Why Share the Wealth

by Aaron Elkin
(Florida)

I began self-publishing with "Pirate's Gold" a teen book about teen situations and of course pirate gold! Choosing between a standard publisher and self-publishing was not difficult. I know from experience that standard publishers demands are greater than the returns. With this in mind I chose to self publish. I could set the times I chose to travel to book signings, readings, and book conventions. I decided to go with BookSurge, which is Amazon’s publishing arm, instead of one of the many other self-publishing companies. BookSurge offered most of what I was looking for. Like many companies of their caliber they offer many other services that are not included in the basic packages.

With self-publishing you gain a respect for what it takes to get your book read and sold. Promotions are fine, but if they are not seen or read by your target audience than they are useless. Although you can hire a sales team to sell your book, the most profitable salesperson is the author. When an author includes middlemen than the profit drops considerably. Soon your royalty checks will look like the ones the standard publishers send.

Self-publishing is becoming more respected in the markets today. Amazon and other online bookstores drive a fair percentage of the sales for self-published books. An author can actually self-publish and allow Amazon and the other online catalogs to promote the book without doing anything more. Or, an author of a self-published book can get their book into the hands of genre specific book clubs, and other outlets to promote the book to any level the author wishes to go. The bottom line is that a standard publisher is going to demand that you the author do most of the promotion of your book, so why share the wealth?

Visit Aaron and Pirates Gold.