Critics Voice Doubts about Self-Publishing Children's Books

Answering the skeptics!

I have to chime in and answer some of the comments I’ve heard lately about self-publishing. Here are some of the critiques of self-publishing voiced recently:

1. It’s expensive.

2. It’s hard.

3. You’ll have an inferior book without help from a legacy publisher, one critic claimed.

4. Others think you will have limited distribution. Only local sales, one suggests. Some have suggested that you should only self-publish if you just want to give your book to friends or family.

Let’s take these arguments one-by-one and debunk myths!

Self Publishing is Expensive

If you’re not looking for a career in children’s books, you’re right: it’s expensive to self-publish a book. But that’s a misleading statement because if you’re self-publishing, you’re starting a small business. Yes, there’s an upfront investment to self-publishing a children’s book, just like there’s always an investment upfront in a business. But those investments should start to create an income stream to offset future investments.

In the United States, most businesses fail in the first year; by the third year, another big chunk has failed. For a business to make it to five years is incredible. It’s important to put self-publishing into the context of start-up businesses so you understand the investment required to start your publishing business.

Let’s say that you publish Book 1 with $5000 investment.

Book two also needs $5000 investment, but let’s make assumptions: conservatively, Book 1 earns a profit of $2000 the first year and every year after that $1000. It means you’ll need four years to recoup the investment, but after that, the ongoing income will add to your bottom line.

When you add book three, it’s another investment of $5000, but now your backlist of two books is working to catch up and help you get into the black.

And so it goes for a couple years. You must invest, which is a negative expenditure; however, it will eventually start to add profit. Yes, some books are more successful than others, so this is hard to lay out in a tidy chart. But eventually, your company turns a profit.

Just like those other start-up businesses.

Those start-ups also ran negative profits for a while before they turned a profit. Again, it’s not unusual for start-up businesses to take 3-5 years to become profitable. Or more.

Yes, self-publishing is expensive. But starting ANY business is expensive, and actually, self-publishing is a relatively low up-front investment. Even if you are extravagant, spending $20,000 to publish that first book (don’t do that!), it’s a low cost to start a business. Think: if you started a t-shirt shop, how much would you have to spend in the first year for rent, inventory, payroll, insurance, and so on? $250,000? $500,000?

Starting a business of self-publishing is cheap. And if you self-publish, you ARE starting a publishing business. So—is it expensive? Or cheap?

Will you be successful? Who knows? You’ll have to create amazing books and market smart. Successful self-publishing is possible. To say that “it’s expensive” is to misunderstand the context of starting a business.

Self-Publishing Can Mean Excellent Quality Books

A business plan doesn’t determine the quality of a book. Let’s say your business plan is to license your copyright to a large company for the lifetime of the copyright (your lifetime + 70 years). Does that guarantee quality? No.

It depends on the quality of the editor, the art director, the marketing staff, and so on.

If your business plan is to publish through your own company, does that say anything about quality? No.

It depends on your ability to realize your vision for your book, your passion to work for quality, your ability to choose great illustrators to work with, your marketing abilities, and so on.

Both business plans result in great books and lousy books. A business plan says nothing about quality.

The reason you think differently is the experience of those businesses and their staff. A large publisher with fifty years of publishing history should have enough experience on its staff to produce quality. A start-up company (you!) may struggle at first to produce quality; but skills can be learned, mistakes corrected, and quality can easily become the norm. Easily. I learned fast and my second self-published picture book, Wisdom, the Midway Albatross received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. See my award winning books. (Click on the image below.)

Self-Publishing is Hard

Yes, starting and running a business is hard. There are many things to learn: writing a children’s book, how to be an art director, how to market a book, how to set up a website, how to ship books, how to do accounting, and more. You’re running a small business, and that’s hard. It’s worth it, but it’s hard. I assure you: it can be done, one step at a time.

Self Publishing Can Mean World-Wide Distribution

Are self-published books only sold to family and friends? Nonsense. Are they only sold locally? Poppycock.

Worrying about distribution is definitely something you should do when you self-publish a children’s book. Even if you publish a great book, where will people buy it? It does no good to splash your social media accounts with images of a book if your customer can’t buy it where they want.

So where do YOUR customers want to buy? In what format? eBook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook—what format do they want? Do they want to buy in WalMart, on Amazon, or at their favorite local bookstores? Or perhaps your shark books should be at the beach gift shop. Kids love to read on apps like EPIC! Are your books there?

Every year, one of my main goals is to widen my distribution network. Most self-publishers of children’s books begin with KDP (Amazon) and IngramSpark for POD (print-on-demand) books. This is because about 80% of sales for children’s books will be paperbacks, especially in the early years. Next, they add ebooks for Amazon and Draft2Digital (an ebook aggregator who provides wide distribution to Apple, Kobo, Everand, and much more).

But after that? There are no limits. You can license foreign language versions, or create translations yourself. The school and library market is vast, with many places to sell books. Gift shops abound. Audiobooks are booming. Think of all the places you’ve seen books or bought books. Your book could be there, too.

The first six books of my Moments in Science series are translated into Korean. I work with an agency in China to sell translation rights for my books in the Asian market.

Self-Publishing Children’s Books is a Profitable Option

Indie publishing means that you do have to work harder and make an up-front investment; but that investment means you are developing a strong backlist, a steady income source. My books win awards (2 JLG selection, 4 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, 4 starred Kirkus, 1 starred PW, 1 NSSTA Notable Social Studies Book, 1 Best STEM Book, and more), so others call them quality. I have sold translation rights to Korea, China, and Brazil (Portuguese), and regularly sell ebooks around the world, so distribution is whatever you want to make of it. My grandkids love my books, but so do their teachers, and teachers across the US (see awards above).

Indie publishing is a viable and profitable option, if you want. It's not for everyone, because starting a small business isn’t for everyone. But if you take this path, you have the potential for far more income, the ability work on projects that give you joy, and a long, happy career.