Choosing a Publisher – Page 6 – Self Publishing Advisor

5 Things to Look for in a Self-Publishing Company

You’ve decided to self-publish your book but are confused about where to start. That’s a reasonable cause for confusion because there’s a lot of information out there to digest. To get you moving in the right direction, here are a few questions to consider while “shopping” for a publisher:

What percentage of your royalties will you receive? As a self-publishing author, you are entitled to ALL of your money. After all, your sales are a direct reflection of all of your efforts. Your best bet is to work with a book publisher that pays you 100% of your royalties.
What are you paying for as a part of your publishing package? Some publishers will charge you for “fluff”. Look at what you’re paying for with your package. If you are seeing things included in the price such as Copyright Registration or Library of Congress numbers, be sure these are things you feel you need. Your book is automatically protected under copyright law once written/published, and the Library of Congress number is no longer needed to get your book into most public libraries across the country.
Are you able to set your own price without paying an extra fee? This one gives me the most pause. There are some self-publishing companies out there that charge you extra fees to set your own price. Be cautious when working with companies that charge such a fee (or worse yet — don’t allow you to set your own price at all), because you can be certain they will be inflexible with other things related to your book as well, such as royalties (see above).
Will you be able to exercise full creative freedom when publishing your book? Why pay a company to publish your book if you will be as limited as authors who publish using “traditional” publishing houses? If you’re giving up your creative freedom, be sure you are getting paid for your book and not the other way around.
What is the upfront cost of publishing your book? Different companies have different pricing structures. Prices can range from around $200 up to and over $10,000. There are two keys for making a decision on price — perceived value and budget (in that order). While I don’t recommend making decisions based on price, your budget is your budget. A phenomenal publishing package is no good if you can’t afford to purchase it. Keep in mind, the self-publishing industry is so dynamic that the cliché, “you get what you pay for”, isn’t always accurate. Some publishers may charge more for their services but offer a terrible result. Be very careful here.

There are many other things to look for when deciding on a publisher for your book, but these were the ones that top the list as far as importance. Your best bet for getting started is to enlist the services of a Publishing Consultant who can show you the ropes. Only then can you make an educated decision in choosing the “right” self-publishing company for you.

DISCUSSION: What are the top things you look for in a publisher?

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

I Should Self-publish? “You Should Self-Publish”

If you’re a writer who happens also to be inclined toward mathematics, I suggest checking out J.A. Konrath’s recent blog post, “You should self-publish.” Konrath lays down the advantages of self-publishing according to the numbers, and admits being more interested in reaching readers and generating sales than getting a favorable nod from the traditional industry. Writing is an art while publishing is a business, after all. Author Scott Nicholson chimes in, along with some 250 other comments, referring to the traditional publishing industry as “the new vanity publishing” where authors gravitate to the “illusion of legitimacy.” Interesting.

If you’re not into math, the post communicates a number of other valid points regarding self-publishing. Here are just a few we’ve discussed on this blog in one form or another:

“Join a writers group, or make friends with a writer in your genre and trade manuscripts.”

“If you write crap, it probably won’t sell very well. But you can learn from it and get better.”

“You have no control once you sign over your rights to a publisher.”

“Go to Kindleboards.com and look at all the self-pubbed authors selling like crazy.”

“Years ago, publishers used to grow authors…These days, you can grow yourself.”

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

5 Writing Tips on the Road to Self-publishing

1 – Employ an editing service

The most common mistakes are minor, for example incorrect word use (their, they’re, there) and simple misspellings. Check with your publisher regarding about their copy editing services which are designed to catch common errors while identifying mistakes related to tense, consistency, and punctuation. How long does it take, and what is the cost?

2 – Get a second (and third) set of eyes

Even if you don’t want to pay a professional, anyone who reviews your document will find mistakes you invariably miss. The fact is, you’re much more familiar with your manuscript than anyone else, and as a result, apt to miss obvious mistakes simply because your eyes glaze over them.

3 – Read your manuscript backwards

This allows you to become instantly unfamiliar with your story. When you read your manuscript backwards, it’s just a bunch of words, and those mistakes literally jump off the page.

4 – Read your manuscript out loud

When you’re forced to say the words your brain is forced to slow down and concentrate on the material. Bonus – you may discover stumbling blocks like awkward sentence structures and choppy dialogue when hearing your book read aloud.

5 – Use the right kind of publisher

Go on-demand. On-demand publishing offers you easy editing post-publication to fix any mistakes that may have found their way in to your book. What’s more, books aren’t printed until their sold, so you don’t end up with a garage or basement full of books with errors in them.

Book Marketing, Choosing a Publisher

Show me a book review that’s NOT a paid review

History has proven that reviews can add a powerful contribution, even a cornerstone contribution, to book marketing campaigns – even bad reviews. Some specific titles come to mind. The opposite of love isn’t hate, after all. Be wary of apathy.

But with the astronomical flood of new books on the market in print and digital form, the book review process has been forced to adapt, and the most pronounced – at least talked about – form emerged as what we know as paid review services.

Paid review services have taken on criticism, even labeled unethical. But aren’t all reviews paid reviews? The last time I checked the New York Times wasn’t a 501c3. Someone is getting paid to tell us what we should be reading – a trusted source we’ve looked to for cultural and media role-modeling.

Esquire’s Stephen Marche may be a bit bold in his claim that, “written criticism — literary, music, and movie reviews by trained professionals — has never been less relevant.” But there is something to be said about here. Technology in our new “Attention Age” has changed the way we gain access to valuable information and will never go back.

Regardless of our opinions, it’s unlikely that paid reviews will be going anywhere anytime soon. And like traditional book reviews, the longer they are around the more credible they’ll become as the collective acceptance develops, especially among emerging micro-niche online social networks.

For the publishing author, ask your self-publishing service provider about review submission services for your book – they can often offer prices lower than going directly through the service provider, and handle the leg-work for you.

Choosing a Publisher

A closer look at ebook publishing

We recently discussed the addition of Borders “Get Published” addition to the mix of ebook publishing options available for self-publishing options.

The Borders—Get Published Powered by BookBrewer program offers two basic levels of service: an $89.99 basic package that gives the user an ISBN and makes the e-book available to all major e-book retailers, along with a $199.99 advance package. This package provides the author full e-Pub file access. Authors can set their own prices within the guidelines set by individual retailers, with royalty percentages paid out also according to those parameters, which are relatively similar.

Keeping in line with its hard-line stance on high distribution and retail cuts for self-publishing authors looking to place their physical books even in their virtual stores, one may wonder how Borders plans to compete with platforms like the free PubIt! program currently available through Barnes & Noble.

It turns out that a key factor in the upfront pricing comes in the blog-to-chapter feed publishing tool – targeting bloggers. According to Publishers Weekly, a spokesperson from Borders noted, “There are no royalties associated with this [advanced] package. You can sell via eBook retailers on your own or on your site if you are a blogger. So if you’re a more serious publisher and think you will sell thousands of copies, paying a higher fee up front in exchange for making thousands more will make sense to you.”

It’s true that using a blog to create and to promote your book is a strong marketing tactic, but a blogger is in essence already a publishing. Hold the horses – how are we going to sell thousands of copies of redundant content???

At this price point, take a small step forwawrd and publish comprehensively through a full-service self-publishing option. You’ll get access to publish through these digital platforms, plus full-design, distribution, and marketing assistance to sell bound and digital books both online and off.

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