Publishing

I've done one type of publishing and am back in the ring chasing the other once more. My first two books have been self-published and yes, the marketing side of it can be a pain. However, Amazon and Goodreads offer a lot of support when it comes to promoting your work, plus the online community is a great resource for marketing tips and cross-promotion.

A friend of a friend was published through Penguin, yet she still has to run her own blog, maintain an online presence and carry her own books to events. While there are certainly marketing advantages to traditional publishing, it's still now expected that authors manage their own online presence.

Self publishing gives you complete creative control over the finished product, from the cover to the editing to the size and distribution of your work. However, I would definitely recommend investing in a professional edit and cover design. My first two books are part of a series and, even if my latest (unrelated to the series) book does get picked up by a publisher, I still plan to self-publish the entire series.

This hybrid author model is becoming more and more common, as authors realise that there are benefits to both ways of publishing. If you do get picked up by an agent and then published traditionally, well done to you! And if you decide to go down the self-publishing route, well done to you as well! Both ways mean that you get to realise your dream of being published - I think we are incredibly fortunate to have these options.

I personally am aiming to go down the traditional path with publication of my work; however I am part of a creative writing society at my university that wants to self-publish a piece of every members' work into a collection of the uni which I feel may be of some use to me. I think the issue with self-publishing is having to advertise the work yourself when this may not be something you feel able to do.