What is Self-Publishing?

Self-publishing is a well-respected tradition. Many famous writers have started their careers through self-publishing, including Jane Austen, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alexander Pope, Thomas Gray, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, and Edgar Allen Poe. You already know that large publishing houses (royalty publishers) accept very few manuscripts. Because of their large overhead, they must select material they feel will appeal to a mass market and achieve high-volume sales. Your well-written book may be rejected by a royalty publisher for reasons beyond your control. Usually an author has little or no control over the final product if his or her work is accepted for publication by a royalty publisher.

Self-publishing, by contrast, means that the author contracts for professional services in the production of a book. The author pays for all production costs and retains complete ownership and control over the final product. By self-publishing your book, you control its content, appearance, promotion, and distribution.

Why publishing prices fluctuate

There are a lot of factors that go into the cost of a book. Looking at just the printing aspect, there is a lot of room for fluctuation. Paper is a traded commodity. The price changes every day. This is part of why a press will only give a quote that is good for 30 days. They have roughly 30 days of paper in stock. After that, they have to buy more and the price could be very different than the last time they bought it - could be higher or could be lower.

Of course these days we are all too familiar with the wild fluctuations in gas prices. This affects printing as well. The cost the press must pay for the shipping of their supplies (especially paper and ink) and the cost the press must pay for shipping the books to you or a warehouse are directly impacted by the price of gasoline and what shippers charge them.

There is also the factor of supply and demand. Certain times of the year are more costly to print a book than other times. Presses are very busy leading up to major events like the holidays or elections.

So when it comes to printing your book, plan well. Watch the price of paper on the market. Wait for gas prices to fall. And avoid the busy seasons.

Until next time,
Faithe

Brandywine Books

Brandywine Books has an interesting blog. If you have time to puruse it, you might want to.

Marketing to certain groups

Once you have organized your potential customers it is time to begin contacting them. Remember, people buy for their reasons, not yours. And different target markets buy for different reasons than others. For example, magazines want to increase their circulation, associations want to increase their membership and librarians want to help their patrons. The wrong appeal to any audience will diminish the likelihood of selling them your books.

When marketing your book...

Keep in mind that there is a difference between marketing a feature, an advantage and a benefit. A feature is an attribute of your book. It could be its size, binding, title or number of pages. An advantage describes the purpose or function of a feature, and a benefit is the value the reader receives in exchange for purchasing your book. People buy value.

Book Marketing Tips

I'll be adding a lot of these over the next days, but I thought I'd start here.

Promotion activities with a relatively short time from start to results:

• Most prospects in the Niche Market section
• Placing articles in ezines and newsletters
• Telephone calls to prospective customers
• Emailing to prospective customers
• Personal visits to prospective customer
• Faxing to prospective customers
• Selling through online bookstores
• Selling during speaking engagements
• Broadcast media appearances

Promotion activities with a relatively long time from start to results:

• Advertising
• Book Reviews
• Placing articles in print
• Participation in communities and forums
• Exhibits at trade shows
• Press releases
• Direct mail campaigns
• Book clubs and catalogs
• Distribution to discount stores
• Distribution to warehouse clubs
• Distribution to airport stores
• Sales-promotional tools
• Selling books as premiums to companies
• Distribution to libraries
• Contacting associations
• Networking

Until next time,
Faithe

The Publishing Process

In this business, I find people ask many of the same questions. So, the following explanation of publishing processes might be helpful to you.

There are four basic methods of publishing. The first option is to go to your local copy center and make photocopies of all the pages and staple them together or bind them in some other form. Although this is relatively inexpensive, it is not a recommended route unless you need less than 100 copies.

The second option is the newly available books-on-demand. This puts an electronic copy of your book into a computer and when your book is ordered, they print out one book for that order. The problem with this (and with Docutech technology in general) is that toner is used. This toner (used in laser printers and copiers) does not adhere well to the page over time, causing the toner (and therefore words) to flake off the page. In my opinion, it is very unprofessional.

Third option would be to self-publish the collection. This would give you a professionally completed book with copyright registration, ISBN (international standard book number), bar code, four-color cover, etc.

The fourth option is to find a publisher who is willing to publish the material for you. This is called commercial publishing or traditional publishing.

Assuming that you do one of the latter two options, there are some things to keep in mind:

Self Publishing
Time allotted 3-6 months
Cost $2000-$15000
Return $5000-$30000+
Marketing self-promotion or national distributor

Commercial Publishing
Time allotted 9-24 months
Cost stamps, phone calls
Return 10-15% net ($1000+)
Marketing national chain

This doesn't cover everything, but it does hit some of the basic issues that need to be kept in mind. Furthermore, if you find a commercial publisher to publish the book, you give up a lot of control over title, final editing of text, book design, cover appearance, etc. These are all reasons that I self-publish. However, this does not mean that I am opposed to publishers.

The company of which I am President is a self-publishing company. We help you through the process of publishing so you don't have to learn all the ropes.

As to pricing, there are so many factors that go into a book: number of pages, editing, typesetting, cover design, quantity printed, etc. Until these are known figures, any pricing is just a guess.

I realise this information has only hit the surface, but hopefully it will steer you in the right direction for your project.

Until next time,
Faithe

Starting Out

Tomorrow I start work on our 41st book with Master Design Ministries (MDM).

After spending six years in Ghana, West Africa publishing local language literature with a missionary organization, I returned to the USA for further education. It was then that I realized that many missionaries and pastors have trouble finding ways to publish their material. Often they are ripped off by "vanity" publishers who charge them a lot of money and leave them with a garage full of books. I wanted to find a way to provide them affordable, credible, and professional publishing service.

In 1999 I founded Master Design Ministries, Inc. as a nonprofit organization for that very purpose. Since that quite beginning, we've published books on prayer, Bible studies, educational material, children's books, and more. We've printed nearly a million books!

Well, that's how I got here. If you are a missionary or pastor with a book to publish and you don't know where to start or you have questions about the industry, let me know. I'll try to answer your questions.

Until next time,
Faithe