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24th July 2007
Dee Power
How to publish a book is a question many
writers ask themselves. There are three options
to publish a book.
How to publish a book is a question many
writers ask themselves. There are three options
to publish a book:
- Self-publishing
- Vanity/subsidy publishing
- Commercial publishing
Is self publishing right for
you?
Self publishing means you not only write the
book, you're responsible for every part of the
production and sales process. True self
publishing means you own the International
Standard Book Number (ISBN). That's important
because you set the sales price and discount
for the bookstores.
An offset printer is the most cost effective
method of printing 500 copies or more, but
you're responsible for all the formatting,
interior design and artwork. If you expect the
book be profitable, offset printing gives it
the best chance. An offset printed book can be
less than 20% of the cost of a
print-on-demand.
Print on Demand is simply a technology that
allows as little as one copy to be printed at a
time at a reasonable cost. A 250 page trade
paperback with four color covers will cost
about $5.00 each.
It's a huge undertaking but some titles can be
a success when they're self published.
Vanity/Subsidy Publishing
You can use a publish-on-demand or
vanity/subsidy company such as Iuniverse,
authorshouse or xlibris. The fees are
reasonable and you can print as few copies at a
time as you need. One company, lulu.com doesn't
charge any fees upfront, although you need to
have your book, including the cover artwork and
formatting all ready to go. Again you can have
one copy printed or one hundred. These
vanity/subsidy houses will take care of getting
your title on amazon and in the Ingram database
that the bookstores use to order books.
If your goal is to see your book being sold in
bookstores then it makes sense to forgo the
self publishing route and consider selling your
book to a commercial publisher.
Mainstream Commercial
Publishers
There is a bit more
cache when a book is published by a mainstream
commercial publisher rather than self
published. Publishers vary in the types of
books they're interested in. Some only want
nonfiction narrative, some cookbooks, others
business books. There are a number of
resources, both websites and books, which
describe what types of books each publisher is
looking for, their contact information, and
often the name of the editor to contact.
Commercial publishers will pay you an advance,
which is simply a fee for allowing them to
publish your work, and take care of all the
editing, formatting, cover design, and
marketing. The advances can run from a few
thousand dollars to several hundred thousand
dollars. Once your book is accepted, you do not
have to pay the advance back, unless of course
it's stipulated in the contract, but that is
very rare.
Commercial houses have the distribution and
sales force in place to get your book into
bookstores. Most bookstores, both independent
and chains, do not stock self-published
books.
Hopefully this information will help you make
the decision on how to publish a
book.
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