Michelle Morfett

So the distributor handles their cut.

I see.

So they take their money first and then they send it off.

So the publisher deals with photography, the design.

They have quite an upper hand on, you know, if they want to have the book New Zealand focused or...

like things like that that you might not quite like some publishers they have to have you on the cover and so that's one of their things like you have to be on the cover and yeah they try and guide the book the way they want to sell it which is fair enough because that's how the publishing companies are making their money but if you want full control over making a book then i'm the biggest advocate for self-publishing i will meet people in the food industry

And I'm like, why are you using a publisher?

You should self-publish.

And I feel like that's all I'm doing at the moment.

It's just peddling self-publishing.

I was like, I'll help you.

I'll give you all the details I know and you just do it on your own.

But see, again, with social media, you don't need to use a publisher because back in the day,

When there was no social media, you needed to know the right people and then they needed to have their contacts to get your book in front of people and into bookstores.

But because it's so easy to have a social media presence now and sell, say, I'm selling my books through my own website, it's just so easy.

Yeah, so that's where I went wrong with my first book because I only ordered 3,000.

And then so I sold through those pretty quick and then I only ordered another 1,000 and then I was like, I'm not reprinting it.

The thing is, is that a lot of book sales do just still trickle in.

I thought it was going to be a bit old news, you know, being a book that's a couple of years old now.

But I should have printed more in the beginning.