven years. Are most of the things sold a la carte, which means does the custom cover cost extra? Are photos included? And do you have to design the cover or do you use a template? If so, these could add up to thousands of dollars. Also does the company simply give you the books and leave you to find the ways to market them or are they there to give you support and advice and help you? And if so, does this cost extra? Many companies don't offer these things or they offer them at extra fees. Traditional companies will pay you royalties but you may not see any for many years, and that's if you're accepted to be published through them. So that's something that you'll want to look into. These are all things that you need to check out and can do so online usually before deciding whether to publishing through self-publishing, subsidy publishing, or go the traditional route."