Do you have great ideas on how to do things? Maybe you know how to get
rid of stage fright and begin earning from public speaking, or you have
plenty of tips on how to keep a marriage solid through the years. You
may be a novelist, or short story writer, who has written fiction works
but is not getting a reaction out of the major publishing houses. You
know that you have enough material, resources and knowledge to fill up a
book, even a series of books.
(article continued below ...)
However, you need to ask yourself the question: How are you going to
publish your book?
Writing, they say, is easy. Getting the manuscript published is the
hard part. While you may consider your manuscript a gem of a material,
getting big name publishing houses interested in your book is not easy
at all. In fact, it is extremely difficult for a new writer to get their
book published. The high costs of publishing and the risks involved have
forced the publishers to focus on sure-fire blockbusters or books that
can easily sell 100,000 copies in hard cover. Hence, they focus mainly
on established authors with track records of selling huge volumes of
books.
Where does that leave start-up writers? If you persist in attracting
book publishers to give your manuscript the light of day, be prepared to
see multiple numbers rejection letters. Some persist and do well like
Richard Bach who survived more than fifteen rejections before getting
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" published. Many others simply
give up.
The Option of
Self Publishing
The best alternative for new writers to get a book out there for
others to see is through self-publishing. If you are convinced of the
quality of your material, and you have already received a collection of
rejection letters that could fill a dozen shoeboxes, you can try
publishing the book yourself. With self-publishing, you can now publish
any works from 50 to 1,000 pages on your own!
There are many self-published books that have become successful, an
example of which are "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," a
standard reference book, and the writer's bible, "The Elements of
Style". These books sold well, and publishers bought the rights to
publish them in greater quantity.
Self-publishing offers several advantages. Having a book published,
even if self-published, can establish your reputation as a writer
serious about your work and as an expert in your field. Having a book
published raises up your ante: it could bring more paid lectures,
consultancy clients, seminar programs, and tenure application success.
If things work well, it can even lead to publishers sitting up and
taking notice of your future manuscripts more closely.
It may allow you to earn money wholesale and even more when you sell
it direct (mail order, book fairs, etc.). There is also the chance that
you may receive more profit per book than if a traditional publisher
gave you a flat percentage of the cover price, depending on the cost to
produce the book and the number of copies printed.
In addition, self-publishing allows you to retain creative control
over your manuscript, cover design, etc. You have the final say about
how the end product will be and look like. This shortens the time it
takes to go from manuscript form to the finished book. It is possible to
have your book in your hands (and in bookstores) in about six or eight
weeks, whereas with a traditional publisher it could be a year or more
before it is on the shelves.
The drawback, of course, is that you will do everything yourself. Or
pay others to do some tasks for you. One thing is clear: self-publishing
is hard work. As a self-publisher, you will be all of the following:
writer, editor, designer/artist, typesetter/compositor, printer,
marketer and drumbeater, distribution expert, and shipper/warehouser. At
times, you will even act as your own legal adviser, financial
underwriter, financier/accountant, and business manager.
Advances in
Technology
The advances made in digital technology have allowed many writers to
fulfill their dreams of getting their book published. Nowadays, anyone
who feels he or she has the knowledge to author materials that will be
of interest to others, regardless of how small the market might be,
could self-publish.
One such technology is print-on-demand (POD). POD is a relatively new
technology that allows a complete book to be printed and bound in a
matter of minutes. Books can therefore be produced as ordered or in
small lots (rather than in runs of several thousand, as in traditional
printing). For smaller independent and self-publishers, it is a more
economical publishing model. However, POD books cost more per unit to
produce than books produced by means of a traditional print run.
There is also a growing number of fee-based digital printing services
that self-publishers can use. You can design your own book using the
software of your choice, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher,
Quark Express, Adobe Indesign, Wordperfect or almost any other software
program you can imagine. You format your document for a standard 8.5x11
page size and create a postscript file that the digital printing
services use to create your book. By using this service, you can get
your book in print without making an investment in inventory. However,
if your orders exceed a couple of thousand or more, then it is time to
use a service that allows you to print in bulk at lower costs.
Steps to
Self-Publishing
If you decide to go ahead with self-publishing your book, you will
have to be prepared to make an investment. It isn't cheap to publish,
but you can save on costs by doing as much work ahead of the printer as
possible.
Prepare
for production.
Self-publishing entail cash outlays. You must therefore devise a system
that would allow you to identify and cost-out every single process that
you need to produce your own book. In this regard, you need to create
two important reports: the production schedule and checklist. These
reports are essential in giving you a degree of assurance that you've
got everything under control.
A production schedule tracks the flow of your manuscript from the time it
is completed to the time it leaves the printer. It tells you what you need
to do - from the design of text and jacket or cover; the digitization of
photographs you will use; the actual printing and binding - so you can
budget your cash flow realistically.
A production checklist is simply a list of every part of the book to
ensure that all the copy and elements needed for the book are in and
accounted for. This includes your title page (must contain the title,
author's name and publisher's imprint); copyright page (CIP information,
ISBN information, copyright date and copyright holders, edition numbers);
cover, particularly all the elements in the front, spine and back covers,
etc. You do not want your book printed and ready to go but with missing the
information (ISBN barcode, Library of Congress Catalog Number, etc.) that
would prevent the book to be sold in larger bookstores.
Shop around for
price and quality before printing.
Prices and quality can vary greatly from printer to printer. Ask for quotes
from a minimum of five printers. Your Request for Quote form must include
the specifications for your job, including the title and month that it will
arrive to the printer. In particular, you need to provide the following
information:
- the size of print run;
- trim size;
- number of pages;
- format (hardcover or paperback);
- type, weight, and bulking of paper required for text, endpapers, and
jacket/cover;
- type of ink (black; or four color);
- proofs desired;
- type of binding;
- packing requirements (including carton specification, labeling,
etc.);
- shipping and freight costs;
- special requirements; and
- payment terms.
Note that the lowest price is not necessarily the best. To get the price
that you want for printing, Thomas Woll in his book "Publishing for
Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers" advises
to "take time in finding the vendor whose equipment is best suited to
your job, who has the time to do it, and who offers you the most suitable
payment terms."
Get your
manuscript ready. After
finishing the writing and editing process, you can now begin to think of
cover designs. A book's cover can help push a book, so make sure that you
dedicate enough resources to getting this done as professionally as
possible. If you do not have the aesthetic and technical capabilities to
create a good cover design, work with a graphic artist. Also look for a good
photographer to get your picture for the back cover copy of your book,
should you decide to put it.
Set the price
of your book. Much depends
on the market and your own costs in printing the book. Go down to your local
bookstore and see what the range of prices is on books of your size and
style (soft cover). If the average price is $12.95, this will tell you what
a competitive charge would be. Now, contrast that with the unit cost of your
book which is the total printing, typesetting and graphic arts charges for
your books divided by the number of copies. If your unit cost is, say, $3.50
per book, you'd like to ideally charge about three or four times the cost on
the open market, which would be around $10.50 to $14.00, for which the
$12.95 average price fits quite nicely.
Protect your
assets. A copyright
protects a publisher's work from plagiarism and other forms of infringement.
It's a one-page form that costs about $20-25 dollars and the copyright is
good for a period of 50 years from date of the author's death. In the United
States, you will be required to send a copy of your book (manuscript) to
Register of Copyrights at the Library of Congress. You can contact the
copyrights office at: Register of Copyrights Copyrights Office Library of
Congress Washington, DC 20599.
Ask for the copyright registration forms and the booklet entitled
"Copyright Basics". This will give you explicit instructions on
copyrighting your material.
You can also obtain a Library of Congress catalog card and number for
your book. Libraries around the country often use this number to identify
books and order them. You can obtain information about this process by
writing to: The Registrar CIP Division Library of Congress Washington, DC
20540
International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) is another type of
classification system for a book. Libraries, bookstores and wholesalers all
use this number system for ordering books. As a self-publisher, you will be
assigned a number prefix that is part of the ISBN. Thereafter, for future
publications, you will assign your own ISBN based on the pre-assigned codes
you'll receive. To get more information about getting a U.S. ISBN, write to:
ISBN Agency, R.R. Bowker LLC, 630 Central Avenue, New Providence, New Jersey
07974. Or visit their web site at http://www.isbn.org
to apply of your ISBN online.
To get ISBN in Canada, contact the Canadian ISBN Agency, National Library
of Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa ON, K1A 0N4 Canada.
All of this work, including copyrighting, ISBNs and Library of Congress
cataloguing is crucial in establishing your book as a professional entry.
You have a far better chance of having your work noticed if it is officially
filed. Just because it's a self-published work doesn't mean it isn't a good
book and worthy of attention. This work enhances your image and your
potential as a serious writer.
As a self-publisher, you may also want to trademark your logos, symbols,
a readily identifiable image that you actually use, or a series title that
you want to protect (think Chicken Soup for the Souls books).
Go
to Part 2 (Money Saving and Marketing Tips)
|
