Why I Decided To Self Publish - #WriterWednesday

After five years of being with a publisher, the owner of the publishing house decided to get out of the business. I'd heard horror stories from some authors about publishing houses going under and the authors having to fight to get the rights to their books back. So, when that first email was sent out saying they were no longer taking new submissions I was a little nervous.

 

Luckily, once the publishing house officially closed its doors, the owner gave all the authors the rights to their books back. But this now created a new dilemma. Should I seek out another small publisher? An agent? Or should I take the plunge and self publish the books myself?

 

Because most of the affected authors saw the writing on the wall several months in advance, we all had the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons of each. Some authors choose to find new publishers, but after going back and forth with all the positives and negatives, I decided that self publishing was the direction I wanted to go in.

 

I'd been published for five years at the time and had nine published stories. The first four books in my Finding Anna series (Slave, Need, Truth, and Trust) were out, as well as the first three books in my Daniels Brothers series (Behind Closed Doors, Red Zone, and Crossing the Line). I'd been active in marketing my own books since the beginning and had worked closely with the publishing house whenever I launched a new book. I was confident I could do it on my own.

 

But that doesn't mean there wasn't a learning curve...