It’s true, self-publishing can be free. But approaching your book as a free venture may shortchange its success.
I am all for good deals and free finds. I love going to thrift stores and getting used furniture off the side of the road. I pride myself in being mindful and practical. So if it’s free, I’m there.
That being said, I would never recommend that an author self-publish their book for free. While it is possible to publish on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) without spending a penny, that approach does not help an author in the long run.
Some writers will self-publish their books for free and encourage other writers to do so too—until they learn better. In their mind, less money spent is more money in their pocket. But here’s why that just isn’t true when self-publishing.
Let’s take an example that’s not publishing related. While I feel confident in the majority of my spending decisions, there is one in particular that I know I should have approached differently. I desperately want to organize my home. But of course, I want to spend as little as possible. So here’s how my venture with organization has gone so far:
I started out trying to keep everything free. I picked up free containers wherever I could find them. I even spent some hours cleaning them all. I used my free finds in my closet, my garage, my pantry, anywhere. But I didn’t have enough.
So I bought containers from thrift stores. I thought I was so lucky when I could find a set of three or more. But in the end, I ended up with mismatched sets that weren’t the style or color that I wanted.
Then I got more selective, buying like-new bins that fit my style. I was willing to spend more on them, and I kept buying more. Until I realized that I had a stack of empty bins and no clue where to use them.
My husband and I finally invested in a matching set of bins. What’s funny is that we discovered that they were too big to fit on the shelves we had made. We reworked the shelves and it turned out alright, but we really should have planned completely before buying or building anything.
By approaching the organization of my home with the I-can-do-it-for-free mindset, I spent hours—days—working on something that didn’t give me the result I wanted. I kept taking it one cheap step at a time, only to find out later that it hadn’t worked. And I ended up spending a chunk of money on both the bins that didn’t work and the matching set.
Now let’s come back to self-publishing. Like organization, self-publishing won’t get anywhere if it’s done with the bare minimum. Self-publishing must be approached with an investment mindset. Here’s why.
1. Free services get some of it done, but not enough.
Yes, you can publish your book for free. Let’s say you do all the parts of the process aside from paying professionals. You go to a writing group, do self-editing, find free beta readers, do some basic formatting, and use a template to create your cover. Then you get a free ISBN from KDP, press “publish,” and voilà!, you’re a published author!
Plenty of writers have done it that way. Some have even skipped all that and just hit “publish” after a first draft. But publishing for free falls short in a few ways.
First off, writing groups and beta readers are not always trained. So while their feedback is invaluable and you should get it, that feedback is not enough. It cannot replace professional developmental editors.
Second, it doesn’t matter how many times one person reads the same manuscript—they will always miss something. Self-editing is vital and needs to happen many times, but even a trained editor will miss things in their own writing. One person is not enough. The less people looking at a manuscript, the more plot holes and writing mistakes slip through.
Third, one person cannot be good at everything. Ever hear the “jack of all trades” saying? It’s often quoted as “jack of all trades, master of none.” While that isn’t the full quote, it’s true nonetheless. Someone who tries to do it all can’t do it all at the master level. Something has to give. And when it comes to self-publishing, there is no part of the process that can take the hit. If the book hasn’t been well-written, it won’t keep readers. If it hasn’t been copyedited, reviews suffer. If the formatting isn’t right, the quality looks low. If marketing isn’t spot on, the book may as well be a money pit.
Sure, you’ll get your name on the cover of a book without any cost to you. You will have successfully gotten some bins organized. But will they bring you and your readers joy in five years? Will you want to look at your book again and again with pride? I’m not going to argue that it isn’t possible to put out a good book for free. But I will say that in all of the cases that I have come across, the benefit of being free was ultimately not enough.
2. Money spent does not guarantee money well-spent.
Let’s say you realize that you need more than what free services can give, but you still want to keep your spending to a minimum. So you decide to find the most affordable options, like a package with a small publisher or a pre-made cover that you found for a killer price.
It’s entirely possible that you came across a really good deal. However, in the majority of cases, cheap services will produce a cheap-looking book that doesn’t match your or your audience’s expectations, just like my shelves didn't when I bought the cheapest options. When it comes to self-publishing, selectivity will get you more bang for your buck, even if the price tag is higher.
Remember, buying just because it looks like a good deal is rarely a good idea. Even if you manage to avoid the plethora of scammers out there, it’s unlikely that the cheapest option will result in a book that matches your vision. And too often, those good deals end in unprofessional service.
3. Less is not always more.
Choosing better service is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the only step. When I started being more selective about which bins I thrifted, my closet looked better—except for the stack of empty bins. I ultimately had paid for items that weren’t fulfilling their purpose. The same thing can happen to an author who budgets for only the most essential services.
For example, many authors know that they need corrections to punctuation and grammar, or a proofread. What they may not understand is that a proofread is not the only step in editing. It is in fact the final, very, very last step before a document is sent to the printer. A proofread cannot happen before then, or it will not catch what it is meant to. Plus, a proofread cannot fix poor writing. Hiring only a proofreader will merely scratch the surface.
Paying for less service in order to have more money is, in essence, paying for containers with no clear purpose. You’ll have a book that perhaps looks good at first but is ultimately empty.
4. Planning gets it right the first time.
I finally went with a full set of good-quality bins. But my mistakes and lack of planning resulted in more work to get things where they needed to be. That’s how it often goes for authors too. I’ve seen many authors posting in writing groups about how they hired a low-baller and were ghosted. Or they didn’t research a hybrid publisher and it turned out to be a scam. There’s also the common mistake of buying a book cover that didn’t fit the genre, which results in needing a new designer and a new edition of the book.
Unfortunately, mistakes made in order to cut costs really only end in more costs. Money is wasted, and more money is needed to fix what was incorrectly done. Without planning, budgeting, and saving for the full publishing process, we end up with a lot of stress and less money than we originally budgeted for anyway.
I get the desire to pay little to nothing upfront. It feels like a good deal. And sometimes, it is. But sometimes, it’s not.
What would have happened if I had approached organizing my home with an investment mindset? I could have saved a lot of money and time by paying for a good organization set in the first place. And if I had taken a step further and hired a professional organizer, I would have been guided in exactly what to buy, how many to buy, and which sizes fit best on my shelves. The original investment would have saved me days of cleaning, shopping, decluttering, re-organizing, sitting in overwhelm, and spending money I didn’t need to.
By hiring qualified editors, designers, and marketers, things get done without the painstaking research and mistakes. Your time is freed, your mental capacity is compounded, and your motivation is urged on. It requires a monetary investment, but it ends in fulfillment. Your cover will fit the current trends, your story will hook readers, and your characters will have depth.
When it comes to self-publishing, keeping it free will likely result in less sales and less fulfillment. Give yourself permission to invest in your book. You’ve already worked so hard and invested so much time into writing—now it’s time to invest in the publishing of your book too.
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