1) Control
Self-Publishing: You have complete control over every aspect of the production of your book, including interior design, graphics, typeface, cover, trim size, etc.

Subsidy Publishing: Most subsidy publishers offer standard templates for interior design, typeface, size, cover, etc. If you wish to modify any of these elements, you will generally have to pay extra (if it is permissible at all).

2) Revenues
Self-Publishing: You receive all revenues from the sales of your books. You are also able to set your own pricing and discount terms.

Subsidy Publishing: You are paid a percentage of revenues on book sales in the form of royalties. Your royalty may also be affected by where the book is sold and/or discounts offered. (For example, many POD publishers pay lower royalties on books sold through online bookstores or other locations than on books sold directly from their own website.) You may or may not be able to set the price for your book, and may have no control over discounts offered.

3) Rights
Self-publishing: You retain all rights to your book. (Self-publication, however, will generally be considered a “use” of book publishing rights; if you seek to sell your book to a commercial publisher later, the book will be considered “previously published.”)

Subsidy Publishing: Many POD and electronic subsidy publishers make few or no demands on an author’s rights. Others demand a limited grant of rights (e.g., the right to issue the book in that particular format). Others demand a variety of rights. Print subsidy publishers often demand the same rights as commercial publishers, while providing far fewer services.

4) Ownership
Self-Publishing: You own all books you produce. You may do whatever you wish with them, at no extra cost: Sell them, give them away, use them as furniture, destroy them.

Subsidy Publishing: Regardless of what you paid to produce your books, you do not own them. If you want additional copies over and above your free “author copies” (some POD companies provide only one), you must pay extra for them. If you wish to send copies to reviewers, or give copies away, you must purchase them, generally at an author’s discount of around 40%. You do not receive any royalties on books you purchase for your own use.

5) Marketing Options
Self-publishing: You can make your own decisions about marketing, including the price of your book, discounts, giveaways, special offers, group discounts, etc. As your profit margin is higher, you can afford to invest in a variety of marketing efforts (advertising, direct mail, etc.).

Subsidy Publishing: While you are often solely responsible for “promoting” your book, you may not be able to set its price, and you may not be able to offer discounts for quantity orders. This makes it virtually impossible to market your book to groups (such as professional organizations, classes, etc., who expect a quantity discount). The profits you receive from royalties are usually not high enough to cover (or justify) the expense of direct marketing efforts.

Books for which the author has a “built-in” market or audience (which often fall into the previous category) are also likely to do well. If, for example, you regularly speak or teach on a particular topic, you may be able to take advantage of that audience by self-publishing a book that you can market at your talks or seminars. You might even be able to self-publish a book that you can use as a “required text” in your classes. If you belong to a particular professional organization, this can also provide you with a built-in “market”.

Self-published fiction still has a low success rate overall. Most fiction is still purchased through real-world bookstores, where one can browse the shelves for titles that look “interesting” (and then flip through the book itself to review a few sample pages). The fiction “readership” is also too vast and diverse a market to target effectively with a direct-mail campaign — and the competition with other titles is too fierce. There are, of course, notable exceptions that are often cited as “proof” that self-published fiction does sell — e.g., Richard Paul Evans’ The Christmas Box or M.J. Rose’s Lip Service — but the reality is that these books stand out because they are exceptions to the rule, not because they are representative of the success of self-published fiction as a whole.

Children’s books and collections of poetry are also poor candidates for self-publishing. Buyers of children’s books, like buyers of fiction, tend to prefer to browse the selection at bookstores, where they can easily review a book before purchasing it. In addition, many children’s books are illustrated and/or produced in special large editions with high-quality paper (or added features such as pop-ups), which are extremely expensive for the self-publisher. As for poetry, its market is limited at best, especially if a poet does not already have an established reputation.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t succeed in self-publishing with a work of fiction, a children’s book, or even a collection of poetry. It simply means that to be successful, you must have an exceptional product and the willingness to make a major investment in promoting that product.

Print self-publishing (which is still the method by which you are most likely to sell the greatest number of books) is expensive. You will probably need to invest a minimum of $3000 to $5000 to get your book into print.

Self-publishing requires a huge investment in effort. You must be aware that you are setting up a business — and what you get out of it will be directly proportional to the time and effort you are willing to put into it. (See “Tasks,” below.)

Self-publishing requires an ongoing investment of funds. While it is possible to accomplish a great deal of marketing online today, you may still find that you need to fund advertising and direct-mail campaigns, as well as pay to ship books to reviewers. It is these ongoing expenses that make it difficult to “break even” in the self-publishing business.

Self-published books still lack respect in many areas. Many reviewers will not review self-published books; many bookstores and libraries will not deal directly with a small press; and many professional organizations will not consider a self-published book as “published.”

It can be very difficult to get self-published books into bookstores and libraries, or accepted by wholesalers and distributors. Most bookstores and libraries prefer to deal with distributors who can provide hundreds of titles, rather than small presses that can supply only one. This means that most of your marketing efforts will be focused on reaching the consumer through other channels, such as space advertising, direct-mail advertising, web promotions, online bookstores, non-traditional markets, etc.

Obtaining a business license from your city clerk or licensing office. This will also mean checking zoning regulations for your area — and, if necessary, convincing your city that your “business” does not violate residential zoning laws. (If you have no employees and no customer traffic, you may have no problems — but laws vary from state to state and even city to city.) This will also mean paying local fees and business taxes on your revenue.

Filing a “doing business as” (dba) statement with a local paper to establish your business identity (the name you’ve chosen for your publishing “house”).

Setting up a separate bank account for your business, so that you can deposit checks made out to your business name. (Generally you will need a business license and dba statement to do this.)