Wendy Stetina – Page 2 – Self Publishing Advisor

Using Your Own Self Publishing Company

There are many ways to self publish a book. Some of these options have associated costs, others don’t. As an author it is important to research all available options and choose the one that works best for you. Sometimes this may mean publishing under your own self-publishing company. After all, this will allow you to not only publish your own book but also the books of others.

There are many things to consider when “going it alone”. You have to consider whether you have the skillset to publish a book on your own, whether you will enlist the services of independent contractors, or if you will hire another self publishing company and publish the book under them using your name. Each of these have different costs (time/financial) associated with them, but they each come with their own benefits/rewards.

For example, at Outskirts Press, we allow authors to publish books under their own company name (aka an “imprint”) for a nominal fee. This allows you to enjoy all the flexibility that comes with publishing your book and books of other authors with all of the documentation pointing to your own company. We do all of the work, and you get all of the credit. Contact one of our Publishing Consultants if you’d like to learn more.

ABOUT WENDY STETINA:
Wendy Stetina is a sales and marketing professional with over 30 years experience in the printing and publishing industry. Wendy works as the Director of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; and together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction, or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Wendy Stetina can put you on the right path.

Wendy Speaks

Avoid the 3 “Tell-Tale” Signs of Self-Published Books

You’ve self-published a book, and it’s amazing that you’ve dedicated so much time and energy into writing and creating you own masterpiece. While there’s nothing wrong with self publishing, and it’s actually a great opportunity for many authors, you don’t necessarily want your book to “look self published”. That could mean inability of your audience to take your book seriously, receiving horrible reviews, suffering from poor sales performance, or worse.

Here are a few of the 3 “deadly sins” not to commit when publishing your book:

Use of cover templates – Templates are often rather dull, at best. Invest your money into really making your cover stand out.
Unedited manuscript – Run on sentences, sentence fragments, etc. are all things that can leave a bad taste in the mouth of a reader. We always recommend that you hire a professional editor for your manuscript. No, your sister-in-law doesn’t count as a professional editor. You need more than a fresh set of eyes when it comes to choosing an editor. You need someone who is professionally trained in editing.
Non-traditional interior

Double-Spaced – A book should NEVER be double spaced. Just because something works great for reports and other forms of communication doesn’t mean it will work the same for a printed book.
Strange and/or difficult to read typestyles – You like typing in Script MT Bold. It looks beautiful on screen, but will not look as good in a printed book.
Missing headers/footers – Have you ever read a book (other than a children’s book) without a header or footer? Why leave them out on your book?
Non-standard page numbering – Make sure your page numbers are in the same position on each opposite page. Also make sure font is consistent across all numbering.

When you hire a self-publishing company, all of these things can be taken care of under one umbrella. However, if you are “going it alone”, it’s important to remember the tips above to make sure you avoid showcasing an unprofessional appearance.

What other “self publishing” don’ts have you seen?

Wendy Speaks

Self-Publishing Authors Can Get Their Books on the Shelves of “Traditional” Bookstores

Even with the recent changes in the book publishing industry, a “traditional” bookstore presence should still be a goal for authors who want this. Why? Well, with this presence, authors are able to target an audience that is passionate about books. Think about it — people have to leave behind the comforts of their own home to go into a bookstore. Most likely they are there to purchase a book. If your book is on the shelf, yours may just have a chance at being the book they buy.

How can you work toward getting your book into that bookstore, though? Is it a matter of luck? Can self-publishing authors make the cut? The good news is that even if you’re not necessarily on a “lucky streak”, it’s still possible to successfully target placement in “traditional” bookstores. However, you must have a solid plan in place for doing so. Here are a few action items to put on your list as you get started:

Make sure your book is fully returnable. If your book cannot be returned, there is great risk involved for the bookstore. For example, if they stock 10 copies of your book and only 4 sell over the course of a year, they are losing money. If the book is returnable, though, the store can simply send the book back that doesn’t sell. Think of this return-ability as a type of “insurance” for your book.
Offer a sufficient trade discount. What’s sufficient? Typically that will be around 50-55% (or higher). Of course this does cut into your profits, but a higher retail margin gives the bookstore more incentive to stock your book on their shelves. No incentive? No cigar.
Build proof that your book is desirable. This is probably the most difficult (though not insurmountable) part of it all because authors often have a bias view of their book. However, the best indicator of a desirable book is exponential sales figures. If the amount of books you sale doubles, triples, quadruples, etc. month-after-month, that is something that can work in your favor. If you aren’t a professional marketer, you may want to seek the services of a book marketing consultant. Make sure they are able to help you draft a marketing plan and go forth on planning your publicity.

After you’ve done all of the above, you must put together a proposal to submit to bookstore contacts. You can find others specifically on their websites, but Barnes & Noble can be reached here:

The Small Press Department
Barnes & Noble
122 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011

Other bookstores can be found through Google. Another popular site for locating independent bookstores is Indie Bound.

Do you know of any other bookstores that are small press/self-published friendly?

Wendy Speaks

How Should I Spend My Self Publishing Dollars?

Authors often want to know how to best invest the money they have set aside for self publishing their book. The answer is simple yet complex. It is simple because there are certain things that almost every book needs in order to reach a certain level of success (i.e. custom cover, professional interior layout and design, etc.). Then it’s also complex because every book is different and strategies that work well for some books don’t necessarily work well for others.

For instance, if you are an author who is writing a non-fiction book, editing is more important to your overall success. If you don’t edit your manuscript, you can be viewed as a poor resource. When you write a fiction book, editing is less essential (though still very important). Readers of fiction can be (not always) a bit more forgiving of grammatical mistakes as long as they don’t render the book illegible. Either way, I would recommend editing, but if you have to cut your budget somewhere, you can spend less on editing as a fiction author than we would recommend for a non-fiction author.

You also need to figure out where you want to sell your book. Do you want to reach an online only audience? If so, you may want to invest into things like Kindle eBook Formatting, Search Inside the Book, See Inside the Book, etc. If you’re going after an offline audience, you may want to invest a return program which makes your title more attractive to brick-and-mortar bookstores.

Lastly, you may consider the price of your publishing package (if you choose to go with a self publishing company like Outskirts Press). What bells and whistles are available? Does it include what you’re looking for? You have to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck here. Evaluate cost carefully.

DISCUSSION: What are you spending your self publishing dollars on?

http://outskirtspress.com/p/kindle

Wendy Speaks

2 Things that Can REALLY Crush Your Book

If your sales figures are low many times it can be due to faulty or inconsistent marketing. Sometimes you just can’t get the word out to your audience. People are ready to read your book, but they have to know it exists. Ideally, you hire a book marketing consultant or try to “go it alone” and hope that book sales are the result of your efforts.

What happens when you’ve come up with the perfect book promotion strategy but no one is buying the book? Many times you just need to change gears. Maybe the activities you have invested your time into aren’t really reaching your target market. You have to figure out where your target market is “hanging out”, go there, and mingle with them. But, that’s not the purpose of today’s post. Today, we are aiming to reveal the two biggest book crushers. If you feel like you’ve tried everything to get people to purchase your book to no avail, you may need to re-evaluate your book and make sure that you’re not committing either of the following critical errors:

A boring cover. Books really are judged by their cover. It’s a cliché we use very often here. However, we can’t stress the importance of that statement enough. A professionally-designed book cover can make you stand heads and shoulders above other books on the market (all other things being equal). A boring (read: template) book cover could mean that your book won’t be seen. In a sea filled with many fishes, you have to stand out. If you don’t, no worm for you!
Lack of editing. Have you ever read a book that is filled with errors? Doesn’t it make it much harder to not only read the book but also take the author seriously? That book = your book if you choose not to hire an editor.

Either or both of these can kill your book very early in the game.

What other “book crushers” can you think of?

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