The Upsides and Downsides of Being a Self-Published Author

Being a self-published author has its upsides and its downsides.

A major upside is that it gives you a hell of a lot of control.

A major downside is that it gives you a hell of a lot of control.

Having a quick glance of the proof copies of my paperbacks, it was evident that the print was way too small - again.

I thought I had dealt with this issue last time. It's a complete nuisance because I then have to figure out why this is happening, then I have to spend time rectifying it; then I have to wait for more proofs to come through to see if the issue has been dealt with.

Hopefully now - fingers crossed, I've sorted it out once and for all. When the proofs come through the post, we will see.

(It had something to the do with the margins in Word being too big for the size of the book I had selected in Createspace. Because of this, when it went to print, they shrunk the print to fit the size I had selected. Oh, and by the way, Createspace have been super supportive with all the issues I've had whilst trying to get my books to print.)

Whilst sorting that out I noticed a few alterations I wanted to make - and this is one of the upsides to self-publishing: the ability to make changes whenever you want, without getting into trouble with the publisher.

Of course, these changes would've probably been dealt with if I paid for an editor in the first place, but like everybody else I've been cutting costs where I can. I've sent my books to various people (members of my "dream-team") whom I trust, but even they don't see where changes need to occur when it comes to individual style; choice of word; preferred grammatical changes etc. I'm so damn keen to get my work out there that a lot of changes don't come about until months after I've pressed the 'publish' button.

And when I make changes it means that for hours at a time my books go offline.

So apologies if you've not being able to purchase them.

It's my fault...

If you're a self-published author or would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before you take the leap into the world of self-publishing, check out this video I found the other day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfwY2rI8qAc

www.gavinwhyte.co.uk