Two Ways to Self-Publish – You Own It or They Own It

There are two ways to self-publish; either you own it or they own it, and by ‘it’ I mean the rights to the publication.

If you’re about to self publish, or have thought about getting something published through online publishing companies like CreateSpace or LuLu, you need to understand one fundamental point of their contracts; the ISBN.

An ISBN is assigned to every published book and you can learn all about it here at the ISBN Agency.

Basically, you can supply the ISBN, or the online publisher can provide the ISBN.  This decision however, has a crucial impact on who ‘owns the rights’ to the particular published product.

I am not a legal representative nor am I offering legal advice, but…;)  If you use the ISBN provided by them, you sign a different contract than if you provide one yourself. 

I know reading contracts is not an enjoyable experience for most people, but you must read through the parts about your ability to promote the book yourself and who actually owns the product.

You can buy your own ISBN and become a self-publishing author.  You can promote the book on your own website, and put it up on Amazon.  Then you have to get people to your website and show them the value of your production.  The job is up to you to understand how all this stuff happens! 

The other issue you might face as a self-published author is many book distributors won’t even consider a book published by an individual.  If there is no ‘real publishing company’ behind the book, they’re simply not interested.  To do that, you’ll need to set-up a proper company or corporation to facilitate the licensing, bank accounts and other legal and accounting requirements.

You might reply, “I just like to write, and don’t want to understand all of that stuff.  But I do want to make the most money I can with my book, in whatever format sells the most!”

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This is what I’ve been going through during the past few weeks, and now I’m happy to announce the birth of Quantum Publishing Pty Ltd. 

My plans for this company are multi-faceted, but one service I’m investigating may provide a nice solution to this problem for individual authors who want to self-publish AND maintain control of their manuscript.

Stay tuned…

One last piece of advice for authors who are entering into the ‘business’ side of things…the contract is king! 

You must not enter into a legal agreement, regarding your intellectual property, without getting advice.  Find local writers organizations in your area and ask for referrals to firms who specialize in IP legal advice.  

A few simple, and well thought out choices, BEFORE you sign anything, can make a BIG difference in your future income!

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