Over the last few months, I’ve been on a journey of learning to bet on myself. It began when I finished my latest book. I was ready to send it to a publisher like I did with Created for More. But a few weeks ago, I made a way different decision.
I decided to self publish. I realized I was waiting for a publisher to believe in me enough to invest in me, and that I was doing this because I didn’t believe in myself enough. I figured if a publisher were to put the money in for me, I’d know what I had was something good. But I realized that wasn’t a great idea for me.
And although I had a great experience with Moody Publishers on my first book…seriously great folks…I realized that’s not what I need to do for this book. And here’s why.
1. Nobody else should believe in you more than you do.
When you get people to invest in you, their whole goal in their investment is to limit their risk. Since they don’t have the full vision for you, they will always short-change you a bit. It’s not that they’re trying to take advantage of you… They just want to reduce their risk.
You pay a premium for not believing in yourself. Why not believe in yourself enough to invest in you?
2. Technology makes betting on yourself a good thing.
With platforms like CreateSpace and digital publishing, I no longer need to drop multiple thousands into printing 5,000 copies of my book. It’s cheap to self publish. Of course, this can be a problem if you’re not willing to go through with the full investment and do #5 on my list.
3. Betting on yourself lets you keep control of your idea.
When I worked with Moody Publishers, they really let me keep a lot of control. But even then, they chose my graphic designer, my editors, and even the name for my book. They did a great job, but I had to give up a bit of control in my idea. It’s another one of the premiums you pay for not betting on yourself.
4. It lets you reap the full reward of your idea.
Traditional publishing pays you royalties of about 12.5% on print and 25% on digital. Self publishing pays you more like 50% and 70% respectively. That’s what you get for shelling out the money in the first place instead of letting someone else do it for you.
5. You can do what they can do.
This was the biggest epiphany for me in my decision to self publish. I realized they were going to hire designers, editors, and publicists for my project. But I can do that myself. I can shell out about $5,000 of my own money and do exactly what they would do.
If I only sell 2,000 copies of my book, I still come out ahead $2-3 per book sold.
Now, I realize self publishing isn’t right for anyone. But I do believe betting on yourself is. There are tons of ways to bet on yourself. You could start that company instead of trying to work for someone else. You could start the magazine instead of submitting your work to other magazines…
Whatever your big dream is…maybe you need to bet on yourself instead of waiting for someone else to bet on you.