Publishing for Free?

Is it possible to Self-Publish for Free?

The short answer to the above question is yes. The longer answer however is much more complicated and involves considering the following steps.

Editing

Publishers have paid specialists who will spend hours and days tirelessly editing your book trying to make it perfect for release to the wide world, do you need editing? Yes it is a very useful tool to achieving a more polished book.

As a Self-publisher you can employ someone to carry out this task for you, there are plenty of specialists available on sites like peopleperhour.com who will charge you on a per word basis, but this isn't free. Can editing be done without cost, yes by scouring your own pages multiple times and giving the book out to trustworthy and willing friends, you must however insist upon honest feedback. The result won't be as polished as a professional might make it, but you do not need to spend any money if you don't want to.

Format

E-books are simple, for example Kindle is free to upload and manage your books, having built in software to make the process quick to use and easy to understand, this is one example amongst others so there is no cost associated with the physical act of publishing an e-book.

Physical books are different, whether you are dealing with long run or short run prints and even print on demand there is still a set-up cost. Amazon Createspace is mostly free to use, however you do have to buy the first copy of your book so you can proof it.

If only going for e-book then yes it is free to publish, if you want to distribute physical books there will be cost involved, however that cost could be as low as the cost of a single book.

Distribution

If dealing with an e-book then it's a case of transferring a file, so no cost involved, print on demand/Createspace the cost of distribution is the delivery cost paid for by the buyer. If you have your own physical books and they need to reach the retailer then the cost is on you for delivery.

Marketing

You are looking at a black hole here, marketing is one of the hardest things to get right, it is easily possible to burn through thousands of pounds here and see very little response for it, alternatively if you managed to do something very clever, it could spread virally and not cost you a penny.

The issue is that no one can really predict what the public will care enough about in order to ensure a viral reaction, but by that same token you may not achieve result from a carefully thought out marketing program. The best way to sell lots of books is to get it in front of as many people as possible and give them a reason to buy it.

To be successful in the marketing endeavour you need to ascertain what you regard as successful, one person buying and reading your book, you can social media this out to your friends for nothing and you may get some takers. one hundred people downloading your book either freely or at cost, yet again social media, twitter especially is good for generating interest in free books. One thousand books, you really need to engage some serious media help, whether it's reviews, magazine article, editorials, but a lot of these will look for you to back up the editorial with a paid advert. Ten thousand books + you need TV or Radio advertising, celebrity endorsement, basically something else that helps you stand out.

Overall

Short answer; Yes

Longer answer; you can self-publish for free, but you have to be willing to do all the jobs yourself and there is no guarantee of success unless you have adjusted your expectations to a very reasonable goal.

Written by Martin Wallace