To self-publish or not…?

In March 2025 I self-published my first book, “The Mice and the Sunflower Seed”, in Afrikaans and English. It was a very positive experience and I’ve had many conversations with writers asking me about the why and why not to self-publish. I want to start by saying—each story is different, and I can only share the why for this particular story. Come along on this story’s journey!

Early 2023: An idea starts

This story was inspired by the themes of my daughters’ classes at school for 2023 - the “Streepmuis” (striped mouse) class and an overall yearly theme of sunflowers. At that time, I was also focusing on growing my skills as an illustrator with creating animal characters, and had focused on creating a set of mice (from kids in that class) and meerkat (from my oldest daughter’s “Stokstert meerkat” class). So when a friend said she’d love to see a play on the story of the farm mouse and city mouse in the theme of a sunflower seed, I was inspired!

Mid 2023: A specific goal date

It also happened that the teacher in the Mice class was moving away at the end of that year, and I really wanted to have the story done as a going away and end of year gift for her. (Yes, we love to pick crazy deadlines for ourselves, don’t we?). So the story was drafted, sent to a developmental editor (something I’d wanted to try and see how it worked out), reworked, and illustrations created—all from my own motivation of wanting to get a feel for the process of illustrating my own story, and have something ready by December.

And I did. It was printed at home on my Epson Eco-tank, “saddle stitched” (stapled) at a local stationer’s store and it was a very special moment to hand it to the teacher. It was around that time (December 2023) that I also joined SCBWI South Africa for the first time.

Early 2024: Now what?

In 2024, I knew I wanted to do more with this story. I knew there were parts that still needed work, so I took what I had and sent it to fellow moms and their kids for “beta reading”. I used a Google form to keep track of feedback, and got ten to fifteen responses in the end. Where the story had been created between June 2023 to Dec 2023 (from conception to writing to illustrating), things slowed down a lot here as my writer’s brain started second guessing. Was the story good enough? Would people enjoy it? Should I bother making changes from the feedback or just move on to the next story?

Thankfully, there were enough positive comments that I felt encouraged to slog on with edits…

September 2024: A submission attempt

By September 2024, I took the plunge and submitted the story’s English version to a local publisher. It was rejected (in a kind and gentle way), but the process of translating it from Afrikaans to English for this submission window had helped me resolve some plot issues that were bothering me. Then I let it sit in the drawer some more…

2025: Should I or shouldn’t I?

By the start of 2025, this story really started niggling at me again. I realised that the work remaining to call it “done” wasn’t that much in the bigger scheme of things. Our school had also started quarterly “Parent market days”, where parents could come and sell whatever product they wanted to market, so I had a deadline—by the market day for May, I wanted to have at least a handful of books as physical samples from which I could take pre-orders. That way, I would fund the print run before placing the order for an unknown number of books

I was amazed at the response. That day, I had over 30 pre-orders—in other words, people who paid up front to order their copies, happy to wait until the print run was done (it would take about 2 weeks). I used a local fine art printer who I’d had a good relationship with, and was so excited to see those copies make it into children’s homes! At the time, because I had picked a short deadline for myself, I chose this printer (who only did “stapled” bind but with super high quality colour prints), as I knew the quality I’d get.

Mid 2025: What’s next?

Success breeds more ideas, and so I started thinking—I wish I could figure out a PUR bind spine (those that you see in the book shops with the actual book title on the back). With each of these “milestones”, my goal was to use this story as a “guinea pig” to figure out the self-publishing process. With more feedback and encouragement from the SCBWI members, I found a suitable local printer with responsive feedback and great prices. By the time the next market day opportunity rolled around in August, I was ready! Beautiful books, still high quality paper and colour and with that beautiful spine to boot. The best part? These cost me less per copy than the initial staple bind books.

End 2025: Approaching local book sellers

Thanks to the improved print cost, I have since made enough money back on those copies that I’ve covered my initial print cost, and still have some copies left to sell. I was also able to use that PUR bind version to get in with two local book sellers with whom I’d been chatting with and building relationship over the years. Yes, I do carry the book around with me (most of the time), had a box of copies in my car, and have had many lovely conversations talking about my book (and selling a copy or two) “on the fly” at social events, birthday parties and the like in response to that typical question—“So what do you do?”.

What have I learnt over this two year journey?

• Own your story—whether it’s via a self-publishing or traditional publishing route, our stories need you to believe in them first.
• Self-publishing is a great way to get a story out there, especially if you’re also an illustrator and have the story mostly complete.
• Self-publishing is also a great option to share if you already have a “natural” market—in my case, friends, parents, other kids at school also looking for some fun picture books .
• There will always be something you feel you could still do better on the book—make a note, fix it in the next reprint if you can, or apply it to the next story otherwise.
• Beta readers are important! For everything from the overall story to minor typos you might have missed, going through that process improved the quality of my story.
• Marketing can be easier than you think! A lot of writers have also mentioned feeling intimidated by the idea of marketing needed when self-publishing. You might be surprised at the “market” already available right on your doorstep—people closest to us or in our community also looking for good books for their kids and excited to support someone they know in their book endeavours.
• Know your why. For me, my goal was to have a story “finished enough” to finally share it with others out there. I didn’t set out to have a certain number of books printed or compete with traditional print runs—every copy I get to sell is another “wow” moment of seeing my story in children’s hands.

What to watch out for when self-publishing

• I’ve also realised that sometimes, choosing self-publishing might be a cop-out (for me) in comparison to the uncertain process of submitting a story to publishers… Yes, the wait can be long (typically anything from 3 - 6 months before hearing back), but this self-publishing journey also gave me the courage to take the leap with a couple of other stories and submit them while I continue writing and illustrating as I wait.
• Quality control is super important! Self-publishing is often associated with “lesser quality”—that’s up to us as the authors and illustrators to fix! Even if you have an ”urgent” reason for your book to make it into the world, make sure to check it thoroughly—pay an editor if you have to, or get people in your community who fit the “ideal reader” for your story to beta read for you. (I sent my beta readers a discount offer once the book was available for print as a thank you).

So, to self-publish, or not?

• I know a big reason I could choose self-publishing was that I was able to do the illustrations myself. This was a story I chose for myself, used as an experiment to discover my own process, and could pick the timelines along the way. From conversations with other writers, this is often a big reason to consider a publisher.
• If you have submitted a story to (many) publishers, and still haven’t received the “yes” word, it might be that your story is not a fit for those publishers right now. It doesn’t mean that your story isn’t meant to be read. I firmly believe each of our stories have a place—yes, some pave the way for other “better” stories, but at some point, we need to take the plunge to share our stories with the world. Whether through a publisher’s support or through the self-publishing options, our stories deserve to be read!

The next best step

My journey started with the “next best step” for that story and ended with a final self-published book… What will your next step be? 

About the book: “The Mice and the Sunflower Seed”

Freddy Farm Mouse and Simon City Mouse live on opposite sides of Sunflower Lane—and can’t agree on anything. Especially today.

It’s the long-awaited Sunflower Festival competition. Just as Freddy and Simon are about to show off their greatest creations, a mysterious giant seed sends everything into chaos with a mighty CRACK.

To uncover the seed’s secret (and save their festival dreams), the two rivals must do the unthinkable: work together.

Book is available on my website:

https://jomariebarlow.com/products/die-muise-en-die-sonneblomsaadjie

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