Which is Best - To Snare a Publisher or to Self Publish

I'm so happy to announce the re-release of the first in my 'V2V' Historical trilogy - 'VIKINGS TO VIRGIN'. The sad part for me was a previous publication of my V2V trilogy, published by a British publisher, is no longer available on Amazon, except for secondhand copies that cost hundreds of dollars each. So with the copyright returned to me, I decided to re-release them all again, one at a time, myself.

It's a hard decision to make whether to Self Publish or to search for a Publisher for your precious manuscript. Publishers promise to edit, format, create an outstanding cover and the most important of all, they promise to market your work for you. With them doing all this for you, it gives you precious time to write, which is what you want to do after all. They take all the hard work away from you and six to nine months later, you have the product in your hands. But first you have to find a publisher who sees the potential in your work. Once you do that, you have input into everything, including the cover design. I know, Ive been there four times.

We've all heard the J.K. Rowling story where she tried dozens of publishers for the first in her Harry Potter Books and was repeatedly rejected. Her book was picked up by a small publisher and the rest is history. The same happened to me, on a much smaller scale. My first book, 'DAUGHTERS OF NAZARETH' was rejected by a dozen publishers and agents only to be eventually picked up by Pan MacMillan Australia and published. This book became a best seller for three months in Australia, topping Stephen King's latest book that was released at the same time. The truth is not everyone sees the potential you are offering and it's very easy o feel dejected and to doubt yourself and your work.

I've also gone down the Self Publishing road when my crime/mystery books were rejected by several publishers and agents. So I Self Published them and once again, the first in the Jack Curtis Series, 'DRAGONFLY' became a best seller.

What I'm doing today is to offer my experiences to you and let you decide which way you want to go. And here are the differences.

Publishers take away the administration side of your work, for sure, but it comes at a huge price which you pray will be returned in the form of book sales. But what is not in the fine print of your contract is that your print book and ebook will only be available for about two years on Amazon. After that, only secondhand copies will be available. I guess if your name is Michael Connelly you have leverage but for most struggling authors, when the sales drop, publishers release your copyright back to you and move on to the next author. And all your work is a thing of the past.

With Self Publishing, you have total control of everything. Forever. The hard part is you have to decide whether to pay an Editor to edit your work at around 1 cent a work or whether you edit and edit and edit your own work as well as trust a close friend or family member to critique your work for you. As for the cover, you can easily find a Cover designer who will work with you on what your vision of your work is and at a minimal cost compared to a Publishers fee. And the resullt is immediate, not in nine months time.

This is the first re-release in my V2V trilogy. Have a look on my website www.trishahughesauthor.com and read an excerpt. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Have a great day.