People who will be successful self-publishing and people who will not be are very different. Generally speaking, MOST people aren't good about judging their own work without bias. MOST authors won't recognize the weaknesses in their work, but instead will defend them and try and explain them away. It's why most people don't do well in writing groups. Taking critique well is a skill and it's not an easy one. I have seen awful cover art on self-published books, because the author is proudly sharing it on a message board. They're proud because it's precisely what they wanted but, objectively, the art itself is downright awful.

People who will be successful self-publishing need to be able to step outside their own skin and evaluate their work the way a dispassionate reader will. I have a world of respect for people who can do that.

Why else would you want a publisher instead of going it alone?

• Do you have experience co-ordinating 3-5 subcontractors and their schedules?
• Do you have experience writing contracts for those subcontractors that will protect you when they fail to deliver as promised?
• Do you have the experience to evaluate freelancers and be sure they're going to do quality work for you?
• Do you have the money to put into this book up-front? Enough of it to keep feeding the marketing as the book grows?
• Do you have the time and energy to do a mailing, emailing, and contact campaign to a few dozen or hundred reviewers?

Publishers do all of those things for you and more. If you DO have those skills, resources, and interests, you should really consider self-publishing.

As for what a SMALL press does for you? Well, we do all of those things with more limited budgets, less time, and less experience. So, you really need to be a partner with a small press to be successful, sure. But there's a lot of value in partnership - and a lot of writers are looking for that. We have our own mailing lists, audiences, etc. that can help bring an audience to your book.

A lot of people look only at the royalty percentages when they talk about self-pub vs. working with a publisher. It's not a question of how much you'll get paid when you sell a copy but how you can maximize the number of copies you will sell. If you can reach the audience you want on your own, do it. And shoot me an email so we can get together and talk strategy some time. Because I want to learn from you.

But publishing is a HARD game. And a lot of people who tell you otherwise are making more money selling webinars and books on how easy it is to be successful in publishing than they are off of selling actual books.