Guest Post: The Decision to Self-Publish

GUEST POST:
The Decision to Self-Publish

Hello, authors and publishers!

Today you get to hear from Cathy Fisher, author of the cookbook, Straight Up Food. She'll share how she decided to self-publish and whether she'd do it again.

After working as a cooking instructor for six years, people started asking me if I had a cookbook. I got tired of saying “No,” so I decided to start saying, “I’m working on one.” Putting out a cookbook seemed like a logical next step in my career, so I started going through all my recipes to pick out my favorites, as well as writing the supplementary sections of the book. With a former career in writing and editing for magazines, I enjoyed the writing of the book, and I was on my way!

While I continued to write, I interviewed many authors in my field, and read articles online to help me decide if I should go the traditional publishing route or head down the self-publishing path. This research was an important step for me, because I had clear ideas of how I wanted my book to look and feel. I had heard disheartening stories about traditional publishing houses and first-time authors, such as: while the authors have their say, the publishers often have final say about certain things, like the title and how many photos (if any) they would allow in the book.

A colleague really wanted me to go with his publisher, sincewe both have similar books (health cookbooks), and this publisher onlypublishes books like this, so they would market it with their other offerings.I looked at many of their books, but there was nothing special about them. Theywere formulaic and uninspiring, with few to no photos. Color photos areexpensive, I get it, but I knew my students and followers would not takelightly to cookbook by me with no photos, especially since I had become knownfor my high-quality food pictures on my recipe blog.

I continued to research, and I was learning that there weremany pros and cons to each way of publishing. I really did want toself-publish, but felt the need to gain an understanding of both approaches. Iinterviewed a colleague with seven books under her belt, the last being heronly self-published book. After a long conversation, I asked her, “If you writeanother book, would you self-publish again?” and she said, “No.” She said itwas just too much work.

Following the above conversation, I flung myself on my bedand cried for 20 minutes. I felt exhausted and overwhelmed by all theinformation I was taking in, and also by the pressure to make this and so manyother decisions for this project. I also felt a lot of fear about both paths.As I said, in my heart, I wanted to self-publish and I knew I could create agood product, but I was scared of the work that self-publishing required. Iknew there would be many new challenges and learning curves ahead, and wasnervous about taking them all on I addition to my regular teaching work.

Final Decision

After all my research and contemplation, I followed my heartand decided to self-publish. I knew this way I would get the product Ienvisioned (since I was the one and only boss of my book), and I knew thatputting out a great first book would help me with any subsequent books, byadding to my good reputation in my field; and that it would encourage positiveword of mouth. Even though I had never written a book before, I had readplenty, and knew that a stinker of a first book does not enthuse people to buya second from the same author.

I decided to work with TLC and Tami, because I liked Tamiand I liked the TLC website. The professional website let me know I would beworking with professionals, and I knew that Tami’s calm, helpful personalityand expertise would be a great asset to me along this new road. Not once didTami or Monica (who designed my book) lose their patience with me (when I’msure they could have). They were kind and helpful at all points along theprocess. If Tami didn’t have an answer to a question, she’d research it and getback to me quickly. If I wanted to make yet more changes to my manuscript,Monica would do this happily. I certainly had many times of tension on my end,but I never felt this from these women, and to have them as my foundation wasincredible. When you self-publish, you can feel alone at times, so having thesetwo ladies “by my side” was invaluable. Even though I have never met either ofthem (all of our work is online and by email), I felt that they believed in me,my book and its message. We were a team, and a team is what it takes to do aproject like this (I now know).

My book was published in October of 2016, and it is still selling like gangbusters, over 100 books a week on Amazon. So many people tell me that they also buy it for friends and family. I sell it online on my website (StraightUpFood.com) and on Amazon.com, as well as wholesale at the health center where I teach. People from all over the world have my cookbook; it’s a great feeling. And I get equal positive feedback on the content of the book as well as the appearance of the book, thanks to TLC!

As I begin thinking about my second book, I know I will self-publish again. With all this experience under my belt, it would be almost silly not to. I know it will be a lot of work, but I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I have my team and I know what to do. It has been a nice new income stream for me, but more than anything, I just love it: I love the way it looks and feels, I love its message, and I love that it is out there helping so many people heal and feel better. My book is my baby, and I have given it every chance to succeed by creating it with love and care from the very start, including putting it in the very capable hands of TLC.

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Wrapping it Up

The TLC team had a great time working with Cathy and enjoys getting updates on her book's success as well as requests for yet another reprint! She's one of our most successful authors in terms of sales. What Cathy didn't mention is that we began this project using her photos and she suddenly put it all on hold. That happens on occasion, but her reason was that she didn't believe the quality of her photos was good enough, so she took the time to upgrade her equipment and skills before she was ready to resume. While her original photos were nice, the end product benefited from her patience, persistence, and commitment to quality. Well done! Thank you, Cathy, for your business, trust, and for sharing your story here. :)

We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences with self-publishing, traditional, and/or hybrid. What worked? What didn't? What would you do again—or not? Please share in the comments.

Many blessings,

Tami