So You Want To Self-publish?
Good! Take ownership of your creative masterpiece and your book sales with Blurb. Blurb is the self-publishing platform all writers deserve. Having written and self-published seven titles in the decade – through Lulu.com and CreateSpace – I have the experience to back that claim.
So you’re a writer. You’re part of a #writingcommunity online. Your WIP is now a finished manuscript. You’ve cut, and proofed, and revised. Maybe you even bartered with, or paid, an experienced editor to proofread your book. And you found a graphic designer to make the cover of your dreams too!
You’re bold, confident, and determined to be an independent author. But where to begin? With so many self-publishing options, how do you know which is the best?
Amazon is the largest digital marketplace in the world.
It does make sense to publish your book via their CreateSpace imprint. But Lulu.com also offers an array of distribution options. Here’s the thing though, you don’t need the big distribution channels to sell more books.
It’s a myth that making your book available on Amazon will generate more sales. If you want to sell more books you need a consistent and dedicated marketing plan that’s more than just “hey check out my book!”
Start-to-finish, writing, publishing, and promoting your book is a marathon. The publishing part – the logistics and business side of things – is dramatically easier with Blurb. Let me tell you why.
5 Reasons You Should Self-Publish with Blurb Books:
1) The company was started by a woman.
This matters to me personally, because I think there is some differences in creative business approaches between men and women, and I welcome a fresh perspective in a leadership roles. Especially as relates to the business of creative arts and self-publishing – in these changing times!
2) The company has less than 200 employees.
Blurb is a relatively small self-publishing business that has produced some 14 million books to date. Amazon is a hyper-capitalist consumer monolith that, as of July 2019, still has an unresolved labor condition problem.
Amazon doesn’t value its employees. It doesn’t deserve your art, or a single cent from the sale of your work.
3) Blurb doesn’t make any commission off your self-published direct book sales.
Authors simply make more royalties at Blurb. Submitting your book to the global retail network can potentially cut into your royalties because Amazon and crew will want their wholesale “discounts,” and expect a cut of all your sales.
For an independent author these discounts are akin to the Mafia charging local stores a protection fee for not setting their stores on fire. With Blurb, you can fulfill your book orders from their dashboard and pay only the print & shipping cost.
How it works: You sell your book either on your own website, or through social media using payment links from any of the major payment processors. Once you get sale notification email, you head over to your Blurb account and order the book, enter your payment info, but you customer’s shipping address. Within 10 days they’ve got your book, and you just kept the majority of your earnings.
4) Blurb offers variety.
You can self-publish your trade-size paperback, hardcover, color-printed photo books on coated paper, and magazines with Blurb. It’s a true resource for the passionate communicative creative who believes in the manifestation of their artistic vision.
5) Blurb’s design is modern and smooth.
The UX is efficient. Some links need to be easier to find – like the book size calculator. Overall the site is dramatically easy to navigate. And the upload/publishing process is less than two minutes long.
The Blurb website easily guides you through how to self-publish. As opposed to CreateSpace and Lulu’s hectic processes, and outdated interfaces that can intimidate and overwhelm first time, and even experienced authors/book-publishers.
You wrote a book and you want people to read it & like it.
You deserve the gratification of seeing your work do well, and feeling proud of your success. You’ve very likely put an unquantifiable amount of brain power, heart, and work into writing your book. And you’ve got the guts enough to go ahead and self-publish.
You deserve options, and better margins, that give you more royalties for your creation. You also deserve to set a price your work that’s more likely to be bought, instead of getting ripped off by a shitty marketplace bully.
Ultimately the success of your independent, self-published book depends on your efforts, or those of your designated digital marketer. There are abundant resources available to help you promote your book. You put in the work, you’ll make the sales.
Blurb makes it just that much easier, and more promising to self-publish your book.
You don't need more ideas. You need a plan.
Do you need help going after what you want and figuring out your next steps? Book a one-hour consult and let's build your roadmap.
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