Yes, there is a significant difference. And good reasons to pursue publication via one avenue or the other.
Self publishing implies a go-it-alone effort in which you bring the manuscript you have finalized by yourself to a boilerplate layout and print service, then handle all the distribution and marketing. Custom publishing, as I see it, suggests you bring your work to a service that assists with editorial and design, as needed, and works with you to publish a custom product. In all cases the author bears the primary burden of marketing (even with major, traditional houses today) but the custom publishing service may offer a range of distribution options and promotional support.
Self publishing is the best choice for many authors. For material that was previously edited and published, for example, it’s the short and inexpensive route. Any book project that is meant primarily for an audience of friends and family, there’s no question that self-publishing is the appropriate route. For business materials that have professionals behind them to catch the typos, a self-publishing service delivers the best deal when “repurposing” your content. For entrepreneurs, consultants, counselors, and others who produce frequent but possibly short-lived material, particularly content best suited to eBooks for online distribution only, self-published work gets to your audience faster and well enough.
Self-publishing services will tell you they provide custom publishing services. But I think we should make a clear industry distinction. Does the service offer professional editing and proofreading? Is the cover design from a template or does the design involve the author working directly with a designer to discuss each element? Is the interior layout slapped in—with your unintentional bad breaks and all—or is it hand-tooled? Is the eBook version just on Kindle, or will it be distributed to the dozens of other online venues? What brick-and-mortar store distribution is really going to happen? Do you have one person at the service who will stay with you all the way down the road?
Custom publishing is essential for the success of many books. If the book is to compete against titles from major publishers; if the book has to command the respect of a specialized, expert audience; if the book has interior art elements beyond simple tables; or if the book is part of a “brand,” whether of the author or a business — it needs the attention of custom publishing. If you, the author, have a clear vision of the design or the “look and feel” of the book that goes beyond a 6 x 9 softbound print-on-demand item, you will need to apply the expertise of a production team. If you want a long-term marketing plan and the support needed to sustain it, guess what?
The great news is that self publishing costs next to nothing today, and custom publishing breaks costs down to only the services you really need. Better than that, you are the driver, not a helpless passenger along for the ride controlled by a moribund publishing house. Shop around. Do your homework. Ask questions. All the rules have changed, except the one that says readers are hungry for high-quality writing. I confidently continue to declare there has never been a better time to be an author, and there are more opportunities to publish now than ever.
(Penguin Press), looks down the tracks at the possibilities of the Internet age and the obligations that will come with it. “If we don’t celebrate civic value, we underuse the medium,” he says.
My family’s most precious heirloom represents the pinnacle of the publishing revolution in the mid 1500s that fueled a shift in the Zeitgeist of Europe. And I am personally a direct product of that larger revolution. Now I am participating in the next publishing revolution, coming full circle.
As my father described it in a 1963 newspaper article, “Among the possession of my great-great-grandfather, Heinrich Kliewer, on this journey, would have been this Bible.”
Thus, this icon of an earlier revolution is playing a small role in shifting today’s Zeitgeist. Who can say where our publishing revolution will take us?
The familiar storylines will always be with us, but the new storytellers are using emerging media and technologies with astounding potency. Cameron’s latest leads us to expectations of still richer feasts of imagination on screen. The $500 million in technology developed for Avatar will be readily available to other producers (Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Peter Jackson have already had a chance to play with it.) and perhaps all tech-savvy mortals in a few years. Now a live actor can become anything. And even the tie-in 
