Self Publishing vs Traditional Publishing

Traditional Publishing
There was a time when the possibility of getting your book published could have been compared to climbing Mt Everest.  After years of slaving over your manuscript to make it the best it could be, the day came when you finally said, 'It's finished.'  What a great feeling, but little did you know that getting your masterpiece traditionally published was yet another Mt Everest to climb.


Why?  Because as few traditional publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts, you first need to find an agent to represent you.  This mightn't sound too difficult a task, but more often than not, it is.  You start by trawling through lists of agents as well as sending your manuscript to those publishers who DO accept unsolicited manuscripts.  You live in hope every time you receive a reply be it snail mail or email.  After months, if not years of rejections, you start to wonder if it's worth all the effort you're putting into it.

Self Publishing
But I'm happy to say that we no longer have to put ourselves through any of the above if we don't wish to because now there's another way.  We can self publish.  All we need to accomplish this task is at our fingertips.  A computer and the world wide web to enable us to publish our book, and a plethora of places to choose from.  For example,
Kindle Direct Publishing
Create Space
Smashwords 
Lulu, etc.


Not to mention social media when it comes to marketing.  Useful site to use for this purpose have been listed in the following blog posts,

Marketing
A guide to marketing your book


Self publishing may not be everyone's cup of tea, but having been traditionally published and having self published, I have to say that self publishing does have its benefits.  These include control over:-

• cover
• blurb
• formats
• publication
• marketing
• pricing
• knowledge of your sales 
• full rights

You might also want to take a look at this article on how to publish a Kindle ebook, written by Jeff Goins and shared by Michael Hyatt on his web site.

How to Successfully Self Publish a Kindle eBook