SELF PUBLISHING: IS IT FOR YOU? 10 Tips to Get You Started in the World of Publishing By Tracy Fortune
1 Tracy Fortune’s Books:
Out of The Ordinary, Extra Ordinary Friends
Kaila’s Garden
I Wish I Were A Princess
Exploring Careers In Art
Other writing credits include articles for School Arts Magazine and Arts & Activities
2 SO YOU’VE GOT AN IDEA FOR A BOOK…
Now what?
3 WHAT IS INVOLVED IN PUBLISHING A BOOK?
Did you know • ACQUISITION of Rights there are • PLANNING many steps to • EDITING publishing a • DESIGNING book? • ART DIRECTING • COPY EDITING • MANAGING • DISTRIBUTING • SELLING • MARKETING/ PROMOTING 4 YOU MAY BE WONDERING …SHOULD I PURSUE TRADITIONAL OR SELF-PUBLISHING?
5 WHAT IS TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING?
When a publisher buys a manuscript and various rights from an author (with or without a book agent) and agrees to publish it in exchange for a compensation package (advance, royalties, etc.)
6 How do TRADITIONAL PUBLISHERS select their books?
1. Manuscript/Book Proposal Submissions by Author . Some want Query Letters first
2. Manuscript/Book Proposal Submissions by a Literary Agent
3. A Publisher’s Own In-House Writers
7 WHAT IS SELF PUBLISHING?
Self-publishing is when an author handles the entire book publication process. All details including printing, distribution, and marketing.
Most self published books are done using Print-On-Demand publishing.
POD publishers don’t screen submissions, and primarily offer printing with some design services available 8
WHO ARE SOME OF THE PRINT-ON-DEMAND PUBLISHERS?
www.lulu.com www.createspace.com (Amazon) www.iuniverse.com www.authorhouse.com www.blurb.com www.xlibris.com www1.lightningsource.com www.go-publish-yourself.com
9 PROS & CONS OF
SELF-PUBLISHING
VS
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING 10 CONTROL
• The writer controls all aspects of the publishing process, including contents, design, and appearance, as well as pricing, where the book is marketed and distributed. With a traditional publishing company PROS they can change your book or ask you to change it OF SELF to suit their needs and vision PUBLISHING • All rights remain with the writer, who has full ownership of his/her books, including the ISBN number.
• Most aspiring authors who self publish don’t have CONS the expertise in each of the many different aspects of publishing a book. It can be challenging to gain OF SELF the knowledge you need to do this on your own or PUBLISHING find quality people to help you with each step. You may need to hire people to work with you.
11 TIME • You don’t need to submit a proposal or manuscript for acceptance. Editors of bigger publishing houses editors can take up to six months to get back to you about your manuscript or PROS query
• With self-publishing, an author can have a finished book in OF SELF their hands within weeks or even days. If a traditional PUBLISHING publishing house decides to publish your book, the actual book producing process typically takes at least a year after it has been accepted for publication.
• It takes countless hours to get a book completely ready to CONS be send to the Print-On-Demand Publisher. Editing and design work take a lot of time. • You will likely need to invest time in learning how to do OF SELF PUBLISHING each step • Once the book is printed the marketing and distribution are also incredibly time consuming, often with limited results
12 MONEY
• You make all the profits and don’t have to share this PROS money with anyone. OF SELF PUBLISHING
• When you self-publish, you pay for everything—design, editing, printing, advertising, and distribution. In traditional publishing, the publishing house pays for everything including the CONS promotion of your book.
• When you self publish you don’t get an advance or any money OF SELF PUBLISHING up front. Profits only come once you sell books (and enough to cover your expenses). With traditional publishing you (may) get an advanced and have a greater likelihood of making money from royalties. Depending on the book this advance from a traditional publisher could be quite large.
• Most self-published books only selling 100-200 books
13 10 TIPS FOR SELF- PUBLISHING
14 RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH
Visit book stores, libraries as well as surf the internet on sites like Amazon to find books that are similar to yours. This will help you understand your competition and can also help you find a publisher or agent.
15 TITLE
CREATE A UNIQUE TITLE .
YOUR BOOK SHOULD BE EASY TO FIND IN A SEARCH ON AMAZON AND GOOGLE. IT SHOULD COME UP IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF SEARCH RESULTS.
MANY AUTHORS MAKE THE MISTAKE OF USING A TITLE THAT HAS TOO MANY OTHER PRODUCTS IT WITH IT -- AND IT GETS BURIED IN SEARCH RESULTS.
MAIN TITLE SHOULD BE 5 WORDS OR LESS
16 BOOK SIZE -CHOOSE A SIZE THAT GIVES THE BEST/GOOD PRICE PER BOOK (ESPECIALLY AS YOU WILL BE DOING A SMALL RUN OF 1000 OR LESS)
-CHOOSE A SIZE THAT WORKS FOR THE CONTENT OF YOUR BOOK
- CHECK TO SEE IF THE SIZE YOU WANT IS ONE THAT IS ELIGIBLE FOR SALE ON AMAZON
Size 4.25" x 6.75" 5.5" x 8.5" 6.0" x 9.0" 7.0" x 10.0" 8.5" x 11.0"
Mass Trade Trade Large Name Textbook Market Paperback Paperback Format
17 COVER DESIGN DESIGN YOUR BOOK COVER TO LOOK GOOD SMALL
• Amazon has become a dominant bookseller, which means your book should stand out as a thumbnail image online because that's how most people are going to come across it.
• Cover should be a eye-catching, professional-looking cover
• Study other cover designs for ideas and current trends 18 BINDING PICK A BINDING TYPE THAT LOOKS PROFESSIONAL
PUBLISHERS USE PERFECT BINDING (A KIND OF HOT-MELT GLUE) TO HOLD THE BOOK TOGETHER. CHOOSE THIS METHOD IF YOU WANT YOUR BOOK TO LOOK PROFESSIONAL.
ALTERNATIVES THAT ARE LESS PROFESSIONAL LOOKING INCLUDE SADDLE STITCH, SPIRAL BINDING, DIY COMB BINDING. THESE ARE OKAY FOR MANUALS AND CASUAL PUBLISHED WRITING.
19 PROOF READING EDIT, EDIT, EDIT
• Get help with your editing.
• Consider hiring a professional editor
• Order a ‘proof copy’ so you can really see what it will look like. Often you see mistakes in this copy you missed when it was in digital form.
20 ISBN CONSIDER BUYING YOUR OWN ISBN -- AND CREATE YOUR OWN PUBLISHING HOUSE.
21 PRICING
PRICING YOUR BOOK IS HARD
ESPECIALLY IF YOU WANT TO MAKE MUCH OF A PROFIT ON EACH BOOK. PRICING YOUR BOOK HIGH WILL HINDER SALES.
22 CREATING PRINT READY PDF FILES • Use a program like Adobe In-Design to create the layout of your book.
• You can upload images and text.
• Make sure the size of your document matches the requirements of the publisher 23
ORDER PROOF COPIES
WHEN YOU THINK YOUR BOOK IS COMPLETELY READY…
- ORDER A PROOF COPY TO SEE HOW IT REALLY LOOKS
- REPEAT AS NECESSARY BEFORE YOUR ORDER A BUNCH OF BOOKS
24 SELF-PUBLISHING A MEDIOCRE Self- BOOK IS RELATIVELY Publishing a EASY professional quality book is difficult.
Most self- published books sell 100-200 copies.
25 Self-publishing works best for people who are good at self-marketing.. Additional Insights Related to Marketing a Self Published Book 1. Booksellers don’t like dealing with POD/SP services. 2. Your book likely will receive limited distribution/ marketing/publicizing. (besides what YOU do) 3. POD/SP books are far less likely to be professionally reviewed.
26 NICHE BOOKS TEND TO DO BEST. Who does • Non-Fiction with well defined self- audience (ie seminar presenter or publishing specialized art book) work best • A book primarily for family and for? friends • Re-printing your own out of print book
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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE E-BOOKS • Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon) • Booktango.com • Lulu.com • PubIt (Barnes & Noble's) • Bookbaby.com • ibooks (Apple) • Smashwords.coom
28 BOOKS TO HELP YOU WRITE A GREAT BOOK PROPOSAL
Earlier Edition was called “Putting Your Passion Into Print”
29 BOOKS TO HELP YOU WRITE A GREAT BOOK PROPOSAL
Contains REAL sample book proposals that are analyze for their strengths and weaknesses
30 CONTACT INFO
Tracy Fortune Hudtloff Middle School Lakewood, WA [email protected]
Good Luck on Your Journey…
31 REFERENCES
Websites http://www.spacejock.com.au/SelfPublishing.html http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/ http://www.booksandtales.com/pod/ http://www.underdown.org/self-publish.htm
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