Self publishing, should you or shouldn't you?

Now, I try to never give advice on something I haven't experienced either firsthand or watched happening. In a former life I needed a handbook to immigration published that wasn't attractive enough as a proposition for the big publishers and e books online hadn't been invented yet, so I had but one choice. I did my research about who to go with and settled on one with glowing reports from all the authors who'd used them. Self Publishing Your Novel Here's what I discovered in a nutshell. 1. You will sign a contract which is strongly biased toward the publishing company, and have very little control over the finished product or timespan. 2. With slogans like "your book your way" they lure you in, take your thousand dollars before they even see what you're publishing, although they claim to be picky about what they publish. That's the last time you will feel like a paying customer. 3. Although you must write, proof, edit, and then format the doc according to their strange tastes yourself, or pay someone to do this for you; when you send it complete with artwork and layout, so that nothing remains to be done, checked, or changed ( a process that normally takes 1 to 2 or more years) they will ignore your written and signed instructions. Producing covers that look like a middle school project although they have quality photo files and layout from you. They claim to offer advice on size of book, distrubution, price, etc. But once you make your choice they'll remind you that the premier pack, costing double what you paid, for very little benefit, is what you should have gone for, so they could have offered better a service. 4. You may find as I did, that distrubution channels they boasted of fail to materalise. That the proof copy of your book produced in some flar-flung cheaper land (and looking cheap too) will need to be shipped to you to sign off, and it will be sent at your cost, you pay the shipping. Unless you choose ordinary post from Outer Mongolia or Upper Canada, taking two months to reach you. That although it's a proof copy, if you make any changes to it, including any changes needed because they fail to do what you asked, you will pay extra for this. I found myself asking what exactly the fee you pay is for, as all layout, formatting, covers, writeups, are done by the author. They give you an ISBN number that's about it. Then when you print copies for sale you do so at a premium before you can resell them. Any copies they sell through their channels will leave you with very little of the cover price. You will wait to get royalties paid out for months. So is it worth it? Well many people have no choice as was the case with my book. If traditional publishers don't pick it up because it doesn't meet their list or they can't make big money on it the self-publishing or print on demand route can be an option. You may be better served doing it all yourself on lulu.com and then just paying to print as many as you need. Amazon have booksurge publishing which may in the future give you a benefit of selling on Amazon as they may block the other self publishing houses. Have you googled the company you want to use with name "......... publishers scam rip off"? Do your research first before you sign. Here's good advice from a publisher Do you have a self-publishing story or complaint or comment? Write to us below under comments and well publish it on here. A great site with all the research done for you. Wisequeen