5 Reasons you Should Self-Publish your Book as a Cameroonian Author

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I believe the of self-publishing industry has not been exploited by many Cameroonian authors today. There is more to self-publishing than just writing and printing a book for sale.

Some people think to publish a book is to attribute an International Serial Book Number(ISBN) to a book cover, or simply to write a well-edited book and launch it thereafter.

Self-publishing is beyond writing , printing, and selling a book. Publishing involves seven stages: writing , editing, designing, formatting, printing , distribution and marketing.

To publish a book, you could either approach a publishing house and work with a third-party publisher to release your book, or publish your own book as a self-published (Indie) author.

For new Cameroonian authors contemplating on what publishing option to choose, I strongly recommend self-publishing with Amazon KDP for the reasons I’m going to share with you in this blogpost.

1. It’s a long-term investment.

The self-publishing business in Cameroonian is still at its infancy stage with incalculable business opportunities.

Since the average Cameroonian is not accustomed to purchasing books online, it makes it difficult for self-published authors to earn enough royalties from the sales of their books.  

However, with the uprising of mobile money, this barrier will soon be broken. By then, you must have had your books already published on Amazon KDP.

With a robust marketing strategy in place, you could sit back and watch passive income flow directly into your mobile money account. Since technology is advancing at a speedy rate, this barrier could be broken sooner than you expect.

2. It is cost-effective.

There are many advantages of publishing your book with Amazon KDP, especially if you are on a shoestring budget.

They offer book promotional services, a free ISBN, a book cover generator, and many marketing opportunities.

Publishing on Amazon is free. All you need to do is to create an account and use it to upload your book(s). You might need to learn some technical skills to meet up with their publishing standards.

But if you have no time or skill to follow through with their publishing standards, outsource it to a freelancer. Under such circumstances, I recommend you negotiate with the freelancer to publish the book in your own Amazon KDP account.

3. Complete control over your book.

With self-publishing, you don’t need the approval of a publishing agent to do any anything with your book. You decide the price, the design, the content, and everything that patterns to your book.

With Amazon KDP, you can also update your book as many times as you wish, and publish it at your convenience at no cost.

Unlike traditional publishers, you have limited control over your book.They set the price, determine what should be on the cover page, change your content and worst of all, control all the revenue from the sales of your book.

4. You reach a target audience.

While traditional publishing gets your book to reach a wider audience, self-publishing gets your book to reach a targeted audience.

However, with skillful application of digital marketing strategies, you could reach both your target audience and a wider audience with self-publishing.

What you may not enjoy with self-publishing is the prestige of having your book published in a renowned publishing house, which to me is irrelevant unless you consider prestige to be one of your goals.

5.Traditional publishing/Old-school.

Before the internet age, the few publishers who existed in Cameroon made life difficult for talented authors to get their books published and distributed to bookstores.

They were more interested in publishing textbooks for students, comic books for children, and political books for politicians.

They denied the opportunity for many talented authors like you and me to their share stories, knowledge and experiences with the world .

Today, the story has changed. Anyone can self-publish their own book on Amazon KDP. There is no need to stick around a publishing house waiting for them to approve your manuscript before it is published.

With Amazon KDP, publishing your book is as easy as ABC.

Conclusion

If you are still contemplating on how you are going to publish your book, I recommend Amazon KDP.

Here is a simplified guide on how to proceed from here. If you need help, contact me via email: teachersletters@gmail.com. 

Have questions?

Please leave a comment below.

Author: Jini, is a prolific author and founder of Teachersletters Publishing Services. As an award winning teacher with a Cambridge International School in Doaula, he has 13+ years of teaching experience in writing, student-centered learning, bible teachers training and educational leadership. He is consider as one of the best keynote speakers of his time.