The New Model of Self-Publishing

“What you’re doing isn’t self-publishing,” said the journo sitting opposite me. “It’s so much more than that.” 

I took a sip of my long black and felt grateful to be living in such an exciting time. What I am doing — self-publishing my fiction, creating weekly content, YouTube video, and publishing essays — is part of the new model of self-publishing. 

The internet has made it easier than ever for a writer to turn their passion into a business. 

The old model of self-publishing looked like this: you print 1000 copies of your book through a local printer, store them in your garage and then hope to god that your local indie bookstore will agree to stock them some. 

Thanks to print on demand companies like Ingramspark, Amazon, and LuLu, we can now reach an entire world of readers AND park our cars in the garage. 

The New Model of Self-Publishing looks like this:

• Growing an audience through the creation of regular meaningful content 
• Contributing to the online community by sharing your knowledge with other indie writers

Building an author platform can be done in one of two ways: either you build interest around yourself as a person or you provide educational information. 

Maybe a combo of the two.

Some authors share their writing journey, sneak peeks of their WIP and create ‘day in the life’ videos. 

Others are more informative, they may create content that teaches the basics of writing craft, how to query agents, how to get published etc. 

Creating regular meaningful content helps develop your know, like and trust factors. The three keys to a successful business. 

Now, this isn’t scammy. Hopefully, you’re being genuine in your exchanges with readers and you are creating content that is interesting to you and useful for others. 

As I see it, the new model of self-publishing or indie publishing is one part writing and one part community service. 

And I for one, am happy to be a part of it. 

I LOVE Christmas and I LOVE writing. So, I figured I better stick these two loves together and write a super special Christmas Story for my email subscribers. This short & sweet little story is for anyone who has read Every Time He Dies but was left wanting more.

If you’d like to receive a copy of the ETHD Christmas Story, please consider joining my email newsletter. When you subscribe, you’ll also receive a downloadable copy of my cheatsheet Seven Ways To Stay Motivated As A Writer.