Publish for Free

I am now appraoching the point that most writers fear the most, getting their work published. As I wrote my book Patrick Warrior Saint I spent quite some time researching the next step. I could send my book to an agent and from there on to a publishing house. Without doubt I believe this is the best way to get your book distributed in bookstores.But this process may take years and in fact the author may never see their book published. I really didn't want to spend years banging my head off a brick wall begging for a break.

So I found an alternative, I have chosen to self- publish. There are many sites that allow an author to publish on demand and after investigating the top rated sites I found that createspace met my needs.  The process is straightforward, at least in theory, more information may be found here https://www.createspace.com/
As I progress I will update on how this goes.

Some Advantages:
                    I choose when my book is published not if.
                    It won't cost me any money.
                    My book will be available on Amazon for sale in my target market.
                    I will set my own price.
                    I will do a version for Kindle or iPad,the future of books.
                    I retain full rights to my work.

Some Disadvantages:
                    It won't be in my local bookstore.
                    It will sell far fewer copies than the traditional route.

So how do these disadvantages impact on my decision? Well, because I retain the rights I can sell it myself into my local book chain, many run programmes to help local authors. As regards sales levels, I am not writing this book to make money, if that happens great. My prime motivation is to have my work published, to get my reimagining of the Saint Patrick story out there.