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. The author designates a name for his publishing business, hires editors and designers, purchases photography, owns ISBNS (International Standard Book Numbers), obtain copyrights, choose a printer and promote the books. It is not the same as On-demand or vanity publishing, where the author and publisher are two distinct entities and the author is paid a royalty for the books that the publisher sells. To self-publish, the author usually uses the help of an author services company to put together whatever he or she may need to publish the book.

The distinction between a vanity publishing company and an author service company is important. You may be the author of a book, but the book's publisher owns the ISBN that is used to identify it. The publisher of the book owns its publishing rights. To be a self-publisher, you must be both the author of the book and own its publishing rights. You use an author services company to purchase the services you need to be the publisher of your book. If you do not designate a name for your publishing house and buy your ISBN number directly from RR Bowker (which is easy to do), you do not own its publishing rights. 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, because they have bought the ISBN number that they assign to you.

To self-publish, buying your own ISBN number is the single most important thing that you will do. If you designate a name for your publishing business and buy your own ISBN, like any large or small commercial publisher, you can change printers, promotion and advertising services, wholesalers, distributors and retailers. You can change whatever you wish to increase the exposure, sales and profit margins of your book.

For a book to be self-published, the name of your publishing house 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 business. Author and publisher are now the same entity, and the book is yours.

An author services company requires that the author bear the cost of publication. However, because the author services company does not own the distribution rights to the book, it cannot distribute or market the book. The author puts such services together for himself. 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 preset marketing package of on-line sales, news releases, review contacts, business cards, posters and advertisement materials are not targeted toward young mothers, women’s magazines, day-care centers, preschool teachers, childcare 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.

In summation, the great advantage to self-publishing is that the book is 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 strategies and distribution arrangements. Finally, any and all the proceeds from your book sales remain with you.