You’ve just written a book. Great! Now for the next bit – publishing your book. If you’re a first time author and you’re exploring the options open to you, I urge you to seriously consider self-publishing. Don’t be put off by the thought that it’s difficult: embrace it. It might just be the best decision you could make. Here’s why you should give it a go.

It offers opportunities that traditional publishing doesn’t

New authors are often kept out of the traditional publishing industry by a few select gatekeepers at the big publishing houses; it’s difficult to get a book deal, and having a great book doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a publisher.

By contrast, with self-publishing, you know you’ll get your chance. As well as ensuring you’ll manage to get your book published, self-publishing is also much more with it in terms of e-books and other technological changes going on in the industry. If you’re looking for a flexible, responsive way to publish your book with plenty of opportunities to explore, self-publishing is for you.

It allows you to build your brand your way

Another reason to self-publish your début novel is that it means you can launch and market your book the way you want to, rather than how a publisher tells you to do it. Of course, you can consult experts and get other people’s opinions on how to go about building your author brand, but ultimately, you’re the one who makes the decisions.

There’s plenty of support

One of the reasons some new authors are wary of self-publishing is that there can be a perception that it’s a lonely thing – it’s just you, doing all the work, bumbling along with things you don’t know much about and hoping for the best. Well. While there might be a certain amount of bumbling along (everyone bumbles sometimes, no matter how experienced they are), there is also a huge amount of support out there for authors looking to self-publish.

From websites to how-to videos to blogs and books and social media, experts, friendly readers and helpful fellow writers, if you’ve got a question, there will be a way to get it answered, and plenty of sources of help that you can find.

It teaches you lots of new things

Something you learn very early on when self-publishing your book is that you’re not just a writer anymore. I think this is a great thing. You also get to be an entrepreneur, marketer and much more. This is great not just because it means you get to make the decisions about your career, but it also makes the role of the author much more powerful and even more skilled.

It’s all down to you

With self-publishing, there is no one else to impress and no one else’s expectations to meet but your own. This means that when you’re starting out, you can experiment and try different things if you want to. You can publish the sort of novel that would never make it past the traditional publishing gatekeepers, and you don’t have to worry about a publisher ditching you if things don’t always go entirely to plan. You can just try something new – and you could go anywhere from there.