Zemanta thinks this should be the image for this post. I don’t even…

You’ll hear this just about everywhere these days: Self-publishing is easy! Your book will available worldwide in minutes!

And self-publishing IS easy. (Sort of. For some people. Assuming you have basic formatting, design, editing etc skills.)

When you finish self-publishing something and it’s available for sale less than a day later and maybe you make a sale or two there is this sort of overwhelming feeling of, dang, that was SO EASY. And maybe you let it sit for a minute and bask and then it starts. That nagging little feeling that goes a bit like this…

What else do I have lying around here that I could publish?

Because it would be Oh So Easy to just slap a few more things up, wouldn’t it? In a single evening, you could publish everything on your entire computer without breaking a sweat. And a quick look on Amazon will show you that many people have done exactly this, published everything they’ve ever written from their unedited diary to that term paper they wrote in 7th grade. Now that you think of it, that term paper you wrote in 7th grade was pretty freaking great. You could do a quickie cover, upload it and in a matter of hours…

Don’t do it. Resist the urge.

Trust me on this one.

The decision to self-publish should be one you’ve considered. Prepared for with proper editing, formatting, designing and a marketing plan. You may be the greatest writer that ever lived but I’m going to go ahead and promise you this right now: Not everything you’ve ever written is worth publishing. Going on a spur of the moment publishing binge is the same as a going on a drinking one: sooner than later you’re going to regret doing it and end up with a headache.

Publishing any old random crap is going to hurt you more in the long run than anything else. At the least, it will make you look foolish. At the worst, it can seriously hurt your career.

So, the next time you upload a book and you get that feeling, the Dang In Only A Few Clicks I Could Publish Everything I’ve Ever Written feeling, sit on your hands.

Think about self-publishing like sex. Save it for something really special, that writing you truly love and can see a real future with. Writing that’s worth it is worth waiting for. Take your time, get it right and only publish your best stuff.

And, rest assured that, once you are ready, the process will still be nice and easy.