Self Publishing in India
Over the time, Self Publishing in India has become a popular tool for the writers and the authors to get published. With the growing number of writers and authors in India, the count of the self publishers is growing rapidly too. The interesting thing about the self publishing method is that it comes in as a handy option especially for the young writers and the debutant authors. Young writers and debutant authors, whose exposure to the publishing field is comparatively less than the veterans, are often seen going with the option of self publishing. As self publishing provides the option of an easy & quicker release that too with a higher involvement of the author in the publishing process!
What is Self Publishing?
Self Publishing occurs when an Author handles the entire Book Publication process, including printing, distribution and marketing. Author execution of all details during the self-publishing process is commonly called Independent Publishing. The Author either has the skill set to carry out the Book Publishing steps such as Book Formatting/Indexing, Cover Designing and other such requirements of the Book or Employs Professionals to complete the process for them.
In other words, self publishing (also known as independent publishing) refers to the situation where an author undertakes or shares deep involvement with the entire publishing process – including printing, editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design and book marketing with the support of a self publisher!
There are several reasons for the self publishing method to gain the level of popularity that it has gained in India. Well, let us cover those aspects, which had led to the rise of self publishing in India.
Also Read: Traditional Publishing vs Self Publishing in India
Why Self Publishing
- Authors’ enjoys the complete control over the manuscript.
- Authors’ have the full creative liberty.
- Easy acceptance of the manuscript.
- Faster & scheduled release of the books.
- Authors have their say in the setting of the book’s price.
- Profit Sharing Rate is immensely high, i.e. 70% to 100% at times.
Now, since we have covered the ‘Benefits of Self Publishing’ let us move our focus towards the process of getting published through the self publishing method. Well, the process of self publishing includes a series of steps however; these steps are often carried out very smoothly.
Process of Self Publishing a Book in India
Writing
Well, this is the first and the foremost step involved in getting a book published. The book writing or the manuscript completion is often carried out the authors themselves only, before submitting their work to the publisher. Except for some cases, where the author hires a ‘Ghostwriter’ and gets the writing part done by someone else. In such cases of hiring the ghostwriters, the self publishing companies helps the authors to find the right person for the job!
Also Read: Ghostwriting Services in India
Editing
Interestingly, this is one part where the authors gets way too many options, first one is that they can carry out the editing of their work by themselves only. While, another option for the authors is to hire a freelancer editor to get the editing of their manuscript done. Ultimately, the authors also enjoys luxury of getting the editing as well as proofreading done by the publisher itself.
Typesetting/ Designing
This is one such step from where the role of the publisher becomes more significant, as most of the authors submitting their manuscript do not follow the actual page size of a book in their draft. Therefore, the publisher has to make sure that the typesetting as well as the interior page designing of the book goes well with the standard size of the book, in which the printing of the book is carried out.
Cover Designing
Just like the editing part, here too the authors gets three options. As they can either design the book cover themselves or hire a freelance designer and get the designed prepared. And finally, the author can take the help of the publisher to get the book cover design ready!
Publishing/ Releasing
This step calls for the 100% involvement of the publisher. The authors can schedule the date of the releasing their books but ultimately, it is the publisher that releases the books after all the completion of all those steps, which are required for the publishing of the books.
Book Distribution
Distribution in self publishing has somewhat a limited scope. The books gets listed on online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Kindle, Google Play Books etc. While the distribution of the books to the physical bookstores is not taken care of by most of the self publishers, unless the authors opt for any special deal of getting their books placed in the physical bookstores!
Book Marketing
Finally, comes the marketing part, over here the publisher provides a great number of marketing & promotional deals to the authors. Marketing & promotional activities are offered to the authors as a deal in their publishing packages. In addition, when an author chooses for the marketing & promotional plans then the publisher provides the author with several marketing benefits like promotions on social media, advertisement on online marketplaces like amazon or kindle, author’s certificates, press releases, author interviews etc.
Self Publishing Companies in India
In the past few years, we have witnessed a tremendous growth in the self publishing companies in India. Each day with new writers and authors coming out with their works and hoping to get published has given a great boost to the self publishing companies in India. It is also worthy to note that with the easy & quick publishing services, the self publishing companies have bloomed to multi-folds in the Indian Literary World.
Different Models of Self Publishing Companies in India
DIY Publishing
As the name suggests, it is a ‘Do-it-Yourself’ style of self publishing where there is no team available to help the authors on any front. Well, the authors can custom create from the choices available on the publishing website in order to publish their books!
Guided Publishing
This is most popular style of self publishing, in guided publishing, the authors are guided at each & every single step of the publishing. Right from the submission of the manuscript till the releasing & marketing of the book, the authors are guided by the team members of the publisher.
eBook Publishing
In this style of self publishing, the book is published only in the electronic format. After the eBook gets prepared in the required formats like PDF or epub, the eBook gets released on various online marketplaces like kindle, google play books, nook, kobo etc. for the readers to purchase only the digital or the electronic version of the books!
How To Contact Self Publishing Companies In India
Well, this part is not at all a tricky one, rather it is one of the most easy things to carry out for the budding authors. If an author is looking forward to connect with the self publishing companies in India then all he or she needs to do is to browse for the self publishing companies operating in India through the search engines. That’s it.
It is truly as simple as that, as by searching for the self publishing companies in India, the authors will find a number of results, where the websites of the various self publishing companies will be shown in the search result. The authors simply needs to visit those websites and look for the contact information of those companies provided in their websites.
How To Select A Self Publishing Company
After completing the previous step of contacting the self publishing companies, the next step for the authors is to select a self publishing company. Now, here the authors need to be bit careful in analyzing the deals provided by the various self publishing companies. The authors need to go through the various deals pitched to them and understand that why they really require!
It is not always about the most number of service or marketing plans that makes sense, the author needs to analyze that if he or she really needs those services or not. After, making those vital analyses the author needs to choose the best offer provided to him or her by comparing all the options provided by the shortlisted self publishing companies.
Is Self Publishing Profitable?
Now, here comes something that is very complex to answer, as the answer varies from author to author. For some authors, yes self publishing is indeed profitable, as they knows the art of selling their books by utilizing all the resources at their dispose. While for other authors, self publishing is not profitable and they go on spending more & more trying to promote the sales of their books and in the end realizing that instead of generating sales, they have created a wider gap from the profit margin!
Conclusion
‘Self Publishing in India’ is undoubtedly an interesting concept and this method of publishing is profitable too. Otherwise, we could not have witnessed such a huge rise in self publishing companies that too in the past few years. Well, one can easily conclude that ‘Self Publishing’ is the future of publishing in India and even across as most of the years’ old established traditional publishers too have started their self publishing branch in India in the last couple of years.
Moreover, with the ease and quickness that the self publishing model provides to the anxious authors it is easy to determine that why this method of publishing is becoming the favorite of all the new age authors!
