The Value of NOT Paying Someone to Help You Publish

Paying someone to help you launch a book can be a great move — it’s best for some authors. But as I discuss in this video, learning how to launch on your own has long-term benefits, too.

Paying someone might be right for you…

It might be the case that, once you learn how to create your cover, format, etc., you realize that the time involved in the process is holding you back. If that’s the case and paying someone is financially feasible for you, please go ahead and do so. This video is by no means trying to dissuade you from that. It’s just meant to encourage you. Try the process out. Understand exactly what is involved. I also want you to have some victories and build your confidence as a self-published writer.

…but information is there for you, so learn

As I mention in the video, you totally can find tons of great information on YouTube or other sites that explain in detail, step by step, what your processes look like. But a middle ground might be paying someone for a few sessions to teach you. That’s going to get you one-on-one attention and answer specific questions you might have that are unique to your situation.

The bottom line is, one way or another, don’t let the fact you don’t know stop you. You can learn what is involved. You can. You’re intelligent enough, and the information is there for you to take. Go get your words out into the world.

[Transcript summary]

Hello everybody. Wanda Thibodeaux of takingdictation.com here. I am mainly speaking today to you self-published or independently-published authors. And my message today is around this idea of paying for a service. So, that could be getting somebody to do a cover for you. Maybe you have somebody do your formatting for your book so you can upload it to Amazon or somewhere. And there’s nothing wrong with doing that. I’m not saying don’t do it. And for a lot of people, especially if you are strapped for time, that’s the way to go if you can afford it.

But especially if you are new and you do not have a lot of capital to put toward your publishing, there can be immense value in just learning and doing the process yourself. And I think with technology, things are different now to where you can put out a really high quality product without a lot of experience. That’s not to say professionals can’t do better. It’s just to say that you as an amateur don’t have to suck.

The idea is, when you do it yourself, you keep really good creative control of what you’re doing. Your timeline is completely set on you. You’re not leaning on anybody. So, there’s that benefit to it. And this is something that, over time, can be very financially beneficial, because if you know how to do those things yourself, guess what. You don’t have to shell out this cash again and again and again. So, I know once people have money coming in, they’re like, “Oh, that’s not that big of a deal.” But if you don’t have the money, like I said, when you’re starting out, that makes a difference.

So, there’s a lot of ways to approach this. But I think understanding that you can learn it, you can do it yourself…there are videos on YouTube. Go do it. There’s no excuse for not getting the information. Once you have the information, then it’s your decision whether you want to do it, but you can learn. So, just learn it. Get involved in it, and then go from there.