Let’s assume that you already know that once your book is finished, you’re going to self-publish it. Along with all of those other things that go along with getting your book ready to publish – editing and designing and marketing and so on – one thing you need to ask yourself is: when is the right time to publish your book?

First of all, let’s get it out there – it’s very rare that there will be a perfect time to publish your book. There’s no getting away from the time constraints and niggling editing issues and outside pressures that often conspire to dull the shine of an otherwise pretty wonderful self-publishing triumph.

Now that disclaimer is out of the way, let’s look at the more practical side of things, because there is most definitely such a thing as a right and a wrong time to self-publish your book.

The temptation can often be to publish your book early. It’s only natural: you’ve just finished writing a novel and you want to get it in front of readers as quickly as possible. However, whether this is a good idea will depend on your particular project and what you want to achieve from it.

It’s fine, for instance, if you want to self-publish something just to find out about the process and learn how it all works – but remember that everything you publish will have some sort of impact on your author brand, whether you intended something as a ‘serious’ or polished piece of work.

This means that it often pays to take your time. Take your time to get the editing right, to proofread your novel properly, to get a cover designed, to create a comprehensive marketing plan and to learn the self-publishing process. It can be frustrating when you just want to get your work out there, but as the majority of successful self-publishers will tell you, success is usually a slow burn thing. It pays to put the work in beforehand, and give yourself a good base to work from that you can build upon in the future.

However, there’s also something to be said for not leaving it too long before you self-publish your novel. Eventually you have to let it go and publish it. You can only tweak and plan and strategize so much. The book you eventually publish might not be perfect, but hopefully it will be great, and the very best you can do. You will have learnt a lot and will have a better idea of what you want to do next and achieve through your writing. It will, ultimately, put you in a better position for the next time you’re planning to self-publish a book.

What do you think?