#332: Publish with a Purpose: Is It Any Less "Excellent" to Self-Publish?

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Welcome to this episode of Publish with a Purpose on the Kingdom Writers Podcast. My name is Shelly Hitz and thank you so much for being here. Today we're going to talk about is it any less excellent to self publish? And so before we dive into that, I just wanted to let you know that we created a publishing map. So if you're interested in publishing your book but you don't know where to start, this publishing map is for you. You'll learn my nine simple steps that will help you to gain clarity on your next steps. So you can download this for free@trainingauthors.com publishing map and so this was a question asked by one of my Christian Book Academy members. And I love this question because in the past, really, traditional publishing was the only quote, unquote, real way to, to get published. You know, if you were self publishing, it's because you couldn't get a traditional publishing contract or your, your book wasn't worthy of that. And I think some of these mindsets are still ingrained in us that we're not real authors because we haven't been traditionally published, we weren't chosen by a publisher, and we didn't have an agent and all of these things. So I'm going to talk about three things today about this whole topic. You know, is it any less excellent to self publish? Well, number one, when self publishing, you have complete control for how your book will look. You are in the driver's seat with that. So, yes, 100% a book can look self published, which just means lower quality or amateurish. You know, a lot of people just have gotten that mindset about it because, you know, a lot of people just slap something together and upload it to kdp. And that's really not what we recommend in Christian Book Academy. And in our workshops, we recommend having a quality product that you're proud of. So how do you do that? Well, you make sure that first of all, you hire a book cover designer, even if you're an artist, even if you're creating the artwork for the book, even if you're choosing the photography for the COVID You hire someone that has experience designing hundreds, if not thousands of books and, you know, like those books are selling. And one of the things that we recommend is, you know, like I said, even if you're designing it and you're coming up with a concept, having someone with that experience put the final finishing touches on it, that's a whole other topic. I think I'm going to go into that in more detail in an episode of its own because it's come up quite a bit about book covers. But get a really good book cover and don't try to do it yourself even if you are a graphic designer, unless you have experience designing hundreds or thousands of book covers and your book covers are selling because that's the first thing that's going to make it look quote unquote less excellent. The second thing is to really pay attention to your interior formatting. Again, you can hire someone, there's great software out there to use. We give you all of the recommendations for who we recommend in our workshop procrastination to publication. So you can get access to that immediately if you go to procrastinationtopublication.com or we share the COVID designer that we have used that is affordable. But I mean our covers, the books that we've had designed by him have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. So you know, we know that it he, he creates work that sells. We recommend different software and then also people you can hire for the interior formatting. But ultimately there's also an industry standard checklist. IBPA has put this together and I'll include a link in the show notes for you. But IBPA stands for Independent Book Publishers association and basically they're telling you everything that typically is included in a traditionally published book and how to really have the same standard of quality for your book. The thing is, don't get overwhelmed by the checklist. It's long, there's a lot of things in there. But we walk you through step by step by step this process for, for books in our membership Christian Book Academy. So we have you covered there. But so number one, just know you have the control for how your book will look and you can have whatever quality of book that you want and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. We, like I said in our, in our workshop, procrastinationtopublication.com and inside Christian Book Academy we give you recommendations that you can use, even a budget. Number two, if you want wider distribution, you can use IngramSpark. So typically for the majority of our books we use KDP Kindle Direct publishing through Amazon. However, if you want wider distribution like for bookstores and for other things. And that's something that you're concerned about with self publishing. You can use IngramSpark, and we've used IngramSpark. I used it for my book, Broken Crayons Still Color because I really wanted those opportunities to remain open for people to purchase the book from there. And we have gotten a few really, really big orders at times. And it makes me wonder if someone went to their bookstore, asked if they could order the book for us. I'm not sure what happened. We can't track sales of exactly where they're coming from in ingramspark, but like, there were a couple months that was like thousands of dollars of sales through those channels. And so I just wanted to leave that option open for that book. And so we used ingramspark and we walk you through this process inside Christian Book Academy if that's something that you're interested in. And so, number one, just remember, you have full control of how your book will be looked, how it will be designed, on the COVID the interior, the editing, you know, all of that, you, you have control of over that. Number two, if you want wider distribution, you can use IngramSpark. And number three, you know, like I said in the beginning, there are a lot of mindsets around publishing and some people may still think that you haven't made it unless you're traditionally published. And so there's often this stigma against books that have been self published or or independently published. But I want to say that I really believe the tide is starting to turn even big. Traditionally published authors are now choosing to independently publish or they're becoming what's called an hybrid author, meaning they have been traditionally published, but now they're also self published or independently published. Those two terms can be used interchangeably. Most people, you know, they use the word independently published. Indie authors. Some people, I think, think the term independently published sounds better because of the stigma there is with self publishing. But I use them interchangeably. And so I'm going to link in the show notes to two previous episodes that I've done. One was the benefits of independent publishing or self publishing, and the other was just self publishing versus traditional publishing. And you can look into that. But I just want to say, like, I don't agree with those people who say you haven't made it unless you're traditionally published. I honestly have never wanted to be traditionally published. And people are often shocked when I say that, like, really, you never wanted to be traditionally published. You've never wanted one of the big publishers to pick up your book and it's because of everything I know. I personally know of all the benefits of independently publishing my book. I know how to get a quality book on a budget. So I'm not spending $10,000 to independently publish my book and I'm able to control everything about it and I'm able to make more money on the book because I have my own platform, I have my own email list. All of those things. Things, yes, that could look good to a publisher. But then I'm still doing the majority of the work and I'm still doing the marketing and all of the things and yet really not making the income from it that I could if I was independently published. Plus, I want to get things done. I want to get things out in the world. I don't want to wait three or four years for a traditionally published contract to get done and out there and published. Plus, it's also, it's just a ton of pressure, like you're really expected to sell so many books and the list could go on and on and on. But I just want to say you are a published author. If you choose to independently publish or self publish, you are a published author. There is nothing less excellent about that title. And the way we teach it in Christian Book Academy is for you to have your own imprint. So you are looking professional. An imprint is just the name of the publishing company. So you know it's easier than you think to get all of that set up. We walk you through that step by step in the academy. But it all looks professional and honestly, it's in your hands. The control. Number one, the control for how your book looks is in your hands. Number two, if you want that wider distribution, you can use IngramSpark. You will get into the Ingram catalog, which means any bookstore can order from it and you'll just have more potential opportunities there. Number three, you are a published author. No matter what anyone else thinks or says or stigmas around being self published, you're legit. This is exciting. And I just believe that God is leading many of you to put your words into books. And you know, you could, you could try for years and years and years to, to get an agent to get published, to find a publisher to just find out that it's not the right fit for any of their publishing companies. The contracts are shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. There's not as many contracts available. They expect you to do a lot more of the work, including the marketing and all of that. They want you to come in your book proposal with your marketing plan and who you're going to sell this book to because they want to know the book will sell. But you know, sometimes we just need to obey what God is calling us to do and get the book out there and you never know what God is going to do with it. My book broken crayons still color has taken off and I just had no idea. I was just simply being obedient to what God had invited me to do. And honestly, I didn't want want to write the book. I put it off for a year, finally did it. So glad that I did. It has impacted thousands of lives and it has really brought in a consistent income through book royalties for my husband and I. So it's been a win, win. And God knew. I thought this is just going to be like some of our other books, you know, it might have a little burst at the book launch and then fizzle away. I mean, I don't know, but God knew. And so I just want to encourage you, it is not any less excellent to self publish. Go and do what God has called you to do. And if you want to pursue a traditionally published contract, pray about it. Ask the Lord. Is this just me and my pride feeling like this is what I need to prove myself as a writer or is this truly what you're leading me to do? Because for some of you, getting a traditionally published contract is the right step for you. And I want to add in this disclaimer, I've heard story after story from writers over the years who have gotten into contracts with quote unquote publishers when at the end of the day they were just paying them thousands of dollars to get their book published. And they could have done the same thing by using the process. We recommend hiring the people that, you know, can do the different parts of the process instead of save thousands of dollars, have more control, be able to get their book priced at a price that will sell. And I mean, I probably will do another episode just on this. But be careful, be careful because there are a lot of people that will say things to you because they know you have this dream of being published and yet it will, it could end up costing you thousands of dollars. It could end up in, you know, heartache down the road. We just had a Christian Book Academy member say that the publisher they went with closed. Now they're trying to get their book republished. There was some stuff going on and it's just a mess. And so I know, I know it's a dream for many of you, even though it's never been a dream for me, it has been a dream for cj And I know some of you hold tightly to that dream of being chosen and being published. But I, I encourage you read the fine print, make sure you know what you're getting into. And if you choose to self publish or independently publish, realize it is no less excellent and God is able then to use it in ways you don't even know right now just by you taking that step of obedience. So let me pray for you. So Lord, we thank you that there are so many options for us today to get our words into the world to impact lives. Whether we go the route of self publishing or independent publishing or we choose to pursue traditional publishing. Pray you give us wisdom. I pray right now, Lord that you would break down those mindsets, those lies of the enemy that say you are not a real author unless you are traditionally published. Because that is not true. And I pray you would break down any of the stigmas around self publishing and that every person listening, if they do choose to self publish, they would go away. That they that would create a quality product that they're proud of and that can be used by you to impact many lives. We pray this in Jesus powerful name. Amen. Amen. Friends, we are so excited for you. And if you are interested in dipping your toe into self publishing or we have a workshop called Procrastination to Publication. I did mention it earlier, but it will teach you our simple five step system to be able to self publish a quality Kindle ebook without breaking the bank in as little as 30 days. And so in the workshop you're going to learn all the steps you need. You can get a Kindle ebook published, you can dip your toe into it, you can become a published author. And if you want to go to the next steps of having a print book, we have those tools for you inside Christian Book Academy. But join us. Join this workshop. I'm so excited to see what God's going to do. You can sign up@procrastinationtopublication.com and I will see you in the next episode. Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.