{"id":1330,"date":"2016-02-19T15:18:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T15:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.immersive.pub\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2018-01-26T14:19:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T14:19:33","slug":"diy-publishing-route-success-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/2016\/02\/diy-publishing-route-success-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Publishing\u2014Is it the Route to Success or Disaster?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2366\" src=\"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2009.png\" alt=\"2009\" width=\"600\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2009.png 600w, https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2009-300x100.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Would you rewire your house?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>How about replacing an archaic sewage system?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Should you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>And what <em>does<\/em> that all have to do with\u00a0<\/strong><strong>self-publishing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The sixth secret the gurus don\u2019t tell you when you\u2019re writing your book.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Why do we call in professionals to deal with essential maintenance or installation of electrical and plumbing equipment in our homes?<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few of the key reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Because our family\u2019s safety and wellbeing is our number one priority.<\/li>\n<li>Because we lack knowledge or skill when dealing with these potentially dangerous elements (electricity and water).<\/li>\n<li>Because we don\u2019t have the time or inclination to spend time and money learning the ins and outs of electrical engineering or plumbing systems so we can do it <i>safely<\/i> ourselves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Some do go it alone&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yet, if you have ever stumbled across programmes such as DIY SOS, you\u2019ll know that some well-intentioned amateurs do have a go at their own electrical, plumbing or building work\u2026 Often with disastrous and dangerous results.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I\u2019m not going to argue that attempting to self-publish your book will put you in a life-threatening position. But it could cause serious damage to your reputation or credibility as an expert or professional in your field.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Self-publishing or just pressing PRINT?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most people understand self-publishing as the process whereby the author undertakes all the preparation of their book \/ e-book and then uploads it directly to the various publishing platforms (Kindle, etc.). This is presented as easy to do. Why waste time working with publishers or editors, or indeed with anyone else at all if you can simply press a button and your Word document gets sucked up into the cloud and you can declare yourself published?<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t publishing, not even self-publishing. It is simply the equivalent of pressing the PRINT button on your laptop, except this time it doesn\u2019t print out on your printer it magically appears in the Kindle store.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Genuine self-publishing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>True self-publishing recognises that a lot more goes into a powerful, compelling and successful book than simply pressing the PRINT button on your Word document.<\/p>\n<p>A true self-publisher will know that, to guarantee the quality, integrity and impact of their book, they\u2019ll need to <em><strong>invest<\/strong><\/em> in&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>editorial<\/strong> and development work on the text<\/li>\n<li>careful <strong>design<\/strong> of the cover and the interior (which many self-publishers pay little attention to)<\/li>\n<li>having an understanding of the various <strong>distribution<\/strong> options<\/li>\n<li>knowing which routes to market will be most <strong>appropriate<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>researching the <strong>legal<\/strong> pitfalls and <strong>financial<\/strong> technicalities of self-publishing platforms<\/li>\n<li><strong>understanding<\/strong> your market, <strong>audience<\/strong>, and how you\u00a0<strong>promote<\/strong> your title to them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you\u2019ve got the time to spare <em>it is possible<\/em> to create a powerful, compelling, high quality and successful book using genuine self-publishing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do what you do best<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But if you\u2019d rather focus on your area of strength and expertise to develop the quality of the content then you\u2019ll choose to rely on others whose expertise can shape, edit, design, produce and distribute your books and e-books.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you <i>could<\/i> rewire your house.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you <i>could<\/i> mess about with sewage.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you <i>could<\/i> self-publish.<\/p>\n<p>But <i>should<\/i> you?<\/p>\n<p>If you self-publish properly (managing your own team of editors, designers, etc.) or choose to work with experienced publishers, you will create a professional, high quality book with the greatest potential to transform the lives of your readers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Because your readers\u2019 wellbeing and results are your top priority.<\/li>\n<li>Because you aren&#8217;t aware of the many hidden dangers that lead to putting out badly edited and designed books.<\/li>\n<li>Because you know that your clients want you to share your expertise with them in the most powerful way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;and to do all this you\u2019ll need to leverage other professionals\u2019 skills.<\/p>\n<p>The sixth secret\u2014self-publishing <i>isn\u2019t<\/i> the easy option, it\u2019s the dangerous one.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would you rewire your house?\u00a0 How about replacing an archaic sewage system? Should you? And what does that all have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,4,6,7,14,15,1,17],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-secrets","category-authors","category-creation","category-editorial","category-quality","category-self-publishing","category-uncategorized","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immersive.pub\/wpip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}