The Top Options For Book Publishing

"John, what is the best way to get my book published?" After years of experience in the publishing industry, this is a question that I am often asked by new authors. At one time, many believed that there was only one viable option for publishing your book, and that was to approach the large publishing houses. Fortunately, the publishing landscape has changed over the past few years, and this assumption is no longer true. In fact, there are now many viable ways to get your book published, and we'll look at just a few of them here.

Mainstream Publishers

Mainstream publishing houses are some of the oldest means of getting the book you are writing published and out into the public eye. However, for the majority of writers this is a long drawn out process that may take years if you are even accepted under the wing of a large publishing house. There are specific guidelines you must follow to even be considered, and you will require the assistance of a literary agent before a mainstream publishing house will ever review your book proposal.

Keep in mind that many of the big publishers receive hundreds of submissions each day, and that only a tiny percentage of those will ever be published. The deck is stacked against you if you go this route.

Small Independent Publishers

Small independent publishers are increasing in numbers daily. They generally specialize in printing books that fit into one type of genre or another. Generally, they have access to a full distribution of channels which can help put your book right up there in the book stores with the hard-hitters of the mainstream publishing houses. There is no need to hire a literary agent since you are able to send your proposal to the acquisitions editor of a small independent publishing house.

Self Publishing

Self publishing offers you more freedom with your creativity and writing talents. Nearly ninety percent of all the books published today are self-published books. You can easily and quickly publish your own book, thereby saving time, money and the efforts of attracting the attention of mainstream publishers. Self publishing offers you the means of sidestepping many overwhelming barriers to becoming noticed by the big publishers. While it is true that you will have to take ownership for marketing and promoting your book, this would be the case even if you were published by one of the big houses, as they are not going to invest much in promoting an unknown author. And that is one of the key reasons why I believe self-publishing has become so attractive.

One ironic benefit of self publishing is that if you are able to make your book a hit, it is then much more feasible to attract the attention of some of the larger publishing houses. You see, once your book sells through your own efforts you become much less of a risk to the publishing house, and thus a much more attractive option to them. The great thing about the large publishers is their immense distribution power, and THAT can mean a big boost in your book sales.

When you choose to self publish you have greater control of your book and its contents. You choose what stays and what goes, you get to decide what your book cover looks like, and what your back cover blurb says. You are also in control of marketing and promoting your book. So when asking yourself, "How will I get my book published?" self publishing is in my opinion #1 among your options, and definitely something that you should consider.

John Harricharan is an International Best-Selling Author with nearly 40 years of experience in book publishing.

John's latest creation, Authors University, teaches current and aspiring authors the latest methods for writing, publishing, and promoting their books. Check out his recent post Get My Book Published at AuthorsUniversity.com.

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Options For the Self Publisher

You have finished writing your book. Now you want to figure out how to get it published. The traditional way is to approach established publishing companies and get them interested in the project. But times are changing and you may want to publish the book yourself. Well, it's the right time to do that! Publishing has never been easier to do or less expensive.

There are two options in "self publishing".

Subsidy publishers/printers. The terms subsidy publisher and subsidy printer are essentially interchangeable. A search for self publishing resources on the Internet will yield subsidy printers. Subsidy printers offer more services than the usual commercial printer. The services may include transforming the manuscript into book format, creating a book cover, registering the book with various book databases, possibly some distribution, editing, and, perhaps, limited marketing.

You pay the subsidy printer for each service selected. Almost all of these printers put one of their International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) on the book. To members of the book trade, the owner of the ISBN is considered the publisher. While this option works well in some circumstances, for general book trade purposes, these books are not usually well regarded. This is because they tend to have been poorly designed and edited. Also, book traders know that they rarely come with an intensive marketing campaign which is what it takes to sell large numbers of books (thereby making a profit!).

Self publish. The second option might be called the true self publishing option. In this case, the author takes on all the roles of the publisher. This includes having the book edited, designed, printed, registered, marketed, distributed, and sold. Writing a book can be a tough, time-consuming experience. Publishing a book can be even more challenging.

This option works well if you are willing to learn how to do each of the steps required to publish a book and understand that publishing is, first and foremost, a business. Technologies introduced in the last ten years have put book publishing within the reach of more people than before. There are desktop publishing programs which supply the tools needed to design a book and its cover so the commercial printer can produce your book.

The other big game changer in publishing is print-on-demand. Print-on-demand is a printing method in which new copies of books are printed only when an order is received. This is done using digital printing. While the unit price is higher than with offset printing, there are several advantages.

The setup is quicker and set up costs are lower than offset printing.

Large inventories do not have to be kept, reducing warehousing, handling, and inventory accounting costs.

There is little or no waste due to unsold product.

Digital or print on demand printing is frequently used by subsidy printers, self publishers, and by traditional and academic publishers looking to manage the costs of their backlist or to do test marketing.

You can, of course, still choose to use what is called a "short run" with a commercial offset book printer. A typical short run is 1,000 books. The lowest "short run" I have found with an offset printer is 500 copies. Offset printing is relatively inexpensive per book ordered and the price per book drops with increases in the ordering quantity. "Offset" printing is a mass production method of transferring images from a plate to a rubber blanket and finally to the printing surface. It is the most common method of printing in use today.

As a self publisher, you can use a mixed strategy. Employ print-on-demand as the standard way of having your book available in small quantities. An example would be a single order of up to 1000 books. Opt for the offset print run to fulfill single orders over 1000 books.

Self publishing can be very rewarding. Effort and research on your part is required, but is well worth it. The information in this article will help you add to your resume - published author!

Celia Webb, co-author of Publish Today! Check out http://www.pilinutpress.com for more free articles on writing and publishing.

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Traditional and Self-Publisher Websites and Options

Many first-time authors want to find a traditional publisher for their books. While books like Writer's Market and Literary Marketplace annually come out with new editions that list publishers, more and more authors are going to the Internet and publisher websites to find a publisher.

A huge difference exists between self-publishing companies and traditional publisher companies, and for a new author, that difference can be confusing. Here are a few things to look for to determine the difference and to find a publisher who is right for you.

First off, a traditional publisher will never ask you to pay the publishing costs. Traditional publishers will cover all of the publishing costs, which is one main advantage of being traditionally published; another is that the publisher hopefully will have wider marketing capabilities than you as the individual author.

Many self-publishing, subsidy, vanity, and P.O.D. websites (those terms are largely interchangeable and yet there are differences in them which would require an article in itself) will expect the author to pay the publishing costs. Then authors will purchase copies of their books from these publishers. The publishers may also sell the books themselves from their website and to distributors. These sales the publisher makes result in the author receiving royalties. Books the authors buy themselves from the publishers do not. By comparison, while traditional publishers will also sell you copies of your books to resell, again, they will not expect you to pay anything up front for publishing the book.

In visiting publisher websites, a key way to tell the difference between traditional and self-publishing publishers is each one's website layout. Many of the self-publishing companies will have a lot of information on their sites about how to get published and the benefits of being published by them. I've often seen these sites' home pages have half-a-dozen or more pages regarding publishing, publishing packages, author login pages, etc. but only one, often almost unnoticeable page for their store where they actually sell their authors' books. If the website, as in this case, looks like it is more interested in convincing an author to use the company to publish his or her book, rather than appealing to a reader to buy books, then it's probably not a traditional publisher.

Another differentiator may be an advance for the book. Self-publishing companies will not pay the author an advance for the rights to publish his or her book-in fact, as stated above, these companies will ask the authors to pay them to publish it. If a publisher offers an advance, then you have found a traditional publisher. However, just because a publisher does not offer an advance does not mean it is not a traditional publisher-due to the current economy, many traditional publishers have quit offering or only offer minimal advances. If you do begin to negotiate with a traditional publisher, you can always ask for a larger percentage of sales for your royalty in exchange for not taking an advance-you may not get it, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Self-publishing companies will also sell authors their books at a discount. For example, if you buy up to 25 copies of your book, you'll get 25% off the retail price, 100 copies might earn you 50% off the retail price etc. You then will determine the individual print run of copies you want. These publishers, because they use digital or print-on-demand (POD) technology, also will print just one or two copies if a book distributor wants to buy a small number. The advantage here is you can print as many copies as you want and can afford.

A traditional publisher, by comparison, will pay for the printing of the books, but it will determine how many copies to print. The print run will probably be larger than what you could afford. With a self-publisher, you might only have the budget to print 100 or 500 copies to buy from the self-publisher, while a traditional publisher might print 3,000 copies. But when those 3,000 copies are sold out, the traditional publisher may decide not to reprint the book because it doesn't believe a market exists for another 1,000 or so copies. Whereas, if you pay the self-publishing company to print your book, and you are good at marketing it yourself, you can keep ordering and selling as many copies as you want. If you do go with a traditional publisher, in this case you will want your contract to state precisely how many copies will be printed, and you will want to negotiate terms for additional print runs (which the traditional publisher will agree to if the book sells well), or the rights to buy back your rights to the book to reprint it yourself if the traditional publisher chooses not to reprint it.

In the end, your decision of which type of publisher to use should come down to money. Don't let your dream of being published emotionally interfere with your financial concerns. Use the publisher that will be most economical for you, but also in the long run provide you the greatest financial benefit. Having a traditional publisher print your book for free, and then pay you royalties of $1 per copy for 3,000 copies may be great if that's the most copies the book is likely to sell; however, using a self-publishing company and being able to resell the copies you buy from the self-publisher at a $5 per copy profit, and being able to print endless copies, might be a greater, because more profitable, advantage-especially if you are good at marketing your book. In this scenario you would only have to sell 600 copies to earn what you would have from the traditional publisher, and your book may never go out-of-print and far exceed the traditional publisher's print run in sales.

Advantages and disadvantages exist between using a traditional or a self-publishing company, and only you can decide which is right for you. Do your research, weigh the pros and cons, make sure you actually talk to someone at each company and get all your questions answered satisfactorily before you make your final decision. Do your homework, ask other authors what worked for them, and rationally make your decision. And remember, even if you make a mistake, it's fixable. You will have gotten your book published, and you will be better educated about the process for your next book or the revised edition of the first one. Good luck!

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

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New Author's Publishing Options

All your publishing options are as follows:

--Conventional publishing

--Vanity or subsidy publishing

--Print-on-demand publishing

--Self-publish yourself

--Get help with self-publishing

Let's compare the publishing options.

How to get in the publishing process and how long will it take to see your book printed?

Conventional publishing option

It is a very long and difficult process to get a publisher even if it is at all possible for a new author. First you need to get a literary agent who is willing to introduce / represent your manuscript to a publisher. The rejection rate is about 95% at each stage... It can take many months or even years to find an agent and then a publisher... If and when your manuscript is accepted by a conventional publisher, it usually takes up to two years to see your book in print.

Subsidy or vanity publishing option

It is extremely easy and fast to get a subsidy publisher. They will even solicit your manuscript through advertising or direct mail. They accept without question any and all manuscripts for publishing and print your book in a matter of months.

Print-on-demand publishing option

This is actually the same type as a subsidy publisher - soliciting your business, accepting anything and being ready to print your book in no time. The only difference is that they print one book at a time which costs you less up-front, but not in the long run.

Self-publish yourself

Starting your own publishing company is involved, not only in business terms but also in learning the art and science of publishing. After that you can move pretty fast - you manage the whole process yourself, interviewing and hiring all the expertise needed, such as book designers, printers, promoters, etc. And it's not cheap.

Get help with self-publishing

If you don't have time, money and/or inclination for running a publishing business, but still want to self-publish your book, you can find help in an advisory / promotional service for self-publishers that will lead you through the process. You still self-publish, but save time, money and effort.

How much will it cost you to publish your book?

Conventional publishing option

This doesn't cost you anything, the publisher will pay all book production expenses. By saying this we aren't considering the ultimate costs of losing most of your legal rights to your work, or for that matter your time spent on seeking representation, mailing copies of your manuscript to numerous agents, or the reading / copying fees that agents frequently charge new authors.

Subsidy or vanity publishing option

You will pay everything up-front, that's the way subsidy publishers make their money - from authors, not from selling books to the public. Most often it will be $10,000 to $20,000, sometimes more depending on the size of your book. You get about 200 copies of your book for that price and a promise of royalties if any book selling from the publisher happens in the future. Each book costs you about $50 to $100 up to this point, very likely precluding any profitability at all in the venture.

Print-on-demand publishing option

Same thing - they make their money from you, the author, selling you your own books one at a time, printing-on-demand. The difference is that it costs less up-front, sometimes even nothing depending on company policies. Don't expect them to be selling to public on your behalf either - they only sell to you. Each book will usually cost you about $10 to $20 which often makes it impossible to sell your books through retailers as you can't compete with other books' prices.

Self-publish yourself

We won't consider here the costs of starting a business and educating yourself on publishing through courses, books, seminars, etc.; these differ a lot for various people in different situations. However, after all that is accomplished, you can have 500 to 1,000 copies of your book printed for about $3 to $5 per book which makes it competitive in price with books of any big publisher. We are speaking here about an average retail paperback book cost.

Get help with self-publishing

The book price will be more or less same as above - you pay for services, but save on running a business.

How do you market / promote / sell your books?

Conventional publishing option

The publisher will take care that your book is delivered to distributors / wholesalers / retailers and that's probably it. The publishers don't spend money on promoting books of new authors as a rule. Since consumers don't know about your book, they don't buy it. The retail shelf space is scarce and expensive, your book will go off the shelves in several months and that's the commonly end of the story... You can change this into a success story of your book if you do the promotion yourself, however.

Subsidy or vanity publishing option

As already said, the publisher had made their money up-front. There may be a clause in your contract saying that the publisher will mail some number of your books to reviewers for publicity, but as Dan Poynter says: "The name of a vanity publisher on a spine of the book is a kiss of death" - your book will never be reviewed. That's because reviewers review books that will be in book trade distribution channels where subsidy presses never get.

Print-on-demand publishing option

Same thing - the publisher (really hardly more than a printer) won't do anything to market / promote / sell your book; it's all up to you to create a demand for your book. The print-on-demand publishing seems inexpensive at the first sight, but don't forget that it's only at the beginning of the process - you still need to do marketing and promotion yourself or hire help for this. And one more important thing in print-on-demand publishing - watch the list price of your future book and at the same time what you pay per book. If your book is more expensive than other books "from the same shelf", consumers will never buy your book. And keep in mind that if you want to sell retail, you must be able to give distributors / wholesalers / retailers their 40% to 60% share of the list price. Otherwise you can only sell to consumers directly.

Self-publish yourself

You are in the driver's seat and do everything yourself.

Get help with self-publishing

Hire help to do marketing and promotion for you.

Who keeps the rights for your work?

Conventional publisher always keeps all the rights. You don't have any influence on editing, changing the title, illustrations, cover art, publishing, marketing, etc. And you never get your rights back after you signed a contract.

Subsidy or vanity publisher and Print-on-demand publisher sometimes assigns right to themselves, sometimes only temporary, sometimes to you; the latter of course is much better. Watch the contract and negotiate if you are set on this course.

Self-publish yourself and Get help with self-publishing: keep all your rights. You are free to publish, re-publish, sell your rights in the future to TV and movie producers, etc.

Olga Kellen
AuthorsOmniscient Publishers
Advisory/promotional service for self-publishers
http://www.authors-sell-book.com/
A destination for independent authors
And those that love to read them

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