A popular question for self-publishers is, “Why did you choose self-publishing over traditional publishing?”

While an average reader may assume that most self-publishers chose that route because they simply couldn’t get a traditional book deal, this can be far from the truth. There are a number of reasons why a writer might choose to self-publish.

Here are five of my own:

1. Time

You can self-publish a book twice as fast as a traditional publisher can release one. Typically, it takes a traditional publisher about a year, if not longer, to get a book to market. Sure, their reach, packaging, and editing may be better, but what if you want to capitalize on a major cultural event for your book launch?

What if you don’t want to be stuck thinking about the same book for more than a year? What if you want to Write. Publish. Repeat. so that your work as an author starts to build upon itself?

2. Money

It’s highly unlikely that you will start Scrooge McDucking (or, as I like to call it now, “Huelling”) on your mountains of gold coins after you self-publish your first book. It could happen with your fifth book, or your tenth, or it may never happen at all.

I didn’t self-publish because I thought I could earn an exorbitant amount of money, but money did play a factor in my decision. For me, it was about the percentage of sales I could take home (and give away).

With a traditional publisher, royalties can be anywhere between 25% and 40%. (To those with hard information on these stats, please correct me if I’m wrong.) Amazon was smartly disruptive to grant authors a 70% royalty on sales of their ebooks, so long as the ebook is priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Additionally, instead of getting paid every six months and seldom seeing hard sales numbers, self-publishers enjoy monthly checks (if they sell anything) and easy access to up-to-date sales numbers.

3. Ownership

From now till Kingdom come, I own the rights to my book. I get to decide when to release it, where to publish, and what kinds of products I may want to turn it into. I don’t have to wait for years for the rights to revert back to me. I already have them. While I may miss out on what traditional publishing’s stamp of approval could provide to my work, the fact that I own my book outright allows me to experiment with a number of variables.

For instance, an audiobook version of The Gospel According to Breaking Bad will be coming in the next few months. I’ll be releasing Kobo and Nook editions in the near future, and I may even venture into iBooks. I may even look into a translated edition at some point, considering that Breaking Bad is being remade for Spanish audiences under the title Metastasis.

And, because I own the rights, I can set the price at whatever I’d like, whenever I’d like.

4. Because I could

If I’d wanted to self-publish my book even a few years ago, it would have likely cost me an exorbitant amount of money with a vanity press whose distribution methods would have relied on my ability to personally sling expensive hardcover copies to anyone on the street. With the advent of CreateSpace, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, Smashwords, and a long list of other online book creation companies, the road to self-publishing has never been more accessible. Sure, you’ll suffer a headache or 10 as you try to navigate your way through getting your book into the real world,

But the opportunity is there, and it’s so cheap to do that anyone can see their work in print and have it distributed by a major, global company for pennies on the dollar.

5. Freedom

This last reason may have been the most enticing, and it sums up all four reasons above. While a self-publisher’s greatest drawback is the fact that they’re the one responsible for all the work, a self-publisher’s greatest asset is the fact that they’re the one responsible for all the work.

Want to offer your book for free? Want to create a high-end, hardback, collector’s edition via Lightning Source? Want to record your own audiobook and release it for free on your website? Want to partner with other authors in your genre to cross-promote books? Want to send print copies to 100 reviewers? Want to turn your book into a play?

The options are endless, and the power of self-publishing allows you to choose your own adventure. If an experiment fails, so be it. Share it on your blog, learn why it failed, then move on to something different. Self-publishing allows you to iterate your brand quickly. Such freedom of experimentation will serve to make you a better writer and marketer.

If you’ve self-published or are considering self-publishing, why did you choose that route? What would you add to my list?