If you have ever sat down with the intention of writing a novel you will, at least in some small corner of your mind, imagined – in an ideal world – what the end result might be. And I would be surprised if the end result was not a published book, looking exactly as you wanted it to, telling exactly the story you wanted to tell, and presented and promoted in a way you feel does it justice.

Even now, after the industry has changed so much in such a short space of time, as a first time novelist having your very first book publishing daydream, it’s likely that you’ll imagine you have a traditional publisher, who will publish your work on your behalf.

I think it’s time to alter that daydream. If you are really serious about publishing the book you want to publish, looking how you want it to look and promoted how you want it to be promoted, self-publishing has to be the way to go.

New writers often feel that they won’t properly have made it until they have a traditional publishing deal, but in reality a traditional publishing deal could hold them back from doing what they really want to do. Of course, for some, it will work out well, but for many others, they will be giving up a huge amount of control over their work for an end result that is largely disappointing.

You might end up with a cover you hate, or editorial suggestions you disagree with but feel compelled to accept, or a promised marketing budget that fails to materialise. And then if the book doesn’t sell well it would all be over before you knew it.

By contrast, with self-publishing, you get to publish exactly the book you want to publish. It doesn’t mean missing out on expertise – you can still hire editors and find great cover designers – but it does mean that you are really at the centre of things. The finished book with your name on the cover will be exactly as you want it to be, not as someone else tells you it should be.

Plenty of self-published books are just as good as – or even better than – many of the best traditionally published books. Authors who self-publish are careful to make sure they get everything just right, and the range of expertise that is now available for writers who are interested in self-publishing means that you can find all the support you need when you’re going it alone.

Besides, you know that with self-publishing, you will definitely see your book in print. There are no gatekeepers as in traditional publishing, which must surely have prevented massive numbers of great books from finding their way to readers over the years. That’s all changing now, as more authors decide to publish their work for themselves.

Dreaming of a brilliant published book is something that is common to the vast majority of writers. It’s just about time we started to change how we turn that dream into a reality.