Big Publisher or Self Publishing

Write a book they said….If only I would have known the growing pains I would experience trying to turn my little poem about my daughter into a book. After sharing my poem with a few friends and family and everyone encouraging me to turn it into a book, I started to look into it. What would it take to transport the words on my notebook into a physical children’s book? Would I submit my work to a bunch of publishers with the hopes that they would see my poems potential? Would I go down the path of self publishing even though I had no idea what that would entail? I did my research on both. Google was my best friend as I began this journey. I found this website “http://thejohnfox.com/2016/03/children-book-publishers/” with a list of 30 childrens book publishers and I first began with submitting to the ones that accepted email submissions and aligned with my style of book. After sending those emails, I began looking up self publishing options. I looked at Blurb, Createspace, and Ingram Sparks. Each was offering the same thing with different benefits. I watched Youtube videos from people who had published using each platform. After thinking about it for a while and no response from the bigger publishers and largely due to my impatience, I decided I would self publish. I went with Createspace because I knew someone else you had published with them and, to be honest, because they were free! I knew I would need an illustrator and I was not sure how much that would cost me. I was not sure if anyone would even buy my book, so I went with the most cost effective route. Createspace offered free ISBN’s and I really didn’t understand as much as I do now the difference in owning publishing and having Createspace own my ISBN. Basically if I used the free ISBN under publisher it would state “ Createspace Independent Publishing” however, if I bought the $99 ISBN I could create my own publishing name and my book would be branded in case I wanted to release more books down the line. I did not know if I would be releasing more books so I opted for the free ISBN. In hindsight, I now see the benefits of paying for the ISBN. My author is still new and I am learning by trial and error. So to new authors, if you think their might be more than one book in you, I suggest creating a brand around that and having your own publishing company. Createspace has since merged with Kindle Direct Publishing. I have do not have any experience publishing through Kindle so I can not speak on that process but shipping with them has been much better. I find that if I am ordering author copies I get them way faster than I did with Createspace. My next book will come out 2020 so Ill be able to speak more on this platform at a later time. My impatience lead me down a path of self publishing and I feel like it was the best decision I could of made. It would have been nice to have a big publisher in my corner helping push my book but now I know every book sold is a direct result of my hard work. Every post on Instagram or Facebook, reaching out to potential bookstores that might want to carry my book, word of mouth to anyone who would listen, that was all me! And luckily I have super amazing friends and family who joined me in my grassroots promotions. My friends would help me decipher hard to understand bookstore contracts and allow me to bounce new book ideas off of them. They should all be co authors as they have helped me tremendously. Do you have family and or friends that encourage you to follow your dreams? Are you considering writing a book and are deciding between tradition publishing and self publishing? Have you used Kindle Direct Publishing? Comment below and join the conversation!