It’s understandable, since there’s a mad race going on between the technology of the eReading devices and the folks at the top of the software food chain struggling to establish industry standards for the eBook formats. It is, of course, a race with no end in sight, in which the runners—the devices and the software—keep pulling our front and then falling behind.

So what’s a small publisher to do? Or, even worse, a self-publisher? It’s been hard enough for both types of publishers to put out quality work when the profit margins are so small and the costs of production so high. The eBook option certainly looks attractive. The promise, real or imagined, is large profits with little investment. But what about those horror stories? An eBook that’s poorly formatted, riddled with errors, or just plain difficult to read isn’t going to go viral. I can promise that.

Basically small and self-publishers have four options:

1) Buy one of the many inexpensive (some free) software applications like Hampster that promise to take a Word .doc or .pdf and turn it into a salable eBook with a few clicks

2) Use one of the several “aggregators” such as Smashwords, who will not only convert your manuscript into an eBook, but distribute it for sale with the major retailers such as the iBookstore

3) Trust your book to one of the eBook conversion services that seem to be mostly based in the US or India

4) Learn to do create eBooks themselves

Here’s the benefit of my years of experience (for whatever that may be worth).

1) If you have a novel with a very basic formatting—such as chapter headings and body text only, you can probably get away with using free or inexpensive software. But be prepared to forget about anything in the way of design, including your choice of fonts. Like Henry Ford’s famous line that his buyers could have “any color car as long as it was black,” you’ll get what you pay for.

2) I’ve not used Smashwords so I can’t comment fully. Some authors love it because it saves them the hassle of uploading their eBooks to Amazon and the iBookstore individually. (The latter can be a headache.) Some authors feel their books get the Blender treatment—like having the gourmet meal you’ve spent hours cooking be put into a blender for a dinner guest with no teeth. Smashwords also acts as a distributor and take 15% commission.

3) One of the other problems of this new cultural phenomenon is there hasn’t been a very good sorting out of the eBook conversion houses yet. Pricing is all over the map (as are the physical locations of these services) and so is quality. Some are excellent. Some are simply using the free/cheap software that I mentioned in Item #1.

If you’re a publisher, do you have someone on staff whom you can pay to take the time to scale that long learning curve? Have you been out-sourcing your print book layouts to a design agency? Have they learned the ins and outs of eBook production yet? Can you wait until they do? Can you learn to format an eBook yourself? What sort of tools (I mean software tools) will you need?

As I write this, I realize this sounds pretty bleak. But I have some good news. There are many things that small and self-publishers can do—with the tools they already have—that will make the whole painful conversion process easier, faster, and better for whomever creates the eBook later on. These relatively simple things will greatly help no matter which of the four alternatives are chosen.

I’m going to review those things in my next article.

Jonathan Scott is Customer Service Manager for Middleton Book Conversion,  an eBook conversion service based out of North Carolina.

I write this because time and time again I see truly inspirational thought leaders lurking in the shadows when they should be up their on their soapbox, demonstrating why they are the leading light in their field.

In a downturned market, executives should be making a big impact by being bold and opiniated in order to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment. Business leaders and executives need to be able to share experiences and knowledge and more importantly be able to share their wisdom and views on key issues within the market if they are to rise above their competition.

Quite simply, if you don’t have have a speaking, writing and publishing strategy, you are not fulfilling your responsibility as leaders. In the current economic climate you need to be bold and opinionated and if not, well you simply shouldnt even bother.

No ghostwriting please!

Customers want to hear the executive’s own beliefs, in his/her own words. This doesn’t mean CEOs should go out and look for a ghostwriter to do the hard work from them though! It’s a common misconception that using a ghostwriter will save a significant amount of time. To achieve a really accurate portrayal of the topic, the executive would need to spend time briefing the writer, then looking at various drafts making comments and amendments and reviewing it again.

With the right plan, structure, techniques and guidance, anyone can write a great book in as little as 40 hours. If an executive is not willing to invest 40 hours in strategic thinking, planning and writing, I would have my doubts about his/her leadership and vision in the first place.

Marketing is not enough!

It is impossible to delegate the critical task of thought leadership to your marketing department. Differentiation can obviously be achieved with marketing, but to get real competitive advantage, a CEO needs to get vocal as well. What we need is REAL thought leadership, which asserts the executive’s views and opinions on important issues and provides a vision that inspires confidence in that company.

Think about the business leaders that stand out in your mind. Chances are, they have been writing, speaking and quoted in the market. Being visible and vocal is the only way to raise your credibility and stand out from the crowd. It goes beyond strategic marketing, this way you get your own voice heard. It shows faith in yourself and your brand and that is very attractive to a customer.

What we need is real thought leadership, which asserts the executive’s views and opinions on important issues and provides a vision that inspires confidence in that company.

There was much said about Barack Obama’s presidential election and what is was about him that made him so likeable to the public. As time had passed, much of that same character is still there, although shades have been influenced by the practical day to day realities of his tenure. But ultimately, it was his openness and willingness to be vulnerable that helped people to relate to him and see him as a trusted leader in way that others had failed to do. He was prepared to be bold and opinionated and ruffle the feathers of others to stand up for what he believed was right.

It is this kind of boldness that will carry others towards their successes, if they are willing to embrace it.

I can’t say that I agree with that.

Ebooks are great. They’re convenient, cost effective, and don’t take up the physical space that books in print do. I download them, read them, publish them–but perhaps it’s the sentimental part of me that still prefers physical books, to have and to hold. Shopping online for ebooks and going out to browse the shelves at a local bookstore on a leisurely afternoon are two different experiences. YES, I’m a curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-good-book type, and when it comes to the curl-up, print suits me better than digital. I like to smell my books, to flip through the pages. I know I’m not the only reader who still enjoys that.

Again, that may be sentimental, but where would humanity be without a place for sentiment?

And, sentiment aside, as an author, I think it’s important to still have hard copies of the work you put your lifeblood, sweat, time, and tears into. Electronics have glitches and shutdowns, sometimes nationwide and even international ones. Computers crash, digital files disappear, apps act funny. “My laptop froze.” “I updated my operating system, and it deleted my contacts.” “We’re sorry, our computers are down today. We hope to have these technical difficulties resolved by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.” “Something is wrong with my cellphone.” “Wind storms have left the whole neighborhood without power. It’ll be a while before I can recharge all of my batteries…and access all of my digital stuff.”

Besides, there are many books that need to be passed down to children, to succeeding generations. Are ebooks, PDFs, and all things digital truly going to cut it, when it comes to the generational transfer of literature, both in professional and familial situations? I think focusing solely on ebooks isn’t the broadest way to think or plan, considering the long run.

As digital pictures posted online and stored on hard drives haven’t done away with physical photographs and oil paintings to view and appreciate in physical settings, I don’t believe electronic books will (or should) totally replace or do away with the need for (and the appeal of) physical books. Even if there comes a time when paperbacks in particular may phase out, I don’t think hard copies of literature will disappear altogether.

And, on another note, indeed, I’m all for digital interaction: emails, text messages, IMs, social networking sites, blogs and chats. But, hey, we’re still human, with human bodies and senses. We still have faces; emails and text messages are an addition to, not an ultimate replacement for, face to face interaction. An emoticon or an instant-messaged “smiley” doesn’t replace seeing someone’s actual smile, doesn’t replace an actual handshake or a hug.

Even on a level that isn’t as personal, the fact that fans purchase, download, and listen to their favorite artists’ music on their own doesn’t mean that they’ll never want to go to a concert to see and hear the artists in person. In our human experience, there’s something different and needful about physically being there. I think the same goes for authors and readers: while blog tours are becoming increasingly popular, I don’t think they can totally replace meeting an author or a reader face to face, like at a book signing or reading, making eye contact and being present to interact with another person.

Being able to Skype in to a meeting is a wonderful tool, getting your face and voice in on the action simultaneously, but even if I was a digitally savvy teenager, getting ready to graduate from high school, I wouldn’t be pleased to hear, “Instead of having a ceremony that everyone physically comes to, how about if the graduating class, along with their friends and families, just Skype in to watch the principal and the school district superintendent make speeches from the high school auditorium? With ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ playing in the background of the broadcast, it’ll be just as good as a graduation ceremony.”

Instead of having the family get together for the holidays, would it truly be just as satisfying if the various branches of the family merely Skyped in to Grandma’s house to watch her cook in the kitchen and to see her sit by the Christmas tree with Grandpa, onscreen? A baby would be in serious emotional and developmental trouble if his parent(s) or guardian(s) smiled and cooed at him from a computer screen all the time but he was never touched, held, or talked to in person. If I was a bride, I wouldn’t want to Skype in to my own wedding–and definitely not my honeymoon. Digital goes as far as it goes, but there are times when a human being simply must be physically present with other human beings.

A digital world doesn’t replace the need for the physical one. We, as humankind, can and should continue to leave room in our lives for both.

~~~~~

Author, editor, and speaker Nadine Keels of Seattle, Washington is best known for The Song of Nadine, the lyrical poetry seen in two of her books and heard in her spoken word presentations. Nadine has written two novels, Yella’s Prayers and World of the Innocent; a reference for writers entitled Write Your Genius, Genius!: A Rather Quick Guide to Book Writing; and she also writes short stories and articles for children. Nadine has served as editor and co-editor for a number of titles, and she is the founder of Prismatic Prospects, a communication company based in Seattle. Find Nadine online at www.prismaticprospects.wordpress.com

I feel really sorry for these people; I can’t tell you what a shame this is. It seems some authors are still not in the 21st Century when it comes to getting their books out there. When you think about the flat or falling book sales figures, the rising cost of production, add to this the uncertainty inherent in the industry, is it any wonder that publishers are reining in the budgets and take fewer risks?

As a publisher myself, I don’t have a problem with authors taking a risk. What I do have a problem with is the arrogance and condescending nature of some publishing people who still believe that they get to be ‘gatekeepers’, deciding which books deserve to be published and which don’t. One former publisher present at the seminar said “there were an awful lot of bad books that did not need to exist”.

The strap line at The Book Midwife for several years has been “Every Book Deserves to Be Written and Published”. I have never said ‘bad books’ deserve to be bought, read or liked. I just said we shouldn’t deny people the right to get their books into print.

I thought – wrongly, as it turns out – that people in the publishing industry were finally beginning to realize the benefits of democratic and open publishing, creating more opportunities for all. Self-publishing, cooperative or partnership publishing, publishing on the web – these are the vehicles which have allowed more people than ever to get their thoughts and ideas into the market.

So I am calling people everywhere. Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Working Mums, First Time Writers, and even Second Time Writers that were unsuccessful at the publishers. If there is a book in you, let’s find it and get it out into the market. Happy writing!

Mindy Gibbins-Klein MBA FRSA is best known as founder of The Book Midwife® and co-founder and director of Ecademy Press. Her clients have successfully written and published more than 300 books and hundreds of bold and opinionated articles, positioning themselves as real thought leaders in their field. Mindy is an international speaker and thought leadership strategist. Her latest book 24 Carat BOLD: The Standard for REAL Thought Leaders (£10.99, Ecademy Press) outlines the four attributes found in true thought leaders. Mindy herself is a successful author, co-writing Amazon best seller BusinessWise, A Dance in the Desert and an ebook on self-publishing.

1) The Planning Phase

Focus on creating a strategic marketing plan for your title at least six months prior to its publication date. Outline the tactics you will perform, and establish completion dates for each, in four functional areas:

* Production. How many pages and what size should the book be? What type of binding? Will you use illustrations or half tones?

* Distribution. Will you distribute your books through the traditional distributor_wholesaler_ retailer channels? What special markets–mass merchandise clubs, associations, premium sales, corporations, foundations, book clubs or home shopping channels–are suited to your title? What about Internet marketing?

* Promotion. Plan your strategies in four areas: publicity, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling.

* Financial. Determine the list price and forecast potential sales. This will determine your initial print run. Calculate expected costs and create your preliminary cash flow statements and other financial reports.

2) The Production Phase

The next month or two (four to five months before pub date) are devoted to the production process. Finish all illustrations and photography. Complete the front cover design and internal layout, which presupposes all registration information (ISBN, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number, Bookland EAN bar code and CIP data) has been compiled.

Once you have all the production information, submit Requests For Quotation to several printers. Each RFQ should list the quantity to be printed and books’s trim size, number of pages, number of colors (on the cover and internally), number of halftones, type of binding and the weight of the cover and paper.

3) The Promotion Phase

Promotion begins here and never ends. Three to four months before publication date, begin contacting book clubs, inquiring into serial or other rights’ sales. Prepare galleys to send to reviewers as well as for peer review and endorsements. When you receive testimonials, add them to the rear cover copy and all your promotional material.

Think in terms of the four parts of the promotion mix: publicity, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling. Create and place prepublication announcement advertisements (some trade papers have 90-day deadlines). Produce sales-promotional items. Decide upon the trade shows at which you will exhibit. What direct-mail letters and sales literature must be written and printed? Plan non-traditional publicity programs that will stimulate as much attention as possible.

Prepare press releases for relevant newspaper and magazine editors. Do not overlook the broadcast media as a source of low-cost, high-yield publicity. Develop a list of television and radio shows suited to the topic of the book.

4) The Distribution Phase

During the two to three months prior to publication, your objective is to create distribution. Research and contact relevant wholesalers and distributors. Do not forget that separate channels may be required for marketing to libraries, bookstores and special markets. When you contact a prospective distribution partner, describe the comprehensive marketing plan you have in place and how your promotional efforts will support their sales efforts.

Continue your preliminary promotional efforts. Once your books are being printed and your distribution is in place, send your press kits to the media. Also, provide your distributor with copy and cover-art for its catalog.

5) The Introduction Phase

The final month before publication is devoted to following up and catching up. You must follow up with your printer, editors, producers, buyers and reviewers to consummate your programs. And make final arrangements for your media tour and book signings.

At the same time you must implement last-minute promotional programs. This may entail mailing literature to buyers at major chains and independent stores, sending book covers to distributors, participating in cooperative mailings with SPAN, and getting your web site up and running.

When your book is finally released, the real work of sustaining its momentum begins. However, the publishing process is more rewarding and productive if it begins well enough in advance, building steadily upon a strong foundation of strategic planning and effort.

Brian Jud is an author and creator of the Book Marketing Battle Plansä directories for special sales. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketingworks.com or visit http://www.bookmarketingworks.com

For prospective authors, there are a number of useful things to take from these events and a few things that many insist on doing that won’t, sadly, be of much use.

1. Know your market

The best way to get a proposal accepted is to write what publishers are looking for. Unless you have an eclectic library of manuscripts, or happen to have Arthur C. Clarke’s crystal ball to predict upcoming trends, it will be difficult to nail the precise requirements unless you are an incredibly fast writer. Having a thorough browse of the publisher’s catalogues will soon give you a clear idea of what direction they are intending on taking, and will also highlight any gaps in their publication schedule.

Do they have a popular author who is not writing the next book in a well-known series this year? This may be an opportunity to get a relevant proposal submitted so they can keep the market interested until their big gun rolls out their new draft.

Are certain types of genre vanishing from the forthcoming lists? Wonderful though your teen vampire novel may be, perhaps the sector has become a little over-saturated with this sort of material and it’s time to put that one in the crypt for a few more years.

Does no-one seem to have the type of manuscript you have written? It could well be that publishers have done some research on this market and don’t think it will sell, so take note and change tack if you have your heart set on being published by that particular house. On the other hand, this may be a fresh idea for them, and would possibly be worth a shot with some of the smaller or independent publishers to see if they bite.

2. Specialty markets
Although you will (of course) have thoroughly researched the publishing avenues in your chosen area, trade events can be an excellent opportunity to discover publishers you didn’t know about. Fairs often have stall zones arranged by subject, so you can easily locate anyone who could potentially be an avenue for your work and harvest their contact details by picking up a leaflet or brochure if they are not already in your contact database. Take some time to browse the list of titles they publish: there’s no better indicator as to what type of material they like to publish than the works they have already put into print. Ask staff what is popular, what their best sellers are and what they have high hopes for: most people tend to drift by stalls aimlessly plucking at the free pens . . . you never know what nuggets of information you can discover from a bored employee by engaging in a quick friendly chat.

3. Speaker Events
Trade shows provide an opportunity for the book trade to talk about emerging trends, problems and solutions. The e-book situation has been rumbling for years and still many of the large publishers are being forced into a reactive policy by the likes of Amazon Kindle. Knowing what pressures and opportunities there are for your prospective publishers can help give you valuable insight into making your pitches, as well as giving you a bit of background into what sort of publishing avenues to consider. If you happen to be a knowledgeable expert in an area of discussion, you’ll also know there is an avid market for your insight and submitting a proposal for a guide or analysis of these areas could also appeal to the non-fiction publishers.

4. Author Events
It’s fair to say that the larger trade fairs usually have these stage-managed to a precise degree, and any interviews or Q&A sessions are usually geared toward the mainstream press. They can still be illuminating however, and many smaller event organisers campaign hard to get well-known, respected and experienced authors visiting. These events usually encourage more submissions from the floor and authors tend to be more approachable after the session has finished, as opposed to being whisked away by their publisher’s hospitality staff. Bear in mind that authors are normally there to discuss their own latest work, being encouraged to discuss more general topics around writing is a definite plus; but don’t expect a personal critique of your latest draft or expect the author to be a conduit straight into the publishing proposals department.

5. Personal Networking
If you know people in the publishing business than these events can be a good time to pop round and say “hi”. Most people on the stalls will have a pretty crowded appointment schedule that probably starts before the official opening time and continues well into the evening over client dinners, so don’t expect to spend a great deal of time shooting the breeze. Even for the promotional staff, three to four days constantly on your feet is physically exhausting so if you can, stop by with something useful such as some handouts on a useful talk or event they’ve missed from being pinned down at the stand. Then they will be more inclined to keep talking and introduce you to other people there at the stall, or if you are very lucky or persuasive, to one of their invitation events.

6. Proposal Documents
For the larger trade events, carrying around your manuscript pitch is generally a waste of time. Commissioning editorial staff rarely attend the publishing stands unless they have specific appointments (such as discussing translation rights with distributors) and for the rest of the time they will be browsing the fair and speaker events just like you. Heaping reams of paper onto the receptionist and asking them to “get this to the right person in editorial” really doesn’t do much for your professional image, and frankly, most staff have enough to carry back with them that your draft is more likely to get shelved in the bin when the stand is dismantled at the end of the show.

Your mileage at smaller or more niche-specific events may vary, but it’s still a better idea to do your research beforehand and find the proper submission address and guidelines. Your draft is more likely to make it into the publisher than relying on the goodwill and tenacity of a publisher employee who has to deal with a mound of accumulated enquiries and backlog when they get back to their office.

Steve Jones worked for one of the world’s leading medical publishers for several years and is a veteran of the International Book Fairs. He now works for a web design company in Worthing.

Photo credit:

Traditional and Self-Publishing Companies have different advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the right publisher for your book can begin simply by analyzing information on a publisher’s website. From there, you can compare different companies and crunch your numbers to decide which publisher or publishing option is the best one for your book.

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.

Tons of vanity presses make it easy to publish a book. These companies charge tens of thousands of dollars by preying on the fact that naïve authors will pay and do just about anything to be in print. I know of companies that charge $12,000 for 500 books. That’s $24 a book! As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity, vanity all is vanity!”

Subsidy presses will offset, or subsidize, a portion of the publishing expenses. The author pays for editing and printing, the press pays for marketing; however, they will also participate in the proceeds for each book sold.

An independent or small publisher usually focuses on a specific genre. These publishers may or may not pay advances and often have fewer than twenty authors on the roster.

Print-on-demand (POD) publishers are better described as high-priced printers than publishers. These companies charge exorbitant fees and act more like the middle man on a book project. One of my clients paid $150 to copyright her title through a POD. Had she done it herself, the cost would have been $35 (that’s a markup of almost 500%).

I am a proponent for self-publishing because you control the process. You decide when the book releases, the cover and content, the retail price, the printer and the marketing strategy. As a self-published author (self-pub), you can expect to spend about $3,000 to publish 1,000 copies of your title (or $3 a book). And if you sell those copies for $10 each, you’ll gross $10,000!

Sidebar: Regardless of the publishing option you choose, your books will not automatically fly off the shelves. You will have to market, promote and sell, sell, sell!

Let’s take a look at some differences between self-publishing and PODs:

1. Many PODs do not provide a comprehensive edit although they charge like a professional, developmental-writing editor who’s providing personalized coaching and a manuscript critique. Self-pubs can find competent editors for a fraction of the cost.
2. PODs use templates for book covers. I have a client whose inspirational book has the same cover image as a book about demons, witches and warlocks. She was horrified by the discovery. Self-pubs can contract with graphic designers to create customized one-of-a-kind covers for as little as $300.
3. Now for the real deal: making money!
   1. If you’re in business to make money, it’s almost impossible with PODs. Thorough self-pubs can acquire books for less than $2 each; however, the POD cost for a comparable book often exceeds $10. Doesn’t sound like much, but when authors try to market to bookstores, libraries and distributors, they soon learn that it’s not cost effective. To make money, bookstores charge 40% of the retail price and distributors up to 70%. So, if a book is priced at $15 and the author has to give up 60% (or $9) to a distributor, the gross profit is $6 ($15 retail price – $9 to the distributor). If a POD printed the book, the loss is $4 a book ($6 gross profit – $10 POD print cost). As a self-pub, each book sold results in a net profit of $4 ($6 gross profit – $2 printing cost). I have a client who went with a POD—against my recommendation—because she wasn’t charged any upfront fees. I admonished her to find out her cost to purchase books, but she was too ecstatic about “the savings” to read the fine print. Well, as I expected, they got her on the back end. The POD charged her $25 to buy her book which should retail for $12.95. The cost made the book a hard sell, so she packaged it with trinkets to enhance the perceived value, sold it for $20 and lost lots of money.
   2. PODs don’t pay royalties on books purchased by the author and most books sold through PODs are purchased by the author. Go figure! For the few books that are sold by the POD, the author earns a whopping $110 in royalties on average. The earning potential for self-pubs is limited only by the author’s persistence and ability to creatively market and sell books.
   3. PODs charge excessive fees for promotional material and marketing. One of my clients purchased business cards through her POD. They charged her $200 for 200 cards (at $1 per card, they’re too expensive to give away) that didn’t even have her contact information. To add insult to injury, the cards directed the consumer to the POD’s site, so she paid to advertise for the POD. Awful!

The only plus to PODs is the ability to print small quantities. For writers who want to test the market or print copies for family history, POD may be a viable option. If you absolutely must go POD, go straight to the source, Lightning Source. Most of the PODs contract with them to print books and then markup the fee to authors.

If you’d like a FREE list of PODs or want us to rate your publisher, visit the Contact Us page at PenOfTheWriter.com.

As a bestselling author and award-winning publisher, Valerie J. Lewis Coleman has helped thousands of aspiring authors navigate the challenges of self-publishing. With over ten years of experience in the book business, this expert divulges industry secrets on avoiding the top five mistakes made by new authors, pricing your book to sell and identifying dishonest publishers. Her dynamic presentation and knowledge of the business takes writers from pen to paper to published as they master self-publishing to make money! To learn more about Valerie, her books and succeeding as a self-published author, visit ValerieJLColeman.com, PenOfTheWriter.com and QueenVPublishing.net.

Copyright © 2010 by Valerie J. Lewis Coleman

I hear tell that the industry is in a state of emergency, and has been for years.  Apparently, people aren’t reading as much as they used to.  Ebook sales are climbing, but as digital books are usually cheaper to purchase than printed books, some publishers feel that books are not being sold for what they are truly worth.  Physical bookstores are struggling to stay in business while more readers are opting for the convenience and lower cost of ebooks.  Borders filed for bankruptcy; Barnes & Noble went up for sale.  Publishers are laying off employees and aren’t willing to take as many chances on new authors, making it more difficult for authors to get their work out there.  As a result, there’s an “indie revolution” happening, as independent authors who have been rejected by traditional publishers are taking it upon themselves to find other means of publication, like subsidy and self-publishing.

I’m an indie author myself, and I’ve picked up on the disgruntled and determined tone floating through my corner of the indie universe.  “Traditional publishers are the uppity enemy and we don’t need ’em!  We’re finding our own ways to get things done.”  Yet, in all of the buzz and words of doom circulating throughout the industry, there’s something valuable that is in danger of being lost, if publishers and authors are not careful.

You see, what bothers me the most is the notion that people aren’t “reading” anymore.  I believe that authors must take into account that while there may be increasing methods for people to acquire the information that they want and need, people are still going to go after the information, ultimately.  There was a time when no one had the option of listening to the radio, turning on the television, going to the movies, or browsing the Internet, as that kind of technology wasn’t around before books.  So, yes, someone today may choose the option of taking a few hours to watch a documentary instead of using those hours to read a book on the same subject, but the detail to be seen here is that the hunger for information is still there.  Humankind searches for knowledge; humankind searches for entertainment.  That’s what humans do.  But when humans turn on their televisions or click on their e-readers, what kind of content are they being provided with?

Of course publishers and booksellers must take a look at how they do business and the methods that they use as the tide in the industry changes, but they should pause to ask themselves, “Wait, what are we really looking to produce?”  They have to think about their consumers, as the people who are buying books don’t mean to merely buy them.  They mean to read them.  If publishers get into the habit of putting out loads of flashy or fad-driven but poor quality product, with the meager intent of making quick sales, then their plans will backfire.  It’s not that people no longer desire to read, but they do desire literature that is, in fact, worth reading.  Though it may sometimes take a while for consumers to catch on, they eventually realize when they are being presented with product that wasn’t thoughtfully produced, and they will consequently stop buying so much of it.

Now, I am not against fads.  We are human beings, and every so often, we need something fresh, catchy, and exciting to spark our interest.  Keeping up with fads is enjoyable, but when they fizzle out, as fads inevitably do, people are still going to long for what is timeless.  Matters that remain true to the human condition throughout generations will never get old.  When it comes to literature, humankind will always long for a well-told love story, as love never goes out of style.  Humankind will always long for accounts about conquering fears or triumphing over enemies; about the sorrow resulting from death and the joy resulting from birth; about degeneracy and righteousness, peril and pain, purpose and hope.  Someone needs to provide humankind with these accounts, attentively and intelligently.

The book industry is in danger of losing the vital core in the essence of literature if writers fail to view themselves as servants.

Yes, a writer creates because creativity is in his blood, and even if he has no audience but himself, he will create anyway, because something internal tells him that he has to.  Yes, a writer naturally learns how to cater to himself, to love what he’s written, but when his work is published for more people to see, his motives cannot remain self-serving.  The writer has now brought his work out before humanity, and if he has any true character, he will consider the needs of the people he is presenting his work to.

Publishers, booksellers, and writers would do well to see themselves as servants of the people they, well, serve—not only figuring out how to get people to buy, buy, buy, but seriously asking themselves, “How can we be of help to society, to humankind?”  Indeed, people often need literature to remind them of the incalculable value of life, so publishers and authors who want to be excellent servants won’t indifferently subject their readers to uninspired filler-content in order to get to a book’s “good parts.”  Otherwise, the art in literature is lost.

Writers needn’t be so busy scrambling to produce what they think will sell that they fail to respect the actual human beings who will be affected by the products.  Audiences are more than screaming fans or faceless wallets; they are hearts, minds, and lives who will, in due course, recognize it when what they are being served is nonsense, something with no significant value to humanity.  I would even encourage us indie authors not to get so caught up trying to put the uppity “powers that be” to shame that we lose the essence of our art, dishonoring our audiences as well as the truth of our own genius because we are not thoughtful about the quality and benefit of what we create.

We don’t want to lose our worth, the worth found in our brilliance and in the significance of what we produce for the world, and in order for us to be truly great writers, we must be servants of all.

Author, editor, and speaker Nadine C. Keels of Seattle, Washington is best known for The Song of Nadine, the lyrical poetry seen in two of her books and heard in her spoken word presentations on both local and national platforms.  Nadine has written two novels, Yella’s Prayers and World of the Innocent, and a reference for writers entitled Write Your Genius, Genius!: A Rather Quick Guide to Book Writing.  Nadine has served as editor and co-editor for a number of titles, and she is the founder of Prismatic Prospects, a communication company based in Seattle. Find Nadine online at www.prismaticprospects.wordpress.com.

Today, getting a book published, building a website, and producing marketing pieces can happen within a matter of days or even hours. There are online companies that allow you to upload your manuscript and have an e-book for sale within minutes. Even printed books can be accomplished within a matter of a few days. However, fast and easy does not equate with successful when it comes to producing a marketable product, and especially not when trying to sell books.

Producing a book and building a website can be overwhelming at first. Plenty of companies are out there that will try to convince you they can make the process easy for you, and in some cases, those companies will also help you to produce a quality product. However, companies that use templates and cookie-cutter approaches are companies that are best to avoid. Here are a few examples of how a cookie-cutter approach can be detrimental to an author and his or her book’s image right from the beginning.

Book Covers

Several subsidy or POD companies will offer stock cover formats and images to choose from. Using such a template does not mean your book cover won’t be attractive, but it does allow for the possibility that it will be confused with other book covers. For example, here at Reader Views we once received within one week three different books with different authors and titles, but they all had the same front cover—same format, same colors, same image, obviously all from the same publisher. Furthermore, the image was generic and had little to do with the books’ content.

If as an author, you choose to go the template route rather than hiring a professional cover designer, you will have to settle for a cover that may not best represent your book. Chances are bookstores will realize your book is self-published and be less likely to carry it. Readers might think even they are buying one book and end up buying another if they do not look closely at a book cover. Similarly, people who read another author’s book with the same cover as yours will dismiss yours when they see it, thinking it is another book rather than buying it. In short, not having a distinguishable cover that lets readers know what your book is about will not help your book sales, and most likely will hurt them. Even if people buy your book, if the cover is misleading about the book’s subject, they are unlikely to say anything good about your book to their friends, if they say anything at all, meaning you lose out on the most powerful marketing tool—word-of-mouth.

Websites

Just as you can have cookie-cutter covers, you can get cookie-cutter websites. Depending on your type of business, using website templates may not be a bad idea when you are starting out and just learning about websites. Such websites can begin with template choices, and then as your business grows, you can hire a website designer to give it originality. However, doing so after your book has been on the market for six months or a year may not result in continuity for your book’s branding.

The template choices offered by online companies that sell websites might at first seem abundant. You might even have 100 template choices according to the website company’s advertising, but once you purchase the website, you find that those 100 choices are broken into categories such as education, entertainment, healthcare, transportation, etc. The result is that only entertainment really works as a category for your book and you only have three template choices in that field that perhaps are more representative of dance or theatre than books. Not a single template shows a book or anything relevant to what your book is about.

Here is a case in point: I know one author who ended up with a train image on his website. He was writing historical fiction set in the nineteenth century, and trains were mentioned in the book, but his book was not about trains. However, of all the template options, the train picture on the template was the only one that looked remotely historical. After a year of settling for this poor image for his website, he hired a website designer to make his website reflect his product—books.

Marketing

Many companies out there exist to create marketing materials for authors. Again, they use templates. You can order bookmarkers that will look like the bookmarkers for a thousand other books with the only options being to change the book cover and the information about the book, but the placement of images and text all look the same. Posters are the same way. Many of the POD and subsidy presses will provide marketing materials that have this cookie-cutter look to them. While some of these marketing pieces are attractive, most of them look generic and will use neutral colors of black and white because they will match any book cover image. Paying someone to design your business cards, book markers, postcards, and other marketing pieces so they look original yet are consistent with your brand and image will not only make them look professional, but they will then stand out from the crowd so they are remembered.

Following the Crowd

Being a cookie-cutter author is not limited solely to products, but it might also relate to your mindset. Perhaps you know other authors who have attended certain book festivals and craft shows or followed certain patterns for marketing their books. You listen to them and decide you must do the same. However, their books are about rock-climbing and home improvement. Your book is about cooking. Attending the home builder’s show to sell your book because your home-improvement author friend does is not necessarily going to sell your cookbook. You might do better to sell books at a food festival or to try selling them at restaurants.

In short, while well-intentioned people might tell you, “If you want to sell books, you need to…[do this activity, advertise in this publication, etc.],” remember that no two books are the same, and no two authors are the same. What works for another book will not necessarily work for yours.

Don’t Make Cookies. Make Cake.

In the end, as an author you must do everything possible to be original, to stand out from the crowd, to create a brand for yourself that will get you noticed. That requires an original book cover, a website that looks and feels not only different, but in alignment with your book’s topic, and finding activities and marketing possibilities for your book that are specific to your book’s goals and that will attract your book’s potential audience.

Do not blindly follow what every other author has done. Do not create a cookie-cutter book and image. When the other bakers show up with their plates of cookies, bring a cake to the party, and if you can add some special icing to it, all the better. Give them a product they’ll remember.

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.