Top 6 Tips to Successful Self-Publishing

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Opportunity

Beat the “Print-on-Demand” industry!  You can do so much better on your own! Don’t be fooled by POD Services.

Are you ready to publish your first book? Get to know the pros and cons of Print-on-Demand and of real self-publishing. Follow these few tips, and you will find the road to success as an author-publisher so much smoother!
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1. Bookstores don’t buy POD books.  Many novice self-publishers are opting for the heavily-advertised Print-On-Demand companies, which promise publication at low fees. For a niche book with an easily-found audience POD can be an option. But what the POD companies won’t tell you,  is that neither bookstores nor libraries will generally buy a POD book. However, if you are savvy enough,and have written at least three books (or join with another author) you can find the right wholesale arrangement through Lightning Source / Ingram and Baker&Taylor as outlined in Aaron Shepard’s website and guide book http://www.newselfpublishing.com. But don’t expect to get the same retail discount from “brick and mortar stores” as from Amazon.
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2. You can judge a book by its cover.  That’s what most people do.  You never get a second chance for a great first impression!  You can get a decent book cover for as little as $100 and a fantastic cover for around $ 500 or more.  Just shop around and find out who makes great covers.
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3. Act like a professional publisher.  Nothing is more embarrassing as finding reviews of your book on Amazon that complain about typing and grammar errors in your work. Make sure your book is complete, well-edited, and thoroughly proof-read. Use spell checks, let it copy-edit, content edit and proofread by professionals – not your family or friends.  These services provide you with a manuscript that makes you look like the professional you are.
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4. Don’t use the print shop down the road.  Search for a printer that specializes in printing books. You will not only have fewer problems with production, but the prices will be much less expensive.  You should be able to print 300 copies of a 250-page soft cover book for approx. $ 2.90 per copy. Digital printers or espresso book machines are useful only for very small amounts of print books, such as for gifts or a book launch party – if you plan to sell mostly e-books.
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5. Get 100 ISBN’s if possible.  ISBN is the International Standard Book Number, and every book sold in bookstores and at most online retailers must have an ISBN. They are the global standard for identifying titles and used world-wide as a unique identifier for books. They simplify distribution and purchase of books throughout the global supply chain. Without an ISBN, you will not be found in most book stores, nor online.  In the U.S. ISBN’s are available only from Bowker.com, and you can buy them in blocks of ten, hundred, or even thousand. The fewer you buy the less it costs, but buying just a block of ten marks you as a one-book publisher. And everyone in the publishing industry can figure out how many ISBN’s you’ve purchased by looking at your ISBN number. Lucky if you are a writer from Canada: ISBN’s are free!
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6. Don’t wait to start marketing until your book is finished. Many first-time writers and self-publishers focus on the writing and the publishing process, and postpone thinking about the book  marketing until they have books in hand (or hundreds in their garage). A book – no matter if it is an e-book or a traditional paper book – will succeed or fail on its marketing plan. Before starting your self-publishing project, find out who your audience is, and where and how you will find them. Get to know your competition, search the internet and in bookstores for similar books. Only move forward on your writing project after you have finished your research and your marketing plan. Even find book reviewers before you start writing the book, and blog at least for one year to build an audience for your work. I don’t know of any self-published writer who is successful, without having a blog. Once your book manuscript is finished, don’t forget to use the end of one book to promote another book you have written or you write on currently.
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Self-publishing can not only be lucrative, it can be a lot of fun too. But you need to be somewhat entrepreneurial and do lots of careful planning to really enjoy success with true self-publishing.

Read more about author-publishing and POD’s:

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/the-truth-about-pod-publishing/

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/why-pod-contracts-are-bad-for-authors/

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/comparison-of-major-print-on-demand-pod-services/

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/pros-and-cons-of-print-on-demand/

http://www.theauthorsredroom.com/top-10-self-publishing-tips/

http://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Pingates

 

Pros and Cons of Print-on-Demand

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“Currently unavailable.” When you read this on Amazon’s website you can be sure it is a POD Book.  Amazon assigns many of those out-of-stock books an availability status of 2-3 weeks. And no one wants to wait that long when ordering on the internet…
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POD (Print on Demand) services call it “self-publishing” – but there are important differences between a POD service and true self-publishing. They are in fact VERY EXPENSIVE PRINTERS – NOT PUBLISHERS!  POD printers are producing the book only when ordered. What are the differences?
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Rights
TRUE self-publishing:  all rights remain with the writer, who has full ownership of her work, including the ISBN number.
POD services:  mostly owns the ISBN and the author has a very limited claim on digital and/or electronic publishing rights.

Control
TRUE self-publishing:  the writer controls all aspects of the publishing process, cover art, print style, pricing etc.
POD services:  choices are typically limited to their service package

Book Sales
TRUE self-publishing:  the author keeps all proceeds from sales.
POD services:  they keep most of the sales proceeds to cover printing costs, and pays the author a small percentage of royalty, usually from the books NET price.
The POD Cons:

• Books from POD services are expensive and may be of poor physical quality.
• There are lots of extra fees, such as renewal fees, distribution fees, extra charges for non-template cover designs, charges for proof corrections etc.
• Royalty income may be less as it is mostly based on the books NET PRICE,  the retail price less discounts and/or all the publisher’s overhead.
• Your book will receive only wholesale distribution, and mainly sold online, Booksellers don’t like dealing with POD services.
• You do not get an advance – YOU have to pay an advance to the POD company, it just doesn’t make sense economically
• Marketing consists often only on listing on the company’s website and with various online booksellers, sometimes in a wholesaler’s catalogue.  Many POD services offer “marketing packages or media kits” for an extra (high) fee – a total waste of money!

POD Pros:
It is only recommendable if you:

• need galleys, or for short-run publishing and specialty markets
• want to print small non-fiction projects such as lectures or workshops
• want to create a recipe book, a family memoir, genealogy etc.
• bring back out-of-print books into circulation
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Who is the publisher?
It is the one who owns the ISBN for a book. If the author applied for and paid for the ISBN in his or her own name, then no matter who produces and sells the book, the author has become the publisher of record, an authentic self-publisher!
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Listen to the truth behind POD “publishing” or read more articles about this topic:

http://www.writersandeditors.com/self_publishing_and_print_on_demand__pod__57417.htm

http://beforeyoupublishyourbook.com/2011/07/22/the-truth-about-print-on-demand-publishing/

http://www.writergazette.com/content/pros-and-cons-self-publishing-print-demand

http://fonerbooks.blogspot.ca/2005/08/printing-offset-vs-print-on-demand.html

Do you have any experiences with POD publishing and how much was each soft cover book you ordered from them?

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 740 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

.

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10 Signs, Showing You Vanity Publishing TRAPS

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Here on this blog I wrote several times already about vanity publishers and warned:  ”Writer Beware, Beware and Beware Even More!” and I also blogged about POD services “Don’t be fooled by POD Services”.

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The “Independent Publishing Magazine” explains their readers / writers in a great  article how to identify a vanity company:

• Reputable trade and independent publishers don’t advertise for authors in newspapers and writing magazines. Publishers are inundated with submissions. They don’t need to look for authors!
• Reputable trade and independent publishers don’t ask the author for money, ever, for any part of the publishing or marketing process. However, don’t always expect an advance (or a large one) on royalties from a small or niche publisher. The industry might not like to admit it, but the size of advances is reducing quickly and some small publishers cannot afford anything more than a few hundred dollars in an advance.
• Trade and independent publishers sell books [mostly!] – not only author services.

They help you How To Avoid The Vanity Publishing Trap  - don’t miss to read it!

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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KDP Select gets the Boot from GoodReads

Belinda Frisch, an author, reviewer and librarian at GoodReads wrote in her recent blog:
“It was only a matter of time before someone fired back. I’m not sure how I feel about this, yet. Seems to me this is aimed at KDP Select. I’m a librarian at Goodreads and can rescue titles if I can find alternate sources of information including from CreateSpace. If you’re in e-version only, you are up the creek, friends.”

Here’s the official word from Goodreads:
“At Goodreads, we make it a priority to use book information from the most reliable and open data sources,
because it helps us build the best experience for our members. To that end, we’re making a major change.
On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon. This includes data such as titles, author names, page counts, and publication dates. For the vast majority of book editions, we have imported this data from other sources. Those few remaining editions for which we haven’t found an alternative source of information will be removed from Goodreads.
Your data is safe. Your ratings, reviews, and bookshelves are safe, but your data may be moved to a different edition of the book. If we can’t find a matching edition, then your review will be attached to a book with no title or author.”

I asked Belinda what an author is to do. Her answer:
“The only thing to do if you want to stay included in Goodreads listings is to make sure your book is available
elsewhere (other than Amazon.) B&N, CreateSpace, Lulu, any of those site would save you. If you are enrolled in KDP Select and do not have a print edition of the book available, you can’t do anything.”

My thoughts: You still can participate in the GoodReads forum, talk about your book and have an image of it there. If it is soooo important for you to be listed on GoodReads and have your book sold on their website, get some books printed by a POD – if not, just forget the whole thing. This seems to be a stare-down between GoodReads and Amazon… 

Let a small amount of books print from a POD company, such as Lulu.com, BookBaby or CreateSpace – or if you are more entrepreneurial, get quotes from digital printers. In any case create your own cover image and get your own ISBN number and be the publisher. Set your retail price not too low, at least five times the production cost. POD books will be distributed to retailers and whole sale as well.

Samples of POD book printing for you to compare with quotas of digital printers (January 2012):

Lulu.com
5.5 x 8.5″ black & white content, $0.015 per page – for a 100page book= $ 1.50 plus $2.50 for binding.
Lulu’s commission is 20% of profit or 25% of revenue / royalty.

CreateSpace.com
Basic production cost for black and white books with 24-108 pages = $2.15 per book. They have a calculator for
your royalties – between 40-80%, depending where the book is sold. Expanded Distribution Price: $25.00 These
additional sales channels make your book available for order to online retailers, bookstores, libraries, academic
institutions, and distributors within the United States.

BookBaby.com
5.5 x 8.5″ black & white, 100 books, Perfect Binding, Soft Cover, Gloss Cover Finish, Paper 60lb Natural 420PPI 94 Opacity
Price for 100 books: $440.00, Shipping within mainland USA: $49.00 = Sub Total: $489.00 plus tax. One book would then cost you around $4.89 net. There is currently no distribution program for printed books at BookBaby.

 

Are You a POD Publisher?

And if so, did you work with Lightning Source, the leading U.S. provider of print on demand (POD) to distribute your books via Ingram to retailers all over the USA and also deliver to Amazon? Or did you plan to work with them in order to have the highest royalty in paper book publishing?

Have a look at Aaron Shepard’s latest info blog regarding the availability of your paper books on Amazon, or what he calls “Trouble in Paradise” and “In Pursuit of Plan B”. His blog also covers quite a lot of helpful FAQ’s.

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/PlanB.html

 

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Hyper Smash

 

The Truth about POD “Publishing”

 

“Currently unavailable.” When you read this on Amazon’s website you can be sure it is a POD Book…
Amazon assigns many of those out-of-stock books on an availability status of 2-3 weeks. And no one wants to wait that long when ordering on the internet.

POD (Print on Demand) services call it “self-publishing” – but there are important differences between a POD service and true self-publishing. They are in fact VERY EXPENSIVE PRINTERS – NOT PUBLISHERS!  POD printers are producing the book only when ordered. What are the differences?

Rights
TRUE self-publishing:  all rights remain with the writer, who has full ownership of her work, including the ISBN number.
POD services:  mostly owns the ISBN and the author has a very limited claim on digital and/or electronic publishing rights.

Control
TRUE self-publishing:  the writer controls all aspects of the publishing process, cover art, print style, pricing etc.
POD services:  choices are typically limited to their service package

Book Sales
TRUE self-publishing:  the author keeps all proceeds from sales.
POD services:  they keep most of the sales proceeds to cover printing costs, and pays the author a small percentage of royalty, usually from the books NET price.
 

The POD Cons:

• Books from POD services are expensive and may be of poor physical quality.
• There are lots of extra fees, such as renewal fees, distribution fees, extra charges for non-template cover designs, charges for proof corrections etc.
• Royalty income may be less as it is mostly based on the books NET PRICE,  the retail price less discounts and/or all the publisher’s overhead.
• Your book will receive only wholesale distribution, and mainly sold online, Booksellers don’t like dealing with POD services. 
• You do not get an advance – YOU have to pay an advance to the POD company, it just doesn’t make sense economically
• Marketing consists often only on listing on the company’s website and with various online booksellers, sometimes in a wholesaler’s catalogue.  Many POD services offer “marketing packages or media kits” for an extra (high) fee – a total waste of money!

POD Pros:
It is only recommendable if you:

• need galleys, or for short-run publishing and specialty markets
• want to print small non-fiction projects such as lectures or workshops
• want to create a recipe book, a family memoir, genealogy etc.
• bring back out-of-print books into circulation

Who is the publisher?
It is the one who owns the ISBN for a book. If the author applied for and paid for the ISBN in his or her own name, then no matter who produces and sells the book, the author has become the publisher of record, an authentic self-publisher.

Listen to the truth behind POD “publishing” or read more articles about this topic:
http://www.writersandeditors.com/self_publishing_and_print_on_demand__pod__57417.htm

http://beforeyoupublishyourbook.com/2011/07/22/the-truth-about-print-on-demand-publishing/

Do you have any experiences with POD publishing and how much was each soft cover book you ordered from them?

 

 

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Hyper Smash

 

How to get your book(s) successful into book stores

Aaron Shephards book Aiming at Amazon

The only way to get your paper book(s) both, into the major chains, as well as Amazon, and in individual book stores is through Lightning Source. This company is not only international distributor of books and affiliated with Ingram, the biggest U.S. book wholesaler, which delivers basically all bookstores in the country, as well as many libraries and schools.

But Lightning Source also prints on demand (POD) for self-publishing COMPANIES, small and big ones. In fact they are printing almost two million books per month!  But how can you get your foot in the door of this valuable distribution system? Lightning prefers to deal with publishers and self publishing companies rather than with authors directly as they do not provide support to newbies.

Aaron Shephards book POD for profit

If you want to cut out all these middleman in POD publishing, order a package of ISBN’s (International Standard Book Numbers) and register your own small publishing company and get a savvy computer guy (or girl) helping you to deal with uploading your files etc. if you are not already a computer whiz.

How dealing with Lightning Source exactly works can be learned “by the book”, actually two books, written by Aaron Shepard: “Aiming at Amazon” and “POD for Profit: More on the NEW Business of Self Publishing”.

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Hyper Smash

 

Australian Publishers get connected

Lightning Source / Ingram, the major US book distributor is running its brand new Print On Demand facility in Scoresby, Melbourne, Australia, which signals a new boom not only for POD paper books but also for e-books in Australia.

Publishers in Australia who want to expand their reach can do so easily with Lightning Source, who manufacture these books in one of their US or UK facility and send them out through the appropriate resellers. By producing and shipping books in North America or Europe, Australian publishers avoid the expense and complication of getting physical inventory across borders. Order fulfillment is accelerated while freight costs are cut.

Lightning Source / Ingram, the global leader in POD (and book distribution) connects publishers – big and small – and has the world’s largest distribution channel of book wholesalers and retailers.