nce upon a time, publishing a book was a time-consuming process that involved many
people with specialized talents and layer upon layer of specific tasks. Since the advent of the personal computer, making a book has changed dramatically. Today, after some basic instruction, anyone can produce and publish his or her own book.

Self-publishing is not the same process as vanity or subsidy publishing, where the author pays all the costs in producing and marketing the book, yet the publishing company owns all or some of the rights to the book. Carefully check the credentials of any company that offers to both produce and market your book; producing and marketing a book are each so specialized that it is almost impossible for one company to honestly offer both services to a self-publisher.

Self-publishing is simply contracting with a self-publishing packager or a printing company to be your production department. You own all rights to the book and only pay for what services you need to get that book into print. You control every aspect of the work.

Self-publishing is an alternative that many writers turn to as traditional publishing houses close more doors to authors who have not yet made a name for themselves. It has an honorable tradition: Mark Twain, Zane Grey, Walt Whitman, William Blake, Robert Burns, Henry Thoreau, Herman Melville, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Carl Sandburg, among others, were all self-publishers at one time. Check out what our cleints have to say about their experiences self-publishing with Evanston Publishing.