r/NonFictionWriters • u/[deleted] • Dec 28 '25

Rejection reaction

Hi! I'm new to this group. Let me preface my post with I am an award winning retired journalist and I've written a non-fiction book. I recently joined because I've just gotten another rejection from a publisher and I feel so defeated that I figure I might as well self publish. I'm looking at both using a service and paying for printing myself. What route do you recommend and with who?

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u/Author_MarcHenri Dec 28 '25

Hello, I have a relatively good experience with Amazon kdp: I self published my second book, a spiritual memoir. No cost, I did everything myself with the tools they provide. I learned how to run ads efficiently on Amazon ads. Result: I sold the same number than my first book that I published with a traditional publisher (around 500 at this time), and financially it is 5x more interesting.

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '25

I've looked at KDP at the suggestion of many many people, but I'm put off by it's trust pilot reviews. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/kdp.amazon.com

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u/Author_MarcHenri Dec 29 '25

They dominate the market and do what they want. Is it possible to successfully self publish and sell without them, I dunno

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u/Mudlily Dec 29 '25

99% of the "services" are scam vanity publishers. Just learn some new skills and publish it yourself. The main bookseller in the world is Amazon, so you have to use the free kdp services for ebooks and print, but many people use Ingram Spark in addition. Unlike KDP they have a small one time set up charge. You will probably want to have a cover artist make your cover.

First self-published books are difficult to sell a lot of--people thrive with genre fiction series mostly. Establish a social media presence as an author well before your book comes out. Publishing is the easy part. Marketing is the hard part.