What does it mean to publish a book at your own expense?

Publishing books at one's own expense is a form of publishing books, and domestic publishing can be divided into publishing books at public expense and publishing books at one's own expense. Books published at their own expense are academic, professional, autobiographical, poetic, prose, essay or other kinds of small print books, or books published at public expense by publishers who are unwilling to bear market risks, and the authors hope to formally publish them to show their literary, artistic or academic achievements. Books published at their own expense generally do not enter the mainstream distribution system because of their content and genre. The author can strive for and expand the market according to his own actual situation.

Some self-funded books can also become bestsellers. The famous writer Mo Bosang's The Road to Suicide originally published 400 copies at his own expense, which took more than three years to sell out. Gauss, a great mathematician, was ridiculed for his arithmetic research after it was published at his own expense in 180 1, but later it became one of the few classic works in the history of mathematics in the world. Self-funded publishing has always been an ideal way for many writers and scholars to show their creative achievements and unique opinions before they become famous. Self-funded publishing means that all the expenses incurred in a series of publishing links, such as book number, editing, typesetting and printing, are funded by the author or investor (unit). Paper mills and Tianlong cultural books are all practitioners of this model. Generally printed 1000 copies, except for dozens of published books, all belong to the author, and all the profits from sales and distribution belong to the author. Generally, books published at their own expense are issued by book companies with book distribution qualifications.

Books published at their own expense are also official publications approved by relevant state departments. Therefore, it is necessary to go through strict steps such as topic selection declaration, three reviews and three proofreading. After the publishing house allocates ISBN through topic selection, it also needs to enter the formal printing process, and finally a book with complete form and in line with national publishing regulations can be produced. However, although the steps don't seem complicated, each link is also troublesome for the authors who are not involved. It takes a lot of time and energy to understand clearly.