By Leo Babauta

When I got a book deal with mainstream publisher at the end of 2007, it was a dream come true for me as a writer. But this year, writing my second book (called “focus“), I decided to forgo the traditional publisher and publish it myself.

Why self-publish? Aren’t I shooting myself in the foot?

There are lots of advantages to getting a big publishing deal, but there are trade-offs as well. I’ll walk you through what I considered the main trade-offs and advantages.

Advantages of a Publisher

One of the biggest advantages, of course, is credibility. When you sign with a real publisher, you are now a published author, while self-publishing still carries a slight air of amateurishness. But that’s changing, and soon there will be very little difference. What matters most is quality, not the name behind you.

The other main advantages of getting a traditional publisher:

• The advance. When you sign the book deal, your publisher pays you an up-front advance for signing (and also when you submit the manuscript). This is really just the first chunk of your royalties in advance, but if your royalties never meet this advance, you don’t have to pay it back. It’s really nice to get this money up front.
• Built-in services like editing and printing. There’s an editor on staff, and he or she is usually good, at least at proofreading. They also have things like design and printing and all the other tasks that go with publishing all figured out. You just worry about writing, and then marketing.
• Distribution. The publisher has a national distribution chain. This, actually, is probably the most important advantage other than credibility. You get your book in bookstores across the nation. That’s incredibly hard to do as a self-publisher.

Disadvantages of Having a Publisher

I’m not trying to knock the publishing industry here — I think publishers are doing the best they can. But it’s good to know the trade-offs, and there are a few:

• Loss of control. You don’t control everything when you turn your book over to someone else. The type of printing and print quality, how many books are printed, how the electronic and audio versions are done, and much more are out of your control. The part I didn’t like was that I couldn’t distribute a free version of my book, or release copyright. That was a deal-breaker for me, at least for this second book.
• No real marketing help. This isn’t just something to do with my publisher — I’ve heard the same from lots of authors. My publisher helped me line up radio show interviews, which was helpful, but did little else. I did tons of work in marketing the book — in fact it was like a full-time job.
• Loss of profits. The author really only gets a small percentage of sales in a traditional deal. Part of it goes to costs like printing, part goes to distributors, part to the bookstore, part to the publisher, part to your agent. When you self-publish, you get just about everything after your costs, with the exception of whatever you have to give to Amazon or other online distributors.
• Loss of flexibility. I love self-publishing because it means I can do it however I want, and not only control everything but change things at a whim. If I decide to lower prices to increase sales, I can. If I want to throw in bonus files, I can. There’s nothing set in stone — I make up everything and can change it as I please.

Why I Decided to Self-Publish

There are lots of reasons, but basically I wanted the control over my book that I didn’t have before. I wanted to be able to release copyright, and that’s very hard to do with a traditional publisher.

I also wanted to be able to publish in as many formats as I wanted, when and how I wanted. I wanted to remove the bureaucratic layers needed to do anything — as a self-publisher, the only person I need to get permission from is myself.

Things move much faster when I’m a one-man team: I can fix files and re-upload them, I can change the price if I think it was too high, I can issue refunds immediately, I can listen to people and improve the product, I can say whatever I want, do things my way.

Sure, I lose out on the advantages of a traditional publisher, but they’re not a big deal to me. I don’t need the advance as I wrote the book in between my regular work. I don’t need the editor as I had readers help me edit. I don’t need the printer as I found ways to publish myself (see next section).And while I lose out on the nation-wide distribution in bookstores that I’d have with a traditional publisher, I can still sell my book around the world, through my website, and not have to pay the premium to the publisher so that I can get into the bookstore.

As a nice side-benefit, I get all profits. Which makes sense, as I’m doing all the work. I was doing most of the work under a traditional publisher before as well, but only making a fraction of the profits.

How I’m Doing It

First, I decided to write the book publicly, online. So as each chapter has been written, I posted the drafts online and asked for feedback. That turned out to be brilliant — people gave me feedback instantly, instead of only after the book was published, so the final product was much better. Also, writing the book in public helped me stay motivated throughout the writing process, which can be a lonely and dreadful thing if we’re honest with ourselves.

Second, I published the book online and as a freely downloadable ebook — it’s free and uncopyrighted. You don’t have to give me your email address to get it. Why did I do this? I want people to read it and get something from it. If they don’t have to pay or give me their email address, they’re more likely to read it. And if they like it, they can email it to someone else or post a link on Facebook or Twitter. That’s a great thing, for me as a writer.

So how am I making money? I have a premium digital version, which has extra chapters from me plus bonus chapters written by other authors, along with videos, audio interviews with experts, and bonus PDF guides. Enough people have bought it after reading the free version that it’s already a great success.

I’ve also published the book in Amazon’s Kindle store, for $8.99, but it doesn’t include the bonus files. If you buy the premium version, by the way, you’ll get the Kindle file as well, along with an epub formatted file so you can read the book on the iPad or other ebook reader. I plan to put the book in Apple’s iBook store soon.

Finally, the print version will come out in a matter of weeks. It’s the final stage in my self-publishing of the book. I’ve been wrestling with printing the traditional way (off-set printing) vs. Print on Demand (POD), but I’m going with POD because it’s less expensive, more flexible, and way easier for me. The print version will be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and my website, among other places.

Next Week: Details

For those who want the nitty gritty details on all of the stages of self-publishing that I’ve gone through, I’ll post more details next week. That’ll include a quick rundown of things like: dealing with different formats, setting up a publishing company, buying ISBNs, setting up Print on Demand, selling via the Kindle and iBook stores, uploading files to e-junkie for download, and so on.

Leo Babauta is the creator of Zen Habits and mnmlist, and the author of focus.

A guest post by Alison Kerr of Loving Nature’s Garden

Do you consider yourself a risk taker? What about a risky writer? Whether you think taking risks is in your job description or not, get informed, use protection, bad things can happen to writers.

Picture this, you write and publish a scathing review of some books you were sent, or maybe you’ve heard tell of some dubious business practices behind the success of a gaming company. You feel people need to know and you mention it at your blog. Do those sound risky? What about if you had a bad case of customer service from a printing company and you mention it at your blog? All of these are real life scenarios where the bloggers received letters informing them that they were involved in libel.

Who are these bloggers and what does their experience mean for you?

John Pozadzides, who writes at One Man’s Blog, is an American, an early contributor to the development of HTML and CSS, and an all-around-intelligent-sounding guy. He wrote about his experience with a print service at his blog back in 2007. There have since been many comments left on John’s post. In September of 2010 John received an email which he considers a threat to sue. The email related to what someone else wrote in the comments on John’s post, a comment written by another writer.

Bruce Everiss is a British gaming blogger who received notice that he was being sued in Australia by an American-registered company over his online accusations of dubious business practices.

And Paul Z Myers is an American associate professor at the University of Minnesota and professional reviewer who published an overwhelmingly negative review of two books by Stuart Pivar at ScienceBlogs.com.

I don’t know about you, but when I learned of these I was rather aghast, and just a bit worried. I’m not getting rich any time soon from blogging; taking risks is not my gig. The thing is, anyone can be sued for pretty much anything. The important thing to look at is real consequences. Were these writers doing anything wrong and what happened to them? What freedoms of speech do we have as professional writers, what exactly is libel, and if you should be covering your ass what kind of protection should you use?

Free speech

Democratic nations, including English-speaking America, have established legal protections for those who disseminate information through the written word:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press… The Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments to the Constitution — Dec. 15, 1791.

There’s no legal protection against stupidity

There are plenty of cases where damages have been awarded to individuals who were libeled when a writer threw caution to the wind.

You don’t even have to be a professional writer to be sued. Take a look at the case of the £10,000 awarded to the UK law student who’s former friend ranted about him on Facebook. Or there’s the first blogger in the USA to lose a libel suit back in January 2006; David Milum was ordered to pay $50,000 to the lawyer he libeled.

Now, writing defamatory stuff online about a lawyer or law student… well, let’s just say it’s not too smart. But John Pozadzides didn’t even write the words he’s being sued for. I’m not calling him stupid.

So, what is libel anyway and what about comments at a blog?

“Libel and slander are legal claims for false statements of fact about a person that are printed, broadcast, spoken or otherwise communicated to others. Libel generally refers to statements or visual depictions in written or other permanent form…” – Media Law Resource Center. It’s not only individuals who can bring a libel case though, businesses can too.

Is John Pozadzides liable for a comment at his blog? Under American law Section 230 “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” – Electronic Frontier Foundation. It’s unlikely that John is legally responsible for the comment in question at his blog, though he may have to pay some legal costs just to check.

John Pozadzides is lucky he’s in America

It turns out, at least for the moment, that if you’re an American you’re ahead. Laws related to libel vary depending on where you live, where you publish, whom you write about, and where your readers are. Earlier this year British gaming blogger Bruce Everiss was sued in Australia by an American-registered company adding to growing concerns of tourist libel.

Where will it end? For American writers the good news is that President Obama recently signed into law the Speech Act, which aims to curb libel tourism, protecting the freedoms of speech for Americans provided by the First Amendment.

London – libel capital to the unlucky

British writers and non-Americans who’s writing can be read in England, are not so lucky. According to the BBC Outdated Libel Laws Need Reform. Libel laws which are too strict ‘are used by wealthy foreign individuals to “bully people who try to hold them to account”’ and are a magnet for tourist libel cases, leading to London being named “a town named sue”.

But the fun doesn’t stop there: under English law “If you don’t pre-moderate your blog’s comments you can be held responsible…” What to do? Taking down your content and offering a written apology might be sufficient to solve your problem if you receive a libel letter. Alternatively, your ISP might just take down your content for you over fears of their own liability. And being in America is no protection if you don’t know your rights, as demonstrated recently by the 70,000 Blogs Shut Down by U.S. Law Enforcement.

What kind of protection works?

Just like in other areas of life, protection is advised.

1. Start with exercising morals and ethics in your writing. You’re a professional. Despite the traffic it might bring, not all sensational content is advisable. Here are a couple of starting places: The Responsible Blogger’s Guide to Dealing With Big Brother at CopyBlogger.com; also, read these defamation avoidance tips from Australia.
2. Keep up to date with your rights and responsibilities as a blogger, freelance writer, or publisher. Unfortunately claims against professional writers are more often than not an attack on free speech. Find out how defamation laws apply to you at home and abroad. Consider this part of your professional training. American bloggers can consult the Electronic Frontier Foundation for a comprehensive guide to bloggers rights. The organization International Pen defends freedom of expression for writers across the globe and English Pen is working to reform English libel law.
3. Have the name of a good lawyer handy – someone you trust to answer your questions without charging you a fortune. Organizations which may be able to advise you and who represent some writers for free in cases which champion free speech include the already mentioned Electronic Frontier Foundation and English Pen.
4. When you write for others freelance, pay attention to your liability under the contract you are given. The American Society of Journalists and Authors has a guide to dealing with indemnification clauses in contracts. You can request wording changes on contracts rather than just signing what you are given.
5. When you conduct interviews, archive your source audio recordings and keep your written notes. Professional freelance journalists told me that they archive these for five years. Consider it part of covering your ass on topics where your sources could be called into question.
6. Look into liability insurance coverage for your business or blog. Commercial general business insurance can cover advertising injury (related to what you write about your products and those of your competitors). If you are consulting, for example providing software services, as part of your blogging you may want professional liability coverage. And media insurance is available to American writers and online publishers through Author’s Guild (annual cost is $1,500 and up).

So, what happened to Bruce Everiss, the gaming blogger with the libel lawsuit brought against him in Australia? And did Paul Z Myers have to eat his words over the laughable science books he reviewed? Bruce was required to hire legal services – he was taken to court. However, the game company Evony dramatically dropped the case against Bruce Everiss after just two days in Australian court. These days Bruce is writing more about English libel law reform and less about games. As for the case against scientist and book reviewer Paul Z Myers, Pivar voluntarily withdrew the libel claim against him eleven days after filing the complaint.

I’m a writer, not a lawyer. Please do not consider this information a substitute for legal advice.

How do you feel after reading this, are you surprised? What free speech protections do you think bloggers should be due? Do you feel the need to know more about this? Please share your response in the comments.

Alison Kerr is a down-to-earth gardener, naturalist, self-confessed bookworm, writer, cook, and homeschooling mom to two teens who blogs at Loving Nature’s Garden. You can follow Alison Kerr on Twitter.

By James Chartrand of Men with Pens

What type of writer are you? Are you the type who glows with pleasure when a client compliments a piece you’ve done or when readers go crazy over a post you wrote? Or are you the type who enjoys praise and thanks people for compliments but who doesn’t really need that to know the work was awesome?

It’s about where you get that sense of validation and approval – from the outside or from within? Some people are externally validated, and they feel they’ve reached approval when others have a positive reaction to their work. Internally validated people tend to find that approval from within, and they give themselves their own approval.

You should know which type of validation you seek, if you’re a writer. (I’ll tell you why in just a little bit, so keep reading.) Who or what gives you that golden stamp of approval? What tells you that you’ve done a good job? How do you know when the work you’ve done was great?

Here are a few clues to help you determine whether you’re externally or internally validate:

If you’re externally validated, you might:

• Wait for comments to come in before you feel you can heave a sigh of relief
• Think a good post is one that has many comments, not just a few
• Hope for a client’s positive feedback and relax only when you receive it

If you’re internally validated, you might:

• Feel like you know the work is good
• Deliver to clients and move on to the next job without thinking twice
• Think that comments are nice but that they don’t really matter

So why should you know where you fit in? Because I’ve noticed that internally validated writers tend to have more confidence about their work, stress less over writing and feel more relaxed in general.

There’s nothing wrong with being more externally validated than internally validated, of course (or vice versa). You are who you are, and if it’s working for you, that’s great. There are also exceptions to the rules – aren’t there always?

But I’ve noticed that, predominantly, writers who just know their work is good and who don’t really care if clients rave or not (though it is nice), tend to be more self-assured about their work and have lower levels of anxiety.

They also suffer less writer’s block, it seems. They know what they have to do, they know what makes their writing solid, they know how to write well, and most importantly, they don’t get jammed when client or readers didn’t have the response they desired.

I see people suffer writer’s block all the time. It’s painful to observe. In almost every single case, I’ve noticed clues that these anxiety-ridden writers are externally validated people.

Think I’m wrong? Imagine this:

You worked hard on a post for an idea you had – a good idea, one that made you feel exicted. You spent hours writing and sweated to get the post just right. And when you finished, you liked the piece. You thought it was pretty damned good.

But then your readers started commenting. First one didn’t like it. Then another. In fact, most people really didn’t like your post at all. Some told you bluntly that it was a terrible piece and others said they just didn’t get the point. They wished you’d written something else. A few readers even unsubscribed from your blog.

Alright, that’s not a fun situation for either type of writer, internally or externally validated. The point is that each type of writer will react very, very differently to this scenario. Can you imagine how?

The internally validated writer might be a little stung. Probably more indignant than anything. He might shrug the criticism off, argue with readers or point out the nuances that make the work special. He might even think he should’ve kept this post and idea to himself.

The externally validated writer? He’d be crushed.

This doesn’t mean internally validated writers are better at handling feedback. But they wouldn’t be crushed by negative criticism. And they’d be able to write again.

The externally validated writer would be able to write again too, but how do you think he’s feeling about it? He’s probably feeling nervous, maybe even a little scared. Maybe he doesn’t think he’s a good writer after all anymore. Or that he shouldn’t be blogging.

Maybe he starts to doubt his ability to write in the first place, because now he can’t seem to write at all. Every sentence comes out sounding awkward. The work is slow going. It’s getting harder and harder to write. Nothing comes out properly. Some days there are blank pages. And eventually more of them, until writing becomes a dreaded struggle.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? If an externally validated writer gets his approval from others, and those others have resoundingly told him his work didn’t pass muster… well.

What will it take to bring the spark back to life? One of two things:

• Someone to bring approval back to that writer’s life
• The ability to find that approval again – from within

When you learn how to stop seeking external validation and start getting that sense of approval from within, I believe you can seriously smash through writer’s block and even move forward to create a mental environment where you can perform easily, well and with full self-confidence.

But moving from being externally validated to enjoying more of a balance with internal validation takes time. And it also takes some proactive thought patterns to help you direct validation back where it works best for you. Here are some tips to help:

• Each time you have a negative thought such as, “I’m no good at this. I can’t write. This sucks,” firmly tell yourself that you can write (you’ve done it before), you are good at this (after all, you’ve succeeded in the past), and that it doesn’t suck (it’s just a situation you can learn from). Believe yourself, too. Be tough on yourself and tell yourself to stop thinking you’re a failure – you’re not.
• Get the event behind you in the past, and don’t wallow in it. You’re a writer who had a rough patch and it’s over. Don’t let yourself stay there in yesterday, and live in today. Put the situation in the past where it belongs and tell yourself that today, you’re working on moving forward.
• When you get a bit of confidence back, put yourself to the text. Prepare some writing that you’re going to show someone else. Also (most importantly), prepare affirmations that you’ll tell yourself no matter what that person says about your work. Preparing before the moment of feedback in this way conditions you to always have strong, self-confident words to tell yourself at the slightest hint of criticism – eventually the criticism won’t bother you at all, and you’ll be able to listen objectively without feeling hurt.
• By waiting for someone else to give you approval, you’re actually giving away control (and your ability to write with self-confidence). You’re giving other people the power to decide if your work is worthy or not – shouldn’t you be the judge of that? Sure, feedback is helpful and you should listen to see where you could improve, but remind yourself that whoever is giving the feedback isn’t the Almighty Ruler of Approval and doesn’t get to decide where you measure up.
• Remember that you’re in control of your thoughts and therefore, your results. If the result you want is to never have to depend on anyone’s approval and never be crushed by negative feedback? Then control your thoughts and tell yourself you don’t need anyone’s approval and that feedback doesn’t bother you – you’ll achieve your desired result.

Like I said, it may not be easy and it will take time, but I nearly guarantee that the more you bring validation back to yourself so that you get it from within, the more control you’ll have over your ability to write, write well, and write often.

Without needing anyone’s approval.

To learn more great writing tips that help you be a confident writer rocking out your words, visit James Chartrand’s internally validated blog over at Men with Pens. You’ll get all the advice you need.

A guest post by Stefanie Flaxman of Revision Fairy

Everyone wants to be Batman.

He’s cool and edgy, but has benevolent intentions—and the man gets results.

Luckily for you, it’s easy to adopt Batman’s intriguing qualities to perfect your writing and make others believe that you rock as hard as the Caped Crusader.

Whether you’re writing for yourself (a blog, a novel, a business document, etc.) or a client, mistakes aren’t going to cut it. Your text has to be poignant, useful, and error-free.

Here are three aspects of the Batman persona that you can apply to your proofreading habits.

Costume – The importance of writing drafts

When speaking in front of an audience, it is said that the crowd forms 70% of their opinions on how you look, 20% on how you sound, and only 10% on what you say. When you apply the theory to written text, the 70% of “how you look” reflects the content and structure of your writing.

How your writing “looks” involves its appeal to the reader, and proofreading enhances appeal. Text that a writer initially believes to be straightforward may actually be vague, unclear, or forgettable.

While the design of your document can certainly play a role in your visual presentation, you perfect your composition’s “look” by not only fixing typos, spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, but also checking for consistency, clarity, and cohesiveness (among other factors, which may or may not be words that begin with the letter “c”). Readers are more receptive to your ideas when they can easily comprehend your writing. A document full of blemishes will not hold the reader’s interest.

You often know what you want to say, but your concept is not always translated to the reader. It’s essential to review your document as if you were not the person who wrote it. If you casually proofread your own text, you may skip reading every word in a sentence, but it will likely still make sense—it won’t necessarily to someone else.

Schedule an editing session after you take a break from writing. Spending time away from your ideas and the words on the page helps you decipher how can you improve the quality of your work.

No one gets it right on the first try. Take advantage of drafts.

Writing is as much a process as drawing, painting, or sculpting. A project needs to be carefully crafted. Each step contributes to the next action, whether it’s cleaning your paintbrushes, sketching a mock-up of your vision, or writing the seedlings of your ideas down in a rough draft.

Each draft is a costume. Batman had to experiment with different versions of the “bat suit” until it was the ideal combination of aesthetics and functionality—an outfit that communicates that you don’t want to mess with Batman.

Change costumes by proofreading until you get it right. When complete, you’ll have a suit that tells a powerful story.

Gadgets – When to use resources to improve your weaknesses

Crime fighting is Batman’s goal. Communicating a clear message is yours. Stay as focused on your goal as Batman by genuinely connecting with your audience. Work with what you know, and do the appropriate research when you discuss unfamiliar topics.

Seems impossible to swiftly travel from the ground to the top of a tall building? Didn’t stop Batman. He uses resources to overcome obstacles, invent complementary gadgets, and enhance his ability to stifle bad guys.

If you forgot a punctuation rule, look it up. If a sentence is incomplete, elaborate. If a paragraph is convoluted, simplify. Thorough proofreading examines each word and kicks it to the curb if it can be replaced with a more effective option.

Don’t take any aspect of your text for granted. Everyone knows that grammar mistakes make your writing look sloppy, but fixing them isn’t always a writer’s priority.

It reminds me of a Chinese story about the monk, Birdsnest, who lived in a tree and gave the most profound advice in China. When the governor of the land visited Birdsnest, the guidance that the monk told the officer was simple, “Don’t do bad things. Always do good things.”

Feeling cheated by this obvious statement, the governor exclaimed, “I knew that when I was three years old!”

“Ah, yes,” Birdsnest replied. “The three-year-old knows it, but the eighty-year-old still finds it difficult to do.”

Tone – The benefits of writing and editing with confidence

The sound of Bruce Wayne’s voice changes when he becomes Batman. The deeper, firm tone of the winged vigilante is not a frivolous characteristic; it is an intentional display of confidence.

Batman doesn’t worry about pleasing everyone. Unapologetically write from your point of view, but don’t be sloppy or careless.

After writing a draft, confidently make changes to weak sections. To proofread meticulously, you don’t merely spot glaring errors, you recognize the message that the text intends to convey and ensure that each word in the document contributes to that purpose.

Batman doesn’t ask for permission; he’s in a class of his own.

No matter what you do, be Batman. It’s about doing what no one else does.

It wasn’t a radioactive spider bite, non-Earthling birth status, or mutated genetics that bestowed Bruce Wayne with the talent to be a superhero. He’s a guy that decided to kick ass no matter what.

Batman reminds us:

Don’t quit your night job.

Bruce Wayne may be a necessary part of life, but listen to your Batman-calling to be something extraordinary.

Stefanie Flaxman is the founder of Revision Fairy. Check out a free sample of her grammar ebook, and follow Stefanie on Twitter.