A traditional (commercial), publisher purchases the right to publish a manuscript and pays the author a royalty on sales. They are highly selective and publish a very small percentage of manuscripts submitted to them. They handle every aspect of editing, publication, distribution and marketing. There are no costs to the author.

Self-publishing is a form of publication in which the author becomes the publisher of the book. It is not the same as On-demand publishing services where the author and publisher are two distinct entities and you, the author, are paid royalties for the books that they, the publisher, sell.

The distinction is important. Ownership of the ISBN determines who the publisher of your book is. If you do not buy your ISBN number directly from RR Bowker, you do not own it. If, for example, you publish through a Vanity, Subsidy, Cooperative or Print on demand publisher, and they "assign " or sell you an ISBN number, they will be listed as the publisher of your book.

Buying your own ISBN number is the single most important thing that you will do. You are no longer a "self-publisher" you are an independent publisher. Like any small or large commercial publisher you can change printers, promotion and advertising services, wholesalers, distributors and retailers. You can change whatever you want to increase the exposure, sales and profit margins of your book.

For a book to be genuinely self-published, you, the author, must designate a name for your publishing house. This name must appear on the copyright page of the book as “Publisher,” and the book’s ISBN number must be registered by the ISBN Agency to you, in the name of your publishing house. Author and publisher are now the same entity, and the book is yours.

As with on-demand publishing, a self-publishing service requires that the author bears the cost of publication. However, because a self-publishing service does not own the book and pay royalties to the author, it does not distribute and market the book. The author puts these services together for himself.

Far from being a negative, this gives the author flexibility and choice in the spending of their promotional and marketing dollars. For example: you have written a book on child care, (a niche market that traditional publishers may not want to take on because of its relatively limited appeal), and you sign a contract with an on demand publisher. However, your expensive pre-set marketing package of on-line sales, news releases, review contacts, business cards, posters, and advertisement materials are not targeted towards young mothers, women’s magazines, day care centers, pre-school teachers, child-care services, maternity magazines, or E-Bay sales etc. You, as the author, could obviously design a marketing package better targeted to the subject of your book.

To sum up, the great advantage to self-publishing is that the books are owned by you the author. You do not receive limited royalties, nor do you set yourself up for expensive distribution and marketing packages that can be of little use to you. You pay only for the publishing services and number of books you need. You set the price of your book. You make your own marketing stratergies and distribution arrangements. Finally, any and all the proceeds from your book sales are your own to keep.