Choosing a Publisher – Page 11 – Self Publishing Advisor

7 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TRADITIONAL PUBLISHERS

Things every author consider when considering self-publishing vs. the old-fashioned model…

7 – Traditional publishers lose money on over 85% of the books they publish, so they only accept around 2% of those that are submitted.

6 – They typically accept manuscripts only from established authors who have demonstrated a proven track record.

5 – Authors lose content control of their work during the editing process.

4 – Authors must still invest an enormous amount of time, energy, and money promoting a traditionally-published book.

3- Authors typically receive 5-10% royalty on the wholesale price of the book, and from that have to give 15-25% to their agent. Do the math.

2 – The majority of books published by old-fashioned publishers go out of print within 3 years. Many books that are stocked on book shelves remain stocked for as little as five weeks before being returned, unsold, to the publisher.

1- Old-fashioned publishers acquire all rights to your book and keep them, even when the book goes out of print or the publisher goes out of business. Yikes.

Book Marketing, Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

How do I get my self-published book into bookstores?

Traditional book retail stores often look for four things when deciding to order a book or stock a book on their shelves:

1. Availability with a wholesaler like Ingram.
2. A 50-55% trade discount, which means more money for the retail store. The highest trade discount you can set through most effective publishers is 55%, industry standard.
3. A retail returns policy. A few on-demand publishers offer an optional retail returns program. The retail returns option is generally only effective when each of these other criteria are met.
4. Finally, customer demand. Bookstores also require consumer demand for your book. Creating demand, or “buzz,” is up to your promotional efforts – it’s never to early to start planning. In addition to researching your upfront publishing costs, be sure to look also into these two critical things: (1) your book pricing structure and (2) the marketing support available with your publisher.

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Self-publishing in the news

Self-publishing pioneer, Lulu, recently pulled planned $70 million IPO, which has generated some discussion as to the future of this long standing service provider. As book publishing continues to push through its current industry-wide revolution, does this suggest that the early, free models are loosing viability?

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Avoid these 5 mistakes when choosing your publisher

1) DO NOT CHOOSE SPEED OVER QUALITY
Avoid publishers that claim to publish in 24 hours. After the time it took to write your book, do you want it published right, or overnight? Avoid overnight publishers no matter what they charge because the only one looking at your book will be a computer. It should take between 6-15 weeks.

2) DO NOT BE FOOLED BY HIGH ROYALTY CLAIMS
A royalty is simply a percentage of another number. The actual dollars and cents you earn depends upon that second number. The truest royalty is a royalty based upon the retail price of your book. Many publishers use “net royalty” which is a royalty based upon their profit. To be sure, always confirm your profit in dollars and cents.

3) DO NOT SIGN YOUR RIGHTS AWAY
The main advantage to self-publishing alternatively with a on-demand publisher is that you keep all the rights to your work. The rights are valuable. Read the contract. Your rights should clearly stay with you.

4) DO NOT BE CONFUSED BY BULK DISCOUNTS
If a publisher normally offers discounts to an author who buys their own book in bulk, that tells you two things. 1) It tells you they are more concerned with selling to you than to other readers. 2) It tells you they are charging you too much for lower quantities. Do you really want to be forced to buy 100 books at a time just to get a fair price? “Bulk” discounts simply trick the author into buying more books than they need, which defeats the whole advantage of on-demand printing.

5) DO NOT BE TRICKED BY AUTHOR DISCOUNTS
As an author, your per-book price should be based upon the production cost of the book, not the retail price. No wonder publishers inflate their retail pricing. You should always receive a below-wholesale price, regardless of how many you buy. You will never make money if you have to buy your own book at wholesale from the publisher.

Choosing a Publisher

A Few Tips for the Self-Publishing Author

From literary fiction and poetry genres to self-help and how-to, self-published books are finding their way into reader’s hands on a consistently increasing rate. Of course it follows that custom self-publishing companies are growing in number and service options to meet that demand. Here are a few points to consider when determining the best direction for your book:

1. Keep all of your rights and more of the profits

The intellectual property and copyright of your book is very valuable. You should always retain all your rights. When considering a publisher, be sure that you retain all rights to your work and that their contract does not tie you down for ANY amount of time and does not penalize you for leaving early (many do). It’s your book and your future.

2. Set your own pricing

Would you rather control your retail price or leave that in the hands of the publisher? How about the best of both worlds? The publisher should recommend a price based upon market knowledge, but leave the final decision up to you. Look for a publisher that provides this flexibility. A few publishers even provide online calculator to help you estimate and even set your own book pricing.

3. Full-service distribution and flexible print runs

Ingram and Baker & Taylor are the two largest book wholesalers in the United States. Many publishers only submit your book to one or the other. Few publishers distribute through both. Look for one that does. Ideally, your book could sell 50 copies, or 50,000 copies. In either case, you should never have to pay additional out-of-pocket printing costs or manage fulfillment. But do also look for a publisher that allows you to purchase copies at low base prices in small quantities so you can manage an inventory of books on your own for things like book signings and events.

Once you have found the self-publisher that fits your direction and goals let the fun begin!

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