I am well aware that self-publishing has a bad rap in the writing industry, and many reasons for this are justified. When anyone can put their work out into the world, the market becomes saturated with a lot of poorly-written, formatted, and all around bad books out there. But I’ve also seen a lot of great novels come out of self-publishing and know authors who take a lot of joy and pride in their work through the process of self-publishing.

On the flip side, I’ve also heard a lot of negatives about traditional publishing. It’s not like I believe either way of publishing is better or worse than the other, but there are many things to consider on both sides of this publishing coin. For where I am in my writing career and the goals I have for it and around it, I decided that self-publishing was the best option for me.

Now, you can go in whatever direction you like for your writing career, but here are the reasons why I’ve chosen self-publishing:

1. Not playing the waiting game

Alright, I’ll admit it. I’m an extremely impatient person and want my book in my hands RIGHT NOW. In order to have a book traditionally published, you need to send query letters out to agents and wait months to hear back from them, possibly having to start the whole process over again if none of the agents you found want to work with you. Then, once you have an agent, you have to wait for them to sell your book to a publisher, which takes however long it takes (months up to years). THEN! It could take a couple of years to actually follow through with publishing your book, if they end up publishing it at all. I just couldn’t handle all that waiting…

2. Your work belongs to you and you alone

In part, sure, your book belongs to you when you traditionally publish, but not completely. If the publisher decides not to publish your book or wants to make changes you’re not cool with, you either have to let them do with it what they will or buy it back. I didn’t like the idea of not being in total control of my book, even if self-publishing meant a lot more extra work on my end, and there are a lot of stuff you have the freedom to do when the book belongs to you alone.

3. There’s a lot of fun things to learn

Marketing, book covers, formatting, and so forth. There are so many facets to the writing industry I wanted to dive into and explore. I learned that I can do most things on my own, except for designing a book cover, so I have been taking the time to learn and putting in the work to make myself a successful as I can be. It’s hard, for sure, and not for everyone, but even through the frustrations (I’ve spent a crazy amount of time formatting page numbers), I’m having a blast.

4. Where I find a sense of accomplishment

There are so many people out there that find accomplishment in having an agent and publisher pick them and their book, I get that. But the accomplishment for me comes with learning something new and making things work through sheer force of will (again, the page numbers). I don’t have the belief that making it as an author means my books are on shelves at Barnes and Noble. Making it as an author, to mean, means I’m able to put my hard work out into the world, and that’s pretty much it.

5. I don’t write to the market

While I know what makes a good story and work hard to make sure it something my audience will love to read, I never write to what’s popular on the market. Many authors do this well and produce great work from it, but I give so much freedom to my work it becomes something that would be hard to sell to publishers. Hell, I don’t even create outlines, so there’s no way my writing style would fit into the structure of what’s currently selling. Besides, those trends change all the time, and I don’t want to keep up with them.

Along with these five reasons, there are a lot of smaller or super specific reasons to choosing self-publishing I won’t bore you with today. The biggest thing I want people to understand, though, is I don’t think either way is better as a whole. Self-publishing is best for me, and it is best for me in this moment. Maybe, someday down the road, I’ll go the traditional route for my writing. Until then, I am having a blast on the self-publishing train.