No Royal Road.

External Since: Jul 27, 2003 Posts: 72

There is no royal road to success as a self publisher. It is easy to
get a book in print; it is very hard to sell books in sufficient
quantity to cover your investment. Today publishing is easy. Selling
books is much harder. Breaking even is harder still. So here are the
rules:

1. Buy and read books on publishing and marketing of books. Here is an
annotated list: http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf

2. Join and read mailing lists dedicated to publishing. Here is my
list:
self-publishing.TakeThisOut@yahoogroups.com (I am a co-moderator)
Publish-L.TakeThisOut@hlsc.org
Pub-Forum.TakeThisOut@pub-forum.net
smallpub-civil.TakeThisOut@yahoogroups.com
pod_publisher.TakeThisOut@yahoogroups.com
indy_publishers.TakeThisOut@yahogroups.com

3. Crunch the numbers. If your book costs 40% of list to print and
ship then you will never make money selling to bookstores or on Amazon
advantage. Low upfront costs usually translate into high unit costs,
often too high for profitablity.

4. Identify your market first, then work backwards. How will they find
out about your book? Where are they likely to buy books like yours?

5. Prepare a quality book. this means a professional cover design, an
interior laid out with real typesetting (not MSWord!) competent
editing and so on. If it is non-fiction you probably need an index
also.

6. Know the difference between printing POD as a self-publisher as
opposed to subsidy publishing through Booklocker.com, Lulu.com,
Infinity.com, Xlibris, publishamerica.com etc. etc. Subsidy publishing
increases your unit costs over going directly to a POD printer and
more importantly reduces your sales opportunities. Reviewers,
distributors, libraries etc. won't look at subsidy published books.

7. Before you rush to publish send Advanced Review copies to Library
Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Midwest Book Reviews etc. Don't
send ARCs to every online reviewer who pops up however. Some are just
scams to get a free book to resell. And before you send the ARCs read
the rules for each and every reviewer, and send them what they want
when they want it. Most want a white cover galley proof three or four
months before availability date. Reviews translate into sales.

8. Publish for your market, not for yourself. Consider this: would you
buy a book like yours sight unseen if someone else wrote it and
published it? Have you actually done so?

Disclaimer: I index and lay out books for money. I moderate a
publishing list
(see above.)

John Culleton
Able Typesetters and Indexers

External Since: Nov 13, 2004 Posts: 2

John wrote an excellent "rule book" for breaking into the publishing biz. I
especially agree with having a PROFESSIONAL layout the inside design and
(perhaps another professional) design the covers. Those two expenses will pay
you back time after time. A book that looks like it was typeset by the author
(in Word) and designed by her sister-in-law who is an art student at
community college, will not get reviewed, not get chosen by wholesalers, and
not get sold. (BTW, our books are typeset and designed by
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bookwrights.com" target="_blank">http://www.bookwrights.com</a> ).

May I add one more item to John's excellent list. You should plan for success
by deciding NOW on what software you will use to run your publishing
business. Of course, we suggest that you use our online Jaya123 web service
but there are a lot of other options, such as Publisher's Assistant,
Quickboobs, and Cat's PJs.

Al Canton, President
Adams-Blake Company, Inc.
***
JAYA123 - the web-based total-office system for the
small biz. Order entry, billing, bookkeeping, etc. for $14.95
a month. Everyone says "It's cool as a moose!!"
See why at:http://www.jaya123.com ('ja-eye-ah' means
'victory' in Sanskrit.)
***

John Culleton wrote:

> There is no royal road to success as a self publisher. It is easy to
> get a book in print; it is very hard to sell books in sufficient
> quantity to cover your investment. Today publishing is easy. Selling
> books is much harder. Breaking even is harder still. So here are the
> rules:
>
> 1. Buy and read books on publishing and marketing of books. Here is an
<font color=purple> > annotated list: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf</font" target="_blank">http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf</font</a>>
>
> 2. Join and read mailing lists dedicated to publishing. Here is my
> list:
> self-publishing RemoveThis @yahoogroups.com (I am a co-moderator)
> Publish-L RemoveThis @hlsc.org
> Pub-Forum RemoveThis @pub-forum.net
> smallpub-civil RemoveThis @yahoogroups.com
> pod_publisher RemoveThis @yahoogroups.com
> indy_publishers RemoveThis @yahogroups.com
>
> 3. Crunch the numbers. If your book costs 40% of list to print and
> ship then you will never make money selling to bookstores or on Amazon
> advantage. Low upfront costs usually translate into high unit costs,
> often too high for profitablity.
>
> 4. Identify your market first, then work backwards. How will they find
> out about your book? Where are they likely to buy books like yours?
>
> 5. Prepare a quality book. this means a professional cover design, an
> interior laid out with real typesetting (not MSWord!) competent
> editing and so on. If it is non-fiction you probably need an index
> also.
>
> 6. Know the difference between printing POD as a self-publisher as
> opposed to subsidy publishing through Booklocker.com, Lulu.com,
> Infinity.com, Xlibris, publishamerica.com etc. etc. Subsidy publishing
> increases your unit costs over going directly to a POD printer and
> more importantly reduces your sales opportunities. Reviewers,
> distributors, libraries etc. won't look at subsidy published books.
>
> 7. Before you rush to publish send Advanced Review copies to Library
> Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Midwest Book Reviews etc. Don't
> send ARCs to every online reviewer who pops up however. Some are just
> scams to get a free book to resell. And before you send the ARCs read
> the rules for each and every reviewer, and send them what they want
> when they want it. Most want a white cover galley proof three or four
> months before availability date. Reviews translate into sales.
>
> 8. Publish for your market, not for yourself. Consider this: would you
> buy a book like yours sight unseen if someone else wrote it and
> published it? Have you actually done so?
>
> Disclaimer: I index and lay out books for money. I moderate a
> publishing list
> (see above.)
>
>
> John Culleton
> Able Typesetters and Indexers