I received so many questions on why did I go for self-publishing. I agree that it is not easy to self-publish here in Malaysia. In fact, I think that I shed more tears than I do smiles along the process. Thank God I have a good partner, Mr H, who later was appointed as my Marketing Officer, hahaha. 

The research itself took months and is continuous even until after you had already started selling your book. Google had become my best friend. Since this is our first experience to publish our own books, we made many mistakes along the way. Some of the mistakes added to our cost. It really made a big hole in our pocket, but we told ourselves that we need to preserve the copyright!

So the main reason why we decided to go for self-publishing is because of the copyright. I want it to be mine, even after I am long gone. Then it would be like a family heirloom, hahaha. I am not rich to leave behind diamonds and golds. So what I can do is to leave my name behind, for a good cause.

 Criticism? Oh yes. I cried and was really demotivated. I even told Mr H, why don't we just throw away all the printed books. Since nobody is going to read it. Then Mr H scolded me. "Since when do you listen to people? If you do listen to them, then I am frustrated. Because you always tend to have your own views whenever we discuss about something". Hahaha. That's true. Two lawyers living under one roof is no joke, I tell you! So I decided to just play along and pray that everything will be OK.

 The first comment that I received was my books are not going to sell. Reason being? Because I use the name of Allah in the title. It can limit the readers to only Muslims. I am happy to let you know that there are also non Muslims who read my books now. One of them even messaged me personally asking to buy the book from me. She said that she had read her friend's copy and decided to buy one for herself. I asked her, why do you want to buy it if you had already read it and know the content? She replied, she really want to have a copy for herself because she gets positive vibes while reading the book. Alhamdulillah. Praise to Allah!

I was also criticized because Submitting to Allah is very thin. Only 40 pages. And now I have readers telling me that they own copies of Chicken Soup Series and also La Tahzan. But they haven't finish reading it until today. However, they had read my book over and over again. Since it is simple and short, they can just read it in one go and can absorb all messages carried by the book.



I remember Mr H and I went to Puchong to ask about digital printing. We went there by motorcycle because we thought that we could avoid the traffic. As luck would have it, it rained heavily that day, hahaha. We were not only wet, we were drained! 


And then we tried to do our own cover. So we spent some money, to buy the software needed. And then families and friends say that it looked like children's colouring book, hahaha. Another failure. Even before printing started, we encountered so many problems that sometimes I thought it was better to give up. Well, they are just old memories now. Looking back, it was worth the pain and effort for both of us. It's a personal triumph. :) And I have a book to prove it to you.


No regrets! :)
I had posted here earlier about the points to consider before you self-publish, I am going to elaborate further on each point whenever I have the time later on. So, stay tuned! ♡