4. RIGHTS: you retain all rights including foreign-language rights, e-book rights, movie rights, television rights etc. When you sign with a publisher, they will ask for all rights to be signed over. This means that instead of the author earning 100% from the sale of movie rights, they’ll likely only receive 10% and the publisher will receive the rest.
5. INCOME: you earn higher royalties per book—30 to 70% of the retail price of an eBook compared to 25% or less from a publisher. For a print version, authors will receive 10% or perhaps a round sum like $1 per book whereas self-published authors, depending on their pricing model receive around 30% per printed book sale. Traditionally published authors also have to pay an agent 10-15% commission on all sales.
6. PAYMENT: publishers only tally royalties once or twice a year, whereas, you will receive a check from Amazon.com, B&N and Smashwords every month. You can also check your sales results daily online.
7. NO BACKLIST: a publisher can backlist your book if your sales are inadequate, which means your book is no longer available for purchase. All of that time-intensive work writing your book, getting an agent and a publisher might result in your book being on bookshelves for a matter of months. The average life span of a book printed by a traditional publisher is approximately 18 months which is not sufficient time, for a debut author particularly, to build a platform and garner a fan base. I know of one author who was backlisted, unbeknown to him, after just six months. When you self-publish, your book will never be unavailable unless you decide to withdraw it from sale.
8. ISBN: You can obtain an ISBN (an industry standard number that identifies your book) online from an ISBN Registrar. You don’t need an ISBN for an eBook, but it is desirable. You should have a separate ISBN for each format of your book.
9. OUTSOURCING: There are numerous companies today offering a range of services for self-published authors with packages to suit any budget. These packages can include editing, marketing, press releases, video book trailers etc. Be wary though of companies that offer to upload your eBook for you under their account name. Insist on uploading it under your name so you can monitor your sales and you receive your royalty checks directly.
10. POD: As a self-published author, you no longer have to order large quantities of your book and store them in a corner of your living room. Print-on-demand (POD) technology means a book will be produced when someone buys it, and you can be satisfied with the quality of the end product. If you need books for an event eg a book signing, it is more economical to order the quantity you need for that event, albeit the cost per book is higher for smaller orders, but in the long run, you will spend much less than buying 1,000 books in bulk because a company has a ‘special deal for you’.