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Wednesday, January 25

Pros and cons of self-publishing 

Here's a piece I wrote for small business review about the pros and cons of small business owners self-publishing:

Of course, I'm hot and heavy in the midst of organizing The BookCamp(tm), which supports precisely the kinds of entrepreneurial publishers that the article is talking about!

The pros and cons of small-business owners self-publishing include:

Pros:
- Enhance credibility and build expert status.
- Provide a low-risk, high-value way for prospects to get to know your business and your thinking.
- Potential to integrate your business brand with your book's title, packaging, and positioning.
- Stand head and shoulders above competing businesses, even much larger or more established businesses (leapfrog effect)
- Profit potential is much greater from self-published books than from traditional publishing.

Cons:
- Quite a bit of time, effort, and energy is required to write, edit, package, and promote a self-published book.
- Top-notch editing and packaging (book cover design, interior layout, quality printing) can get quite expensive.
- Unless your business is truly well-managed and fully 'systematized', diverting attention from your main business to your book publishing and promotion activities may be financially risky.
- Confusing the medium with the message. For many entrepreneurial publishers, a book is not a good medium. They may want to start with other information products, such as audio CD's, e-books, self-study programs, or dozens of other ways to showcase their expertise.

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