Welcome to the world of self-publishing – the place where the dream of being an author meets PayPal, PDF formatting, and a motivational email with a title like “You are the next bestseller!” (even though the last sentence of your book ends with three exclamation marks and a word that doesn’t exist).
Here, no one needs to choose you, or they simply mislead you. You send the manuscript. They read it – you wait between one and two months. But then comes the surprise, and you ask yourself: Why?
1. The first meeting with the “publisher”
You find them easily – they are everywhere.
A website with stock photos of women laughing while holding books.
Buttons with texts like “Publish your dream today!” and “We believe in every author”. “Send us your manuscript and we’ll get back to you within 8 weeks.”
You click it. You fill it out. You get a PDF with a quote.
Option A: 400 euros for the “basic package” (no proofreader, no promotion, no apology).
Option B: 1,100 euros for the “premium” package – includes an Instagram post with 12 likes and a link that leads nowhere.
Option C: 2,100 euros and a promise that your book “will be available in major bookstores” (and Amazon, of course), which translates to: it will sit for a week on some digital shelf, between “Heartburn Tips” and “Poetry from a 12-Year-Old in a Transitional Age.”
2. The Editor
There is no editor. There is a “face review.”
This includes correcting obvious mistakes like “helloo” or “the end” written as “theend.”
But the plot structure? The style? The meaning?
“This is not our responsibility.”
You are an “independent author.”
(You will be solely to blame when the review on Goodreads says, “I didn’t understand what I read, but I’m pretty sure it was a love story between a teacher and an alien plant.”)
3. The Print
The paper version arrives.
You open it excitedly.
It smells of ink and ambition.
But the pages look like a 1998 economics textbook, and the font is Times New Roman 14 because “it’s easier for elderly people to read that way.”
The book is light. Maybe because it lacks the weight of actual editing.
4. The Promotion
You receive an email with the subject line: “Next Steps to Success.”
It says:
– Share your book with friends.
– Write a post on social media.
– Take a picture of yourself with your cover (a selfie in front of a mirror is fine).
– You can also do paid Facebook advertising.
(Translation: from now on, you are on your own. Again.)
And here, you are faced with reality. (read above). No marketing, no advertising. Self-publishing publishers make money from the author, not from copies sold.
Why bother advertising? It’s easier to send an email with an offer – pay 1000 euros for full marketing. The money goes, but there are no sales.
But why do we do it?
Because we are tired of waiting. Because sometimes it is easier to pay than to endure another silence from another “real” publisher.
Because we believe that a story is worth the world to us, even if that world consists of 50 copies in a box under the bed.
And because, damn it, the illusion of reality is sometimes more necessary than reality itself.
In conclusion?
Self-publishing is like organizing a wedding for yourself with an imaginary partner.
You listen to the music, dance, put on your dress, and cut the cake. And then you wash the dishes. Alone.
But, hey, at least you take pretty pictures.
If you want your book to reach readers, or those who still know how to hold a book in their hands, know that the road is hard, lonely, and long. But you never let your dream become a product that publishers will view as a cow that everyone can milk more and more…. Without lifting a finger. No one cares about your dream and the soul that went into every line, every word, every pause between them.
Self-publishing is not an easy path, but at least it’s ours. And if you choose to take it, know: there are no magic bullets, no quick wins. There is only your intention to be heard, even when the world seems deaf.
“Publish Yourself” is an invitation to take control, but also a warning – that this freedom comes at a price. Because in the end, you are the author, the publisher, the marketing manager, and… sometimes your only reader.
But if you dream, don’t give up. Write, publish, learn, and try again. Because somewhere out there, behind the next PDF, behind the next email, your true audience may be waiting for you.
And while you are waiting, don’t forget: true power lies in the words that come from the heart. And the heart is not something to be sold off, piece by piece.