• You want final say - total control - over your project.

• You want ownership of the rights to your work.

• You have a project that simply cannot wait. It takes time to get published through a traditional trade publisher, who often schedule 18 months or more into the future for a limited number of annual releases.

• You'd like to see your book out in the world within three months of submission of your manuscript.

• You have a project ultimately suited for trade publication but have not found a publisher willing to take it on. (Wayne Dyer's Erroneous Zones and the highly successful What Color is Your Parachute series are two prime examples of projects that could not find publishers until they became runaway bestsellers through self-publication.)

• You are motivated by the potential for profit with self-publication - by the fact that you retain the profits from the sale of your book. Or perhaps you are motivated by the potential for the pure pleasure of producing something tangible for family, friends or your town. Family genealogies, memoirs, documentation of important events, local histories and other personal expressions are your gift to future generations.