How to Start Your Own Publishing Company (A Tale of two Authors II)

If you missed out on Lisa's post last week, here's where you can read part I of A Tale of Two Authors.

The last thing we did was start our own publishing company. Basically, you wear two hats when you are a writer, the creative hat and the business hat. Making our books our own business was a no-brainer. No, we don’t publish others' books (although one day we might), but we have created our business into our own little enterprise. We opened a separate account for our business, we got an LLC license from the state, we have copyright status through the Library of Congress, and eventually, when we make some money, we will sign up with the local and state taxing regulations. (We do file business taxes with the IRS.)

There is a lot to self-publishing besides writing a book, and making that decision can be a tough one, but it is worth every stressful moment in the end. I weighed out the two options, traditional and self-publishing, and doing it ourselves was the best for us. 

Going through the process of trying to get an agent or find a publisher who was willing to take our book on, having to deal with rejection letters, waiting for God knows how long until our books became published, then having to pay them most of our profits, did not work for me. Plus, you still have to do all the marketing for your book, because the publishers do very little, if any, and we figured if we have to do all the hard work ourselves, we might as well reap as much of the reward as possible. 

There is a cost, however, to making this decision, one that’s not cheap. I suggest you start saving now, because the cover design will run you about $300.00 to $500.00, the cost of the editor could run $1000.00 or more, and then, once published, there are a lot of other costs you didn’t think about, such as business cards, bookmarks, launch parties, giveaways, and the list goes on. That is the one benefit of traditional publishing: the major costs are covered. 

So when you sit down and think about what’s the best way for you to go, weigh it all out in your head and in your pocketbook. But I will say this: I’m glad I self-published!

Thanks for joining me on Rock the Book today! All of you keep on writing or reading, and if you get a minute, leave me a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts on self-publishing.

You can find us on our site and our books on Amazon. We would love it if you joined us on our writing journey!

by Lisa Fender

Lisa Fender and Toni Burns, co-Authors of The Lorn Prophecy Series, have lived in Greece, Kentucky, and most recently (and most loved) in Colorado. Between them, they have two husbands, four children, two grandchildren and three dogs. Although a writer from a young age, Lisa did not bring her passion to light until she decided in 2008 to stop procrastinating and start writing. 

You will find out more by reading the interview they gave us, or by visiting their brand-new website, Djenrye World.