Against the Grain
Volume 25 | Issue 3 Article 8
June 2013 Self-Publish or Traditional? My Experience with Books for Librarians Walt Crawford [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons
Recommended Citation Crawford, Walt (2013) "Self-Publish or Traditional? My Experience with Books for Librarians," Against the Grain: Vol. 25: Iss. 3, Article 8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.6515
This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Self-Publish or Traditional? My Experience with Books for Librarians by Walt Crawford (Semi-retired Speaker, Writer, Researcher)
ou have a great idea for a book to and substantially changes the remaining eight The book is likely to emerge much faster serve libraries and librarians — one steps. If you’re using Lulu or CreateSpace, through self-publishing than through tradition- Yyou’re sure you could pitch to a library distribution, sales, and fulfillment are covered al publishing. How fast? Once you prepare publisher. You’re also an experienced writer; — but the rest is up to you. For some of us, that the PDF for the book itself and prepare a think you can edit your own work fairly well; last step — marketing and publicity — may be cover (which may involve using templates and your idea is time-sensitive. the biggest argument against self-publishing. that the service agency provides), Should you self-publish the book, or work Book quality is not an issue for Lulu uploading might take half an hour with a traditional publisher? If you do self-pub- or CreateSpace (both compa- (if you’ve done your work right): lish, how should you go about it? nies for trade paperbacks, Your book is available immediately. I’ve done both (fifteen books to date Lulu also for hardcov- No scheduling against other books. through traditional library publishers, ten or ers). If anything, That — and the ability to publish so on my own) and the short answer is: There the books may books that really don’t have a big is no easy answer. Most recently, after years be better than enough market to interest a tradition- of self-publishing, I’ve gone back to library some trade pa- al publisher — may be the greatest publishers for three books, while doing another perbacks since advantage of micropublishing. on my own. The fact that I went to traditional both offer 60lb. You can set your own price (as publishers for those books says something cream paper, a long as it covers production costs), about my own experience with self-publishing step up from and these days that probably means — but it’s as much about my marketing skills the 50lb. white you can price your book well below and capital as it is about publishing routes. paper that’s the typical library book price. common in the You’ll get more of the cover price Comparing the Processes field. Whether for each book sold than you would Before you consider self-publishing, you the pages of the book will look as good mostly through traditional publishers. Say you write should understand the steps involved in book depends on doing it right, and that’s what The a 200-page paperback book. If you price it at publishing. There’s a concise discussion of Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing is all $25 on Lulu, you’ll net $11.80 per copy. If a those steps (and what changes in self-publish- about. You don’t need new software (if you traditional library publisher does it, the price ing) in my recent Information Today, Inc. have Word or LibreOffice), but you do have is likely to be $45 — and you’ll probably get book, The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublish- to work at it. $4.50 to $5.40 per copy, maybe a little more. ing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-57387-430-4. If you’re Two Routes to Self-Publishing (If you priced the same book at $45 on Lulu, a public or academic librarian, your library your net would be $32.40.) Traditionally, self-publishing involved sub- should own this book anyway: It shows the If you’ve struck gold, you can change your way to offer a new service every community stantial capital costs and, in essence, becoming a small publisher: You had to contract with a mind. You control all rights to the book. You’re can use — and the total cost to those who use free to self-publish it using your own printer it or to the library itself is a copy of the book. printer and binder, buy several hundred or a few thousand copies up front, store them, and fulfill or to take it to a traditional publisher without Chapter 2 of the book, “Publishing and even consulting Lulu or CreateSpace. The Micropublishing,” summarizes the book orders. Micropublishing eliminates up-front costs and turns fulfillment over to the service sole exception: If you’ve used CreateSpace publishing process as thirteen steps: Idea and (which always assigns an ISBN) or accepted writing; rewriting and initial editing; acqui- agency, but producing books one at a time is more expensive. Lulu’s offer of a free ISBN, you can’t use the sition/acceptance; line editing; copyediting; same ISBN elsewhere — that ISBN belongs to authorial revisions; layout and typography; If you’re certain you can sell 500 to 2,000 CreateSpace or Lulu respectively. But once proofreading; indexing; cover design; printing or more copies of a book, traditional self-pub- you replace the ISBN, you’re good to go. (If and binding; distribution, sales and fulfillment; lishing may yield more revenue per book. If you used a template for your cover, you should and marketing and publicity. you’re a motivational speaker who sells lots prepare a new cover as well.) It goes on to consider how those steps of copies in the back of the room after your change in micropublishing — that is, using speaking engagements, traditional self-pub- Advantages of Traditional Publishing print-on-demand fulfillment services to publish lishing is a great solution. For the rest of us, Let’s take the steps in the same order. First, books that may serve niches with from one to micropublishing makes better sense. the fact that a publisher accepts your idea and 500 copies by producing books individually as Advantages of No-Cost acquires your manuscript means that the pub- lisher believes it’s marketable to a sufficiently they are needed. Self-Publishing Micropublishing is the ideal method to wide audience: That can be very reassuring! The advantages of no-cost self-publishing publish family histories and other ultraniche At least with some publishers, you’ll get an over traditional publishing are fairly clear. books — but it’s also a great way to see advance. That’s money up front. Since this is Let’s take them in order through the publishing whether a book will appeal to a larger mar- the library field, it’s probably not going to be process. ket. Economical micropublishing primarily a lot of money. means Lulu and CreateSpace, both of which There’s no submission-and-acceptance pro- Your manuscript will be edited — typically use print-on-demand techniques and serve as cess. Lulu and CreateSpace don’t do editorial at three levels, although these may be com- fulfillment agents, neither of which charges review: They’re not publishers. bined. A line editor will go through it with a anything up front or pretends to be more than You can be sure line editors and copyeditors critical eye and suggest changes, sometimes a service agency. (Both sell various editing, won’t tarnish your golden words — because as small as a word and sometimes as large as layout, cover and marketing services; neither there won’t be any editing unless you pay rethinking whole chapters or, in the worst case, requires any of them.) extra for it. That is both an advantage and a scrapping the project entirely. A copyeditor Micropublishing does not change four disadvantage. will make sure everything’s consistent and steps (the first two plus authorial revisions The book will look exactly the way you that your grammar is good. A proofreader will and cover design), eliminates the third step want it to, if you know how to get there. continued on page 18 16 Against the Grain / June 2013
Self-Publish or Perish! by John D. Riley (Regional Sales Representative, Busca, Inc.)
hat is so great about getting published entitled For God, Country, and Coca Cola. not issue simultaneous print and e-versions of by a mainstream publisher? First His publisher dutifully put it in their seasonal your book, but you can. Wof all, you have to locate a literary catalogue, sent out review copies to the trade, Bob Holley, the editor of this special agent; or they won’t even look at your man- and had their reps show the book to bookstore Against the Grain segment, asked me to uscript. No more “over the transom” surprise buyers while on their rounds. After that week- recount my experiences as a self-published blockbusters. Plus locating a literary agent long blitz, he was on his own. His publisher author. I published my first book in 2004,Else is almost as hard as finding a publisher once had moved on to promote the next book in its Fine: Little Tales of Horror from Libraries was. Perhaps publishers are wary of looking at list. Mark tried visiting bookstores to promote and Bookshops. I distilled my forty years of your book for fear of a law suit if they publish his book at his own expense. He even had to work in bookstores and libraries into a series something similar in the future, or they might buy copies of his book to show to prospective of short stories. Fiction gave me the freedom just feel inundated with stuff and want the buyers. His profit per book sold was under a to encapsulate many different experiences and books vetted by someone in the industry. Did dollar. If you get a chance, buy a copy. It’s a speculations in one narrative. I found it much I say industry? Publishing is first and foremost great read, and he even gives away the “secret more fun and creative than a straightforward a business, and your book will be looked at only formula” for Coke (hint: it involves neroli oil) . history or autobiography. Writing fiction was if it has commercial potential. Another drawback to publishing a new experience for me, and I really took to it Once your Great American with a commercial publisher is with zeal. I also found that writing on a word Novel or History of Bean that they own the copyright to processor was liberating, much in the way that Sprout Farming is finally re- your book until it goes out- digital photography allows you to try many leased, your publisher will of-print, but o.p. is actually angles and points of view before you commit love you for about a week a thing of the past as print- to print. I have since written three books of before focusing attention on-demand will give your fiction (with another one in progress). on the “Next Big Thing.” publisher indefinite rights. I fell into self-publishing almost by ac- Mark Pendergrast, a for- But if you self-publish, cident. I might have remained one of those mer academic acquisition you retain all rights to frustrated writers who wallpaper their homes librarian and acquaintance, your book. Another con- with rejection slips from commercial pub- wrote a fascinating so- sideration is commercial lishers and agents. Fortunately it turned out cial history of Coca Cola publishers generally will continued on page 20
18 Against the Grain / June 2013