When Gianfranco and I set about writing The Language Teacher Toolkit around 2015 we had a publishing choice. Should we seek a traditional publisher or should we go our own way and self-publish through Amazon? (At that time their independent-publishing arm was called Createspace; it's now called KDP.)
We opted for independent-publishing for a few reasons:
Royalties. Self-publishing offers much higher royalties (over 60% per book as opposed to around 10% when you go with a publisher). This financial incentive had to be weighed up against the possible kudos and marketing advantage associated with being with a well-known publisher.
Publicity. We were well known enough on social media to be able to publicise and share our work. We had both been sharing resources freely for a few years, Gianfranco via TES, myself via my website. So we did not see the need to get support from a publisher. In the end, independent publishing has not been an issue as all our books have done very well indeed. In addition, my feeling is that a publisher does not add much more value when it comes to marketing.
Independence. When you go with a publisher they may impose certain limitations on what you can do, notably word length. For example, my Routledge book Becoming an Outstanding Languages Teacher (2017) had to be limited to around 200 pages. That was part of the brief for that series of books. (Incidentally, I was approached to write that book after The Language Teacher Toolkit had done well.)
Speed! When you self-publish, once your manuscript is ready, checked and edited (always get a good editor if you do this - I was grateful to education writer Martin Robinson for telling me this at the outset), you simply upload your pdf and cover material to KDP (or another service) and the book is checked for formatting and published within hours. When you go through the publisher the process can be frustratingly long, and not necessarily with any gain in quality. Alas, minor errors get through both with self-published books and those from a known publisher.
Print quality. As far as I can make out, print quality from KDP is broadly on a par with traditionally published books. We've had the very occasional issue with poor printing, but I imagine this is the case in general. Amazon have print works in various countries, including Australia now after a long absence. They effectively 'print on demand'. Note that anything in colour costs much more to print, so it reduces any profit margin. You can use pictures, but you can only do traditionally bound paperback and Kindle. If you decide to do a Kindle version, it's wise to enlist the help of a service who can convert your pdf or Word file into a suitable e-book format. You could go Kindle-only, but we find that the vast majority of our sales are in traditional print form.
Downsides?
Well, I am aware that Amazon's reputation is, shall we say, mixed. But its ubiquity and popularity mean that your work can spread far and wide quickly. Since our prime aim was not pecuniary, but to share our knowledge and enthusiasm about research and classroom practice, then it has been a good choice. In addition, when you register to publish a book on KDP you can opt for what they call 'expanded distribution' which means that your book can be picked up by other distributors and book shops. So you might find our books in other book stores. There are a few alternatives to Amazon, but they don't have the same reach.
The process of preparing the Word document of your text can be tricky. Just as an example, you have to ensure that the margins are acceptable for printing. KDP provides ready-made Word templates for different size books and these templates can be fun to work with, shall we say. But there is a mass of help online from self-publishers, so it shouldn't be too off-putting.
Final word
Our experience with The Language Teacher Toolkit (2016) meant we didn't hesitate to independently publish Breaking the Sound Barrier: Teaching Language Learners How to Listen (2019) and Memory: What Every Language Teacher Should Know (2021). I also independently published my 50 Lesson Plans for French Teachers. (I must give a major shout-out to my wife Professor Elspeth Jones, an experienced editor in the field of Higher Education who had edited, formatted and proof-read all our books.)
If you are a language teacher with great ideas or resources to share, you can consider self-publishing. It's not so different to selling on TES or a service like Teachers Pay Teachers, except that many teachers do seem to like a book format. Be meticulous and take great care with editing and proofing.
Do contact me if I can offer any help. I'm no expert on the technical detail, but I might be able to offer some general advice.
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