The first movable type printing press was created in the 15th century to allow writers to mass-produce his/her manuscripts at an affordable price. As time passed, the price charged to edit and prepare a writers manuscript for publication, as well as the added expenses for bulk purchase of the author’s published book to enable him/she to make future sales directly to the public. These tactics became lucrative income resources for brick-and-mortar publishing houses.

In 1931, self-publishing technology with its limited bells-and-whistle platforms were created to help writers meet his/her publication needs without spending boat loads of money with publishing houses. However, few writers attempted to use these platforms because he/she didn’t want their books to look self-published.

Once self-publishing platforms were improved in 2008 to allow author’s more book design choices. Zero to minimum fees to register and utilize these platforms, personal control and publication of an author’s book, including quick delivery to customers via print-on-demand and digital/e-book purchasing services. As a result, self-publishing stigma was ignored and more authors begin using these platforms. In fact, 76% of books offered for sale to readers were self-published rather than published by traditional publishing houses last year.

Today, there are many self-publishing platforms that allow authors to publish his/her books based on personal desire and timeframe. Further, having your book published for several thousand dollars by brick-and-mortar publishing houses, does not make traditional published authors any better than author’s choosing to publish his/her own printed or digital books for free using self-publishing methods such as CreateSpace, Kindle Direct Publishing, or Smashwords to name a few.

At the end of the day, traditional and self-published authors are both published authors. New and existing authors want to see his/her name on their own books without having to take out a loan to do so. However new authors should be mindful, unless your first book is a masterpiece; you might not make enough money to pay the rent. Many authors have been writing for years and still don’t make enough from book sales to pay the rent and/or utilities, but they are still authors.