Articles about the business aspects of publishing and self-publishing.
This is the Business End department, featuring Publetariat’s resident tax expert Julian Block, where you’ll find articles pertaining to the business side of indie authorship and running a small imprint: taxes, bookkeeping, setting up your own small business and keeping it running smoothly.
You’ve seen the stats: upwards of 280,000 "self-published" books in 2009, according to Bowker or some big brother agency; with 2010 expected to dwarf those numbers and crush the number of mainstream published books.
We’re all like, "woo hoo." Kind of.
[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language after the jump]
Because you’ve also seen a lot of shit out there, too: Your twitter buddy who asked you to beta-read her manuscript which is a piece of shit; or that authonomy friend who implored you to read his wanna-be-commercial-genre-fiction-lookalike-but-awully-written piece of shit. The barrier to entry to successful readership is not gatekeeper agents any longer, but writers ourselves. Lack of credible editors (or our investment in them) is problematic. First drafts will kill us all if we’re not careful. The culture of swapsies and kindness is dangerous–really dangerous.
There is and is going to continue to be an enormous population of work by authors who have attempted to be published commercially and have not had success in getting the attention of agents and publishing companies. There are a couple of reasons why we haven’t seen their work published by the mainstream companies: (a) it’s good, but it’s *not good enough,* (b) it’s really fucking good, but outside the formula for the pubbies (e.g., experimental, mixed-media, gritty); (c) it’s just awful.
And then there are those of us who never intended on being published by another entity and blazed our own trail. We should stop applauding ourselves so much and focus more on making our work the best that it can be: ruthless cutting, investment in a credible editor and copy/proofreader. [I proofread 29 Jobs and a Million Lies and there isn’t one fucking typo in the entire thing, so it CAN be done. I printed it out in another font and combed through every line.]
So we’re dealing with a few issues here which I just don’t have a proposed solution for and it bothers me tremendously:
I’m not heading in the direction of publishing industry apologist, don’t worry about that. But maybe the cropping up of writer’s affiliations and communities is a solution to leveraging the strength of other writers’ marketing visibility. Strength in numbers, right? That’s what we’re doing at Year Zero Writers and it’s new and exciting and cool. But there is a dicey line between editorial control, right? With these affiliations, or independent mini-publishing companies, seems like someone or some body needs to help vet, right? Well, then it becomes a publishing company. Think about it–objectives to earn solid profits, yadda yadda, and before you know it, your totally cool independent community now is run by committee, decisions take eons to make, you have to make political compromises, and it’s worse than divvying up the fridge in your college apartment with a half dozen broke-ass roommates.
Not all are like that (Year Zero won’t head in that direction). But look how authonomy turned out — like Marion Stein described it recently to me:, Lord of the Flies. And that’s an independent writers community? That’s how we propose toppling the publishing industry? Ain’t gonna happen. It’s like they pitted writers against each other in a global cage-fight and sat back and watched us destroy ourselves.
So, it won’t be writers or an independent movement that will topple the publishing industry, so let’s stop taking credit for that. Readers–the marketplace–have control and let’s not forget that.
There are still hordes of readers who browse the stacks, literally. There are still hordes of readers who only read one genre and will never even consider picking a book up outside that purview. There are still hordes of readers who rely solely on book club recommendations. No independent movement of outside-the-box fiction will change that force, and neither will any technology gadget.
So to writers embarking on their next project: If you have to ask yourself why you are writing, remember it is for readers–THOSE readers who you know appreciate your work (even if it’s just your mom and cubicle-buddy)–who hold all the control. No matter how defiantly independent, DIY, and whatever other title we love to label ourselves with, if we’re pissing off readers because they just don’t "get" what we’re doing, it serves no purpose other than our own exercise in writing.
We’re in a tremendously exciting time right now and the entire landscape is changing every day–this is fucking history and it’s great. Let’s revel in it. Let’s not fool ourselves that a pivotal shift in the marketplace will occur, though. There are ever more platforms, writers, genres, and TV shows competing for the SAME number of eyes. So while accessibility to the marketplace is eased, consider it like a crowded highway onto which we are merging, headed to a city with a finite number of parking spots.
Fuck, did I just liken our writing to a game of musical chairs?
This is a cross-posting from Jenn Topper’s Don’t Publish Me! blog.
So here is the thing…
There is a lot of talk about the “stigma” of self-publishing. But for the most part this stigma is rather contained. For example:
Mainstream Publishers/Agents: They don’t really care whether you self-publish or not. I mean think about this for a moment. If you’re self-publishing, you’re one less manuscript in their slush pile. If you fail, they don’t have to deal with you. If you succeed, then you are a proven quantity to them… a sure thing, which is something publishers like. So exactly why would they care? Publishers and agents reject bad writing all the time. They don’t remember the bad writing because they see so much of it, it all bleeds together (from one of the horses’ mouths.)
Agents DO discourage self-publishing very often on their blogs and such, but the stigma doesn’t really flow from them. More about that in a minute…
And while there is much talk about how if you self-publish you’ll ruin your future chances at a career because bookstores won’t order your books from a publisher because your self-pubbed books sold so poorly, that’s not a very strong argument and I’d like someone to bring in an actual bookstore book purchaser to confirm this. BOOKS are all returnable inside the brick and mortar bookstore system. They don’t HAVE to assess risk with a major publisher.
Chances are really good they NEVER stocked your book. So… if you’ve got bad sales, and since everyone claims brick and mortar distribution is Distribution Mecca, then… oh gee, maybe they’ll “get” that it may be a distribution issue and not that the book isn’t good. The double standards out there are astounding. Either way though, with a major publisher backing a book and taking their sales people around, do you really think bookstores are doing intensive background checks? Who cares if you self-pubbed a book?
Bookstores: With bookstores the stigma isn’t so much stigma as shelf-space. While it’s a common belief that self-published books can’t get shelved on brick and mortar bookstore shelves, this is BS. There is a vetting process whereby small press and self-published authors can get their books vetted and into the store, even the MAJOR chains. I know of many self-pubbed authors whose books are sitting on major bookstore shelves.
But if you WANT that, you have to do the legwork necessary. You have to produce a quality book and you have to get into Ingram and Baker and Taylor (the primary distributors of the book trade), but it can be done. At the end of the day it isn’t “stigma” that keeps a self-pubbed book off a bookstore shelf… it is the self-publishing author’s lack of education about the process to do it or willingness to do it, or the quality of their book. Plain as that.
Also, even if you can’t get on bookstore shelves, you should ask yourself whether or not this is something that’s necessary for you. The bookstore returns system can cannibalize your sales and for a small operator, that might not be the place you want to be at. Especially not in the beginning as an indie. Though your mileage may vary.
So far we’ve established that agents, publishers, and bookstores don’t really “care” whether or not you self-publish. If you’ll note bookstores don’t start big blogs ranting and whining about self-publishing. Neither do publishers. In fact, many are open to the idea of finding authors to sign among those who are successfully self-publishing. They understand due to distribution issues that it’s still hard for an indie to sell a lot of books and they adjust their expectations accordingly. While agents may discourage writers from self-publishing… it would kind of be contradictory to their business model to do anything else. It’s called self-interest, folks, not empirical reality.
If an author self-publishes and THEN gets picked up by a publisher, the agent wasn’t needed to scout out and find the talent. The author is then the one in the power chair. And that author is unlikely to call up that agent for representation. They may call AN agent, or they may call an intellectual property lawyer to handle their contract. But the important part in this scenario is that the author has the power, not the agent… more about that in a minute.
Now granted, the odds of succeeding as an indie are slim (but the odds of succeeding ANYWAY are slim.) If you’ve got the goods, you’ve got them, no matter how you publish. Agents have to wade through a lot of crap to find gems but right now their job is still necessary. If all hopefuls were to start self-publishing, or even if ENOUGH of them did, that publishers got all the work they needed from successfully self-published books, then the agents’ job description all but disappears.
Most of the “self-publishing stigma” hinges on the idea that all self-published books are bad and written by deluded morons who can’t really write. The moment enough truly GOOD writers buck the system and self-publish, this stops being true. In order for the stigma to continue, it must remain a self-fulfilling prophecy. And in order for THAT to happen, everyone WITHIN the system must heavily discourage anyone working outside it by appealing to their vanity and their fear of being ostracized from the community.
And if the agent’s job doesn’t completely disappear (i.e. they could go back to just doing what they were supposed to be doing: contract negotiation), their perceived power among writers does, because then their position in the system as the writer’s employee, is reinforced. I believe many of the agents out there on the Internet who verbally abuse the writer community every change they get, enjoy this false power they’ve been temporarily granted. But, if there is an easier and more drama-free way for publishers to find talent, besides the slush pile and agents, then agents go back to being employees and not a second round of gatekeeper.
I find it insane that while many in traditional publishing will pontificate about how indie authors aren’t “vetted,” GUESS WHAT? Agents aren’t vetted. Anyone can call themselves an agent and a bad agent is worse than no agent at all. Most top agents aren’t taking on new clients because they don’t have to. They’ve got enough good authors making them plenty of money.
Reviewers: What about all the review sources who won’t review your book? Another myth. There ARE self-pubbed books that are reviewed in major sources. If you do things the right way the issue of whether or not your book is self-published shouldn’t even come up. i.e. You have an imprint that isn’t YOUR name (like not Sally’s Books), you have a professional-quality book, and you’re presenting yourself as a professional.
You may still not get reviewed, but… it’s not because of the stigma of self-publishing. It’s because of ALL the books out there and how competitive it is. Most trad published books don’t get reviewed in major sources either. Also, most major sources for reviews are drying up and being replaced by the voice of readers on book reviewer blogs that gain a following. It is a WHOLE different landscape out there, and yet many are still functioning as if it’s 1999.
Readers: I don’t care what anyone says, readers are why writers write. There is no other reason. If you want to make money you can find something that will pay you far better than writing. Writing is what you do because you have something to express and share with the world. So reader opinions? The buck stops with them I’m afraid.
You just can’t delete readers from the equation no matter how much the industry seems to want to. They are the end consumer of the book. And the more the traditional publishing system abuses and disregards the wants and needs of the readers, the more readers will shrug and go find other entertainment options, whether it be small press and indie books, or reality TV. Either way, they’ll get tired of the shit eventually.
So what do readers think? Well, for the most part, since most of them aren’t exposed to bad self pubbed work, since crap doesn’t rise to the top, they don’t care. They don’t know who your publisher is and they don’t care who your publisher is. While there are SOME readers who have either somehow been exposed to a lot of bad self-pubbed work and got a bad taste in their mouth over it, or who are plugged in enough to the pulse of the publishing industry that they have become influenced by the “stigma”, most readers don’t know about all this bullshit politics. Nor do they really care one way or the other.
You don’t have to overcome reader objections to your method of publication if you produce a quality book. The reason you don’t is that publishers never branded THEMSELVES. No one knows who Dan Brown or Stephen King’s publisher is… or not average readers anyway. They don’t know the different imprint names or publisher names for most mainstream-produced book. They can’t tell a small press imprint, from a division of a larger well-known publisher. SOME of them, can’t even tell AuthorHouse from Random House (This one is Henry Baum’s brilliance, not my own.)
So you don’t have to overcome reader issues. In fact, if I didn’t interact at all with the writing community on the Internet, and just went about my business self-publishing, I’d never run into any drama whatsoever about my method of publication. I choose, for better or worse, to get into the debates that I do, because while I know I won’t change the pig-headed views of the person I’m talking with most likely, I *may* influence the view of someone reading who hasn’t made up their mind yet. And that, to me, is worth it.
Okay… so if the source of the stigma isn’t “really” agents, publishers, bookstores, reviewers, or readers, what is it?
OTHER WRITERS.
Traditionally published authors who get bent out of shape about self-publishing, may, in fact, have a partly altruistic motive of protecting authors from making bad business decisions, though I think the better alternative is to teach a writer how to assess business risk, rather than making up asinine rules like “money always flows to the author.”
However, don’t ever be led to believe it is merely altruism that causes a traditionally published author to rail against self-publishing. Self-publishing is a threat. It doesn’t matter that a lot of self-published work is bad… many trad pubbed authors suffered through years of rejection to get “accepted.” They have been validated by a certain system.
If it becomes socially acceptable to work outside that system, then where does their validation go? It becomes less valuable because readers already don’t care. Bookstores already don’t care. The only people who REALLY care are other writers. And so it’s important to set up this “cult of truth” for writers and make everyone goose step and ostracize those who don’t.
If someone won’t march in line like the rest, you attack the quality of their writing, their character, and their mental state or capacity. They aren’t good enough, they haven’t been validated, they are lazy or taking a shortcut. They are delusional. They are naive. And if none of that works, you define them as “the exception” and say they shouldn’t encourage anyone else to do what you’re doing. Writers are so desperate for validation that often they will ignore their own will in favor of being accepted by their peers.
But guess what? Indies have their OWN peers.
Unpublished writers generally want to be accepted by those they look up to. And so because the self-published author is the only one “beneath them” on the food chain, they join in the mob to attack as well.
So let’s sum up… in a really competitive industry the stigma against going outside the system is your competition.
Have a different view about that stigma now? The moment you stop associating with these people and focus on the readers, they just fall off your radar. I’ve chosen under this name, to be loud and out there about being indie and to confront stupid arguments head on because I know for many it’s too hard to stand up to the people who have either been elevated or elevated themselves to grand high potentates of publishing.
Though now I need to probably take a bit of a break from arguing, so I can get something worthwhile accomplished… like I don’t know… publishing.
This is a cross-posting from Zoe Winters’ blog.
This is what Cliff Fryman, know as @Selorian to his Twitter followers, came up with for an initial design:
I had some suggestions, so he came up with three more versions. We then conducted a marketing survey with our bookstore customers and certain professional artists and designers. Here are covers #2, #3, and #4:
Cover #2 (above)
Cover #3 (above)
Cover #4 (above)
The results of the poll were many liked the first, but were confused by the background in the upper area, which looked like a burning ship to many. Most of the pros said there was too much detail for an on-screen thumbnail image, especially if a square audio book cover was based on the same image. Number four got very few votes as its letters were too dark. Number three got a lot of votes; however, number two won because it was simple, easy to read on screen, and manageable to cut down to a square format.
The flames in the letters in both #2 and #3 were really cool (great work Cliff) and the only difference was some smoke in #3 at the base of the burning stake. The second image cut down to the audio format very handily, as shown below:
Audio Book Cover (above)
The story is based on a true event in Leavenworth’s 1901 history when a young black man accosted a white lady and was arrested as a suspect in similar incidents, including a murder of a girl during the previous year. A lynch mob (white & black) of 5,000+ tore the iron doors off the jail that night, took him to the edge of town and burned him alive at the stake. In modern times, a young man researches his roots and discovers he is a descendant of the burned man. He decides to take vengeance against the descendants of the mob’s ringleaders. The protagonist has to figure all this out and put a stop to it.
Survey’s Hidden Agenda
In addition to helping us make a decision about the ebook cover (ebook is available at http://bit.ly/bUymON), the survey became a wonderful marketing tool to prepare the public for something exciting is coming to our town. We got strong positive reactions to the fact that we would be publishing a mystery series based in our own town which appears very professionally done. Wow, what a powerful side benefit that was!!!
Cliff ’s work as a web designer and illustrator can be seen at http://cliffordfryman.com/ As you can see, I’m very pleased with his work!
This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.
Online book marketing is a terrific way to promote your book to a worldwide audience, but sometimes authors overlook book marketing opportunities in their own backyard.
In your local area and region, you have the opportunity to stand out as a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Here are ten tips to promote your book in your own area:
1. Always carry books and literature with you. Keep a case of books and some flyers in the trunk of your car, and business cards in your wallet. You never know when you will run across a potential customer or marketing contact.
2. Look for opportunities across your region. Headed for a weekend getaway or off to visit grandma? Do a little research ahead of time to identify bookstores, retailers and libraries in the area that you can call on. Or plan your own book tour, staying with friends and relatives along the way.
3. Promote yourself as a local author to bookstores and libraries. Many bookstores and libraries have a special section where they showcase the books of local or regional authors.
4. Look for other retailers that are a good fit. Think about what type of retailers relate to the topic of your book, and promote your book as written by a local author.
5. Put "local author" stickers on the books that you sell in your area.
6. Speak at libraries. Contact libraries about doing a presentation on your book’s topic. This can be especially effective for children’s books and for nonfiction titles that have a broad appeal (such as travel, business, or fitness). Many libraries will let you sell your books at your presentation, and some have a budget for paying speakers.
7. Find other speaking opportunities. Speaking is a great way to promote your book, and you may even get paid to speak once you get some experience. There are lots of organizations looking for interesting speakers for their meetings, including business and civic organizations, church groups, schools and universities, trade associations, and more.
8. Seek publicity through local and regional media. Send a book announcement press release to media in the town where you grew up and where you live now. The "local girl makes good" angle works especially well in smaller towns. Create press releases based on local tie-ins, such as a novel set in the region, and on current news events. Don’t forget your college alumni newsletter and any civic or professional associations you belong to. Nonfiction authors should consider radio and television talk shows.
9. Exhibit at book fairs and festivals. These usually work best if your book is related to the theme of the event, or if the book has appeal to a broad audience.
10. Market children’s book through schools and youth organizations. School visits are a great way to reach kids. For tips, see Melissa Williams’ article at http://snipr.com/s4qga.
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.
This post, from Edward G. Talbot, originally appeared on the Edward G. Talbot site on 2/16/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. This is Edward G. Talbot’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Edward G. Talbot become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!
The best things in life are free. But you can give that to the birds and the bees. I want money.
-The Undertakers, "Money", 1963.
Publishing is an industry everyone loves to hate. They publish too much garbage. They waste untold millions printing and shipping books that wind up in the dumpster. They’re only in it for the money. These observations contain plenty of truth, but they also strike me as rather useless. The bigger question for me is how is the growing trend of free and low-priced fiction going to impact publishing, and by extension the price and quality of available books.
I don’t buy the oft-stated opinion that publishers don’t add value. The real question is how much value do they add? Editing, advertising, and layout/cover design are just the most obvious items. Many would argue that publishers also serve as gatekeepers, ensuring that a book which bears their imprint meets certain quality standards. From a business standpoint, publishers also take the biggest financial risks, spending a minimum of $5000 (and often a lot more) to get a book ready for production.
OK, now that I’ve defended publishers, let’s talk about how things are changing. No one really knows exactly how the dust from all these changes will settle. I personally don’t believe that ten years from now large publishers will be gone or everyone will be reading e-books. But that’s just a guess, and I’ve been wrong before.
One thing I feel certain about is that free and low-priced content is going to have a bigger impact on the market than you hear most in the industry talk about. Certainly they are afraid of it and aren’t sure how to address the issue. I think they are right to be afraid.
I’ve heard several different arguments about why people will still buy e-books for $10-$15 from traditional publishers. Those arguments may turn out to be accurate, but they rest on a couple of assumptions that I think are dangerous.
The first assumption is that giving away books for free or selling them for two or three bucks is unsustainable. It’s true that few if any individual authors without large followings will drop five grand on professional book preparation and then sell for such cheap prices. So let’s assume that most of these books will not have such work put into them. And let’s grant that even a book good enough to be published by a major will not be as good without that work.
That returns us to the question of the value of the service a publisher provides. Is all that work worth $15 to a reader instead of $2 or $3? When you ponder that question, don’t imagine yourself, imagine the typical book buyer. Obviously a lot of readers have certain authors they will pay a huge premium for (I always spring for Lee Child the day a new one comes out), but it’s hard not to conclude that many people will check out the first few pages of a $3 e-book for free and like it enough to buy it instead of paying a lot more for a better known author. Certainly enough will make this choice to have a major impact on publishing bottom lines.
That’s the "demand" side of the equation, but the supply side is where I think the publishing industry’s long-time model is coming back to bite them. Most authors make anywhere from fifty cents to three dollars per book from a traditional publisher, varying with format and a number of other factors. There are simply too many costs and too many moving parts in the system to pay them more. An author can make as much or more by listing an e-book for $2.99 on kindle and and making over $2 a book. To be fair, publishers are beginning to move to higher royalties on e-books, and this terrain is changing rapidly.
The other big supply-side problem is, as I mentioned, the nature of the publishing model. You hear all the time that 99% of writers don’t get published. Whether the real number is 96% or 99.9% doesn’t really matter. The point is that all of these rejections have been assigned a value of zero by the industry. There’s no middle ground. Most of these books stink, but if only 1% of them are decent, that is an awful lot of potential competition that the free market has said are worth nothing. As e-publishing matures, many of them will appear for little or no cost. And the argument that this is unsustainable breaks down when you consider that most writers devote hundreds of hours a year for five to ten years before breaking through. Even most published authors can’t make a living. Most writers do it because we enjoy it. There’s no practical reason we can’t do it without compensation indefinitely.
The second dangerous assumption out there is that publishers will always have a role as gatekeepers, which will reduce the impact of the free and cheap content. This assumption contains some kernels of truth. It’s true that the more books published, the more difficult it can become for a reader to find good ones in the sea of content.
On the other hand, I think this question, like the one about the value added by publishers, needs to be viewed in the context of the average reader. Even today, numerous surveys show that most readers find books by word of mouth. E-books will only accelerate that trend, as finding them featured on tables in bookstores will diminish. And most readers are not looking for the perfect book. They are looking for a good book. In the face of too many choices, they may indeed fall back on the books with a lot of advertising.
However, that means the blockbuster authors. Publishers will undoubtedly still be the gatekeepers for those books. But everyone else, from the mid-list down to the debut author, will get squeezed. If you accept that many readers will be OK without the level of professional work that publishers provide, a $9.99 mid-list book will have trouble competing.
I’m sure some of you will not accept the premise that many readers are OK without that level of production work. And you may be right. I recently heard a well-reasoned argument that a mass of books a notch below that professional level will actually help mid-list writers. I guess the point I’m making is that the actions publishers are taking at the moment are mostly predicated on the fact that the value they’ve always added can sustain prices far higher than work without it. I wouldn’t feel comfortable having the survival of my business rest on that.
This topic is a complex one. I haven’t touched on issues like what an author "should" give away for free or how the brick-and-mortar distribution model is changing, both of which impact the things I have covered here. And it’s easy to pick points I have made and show how I might be wrong. I might be. But given the unknowns, many in the industry seem more certain of that than I think the evidence warrants.
What do you think?
This post, from J. Daniel Sawyer, originally appeared on his Literary Abominations site on 3/1/2010 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. This is JD’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see JD become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!
2) What is my professional time worth – and if I were to bill myself for this, how much of a loss will I be taking?
3) What kind of author do I want to be?
4) Why do I think “getting published” is a worthwhile goal?
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Matthew Wayne Selznick’s comment:
This post, from Shaun Kilgore, originally appeared on his site on 3/5/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. This is Shaun’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Shaun become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!
Why did I start this publishing company? Here’s the short answer: Because my wife was interested enough in starting a business herself that she volunteered to help me create Founders House Publishing.
You see, just before this happened, I was preparing to work with a friend on a small publishing venture, the first real push in that direction that had any legitimate chances of getting off the ground. (I still hope to work with him in the future.) It was in the process of helping my father find a place to publish his book, Echoes From The Past: A Memoir Of Family Heritage, that my wife and I decided to do it ourselves. Sure, there were other options, but this made sense in a variety of ways. Why do it, you might ask. Let me see if I can answer that.
Looking Back
For the longest time, I’ve loved books and loved reading. In fact, I’ve been on the path to publishing my own books since 2006 when I published a collection of short stories using the author services provider Lulu. It was an awesome step forward for me to put the book together inside and out. When I received that first copy in the mail I was ecstatic. (I saw myself as a publisher even then.) As a writer, I certainly had some satisfaction, but this was definitely a war between my interests as a book designer/artist and the one who wrote all the content. It is satisfying in a whole different way to take the labors of other writers and help package it in nice designs and colorful covers.
I recall putting together some stapled booklets for a small magazine about Christian religious topics about eight years ago. Even then, I was intrigued with the design and look of the magazine and looking for ways to create something special. This was just something I was printing out on my home printer! The feeling has been the same every step of the way. When we received the first copy of Echoes From The Past, that same excitement was there. Even more so since I could see the logo for my own publishing company on the spine.
What I Have Now
So here I am, the co-owner of a brand new book publishing company, busy with the promotion of the first title. You might be asking what makes me think I can be a publisher? Or you may wonder how I did it in the first place. Those are fair questions. Again, the short answer is this: I’m a publisher because I believe I can be one. That’s certainly not enough of a response for most people who will be asking that question in the first place. (I’m talking to writers and agents mostly.) My wife and I have divided up the tasks of this business largely according to our relative strengths. We are going to be building upon these strengths by gathering more knowledge of the industry as well the opportunities that are emerging for self-publishers and independent publishers alike.
We started this like many small presses have began. We formed a business and did all the normal work involved in setting up this company legally. Like many start-up publishers, we are using the largest print-on-demand (P.O.D.) Lightning Source International (LSI) to print our books. That’s basically it. It’s not that complicated a process these days. The accessibility of the technology is a great thing. It’s really leveling the playing field and opening up so many opportunities for new publishers to make their mark in the industry. I know that Founders House is ready to take this step.
In Closing…
This is what I have been waiting for. It’s the chance to stretch both my creative and my entrepreneurial muscles. It’s the time to see whether we have what it takes to success and thrive as publishers. Most importantly, now is the time I get to share my hopes and my vision with other creative people. This post is for the writers, artists, and would-be publishers out there. I wish you luck and I hope I get the chance to work with you in the future. Send me your comments. I welcome your input.
In the past, I have always used a small, local printer for my POD work. They are very reasonable and even deliver my books to our store. Fellow Tweeter Levi Montgomery reminded me, however, that Lightning Source was a good resource for print on demand work as well. When I did my research, I discovered Lightning Source, Inc. (LSI) was a little bit cheaper until set up charges and shipping were added in. Even so, their costs weren’t unreasonable at all, compared to many of the so-called vanity POD publishers.
Distribution
The really important consideration, however, was LS’s distribution partners. First is their parent company, Ingram Book Distributors, the largest book distributor system in the world. For a small or self-publisher to even be considered by Ingram, it must offer at least 10 different titles. Even then, one’s books must go through a very picky vetting process. By using LS, all that goes by the wayside and your books will automatically be in Ingram’s system, and they’re not the only ones. The other distribution partners include: Baker and Taylor (2nd largest book distributor), NACSCORP ( an Ingram college bookstore distributor ), Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Espresso Book Machine (often used by large bookstores for on the spot POD), Eden Interactive Ltd. (a British Christian resource company), Aphrohead (a British discount book & music mail order company). and I.B.S – STL U.K (the leading British Bible and Christian Book charity). That’s an amazing distribution force and LS has already done the hard, expensive work.
Costs
First comes the one time set up charge of $75. This is fixed, so the per book impact is a function of how many books you get printed. If you had 100 books printed, that charge would be 75 cents per book. An annual cost is $12 per ISBN to be listed in their catalog. That’s a no-brainer decision. Printing costs are based on either 50 lb white paper or 55 lb creme paper with black ink. The covers are 4 color with coating. They can render several format sizes and binding types. My 1st book runs 212 pages (they need 4-page signatures). The last two pages must be blank for their use of their barcode on the last page. The printing cost for my book in a standard trade soft cover format would be $3.65 per book (plus $0.75 setup and $0.12 catalog) for an order of 100 books. That is very reasonable for digital printing. Compare that to the quotes you’ll get from vanity presses. Hah!
Layout
They will provide a cover template based on the number of pages in the book so the trim and the spine measurements will be accurate. This will contain an ELAN barcode on the back, so you won’t have to bother buying one of those separately. They have free downloadable guideline manuals on interior design dimensions and other layout considerations, which are very helpful.
Services
These are too numerous to go into detail here. I recommend you go to https://www.lightningsource.com/ and peruse. Be sure to download all their free manuals and their application blanks, which include many pages of detailed information. You can have books printed in lots of 50 and you can have onesys and twosys printed for the various distribution partners, and LS will handle all the fulfillment and invoicing chores to the partners.
Admin
The registration process is a little involved. You are expected to provide your own ISBNs and BISACs.
[Publetariat Editor’s note: see this post from Walt Shiel for more information about BISACs]
Once you are in their system and all admin loose ends are finalized (3 business days for digital submissions), you can expect turnaround times of 2 business days for paperbacks and 5 for hardcovers, plus shipping time for printing. One cool aspect is they have a UK facility as well as their Tennessee headquarters. This gives you direct access into the Euro business environment. How cool is that?
Larger Orders
Once your book has proved out and you decide to have it printed in larger amounts by traditional offset printing technology, LS will be happy to render you a bid for that service. Since I am not at that level yet, I don’t know how their rates compare; however, I’ll be sure to give them a chance. If they’re anywhere in the ballpark, I’ll let them have the job out of sheer convenience and simplicity. If not, oh well.
In Sum
So far I’ve covered the basics of ebook, audio download, and POD publishing. Hopefully this has given you a toehold into the process of modern book publishing. I’d love to hear your comments and field those questions I am able to answer.
This is a cross-posting from Bob’s Spear‘s Book Trends blog.
This post, from author Charlie Stross, originally appeared on his Charlie’s Diary blog on 2/23/10.
I’m back home, I’m over the jet lag (for now), and I’m looking for something to write about.
It struck me, reading the comments on my various postings about the Amazon v. Macmillan spat in January, that many people don’t have the first clue about how the publishing business works — or even what it is.
Publishing is a recondite, bizarre, and downright strange industry which is utterly unlike anything a rational person would design to achieve the same purpose (which I will loosely define for now as "put authors books into the hands of readers while making a profit, to the satisfaction of all concerned"). So over the next few blog entries I’m going to make some notes about what’s going on …
Misconception #1: The publishing industry makes sense.
Most discussions of publishing take it as axiomatic that there is a thing called the publishing industry and that the entities within it look similar and work pretty much the same way. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As an author of commercial science fiction and fantasy novels, which is a highly restrictive category I mostly deal with a very specific type of publisher: a mass-market commercial fiction publisher — as opposed to, for example, a University press, a small press, or a vanity press. (NB: the word "press" is often used to mean "publisher", even in this day and age when almost all publishers have outsourced the inky job of running a printer to someone else.) Here’s how the mass-market commercial fiction publishers are structured:
Read the rest of the post, and series, on Charlie Stross‘s Charlie’s Diary.
There’s no bigger decision you make in designing a book than picking the body typeface. A book by its nature is a long reading experience, and as book publishers we want our books to be as easy to read as possible while communicating the author’s intent. Style and fashion also play their part in many book designs, particularly in popular niches. The accumulated expectations of 500 years of book readers also come into play. Books are pretty conventional objects, after all.
Some fonts really lend themselves to book design while others, which look good in a brochure or on a business card or billboard, make odd, unreadable books. Any idiosyncrasy in the type design will be magnified by the repetition of typesetting 75,000 or 100,000 words in thousands of lines on hundreds of pages.
So the choice of your basic typeface looms large when you sit down to design your book. Here are five typefaces that have become favorites and which will almost always look great in your books too. You’ll find links to the vendor of the fonts as well.
Get Electra here
Although it would be easy to fill a book with samples of great text typefaces, it’s also true that many professional book designers could, if necessary, limit themselves to just these five fonts and continue to create great—and greatly varied—book designs, for years to come.
So when it comes time to select the typeface for your next book, choose one of these five and rest assured that you have made a great selection.
Those are my favorites. What about yours?
This is a cross-posting from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.
I’m struck by 2 posts today that I need to share with anyone who has not “got” social media yet. The bottom line is that authors/writers need social media and vice versa. It is increasingly important if you want to connect, sell, network and promote yourself and your books.
First, watch this brilliant video by @equalman , author of Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business
. It is an eye opening look at the importance of social media and also a brilliant example of a book trailer (It made me ready to buy the book and I’m already a believer!)
Second, read this post by publisher Jane Friedman which includes “Hands down, online tools are the fastest and easiest way for unknown writers to begin building an audience, get better at their craft, and network with others who can make a difference in their careers.”
Basically – you need to promote your book in some way in order to get readers and sell books. Social media online is a brilliant way to do it. It is fun and you need to make it a part of your life. Yes, you will spend too much time doing it, but that’s because it’s a) fun and b) it works!
My own evidence:
If you are just starting in the social media world, here are some related posts for you:
Social media sites also need writers. The essence of web 2.0 is connection and user created content. Everyone who has a blog is a writer of some sort and everyone can be a publisher online. The people with the best skills to take advantage of this – WRITERS!
Yes, you have the skills people want in this content driven market, and your writing can sell your books and promote yourself. So, if you haven’t jumped into social media yet, now’s the time!
Here’s where you can find me if you’d like to connect – I’d love to hear from you! (I am on many more sites but these are my main ones!)
Twitter: @thecreativepenn
Facebook: joanna.penn
LinkedIn: Joanna Penn
FriendFeed: Joanna Penn
Flickr: TheCreativePenn
YouTube: TheCreativePenn
This is a reprint of a blog post which originally appeared on The Creative Penn website on 8/26/09.
Facebook groups are a great place to meet people who share your interests and to subtly promote your book. For maximum exposure, join existing groups and start your own Facebook group.
To find groups to join, enter keywords in the Facebook search box. When the search results come up, click on the Groups tab to view groups focused on your topic.
Click the Join Group button to join a group. Write an introductory greeting on the group’s wall, and post your book cover in the photo section. Your book cover will show up on the group page and also in the newsfeed of your friends, a great way to subtly promote your book. You can also post videos on group page. It’s not wise to post wall messages and images on more than one group page per day.
Most groups have a discussion board. Scan the list of questions to see if there are any you can answer. As with other online forums, observe proper etiquette and don’t be too promotional in your answer.
Groups are also a wonderful place to find Facebook friends. After all, if someone joins a group related to your topic of interest, they presumably share your interests.
Forming a Facebook Group
Forming your own group can be very beneficial, but to keep the group growing and active you will need to provide benefits to members by offering valuable information and/or active discussions.
To form your own group, log into your Facebook account then go to http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php.
Groups should be used to provide information and interaction to people interested in particular topic. Be subtle about promoting books on your group. A Facebook Page is more appropriate for promoting your book or business directly.
Nonfiction authors can form a group based on their book’s topic. Fiction authors could form a group for people who love to read a particular genre. In the group they could subtly promote their book while discussing the genre and the writing process, offer free chapter downloads, and invite group members to share other books they enjoy.
Promoting Your Group
If you create an “open” group, anyone on Facebook can join, not just your friends. To invite people to join, use the Invite People to Join or Share buttons on the left side of the group’s page.
One way to attract members is to design your group page as an information hub, offering links and resources in the Recent News section of the page. You can offer a free downloadable report as a thank you to group members. Don’t forget to promote your Facebook group on your website, in your email signature, and on other social networks.
Networking Through Your Group
As group administrator, you can send messages to members (up to a maximum of 5,000), delivered to each person’s Facebook Inbox. Click the Message All Members link on the group page.
Be sure to communicate with the members periodically by sending something of value such as tips or helpful links. Just be careful not to send so many messages that you annoy people.
Administrators can also post to the wall and start discussions in the forum, to encourage interaction.
If you’re not already using Facebook groups to promote your book, give it a try!
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of Facebook Guide for Authors. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.
This post, from Judy Sandra, originally appeared on her JS Media blog on 2/13/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.
Profiles in Publishing is a continuing investigation into the brave new world of publishing at JS Media Blog by Judy Sandra. PIP will be a series of articles and interviews about methods and movers, reporting on who is exploring, who is inhabiting and who is succeeding in the new publishing landscape.
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We live in a whole new publishing world. I released my independently published book The Metal Girl (JSM Books) last month. Naturally, I sent an announcement to a personal mailing list. The first sale that I know about is a new acquaintance who excitedly emailed me, “I just bought your book on Kindle!”
Sale #1 = Kindle. I was more stunned that the first sale was on a Kindle, than I was that there was a sale. What to think.
This post began as an email to a writer/publishing industry colleague about an article we both read concerning the current state of the publishing industry and included several observations about self-publishing. From the writer’s point of view, the argument rested on, what seemed to me, the not so accurate conclusion that the ultimate “prize” of self-publishing is to land a book contract by a traditional publishing house. Really?
To be fair, this may be the goal for some. But it’s not mine. Why on earth would I want to sign such a bad contract, based on every outdated business model there is and extremely exploitive and non-remunerative to the owner/holder of the intellectual property? The author.
One wonders how many of those who say they want a book contract have actually read one. I have. I spent 23 years living in New York City, working in and around the publishing/media/arts business and have a number of writer and traditionally published author friends.
Let’s leave celebrities and huge commercial blockbusters out of the mix. Publishers didn’t market or promote the average author much in the past and now they do less than ever. Secondly, I’m a literary author, and major publishers abandoned us go a long time ago.
I published my book myself. I am now going to use my own language, because I find the phrase “self-published” cumbersome at best and mis-directed. I am going to call it “independent publishing”, or, if you like, “indie publishing”. As I’m also an indie musician and have been working with independent filmmakers, this feels about right. I’m an indie.
I created JSM Books as an imprint, so I am the “publisher” and am using Outskirts Press as my printer/distributor. They are a hybrid company and act like a real sales/distribution company. I have an ISBN number and barcode, I’m listed in Books in Print, books are available to the trade through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and I’m POD on Amazon.com worldwide and Barnes & Noble.com. Through Outskirts I have the option to be represented in Frankfurt and other book fairs, if I want.
My great advantage, of course, is that I’m also a professional
brand strategist/marketer/promoter and had a client last year, who was the author of a non-fiction book about filmmaking. So I am probably one of the best people to promote my book that I know. I have the savvy of both old school and new media promotion.
About that experience, let me count the ways that my client’s major traditional publisher did not spend any money on marketing. The author had a huge platform to stand on, an enormous mailing list, was well known within her field, yet they would not give us any money to launch the book. Nada. And we asked. Not a penny, not a cupcake. They sent one large poster stuck to poster board. I set up the book signing/launch, begged the indie book store manager to order 50 books instead of the 25 she wanted to order, and we had an almost sellout event–sold 40 books in three hours.
I won’t say anything untoward about the in-house publicist who was assigned to the book, because I think she did a very good job, was great with the client and helpful and generous to me, but she had ten other books to promote and, again, no marketing budget. I got most of the high profile press for the client, and wrote all of her promotional materials. She paid for this out of her own pocket. Because of her established reputation, the good press (it’s an excellent book) and her speaking opportunities, which she created for herself, the book is now a bestseller in the film category on Amazon.com.
Fresh out of this experience, I had a miraculous encounter with my second novel. You can read the whole account here, but the short version is that the original manuscript was discovered by a wonderful reader, who loved the book and found me on Facebook, which encouraged me to publish it myself. At this point, there are so many reasons why I don’t want a contract that it’s hard to categorize them but let me start with eight big reasons, that have to do with bookstores, readers and buying habits.
1. Bookstores don’t matter.
I hear the chorus of people defending indie bookstores now, and I love them too, but this is not where the bulk of book buying happens. It’s just a fact. People are going to bookstores less and less and buying online more and more. I don’t know why this news item got little play in the U.S. but fact is, Borders went out of business in the UK. Read The Guardian story here:
2. Critics don’t matter. Bloggers and readers do.
Step away from the Manhattan island. Outside of that little crowd of
incestuous literary criticism (come on, you know what I’m talking about), these days people care less and less about critics. In fact, many newspapers and publications have let go of their book review sections and book reviewers. Indeed, there was a comment on a Galleycat post the other day by a Goodreads reader that said, “I don’t read reviews. I only buy and read what my friends post on Goodreads”. Huh. So, I joined Goodreads and wrote to another reader/reviewer. This woman, a librarian in Illinois, is now reading and reviewing my book.
I have connected with a professional, more mainstream and new media kind of person who has also agreed to review my book. I was surfing the blogs and discovered her. I now follow her on Twitter. Bloggers do matter, a lot these days. Like the Goodreads member, readers seem more interested in not just professional bloggers but average book reading bloggers, their peers and such.
The Internet has democratized culture, for better or worse, and sometimes I think for much better. Certainly there are more voices with a global reach. Most people gather their information online, and to them–a website, is a website is a website.
3. U.S. book publishers are local, and I’m connected to the world.
Ever hear of social networking, say, Facebook? My Facebook page, just from my professional acquaintances, is rather international, from South Africa to Ramallah to Brazil. My novel’s Facebook Fan Page, for some odd reason, has been attracting young people from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We live in a global culture now, not just an “American” culture. It was very fun to tell my UK Facebookers that the book is available on Amazon.co.uk.
4. Stop cutting down the trees.
POD, electronic formats and selective wholesaling of books is more ecological. The paper industry is a huge polluter. Does anyone NEED a hardback book?
5. Yes, they are reading on their mobiles and e-readers.
In spite of all the controversy, I’ve noticed that people who actually have a Kindle tend to like them. Nook is finally here, and the iPad will be bought. I have to tell you, my next door neighbor (a 40-year-old TV producer) is addicted to his iPhone and loves his Stanza, which lets him download books for free. He was annoyed when I said he would have to buy the e-version of my book. The Stanza has a very handy function of allowing you to enlarge the font size for easier reading. He gave me a demonstration, he went on for ten minutes.
6. The new companies, services and inventions are coming.
Do media people have amnesia? Do they think this or that device is the last one. There will be new companies, new inventions, new ways to do things. That’s life. Twitter didn’t exist 2 years ago, now it does, now I find it useful. The company I used for my book, Outskirts Press, is one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. They are a huge success, and that means more companies like them will pop up and/or others will evolve from them. There is an army of editorial freelancers–editors, copywriters, graphic designers. Popping up everywhere are new media book promoters, marketers, tools and so on. One of the reasons I’m writing this series is to discover what’s next. Life is change. This is a good thing.
7. The terms “vanity publishing” and “self-publishing” are so last century.
See above, even the term “self-publishing” is awkward and meaningless. Give it up already. Call it indie publishing and leave it at that. No one cares who published the book these days. When I tell people recently that “my book is out”. Their eyes light up; they’re so excited for me. “Great!” They say. “Well, I published it myself,” I say honestly enough. “Great, that’s even better!” No questions asked. They don’t care. “What’s it about?” is the only question. Is it good? Do I want to read it? There’s fan page on Facebook…
8. Indie publishing is now a choice, not to be dismissed with snarky condescension.
I’m an indie musician, and no one snarks about that. I am connected to
Mediabistro in Los Angeles, and lately have been talking to writers about
their book projects. A lot of them are just going for the indie publishing
route. They’re professionals, they have a platform, and they don’t have to
wait for anyone to get their book out. Why should they?
Repeat, #7.
OK, that’s a start. There is more to this, but it begins to cross over
into the whole communications climate at this point. My main argument is that we communicate differently, we consume differently, and we have a different and more active relationship to culture. We live in a global culture and multi-platform artistic/cultural universe. The idea of a “book industry” is, in itself, rather dated.
Bookmark Judy Sandra’s JS Media blog to continue following this series of posts.
Wonpyo Yun, a reporter for the Daily Princetonian, has the scoop on an official Princeton University announcement of the results from the Kindle DX pilot project on which the Ivy League school partnered with Amazon last semester.
(Update: here’s a link to the official announcement.)
(Update: here’s a link to a more comprehensive report on all the Kindle pilot projects, courtesy of my friend Ned Stuckey-French, in Tuesday’s edition of Inside Higher Ed.)
or a Kindle blog
. But Yun’s reporting on the comments of students and faculty at Princeton suggests that Amazon may have hurried or overplayed its hand with a $489 DX that is not quite ready for prime time as a replacement for textbooks and courseware. The complaints cited will probably come as no surprise to Kindle Nation Daily readers:
While Amazon has been around for 15 years, its Kindle business is still very much a start-up, and for that business Amazon faces a dizzying array of choices about how to invest its capital, its people, and its many marketplace advantages for the future. Kindle DX sales seem currently to make up only about 10 percent of overall Kindle sales, and Amazon may well decide not to engage Apple in what might become a hubris-driven battle for the highest-end convergence-devices-that-might-also-serve-as-ereaders market. 
But what part of all that would a kid not love? What part of all that wouldn’t lead a fair number of Dads to try to negotiate some user time with their five-year-olds? Most parents are already familiar with the experience of taking their kids to a restaurant and secretly wishing that they too could order the crusty mac and cheese with the $3 price tag from the Kids’ Menu. This is a cross-posting from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily.
