Self Publishing from Experience
by David Evans
The Thrift Store Bears
(Editor's note: Olive Evans' (David's wife) self publishing story appears on my other website. She has passed the torch to David. Below is an outline of a speech he gave to aspiring authors in all genres.) The Self Publishing Manual, Dan Poynter Both books are very comprehensive. How To Publish Your Book, Belma Johnson Beyond the Book Store, Brian Jud Over 50% of books published are sold outside the book store. This is an excellent source of know-how. Read them all and thoroughly! General: Realize that you bear primary responsibility for marketing and selling your book. This can be true even if your book is published by a major publisher. Have a firm understanding of all costs, i.e. business, printing, shipping, warehousing, marketing, etc. and, maybe, legal. Self publishing is fast growing - over 50% of books coming to market today. Hundreds of books are published on a weekly basis. Competition is fierce for the reading public’s money and attention. Non fiction: Have something to say and know your subject well enough to write about it. Be an expert! Can you spot a market niche where your book fits? Understand your audience’s interests and wants. Friends' encouragement can be misleading. If the subject is topical, realize there is a limited window of opportunity and interest. Is there anything already published in the book’s field? Check bookstores and libraries - not just public library but college and high school - and online. Does the book already out there say most of what you have to say? Can you add a new angle? Does your book have "legs" - a long term shelf life? Get reviews from known opinion leaders in the field. Reviewers need a manuscript at least three months before a publication date. BEWARE THOSE WHO OFFER TO REVIEW BOOKS FOR A FEE. Get your book edited for content, spelling and grammar. Spelling goofs and typos are embarrassing! General fiction: Most of the above applies. What is your genre? Romance? Historical Romance? Mystery? Sport? Do your research and be accurate. Children’s Books and Young People’s Literature: Same as above for the most part. Very competitive. Know your audience: understand what appeals to children, their parents and grandparents. Young children have a concentration span of about 10-15 minutes. Illustrated books need to be very colorful. Get a good, professional illustrator - not yourself, unless you have considerable graphic art capability. Don’t use ‘clip art.’ Books are often judged by their covers. Find an experienced graphic artist to do front and back. I’ve seen disasters. Find a good printer. (There are lists in various magazines.) Mistakes in layout can cost you money. A good printer will tell you what to avoid and how to keep costs down. More and more books are printed in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Korea for reasons of cost. You will need a broker with whom you can deal to get the book printed overseas. Our experience has been excellent; there are very good printers in Asia with up to date printing equipment. Check spelling and syntax; cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings. Use a reliable, economical shipper. Use sea-freight instead of more expensive air-freight. Don't over-order. It is better to order 2000 books @ $1.25/book than 5000 @ $1.00/book if you end up selling only 1000 and value your garage space! Organizations: The Publishers Marketing Association is a must for self publishers; membership shows commitment and professionalism. There are opportunities to make mass mailings to bookstores, libraries, and to get book displays at book fairs worldwide. Of course, everything is for a fee. There is an excellent monthly newsletter which is itself worth membership in PMA. Book Dealers of the World is a book marketing company for independent publishers. Like PMA, BDW can market your book much more efficiently and to a broader market than you as an individual can. They mail members an excellent magazine. Internet newsletters Brian Jud's book marketing newsletter Dan Poynter's Publishing Poynters These newsletters feature snippets and short articles from other experts in the field and, of course, pitches on what they have to offer, for a fee, to the recipient. Wholesalers and Distributors: Using the pros is the way to get large orders but not an easy path for the self publisher. Some won’t accept self-published books. Wholesalers and Distributors take up to 60% of the book cover price as their fee. Though this may seem too much, consider the following: They have to pay sales and administrative staff. They provide you with the financial statements required for tax preparation – federal, state and sales tax. The book stores want a 40% discount on the cover price. Also, you pay for the shipment of books to the warehouses and warehousing fees. Also, if you’re prudent, you need to get insurance for your books stored in the warehouses. Some of the wholesalers and distributors are: Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Biblio. There is a very long list in Dan Poynter’s book. If the books don’t sell they are sent back to you but not at your expense. However you are not recompensed for any damaged books. We haven’t used these professionals yet but we now think we may have to do so. Our book has been sold via word of mouth and by other presentations to school parent meetings with donation to school, and to ladies groups, etc. Word of mouth and other presentations: Friends, friend of friends, etc. Talking to groups, e.g. church women’s organizations, PTA groups, groups that share an interest in your subject matter. Our practice is to give a portion of the sales to charitable organizations. Print on Demand New technology lets you get your book, magazine etc. overnight. It is a business decision really. Though expensive on the surface, for small quantities POD is an economical way to proceed. You need to have the book in place and a PDF file that you give to the printer. You can also run off your own book if you have the equipment. I have done this to run off prototypes, using the artist's original illustrations, scanning them into PhotoShop, then setting out the illustrations and sizing them as required for eye appeal. Typing in the text gives you terrific flexibility and allows you to experiment with the images before going for printing. You need a good scanner, good software and a good color printer. I have used inkjet and laser toner color printers. Both are very good but I believe that color laser has the edge. Be aware that the printers are relatively inexpensive but the inks and toner are very expensive and you cannot compete with professional printers for anything other than short runs. Remember, technology changes rapidly so keep hard copies as well as back up disc files. Book Promotion: You are the prime promoter of your book. Have a very appealing, professionally done website. Traditional print advertising doesn’t work for most books. Can be a speaker/book signer at a book store, but these gigs are not always easy to get. Give talks and book signings to groups, churches, etc. Appear at public fairs and events. Libraries - great, but you may not be allowed to make sales on the premises. Schools - though some districts won’t allow authors to sell their books in schools even with contributions from the sales being made to the school. Story for local newspapers. Can result in sales but, in our experience, generally not large sales. But, every sale is a good sale! Radio - there are people in the P.R. business who can get you, for a fee, onto regional radio talk shows. Again: don’t expect blockbuster sales. Internet - we have had poor results for our site even though the site is very good and interesting. The trick is to get people to come to the site - 'hits'. There are lots of people out there who, for a fee of course, promise that if you sign up with them you will get thousands of hits weekly. But, I have my doubts. The Future: Printed books will always be with us. But... The electronic revolution is moving along ever faster and more reading material will be delivered electronically than we presently believe. For example, e-books. (Let’s face it, most books end up being pulped and the paper recycled - obsolescence.) Our book is being turned into an e-book by a company called MobiStories. The book will be split into 5 individual presentations, can be downloaded for a fee and we share the income. We’ll see what the outcome will be. Visit David's website.
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