This week, I'll be discussing cons I've experienced when dealing with self-publishing on Amazon. One of the first cons is that it takes time unless you can afford an editor, or you can find one willing to help you for free. Last week, I mentioned how uploading your book takes not too much time at all; however, getting the book ready for upload status is different if you have to self-edit.
Since you don't have a publishing company to do the work for you, you have to re-read your book and find the grammar/spelling errors and sentences that sound odd when reading them again. Granted, you don't have to re-read, but I recommend it. This way, you reduce the amount of errors in your writing and can provide a better quality item to your readers. Usually, this step takes me anywhere from a month to two months, depending on how busy the rest of my schedule is, but I also do two rounds of editing. Technically, there are three rounds of editing for me, but the first I do before I upload chapters to Quotev and Wattpad.
A second con is that you have to do most of your own marketing unless you want to pay extra. This is why it's great to post stories, or sections of stories, on sites like Quotev and Wattpad first. You can build your reader base and already have an audience that wants to purchase your book. It takes time, but it reduces the burden of having to market your book to a whole new crowd of people.
Another con is that you have to create your own cover unless you can afford an illustrator, or someone's willing to do it for you for free. Amazon does have its own cover creator and its own supply of photos to use for your book, which is a huge help. Personally, I upload my own photos to their cover creator since they fit the content of my books better. This takes planning in advance for what you want your cover to look like if you plan to upload your own photo or even your own entire cover. Besides time potentially being an issue, there's also the fact that your cover may not look as professional as other books out there, which use models, special software, etc. for their covers. Of course, this depends on what technology/artistic techniques you use yourself. However if you create own cover entirely or upload your own photo to the cover creator, you do have more ownership over your book and what it looks like. It's all or mostly your own work, which I personally enjoy. Anyway, I hope that this helps!