Publication, self-publication, and getting yourself out there

Why Self-Publishing?

Why should you be published? (NB – not the same question as ‘why should you write?’)

  • Fame
  • Money
  • To reach an audience

Why should you not be published?

  • You don’t want to be famous
  • You don’t need the money
  • You write for yourself

Seriously, you should think about why you want to be published because you are very unlikely to become famous, or rich. Your chances of either are less than they are even for an actor. Everybody’s selling books they’ve written. You have to be very tough, talented and lucky to stand out. If you just want to reach an audience, you can do that without going through the stress – the same tools work to build a readership for free to read books as for pay to read books. Free to read books can become a platform to build a pro career on, and you can use a pro career to sell self-published books. Be flexible, and don’t be dazzled by prospects of fame and fortune. Publishing is a huge and diverse industry – you can choose your level of participation and still be an author.

The (traditional) large publishing model:

  • You sell publication rights in exchange for advance and/or cut of sale profits
  • The publisher is responsible for artwork, editing and marketing, and bears all costs
  • The publisher’s business model is based on making as many sales as possible to people the author can’t reach by themselves

The traditional large publishing model is heavily print based, pays the largest advances, sells the most books, and is the hardest to crack. Advances are shrinking, and the author’s role in marketing is increasing rapidly. But for mainstream books, this is the most lucrative – but also the most demanding and stressful. Beware also of thinking that success==huge money too. See this article:

http://www.genreality.net/the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller

The small publishing model:

  • You sell publication rights in exchange for larger cut of sale profits (some small publishers pay a very small advance – usually no more than $200)
  • The publisher is responsible for artwork and editing but the author has a larger say/input (though not necessarily control) – the publisher bears the costs of artwork, ISBNS and so on.
  • The author is largely responsible for their own marketing
  • The publisher’s business model is based on making as many sales as possible to people the author can’t reach by themselves but relies heavily on the author’s pre-existing audience

The small publishing model is good for niche books, and it’s easier to make a sale. However, sales are usually very low (less than 1000 copies sold per book, and very often a lot less than that), the professionalism can be very sketchy, quality control likewise, and the author has to do as much work as they do for a self-published item. Small publishers often have trouble getting their books into bookstores and other outlets because of a lack of marketing muscle. Authors can claim such publication as a valid publishing credit, however, and some small publishers offer access to markets the author can’t reach on their own. Small publishers are still very wedded to print.

Small e-publishers can maximise the profit and penetration for a niche author. While sales remain low, they offer a greater slice of profits because of the lower cost of operation, and the rise of e-readers is making them a perfectly good alternative for readers. Authors, whether self or small published, have same access to on-line bookstores as the big operators, and this can increase visibility.

In both cases, the quality of editing is heavily dependent on how good the book is in the first place. That is – if the book is well-edited by the author, and knows their stuff, then the publisher’s editing process will work better (many small presses spend very little money on professional editing, and it shows.) This is crucial to reader perceptions of your work. It can also be just as time-consuming and stressful dealing with a small press as a large one, only often a lot less financially rewarding. The failure rate for all presses is very, very high – and you risk losing your book in the mills of bankruptcy proceedings and so on.

The self-publishing model:

The self-publishing model is best suited for niche books, for authors who are comfortable with the entire process of selling books and building an audience. You are unlikely to make huge sales, but you can make an acceptable supplementary income. It will not count as a publishing credit, and you will find plenty of prejudice against your work because of its self-published status. Can be still be a good way to build an audience, or to capitalise on an existing audience.

Moriah Jovan is a romance author making a success of self-publishing. She talks about her experiences here:

http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com/2009/12/moriah-jovan-my-path-to-self-publishing.html

The vanity-publishing model:

  • You pay (big time) to give away your publication rights for the promise of future sales which rarely if ever materialise
  • The publisher is responsible for artwork, editing and marketing – but these are either low cost or non-existent. Often the costs are passed on at inflated prices to the author
  • The business model is based on making as many sales as possible to the author and their friends, and by selling services to the author. Few to no sales are made through bookstores, physical or electronic.

The vanity publishing model is for suckers. It’s costly, will not count as a publishing credit, will not get your book into stores, and will make you a laughing stock. Your friends will get very, very sick of you flogging your overpriced books to them. Avoid this. Money flows to the author. The second a publisher asks for money – RUN AWAY!

Economies of scale – or why self-publication works well at the small end of the market (where most authors live)

  • First quarter sales of Remastering Jerna (PD Publishing – small print publisher) were 16 copies and I made $33.
    [NB this doesn't reflect all sales as most retailers report 3-6 months in arrears - but sales are highly unlikely to exceed 100 copies.]
  • 1st quarter sales of Interstitial (Samhain, epublisher) were 275 copies, and I made $370
  • First quarter sales of Somatesthesia (Lulu, self-published) were 78 copies and I made $280

You have to sell a lot of books to make $1000, but you have to sell fewer to make the same amount if you get a bigger cut per sale. Your chances of selling more copies depends on your publisher, the potential audience, your marketing and the product – and this is as true for the traditional model as it is for self-publication.

How to Self-Publish

In print

  • Methods:
    • Print On Demand (POD) technology (through Lulu, Createspace etc)
    • You can also deal direct with Lightning Source
    • Print in bulk through any printer which handles book printing
  • Advantages
    • Reduced risk of piracy (NB Print books are pirated more often than but it’s more work for the thief so unless your book is popular, no one’s likely to bother)
    • Appeals to ego
    • You can give people a nice gift
  • Disadvantages
    • Much more costly
    • Much harder to correct mistakes
    • Higher degree of skill involved in cover making and formatting
    • Your friends and relatives will hate you because you keep pushing expensive books at them
    • Storage
    • Costs of distribution
    • Very hard to compete with mass market products on price
    • Customs will not let your product into certain countries if it contains ‘forbidden’ content like gay romance and sex

This option is good for non-fiction work with a known potential market, or for people who really know how to sell!

Ebook

  • Methods:
  • Advantages
    • Much cheaper to produce and distribute
    • Easy to match or beat commercial prices
    • Can be produced in multiple formats for different markets
    • Easy to correct mistakes/update
    • Appealing in certain markets which are web-literate or where there are privacy issues (if you’re selling to Asia, content is a big issue to consider for print)
    • Lower skills required for cover and formatting
  • Disadvantages
    • Higher risk of piracy
    • Lower boost to ego
    • Can’t penetrate market of web-unaware readers

Is increasingly a good option for fiction authors writing non-niche material – but also for those who are and who want total control over their own work

Via website

  • Advantages
    • Cheap to produce/distribute
    • Easy to correct mistakes/update
    • Can vastly increase your profile and readership, done well
    • Tracking reader stats gives you a boost
  • Disadvantages
    • Hard to monetise
    • Piracy is impossible to prevent

Is a good option for those giving away content to build up readership

Sites of interest for those wanting to self-publish:

  • Lightning Source
    http://www.lightningsource.com/
    This is the American company who provide services to almost all POD retailers, but individual authors can use them too
  • Lulu
    http://www.lulu.com/
    This was the first really successful POD service onseller, and is still a good option for print books. They have recently pushed their prices up for ebooks past the point where it’s economic to use them. Their distribution prices are steep for non-US/non-European customers (though thye’ve added a printer in Melbourne which helps), but remain viable for the American and European market. Worth exploring. Very easy to use from the producer’s point of view.
  • Smashwords
    https://www.smashwords.com/
    Exclusively for ebook production, they are a newish company offering much better pricing and delivery than Lulu (i.e. they take a much smaller cut as their fee for hosting the books/taking payment, and they offer the full range of ebook formats, both DRM and DRM-free). They have very strict formatting requirements so the books can be on-sold by the big ebook retailers. This is actually a good thing.
  • Createspace
    https://www.createspace.com/
    An alternative to Lulu which some people are finding a much better option.
  • For the love of Books
    http://www.loveofbooks.com.au
    Local POD company. I’ve never used them but they offer a suite of services similar to and exceeding those, say, of Lulu, and the prices were roughly similar when I asked for a quote
  • Self-publishing review
    http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/about/
    A site dedicated to reviewing self-pubbed print books with an emphasis on product quality. Offers extensive resources page, valuable to anyone thinking of self-publishing
  • Vista Print:
    http://www.vistaprint.com.au
    Low cost promotional material such as business cards, pens, mailing labels, and so on

Basic tools to market yourself and your books

Nobody can just sit back and write any more, if they want to sell books.

All authors need to build their audience.

All authors need to market their books.

All authors need a platform – and these days, this starts with a website. Readers expect to find you on the internet.

Basic marketing tools an author needs to set up, regardless of what their publisher does

  • Website – this is the first stop for a lot of readers looking for more information on what you write and where to get more of what you write.
  • Blog/updates – makes your site look maintained, and make sure it is!
  • Book listing – make it easy for people to spend money on you
  • Email contact form/mailing list – reader interaction is both necessary and fun. Make it easy for them.

Free tools/techniques:

  • Guest blogging
  • Twitter/Facebook/Myspace
  • Reviewing for review sites/journals
  • Reader content-generated sites like Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/
  • Be interviewed – local press, author blogs, reader blogs, magazines
  • Google books
  • Exploit your friends :)
  • Setting up a book signing

Other tools which are not free:

  • Bookmarks/promotional items (eg pens)
  • Posters for use in bookstore/libraries
  • Convention attendance
  • Stalls in markets etc
  • Book ‘Trailers’ (can be free if you know how to make one, though)

Avoid ‘directory’ or listing sites which charge fees to display your book’s listing – they are rarely effective. Any service which exists by making money out of fees, rather than sales, has to be considered very carefully before you waste money on them. If the service claims to help you sell books, then they should make most of their income from sales. Self-published authors are seen as suckers. Don’t be a sucker.

Promotional materials are costly and rarely effective. If you’re going to a convention, or are running a stall, then bookmarks/freebies are a good idea. Best thing is to talk to local bookstores and ask them for advice. Decide how much you want to earn and how much you want to spend. Think small in the first instance. You can waste a lot of money for no results at all.

Your fellow writers, whether they’re self-published or not, can be allies (though they’re competitors, there’s not a cap on how many books an individual can buy) – so consider creating a collective to pool skills, help marketing, build a buzz.

Also, find individuals who will give you honest critique on your writing and your marketing. These people don’t have to live locally to you!

How to use these tools to build an audience

It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation – you need people to read your books so they can tell other people about you. People need to know about you before they can read your books.

  • Free reading is essential to building an audience, whether it’s blog posts, articles, or fiction, so make sure you have that content available, and are prepared to distribute it readily.
  • Make your website work hard!
  • This is an excellent article on the mistakes people make with their websites: http://www.dirtysexybooks.com/Dirty_Sexy_Books/Home/Entries/2010/2/23_The_Ten_Biggest_Mistakes_Authors_Make_on_Their_Websites.html
  • Make sure you have content in your blog, and offer free samples or better still, whole stories – this will drive web traffic to your site
  • Make sure your site’s SEO settings – metadata, page names, and so forth – work for you.
  • Make sure your website is simple, clean and easy to use.
  • If your visitor can’t contact you, find out about you, link to your blog, or get to a book listing in one click from your front page, then you have designed it extremely badly.
  • An article I wrote on good website design:
    http://logophilos.net/?page_id=70
  • Participate in forums – but do not make it all about you and your books. Have links in your profile that take people to your site. Readers resent authors who only ever talk about themselves and who ‘threadjack’ – i.e drop into discussions just to talk about themselves or their books.
  • Contact review sites and offer ARCs. Do not behave like an idiot if they don’t like your books
  • NB – review sites are not there to promote your book or help sell it. They’re there to tell readers about books. Don’t behave as if they owe you anything.
  • Do not behave like an idiot anywhere if you can help it!
  • Use sites like Goodreads to host giveaways, chats, discussions.
  • Review books on Amazon and other sites to raise your profile
  • Host giveaways on your blog (ask friends to promote) – the trick is to get as many people reading your stuff as possible so they can spread the word
  • Make sure you are comfortable with the outlets you use, and don’t spread yourself too thin. Better to use LJ effectively than a dozen networking sites badly.
  • Make sure your product is worth it! Not only well-edited, but well presented. See this review:
    http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2010/01/31/self-published-design-review-stay-by-moriah-jovan/
  • Find the communities interested in your genre – know your potential audience – and participate fully with them
  • Become an expert/offer expertise in something related, and that can generate interest in you as an individual. Eg, if you are widely read and are happy to recommend books to newcomers in a genre, or offer technical advice, their gratitiude often translates into interest in you and your writing.

Cost of setting up a website

Whatever option you choose, it will repay you to become web-literate and learn HTML, and to learn a bit about how websites are set up, how domain names work and so on.

Finally—I am not a lawyer. If you are planning to publish or self-publish, educate yourself about contracts and rights, and don’t sign anything until you know what you are selling/giving away. Contact a lawyer, and make sure they are expert in publishing and intellectual property rights. Small publishers (and big ones too!) often have punitive, crappy contracts which can be a pain to get out of, and which make rights grabs for no return/compensation.

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