Should I Self Publish?
How to Make the Right Choice for Your Technical Book
Is it better to self-publish or use a publisher? Perhaps there’s more than one right answer.
You want to write a technical book, but before you even start, you should think about how you are going to get it out into the world. Is it better to go the self-publishing route or use a publisher?
There are advantages to going with a traditional publisher. There are also advantages to self-publishing. Perhaps not surprisingly, those advantages are distinctly different. What makes one type of publishing “better,” ultimately, is what you want from the experience.
And while some authors are clear on which direction they want to go, the decision is more nuanced for many of us. It’s a matter of balancing our needs, wants, abilities, expertise, time, money, and our reasons for publishing in the first place.
What Are My Options?
Before we jump into the self-publishing and publisher differences, I should point out that the publisher in question here is The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Pragmatic specializes in “How To” books covering technical categories such as game development, programming languages, data science, web development, and similar topics.
Then, just to make things fun, let’s add a piece to the puzzle. With The Pragmatic Bookshelf, you have a third option: distribution. Distribution with a publisher is the middle ground where you still get many of the benefits of self-publishing, but you also have help getting your book out into the world.
⭐️ For a more in-depth look at publishing or distribution with The Pragmatic Bookshelf, check out “Self-Publishing, Distribution, or Traditional Publishing,” by Margaret Eldridge.⭐️
Since this post talks about distribution and traditional publishing, I’ll cover traditional publishing just briefly here, and then we’ll get into some of the details of self-publishing.
With traditional publishing, you submit a proposal to a publisher based on your idea and usually a sample chapter or two. From there, your book becomes a partnership. You have a developmental editor, technical readers, and copy editors to help you refine your content and produce a final piece that’s the best it can be. When your book is ready, a traditional publisher helps with marketing and distribution.
The partnership aspect means that your publisher will have input into the content, the flow of the book, cover art, and so forth. You do give up some creative control, but you may find the benefits are well worth it. Again, though, take a look at “Self-Publishing, Distribution, or Traditional Publishing” for more details on what that means for you.
Seven Self-Publishing Considerations
Let’s talk about self-publishing. Is it better to self-publish or go with a traditional publisher? Here are some things to consider when it comes to self-publishing.
- Editing expenses. Even the best writers need an editor. The going rate, according to the Editorial Freelancers Association, is $46-$50 per hour (averaging 6 pages per hour) for copyediting and proofreading. Developmental editing can be as much as $70 per hour (averaging 3 pages per hour). To put that into perspective, copyediting for a 500 page book could easily be close to $4,000. Of course, some editors will work more quickly and your book may have fewer pages, but you can count on spending a bit to hire an editor.
- Formatting. Formatting a book is not always as easy as it might seem. You need to consider the number of pages, spacing between words and lines, print size, any links if applicable and if the book is digital, you’ll need to consider page size, font, and so on. Formatting prices are similar to copyediting. So again, if you hire someone to format your book, you can expect to run into the $1,500 — $2,000 range.
- Cover design. It is impossible to overstate the importance of cover design for your book. In a digital world, people will judge your book by its cover. A good graphic designer can charge $50 per hour or more. How long the cover design takes is up for discussion. Original, detailed artwork will take time, but may bring more attention to your book. Stock photos or designs made with templates will reduce the time needed to create your cover, but may leave you with less exciting results. That said, you are in complete control of the art when you self-publish. And with tools like Adobe Illustrator, or sites like Figma and Canva, it is possible to design an exciting cover of your own if you’re willing to put in some time.
- Royalties. Okay, self-publishing isn’t all about expenses. There’s potential for income, too! You keep anywhere from 70–100% of the income when you self-publish compared to publisher royalty rates, which may be around 15%. (Although The Pragmatic Bookshelf royalty rates are up to 50%!) As an example, when you self-publish with Amazon, you get up to 70% royalty rates for digital books and 60% for paperback and hardcover books. You can also go to a book printing service like Barnes and Noble Press and order physical copies of your book. A 400-page paperback with standard black and white print will run somewhere around $8-$12 per book.
- Permissions. We’re getting into some legal territory here, but if you use other people’s work within your own, you’ll need to consider copyrights and permissions. This includes your agreement with any artists involved with the project or things like quoting song lyrics, should you find the need to do so. In some cases, this may be simple, but that’s not always the case.
- Copyright. Speaking of legal issues, when you self-publish, the copyright is yours and yours alone. You could, theoretically, sell your story to Hollywood for a big ole’ check and spend the rest of your writing career on a yacht. More than that, however, is that you can do what you want with your book over time. If you want to share a chapter for a textbook, reprint your book, or make t-shirts and coffee mugs from the text, you can.
- Speed to market. With traditional publishing, it can take up to a year or more to get your book on the physical or digital shelf. Self-publishing means you can send your book off to the printer or the digital bookstore as soon as you are ready.
What’s Right for You?
If you’re looking at publishing expenses and thinking that self-publishing is too expensive, remember those costs aren’t absolute. There are a lot of ways you can cut expenses. It really depends on how much of the work you want to do yourself.
That’s part of the beauty of self-publishing. You can decide how much of the work you want to do yourself.
In the meantime, if you’d like help or you’re interested in submitting a book proposal to The Pragmatic Programmers, read through our Publish with Us page and get in touch!
