2. Is being in control important to you?
If you want your book cover to look a certain way; the interiors to have a specific presentation style; the paper to look or feel a certain way; the fonts to be of a definite type; the editing to be done your way that allows feedback; and to make input into the marketing strategies, control is important. With traditional publishers, you become a royal pain in the tush. Others may not give you options as well.

3. Is it important that your topic gets published within the next 4 to 6 months?
If your book needs to be available within the year, the odds are that it won’t happen with a traditional publisher. Normally, a book is published approximately 18 months after a publisher signs the author.

4. Do you have the time to commit to your book project?
Creating a successful book takes time—lots of it. It’s not just the writing. It’s the book production that takes time and then all the post production marketing, which can go on for many, many months. If you want to be successful, you’ve got to become myopic at times and prioritize in favor of your book.

5. Do you want your covers to look a certain way?
We know of few authors from the traditional publishing world that are enamored with their book covers. Cover control is like a parent withholding the family car keys from a teenager. It’s power—publishers, and their marketing departments, often have fixed ideas that are in cement when it comes to covers. We know, we’ve had our share that we sometimes wanted to put a brown wrapper on. When we started publishing our own books, we liked the covers. So should you.

6. Is it important to have a quality looking book?
One of our friends had a book published in 2009 with a major publisher and did a visual comparison with another book published with the same publisher in 1984. The difference was amazing. The quality of the paper in the new version was thinner—it displayed the ink print on the other side; the quality of the cover in the older book—it laid flat. The newer one was already morphing open. The book that was 25 years old was in better shape than the book hot off the press. If the quality of how your book looks, feels and holds up is important, traditional, as well as other publishing options, may not work for you.

7. Are you willing to make mistakes, and correct them?
Every author makes mistakes. Every author turned publisher makes them. Can you forgive yourself? Can you ID from where the error was generated? Can you self-correct and redirect yourself?

8. Do you have the financial resources to support your book, and you?
You have to decide whether you are a hobbyist or casual author publisher, or ready to dive in and publish-publish. As a hobbyist, you will go the print-on-demand (POD) route for minimal moneys ($500 to $1500). But, as a serious author-publisher, you must be ready to invest several thousand dollars. Editors, designers and printers all add up. However, if you are successful, you can make an excellent return. It all goes back to passion, time, commitment, strategy and marketing.

Reprinted from “Rick Frishman‘s Author101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.rickfrishman.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

1. Editing is Crucial

Good editing plays a strong role in the image you project. When you do things yourself you don’t have a team of editors eager to make sure typos and grammar errors don’t tarnish the public’s view of your work. You’ll need to extend effort to protect your reputation.

• Hire a freelance editor you can trust. You can’t do it all on your own; having an unbiased professional editor is a must. Be careful though, not all proclaimed editors have exceptional skills. Investigate the satisfaction of their previous clients beforehand.
• Don’t settle for the results of initial edits. Your editor is only human and has likely missed a few things. Have a few other readers, with a keen eye and a good education, read the piece for overlooked errors.

2. Keep Expenses to a Minimum

The whole idea behind self-publishing is to maximize profits; however, some avenues can be unnecessary costly.

• Plan on a soft cover. You may think hard covers impress more, but in reality your reader cares more about what’s between the covers than the construction of the book itself.
• Have a local artist design the cover. You can even hold a contest in your area to find the perfect one. Artists will jump at the chance to be featured on the cover of a published book, and you’ll enjoy some exposure as well as a nearly free design.
• Get quotes from at least ten printers that specialize in book production before deciding on whom will get your business. You will be surprised at how much pricing can vary when you shop around.
• Having a black and white cover can be cheaper, but it can also cost you buyers. Most people buy books based on the intrigue created by their cover. Make sure that cutting costs doesn’t have you forgoing saleability.

3. Ensure your Book is Highly Promoted and Easily Accessible Online.

In today’s digital age, promotion and sales has gotten much easier; however the avenues available are more numerous; making choices more difficult.

• Identify your target market. Advertising heavily in online areas that your target market tends to frequent is key to getting noticed by potential readers. Make sure your not staying inside the box too much though, or you’ll miss out on drawing new interest.
• Make sure your book is today’s hot topic. Start an author’s blog that includes the story behind the book, interesting facts, sales information, and other relevant topics that will draw attention to your work.
• Sell and publish your book online. Locate the most popular e-book providers and check into the requirements for publishing in an online format. You can also list printed copies for sale in buyer communities.
• Communicate with your readers. Readers who enjoy your book may enjoy a chance to speak with its brilliant creator. Join numerous social networking sites, and create a website about yourself and your works.

4. Promote Within your Community.

You don‘t need to spend money on expensive bookstore signings, but don’t leave behind the community that knows and loves you. You’ll pull most of your readers’ right from your own neighborhood.

• Volunteering or hosting community events can do wonders. You’ll shine up your reputation and gain a chance to self-promote while helping other groups. Talk to local schools, youth centers, libraries, and other organizations where you can giveback and get the word out.
• Don’t be afraid to give away a few hundred copies. It may seem fruitless, but you’ll definitely reap the benefits. Set up a stand in your local park or at community events in which you give away free copies to the first 20 or so customers; you’ll be known all throughout the area in a matter of days.

5. Seek Out Reviews

Book reviews enhance advertising and intrigue potential buyers. Bloggers and other online sites as well as newspapers and magazines offer free book reviews for writers. Securing positive reviews will ensure your increased publicity and readership.

Self-publishing can be intimidating; however, with effort and dedication it can also be rewarding. A writer that not only creates quality written work, but can successful publish it, has truly accomplished their dream. These tips will surly help you pave the way to success.

Deborah Smith is a freelance writer for websites that are able to compare car insurance, home insurance, and credit cards. She has been known to write some great books on her free time and knows self-publishing like the back of her hand. When she isn’t helping people save money on their necessities, you can find Deborah helping up and coming writers have their books published!

Self-publishing’s Hall of Fame includes mega seller John Grisham. His first book, A Time to Kill, started out published by the author after multiple rejection notices and was later sold to Fleming H. Revell for a few thousand dollars. Revell in turn sold it for over a million dollars for much needed cash.

Management guru Tom Peters rolled out In Search of Excellence in self-published format before it was bought by New York; and Ken Blanchard started his One-Minute series from the kitchen table as did What Color is Your Parachute? author, Richard Nelson Bolles. Betty J. Eadie birthed Embraced by the Light on the self-publishing route along with Sandra Haldeman Martz with her When I Am an Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple and Richard Evans with his The Christmas Box.

Then, there are a couple of reference gems that started the self-publishing route. Consider Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Martyn Robert and the all-time classic, The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and EB White. To date, over 10 million copies of those tomes have been sold. All were rejected by traditional publishing the first go around. The authors had their vision and did it themselves. By the time New York came to the party, the checks written were quite hefty.

There is a difference between self-publishing and independent publishing.

Most people put the two in the same pot. Don’t. Self-publishing is certainly on your own. So is independent. Within the self-publishing category is what we call the “hobbyist” or “casual” publisher. Making money isn’t the key factor. Just having a book is. Most self-published books look, well, self-published. Money isn’t dedicated to quality, although the content can be quite good. If you plan on selling fewer than 300 copies, this is a reasonable route to take.

Consider self-publishing if:

• You really plan on doing just one book;
• You plan printing a limited number of copies;
• Your primary goal is not to make money;
• You consider publishing an avocation, not a vocation;
• You want to do a “test” to see if there are any buyers out there; or
• You didn’t know there is any other way and no one talks to you about creating your own publishing imprint.

From Show Me About Publishing
Reprinted from “Rick Frishman‘s Author101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.rickfrishman.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

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.

Years later when I decided to launch Authority Publishing, I was moved to do so for several reasons. I realized that there was already a lot of competition out there, mostly large vanity presses, which are the publishing equivalent of big box stores. I also saw a lot of problems with their business models. When you shop at a big discount store, you might save a few bucks, but you also know you’re going to sacrifice customer service and quality.

And over the years I’ve heard some horror stories from countless authors who wish they could start over and re-do their books. To help you avoid the same fate, here are some important questions to ask when investigating custom publishers.

1. What are ALL of your fees?

Many lead with a low price only to nickel and dime authors with add-on services. Ask for a complete price list up front and make sure that whatever price you’re quoted includes all of the services you need (like cover design, editing, interior layout, distribution, quantity of books, etc.).

2. How much will my books cost?

While it may cost you less to publish initially, many of the big “author factories” stick it to the authors with individual book price. I’ve met authors who complain that their trade paperback books cost them $8, $10, or $12 to print—and that is simply outrageous for a book with black and white interior and color cover.

Let me be transparent: our price for a 150-page trade paperback, b&w interior and color cover is $4.30 per book in small quantities. Order 250 copies and that price goes down to $3.87. Order 1000 and the price is $3.23 or less (we provide a custom quote for large orders).

Your cost for your book should leave you plenty of room to make a profit. Also, you have to keep in mind that the bookstores take 40% to 55% off of your retail price. So if your book retails for $14.99, a bookstore will pay you $8.99. Deduct your costs for printing and that is your remaining royalty. If your custom publisher charges you $9.00 per book, you wouldn’t make a penny. In fact, you’d owe a penny!

3. Who sets the retail price on my book?

Along with the whole individual book pricing discussion, make sure to ask about how the retail price is set. Here’s another issue that happens too often—the publisher sets a price that is far too high. For example, a romantic novel priced at $24.95 is going to be a barrier for readers. You should be able to use the retail formula above and choose a price that is appropriate for your market, yet still makes at least a few dollars in profit when sold through retail channels.

4. What are the terms of your contract?

If you remember nothing else from this post, please remember to ask this question. Keep in mind that with a custom publisher, you are paying them to help you publish your book. That means that you should retain all of your rights, including the right to cancel the contract at anytime. If a traditional press like Random House calls and wants to buy the rights to your book, you should have the option to pursue that transaction. Unfortunately some of these operations are locking unsuspecting authors into contracts between one to three years.

5. How long will it take to produce my book?

In most cases, it should take 90 days or less to produce your book (provided there isn’t extensive editing involved). If the company takes four, six, or nine months to turn your book around, ask why. Often times these companies are churning so many authors through the system that they get backed up. Your project shouldn’t have to wait in line when you’re paying for it to be produced properly and efficiently.

6. Do you use templates?

Like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover. Cover templates should be avoided completely. When it comes to using templates for the interior design, I personally don’t like them either. Your book should be distinctive in every way. Ask to see samples if templates are in use.

7. Who will guide me through this process?

With the big custom publishers, you will likely work with someone in a call center, and you might talk to a different person every time you call. If that is not important to you then skip this question, but keep in mind that some companies actually employ publishing industry professionals who have experience in the field. These folks are more qualified to guide you through the process and provide advice when needed.

8. Are you selective about the books you publish?

Most custom publishers will produce anything in exchange for a check. This may or may not matter to you, but consider the company your book keeps. If your publisher doesn’t stand for quality, then its brand will be known for that. It’s that simple.

Bonus: Do some research. Be sure to do a Google search on any company you consider working with. Better yet, search <company name> + “scam” or <company name> + “problem”. Finding out what their past customers are saying online and in community forums is more valuable than any pre-screened customer reference they may provide you.

Also, in lieu of asking for references, do your own homework. Look on the company’s website to locate authors they’ve published and contact the authors directly. You’re much more likely to get a real answer by approaching their clients this way.

Also know that there are just as many good publishers out there as bad ones. Just do your homework and ask the right questions before you make a decision!

Stephanie Chandler is the author of several books including “Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.” Stephanie is also founder and CEO of http://AuthorityPublishing.com, which specializes in custom publishing for non-fiction books, and http://BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, BusinessWeek, Inc.com, Wired magazine, and many other media outlets.

The problem is that many POD vanity publishers are calling themselves “self-publishing companies.” They are trading on self-publishing’s good name to make their companies appear familiar and legitimate.

Self-publishing has early American roots and today there are more than 85,000 self-publishers in the U.S. Naturally, these dot-com, digital publishers want to use the name.

How to tell the difference. Some definitions.

Publisher: The person who puts up the money and make the book happen.

Vanity publishers are organized to sell books (and other services) to the author. They charge the author to publish the book. This is why they are also known as “subsidy publishers.”

Conventional publishers sell books to the public, usually through wholesalers and bookstores. They pay the author an advance and royalties for the right to produce and sell the book.

Would you write a book knowing that you would be the only purchaser?

How to spot scam vanity publishers. A literary attorney advises other lawyers.

According to Wikipedia, Self-Publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers.The only “self-publishing company” is you—by definition. If you pay a publisher, your book is not SELF-published.

Self-publishers, write, publish and promote their own books. We have been building name recognition for self-publishing for more than 35 years.

Self-publishing garners respect. Traditionally, when a book publishing CEO wrote a memoir, he or she would seek another publisher to release it so that the book would not appear to be a vanity work.

Times have changed. Self-publishing has become so recognized and legitimate that the vanity stigma from publishing your own Work has nearly disappeared.

Now that people know what self-publishing is, we find we have to reeducate the public to the fact that we are the real self-publishers and the other DotCom POD digital publishers are really just vanity publishers masquerading as us. They are trading on the good reputation we have built.

On the other hand, there are many digital printing companies. Most provide excellent prices, service and quality. They should refer to themselves as “book printers.”

For information on the choices for breaking into print, get the free Information Kit #2 on Publishing at http://parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/infokit.cfm

Many of the DotCom vanity publishers help people to produce their books for a few hundred dollars. The low cost of entry attracts literary talent from the bottom of the barrel. With so little to invest, most of these authors don’t verify their research and don’t invest in editors, typesetters, book designers or cover artists. Both authors and publishers of these poor-quality vanity-published books give all book publishing a bad name.

These POD vanity publishers are leaving a trial of unhappy customers. See the list of unresolved complaints to the Better Business Bureau.

Due diligence. Writing a book is a creative act; publishing a book is a business. Before trying anything new, people should get educated.

Anyone who’s been in publishing for a while can share a number of stories of people who stumbled and blundered into the book game without getting sufficient information first. These pioneers have made just about every mistake imaginable. Profit from their (temporary) failures: don’t repeat their painful lessons.

Remember that in any new field, especially book writing and publishing, others have blazed the trail for you.

The book industry is full of helpful and supportive people. It may be unexpected because this kind of camaraderie does not exist in other industries. The reason that book people are so helpful, friendly and supportive is that every book is unique. There is little to no competition in book publishing. When it comes to marketing books, we are conspirators not competitors.

Let’s respect historical and common definitions. We can protect the newcomers to book publishing by helping them to understand the difference between conventional publishers, self-publishers, book printers and the vanity/subsidy publishers.

Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual, is the “Godfather” to thousands of books. He has written more than 100 books since 1969. Dan is a past vice-president of the Publishers Marketing Association. For more information on book publishing and promoting, see http://ParaPub.com.

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

Self-publishing is not easy. Let’s get the myth out of the way right now. Just because you wrote a book, Oprah will not call, you aren’t going to see many big royalty checks in the mail, and you won’t be living some F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby party lifestyle where everyone hails you as a genius.

Being both publisher and author simultaneously is not the easy life. It’s a whole new level of work you’ve taken on. Not one job but many jobs.

Most authors never achieve success precisely because they are authors and can’t envision or motivate themselves into being more than just authors. Once the first book is published, an author just doesn’t turn to writing the second book. The self-published author needs to be a writer, but he or she is also a publisher, a marketer, a book delivery person, a salesperson, and usually the janitor too.

Having a day job and trying to promote your book at the same time is not easy, much less writing the next book. Self-publishing is time-consuming and wearing all those hats can leave you running ragged trying to keep track of everything.

The best advice I can offer is to make a list of your priorities and create a schedule for your various activities—those both necessary and enjoyable. And don’t overlook that you started doing all this because you love to write—if writing is what feeds your soul, schedule it in with your book promotion time.

Let’s say you are a married woman with a full-time job and two teenage children. You work 9-5 each day so you can’t block out that time. You’ve heard about authors who get up at 4:00am to write their books but you’re realistic and don’t want to mess with your sleep. Once you come home from work, you make dinner (your husband does the dishes), and some evenings you have family events. The important thing is to make a schedule and stick to it. Life will intervene; there will be school plays on Monday night when you usually write or your daughter’s soccer game irregularly scheduled on Thursday rather than Wednesday, but you can work around them.

Remember that Rome was not built in a day, and neither was your first book written that quickly. At the same time, you don’t need full days to work. You don’t even need full hours. You can be productive and still have a family life, time for yourself, and time to write. Bottom line, maybe you can only carve out two hours a night from 7-9, and not even every night. If that’s the best you can do, that’s great. Just make sure you do it. Even if it’s half an hour, it’s better than nothing. If you find marketing less fun than writing, reward yourself by doing the marketing first.

Here’s a sample schedule you might want to carve out:

Monday

7:00pm – send out mailings to libraries, bookstores, interested organizations.

8:00pm – work on next book.

Tuesday

7:00pm – promote book online at social networking sites. Post blog.

8:00pm – reply to emails (includes replying to customer orders, making contacts, participating in writing and publishing groups online).

Wednesday

Your daughter has soccer this night so you don’t get home until almost 8:00pm and work an hour later to catch up.

8:00pm – prepare to mail out book orders.

9:00pm – work on making media contacts, sending out press releases etc.

Thursday

7:00pm – post blog, reply to emails.

8:00pm – work on scheduling or preparing for upcoming book signings and speaking engagements.

Friday

7:00pm – prepare to mail out book orders.

8:00pm – use time to catch-up, or as free time to choose whatever you want to work on.

Saturday

12:00pm-4:00pm – work on next book.

4:00pm-5:00pm – post blog, reply to emails.

Sunday

12:00pm-2:00pm – write weekly blog entries, promote book at social networking sites.

2:00pm-4:00pm – work on next book.

This is just a sample schedule. Some of these activities may take more or less time than you initially plan. You may find yourself one evening spending two hours mailing out books you sold which cuts into your writing time, but the next week, you may only need thirty minutes to mail books and can regain the time. The important thing is to figure out what are the most important tasks to do and make sure they get done. Do not let your email, or other requests take you off course from your goals. Whatever your goal is for the day, do it first and then deal with whatever comes up or new ideas you have. At the same time, don’t let a goal such as mailing out press releases override spending that time being interviewed by the local newspaper. Be sure you understand the value of some interruptions. At the same time, if you find certain activities are not showing positive results, stop or lessen the degree you do them and turn to something that works for you.

Consider updating your schedule monthly or quarterly or even weekly, and also consider that you will have busy and slow times. In November and December, you may want to set aside writing your next book as you focus on promoting your book at Christmas time. Then in January and February, when book sales are slow, you can make up for time lost on writing your book. As time goes by, you’ll better understand the rhythm and the requirements of publishing and marketing and be better able to plan ahead.

You have a lot to do when you’re an author and publisher. You can’t do everything you want—no one can—so make sure you use your time and money wisely. If you’re good at doing graphic art and you enjoy designing your own business cards, that task may be worth your time. If fighting with your color printer is something you don’t enjoy, outsource your business cards to a printer company—it probably will be cheaper and less time-consuming for you. Perhaps maintaining your website takes you longer than it would a good web master so consider outsourcing that. Look at what you can afford to outsource, but also consider the value of your time. Time is money. How can you use your time to the best extent possible, both to save/earn you money and also so you do not end up feeling burnt out.

Don’t forget to give yourself a break now and then. If you’re tired and the best you can do is write on your laptop in your recliner in front of the TV and you only write 100 words that night, it’s better than nothing. If you have a lot to do, but your husband wants to take you out to dinner, don’t be afraid to say, “Yes” if you need a break for the evening, or if you won’t get home until 8. You can always work 8-10 instead, or maybe a good meal and some relaxation will make 8-9 more productive than 7-9 would have been otherwise. If your friend asks you out to the movie, I give you permission to go. I give you permission to have a life.

You’re an author and a publisher, but you’re also human. You’re in this business because you love writing books. Don’t forget that. Don’t make what should be fun into a chore. Do what you can today, but remember also, there’s always tomorrow.

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.

I think the answer is – it depends.

The truth is, if you self-publish a book and sell only 200 copies, an agent is going to have the same (if not worse) luck trying to sell subrights than they would for a traditionally published book that’s sold poorly. And if you’re querying an agent with those sales figures, they’re going to assume that you marketed the book the best that you could, and the result was a lack of interest. Clearly, this isn’t going to be a selling point. It might mean that it’s time to relook at your marketing strategy, the quality of your product, or your distribution method before you can attract an agent.

For an author that has had good to great sales, and wants to continue to self-publish, an agent would still be able to sell the book across different platforms, including audio and foreign rights. They may or may not help negotiate your contracts with distributors.

Ultimately though, we may find the role of an agency shift. Perhaps for the self-published author, the right agent would be one that is also marketing savvy. Since a self-published author’s marketing budget comes from their own pocket and not a publisher, it would behoove them to have someone to bounce marketing ideas off of, and help them decide where their marketing budget (be it time or money) would best be spent.

The largest literary and talent agencies, like William Morris and ICM, already have publicists on staff. But literary agencies may want to consider adding a publicist as well. Of course, this could get tricky. How would the publicist be paid? Would clients opt in or opt out for service? How could you track the success of the publicist? That said, if self-publishing becomes a bigger share of the market and agencies are selling subrights for their self-published authors, a publicist would certainly have the contacts that the self-published author wouldn’t. This could benefit both the agency and author in the long run.

Agencies might also expand their list of contacts to freelance editors, copyeditors, book designers and ebook converters. Agencies would be able to help their authors find the best services for their books, and perhaps negotiate work terms as well. I know some agencies are leery of crossing the agency/publisher divide, but I don’t think that this sort of service would cross any ethical barriers.

Digital and print-on-demand has certainly changed the game for authors, agencies and publishers. But both traditional and self-published authors benefit from having an advocate in their corner, in whatever form that may be!

Tracy Marchini is the author of PUB SPEAK: A WRITER’S DICTIONARY OF PUBLISHING TERMS. Before becoming an editorial consultant and freelance writer, she worked for a literary agency. You can find her on Twitter as @TracyMarchini and on her blog, www.tracymarchini.com.

Here is my perspective:

The traditional publishing process: Writer to Agent to Publisher to Printer to Distributor to Retailer to Consumer

Traditional vanity/self/subsidy publishing: You pay a company to print your books.

Today there may be nothing vain about Vanity Publishing. In the past it was a dismissive term justifiably used by the publishing community to describe small print run books that circumvented the traditional publishing process. In fact, Vanity Publishing is only half of the designation. The word vanity is by implication contrasted to the word merit; when vanity publishing is used, a lack of merit publishing is suggested. The inference is that vanity published books have no merit; while not required, a degree of snobbery was often attached to the valuation equation.

In the past, vanity publishers charged a significant fee and handed you a box of books which you gave to your mother or sold to your friends. They also served specialty markets for trade publications or in-house books. One of my uncles pioneered the business of fund raising cookbooks. It might be more accurate to describe them as book manufacturers; they did little or nothing to get a book to the public. Today what are often called vanity publishers list your book at international distributors like Ingram or Baker and Taylor who make it available to online and brick and mortar sellers around the globe. That does not mean anyone is going to buy your book, but you have extended the limits on possibilities. Do something that gets you on the national news and you will be an overnight success. Your book may also have an ISBN number and possibly even be included in the Library of Congress, which were previously the benchmarks of so called real books.

With POD (print on demand) options, no one is required to layout huge printing and distribution costs, all of that is subtracted from the retail price. Nothing happens until the consumer forks over the cash; the entire process is prepaid. There are no guarantees of success, but there also are few risks. As mentioned above, I worked more than twenty years in the wholesale/distribution end of the business; we shredded 50% to 70% of mass market books sent to stores and then returned from retail as unsold. Hardcover books are often pulled from sale and remainders are sold on bargain book tables for pennies on the dollar of the cover price. How’s that for the final resting place of your dream?

The emerging model is fiscally responsible and saves a lot of trees. There are still many vanity publishers that extract large sums of money from naive authors, but there is also a new breed that doesn’t. Depending on your skill level at writing, proofreading, editing, formatting and graphic design, and/or the talent of friends, you are able to publish a high quality book in print and/or electronic formats with no upfront expense.

In the old world paradigm the publisher bankrolled and therefore controlled the process. The publishing community set the standards and also fought the first amendment battles that shaped the book world we have today. We must all be eternally grateful for those accomplishments. However in a change that parallels digital music, online news feeds and social networking the access point for the writer to reach a retailer and/or consumer has shifted and been simplified. At Amazon.com or the Apple Store there is nothing that distinguishes a self/vanity/Indy published book from a mainline publisher one. Sadly that means a lot of crap gets ink. We truly do need to establish an independent rating standard for self published books before we will gain the respect of the traditional publishing community. On the upside, free speech has never been more accessible.

Most of the best and largest selling books are still and for the foreseeable future will be done by major publishing houses. Let’s be real here, there is nothing that says a self/vanity published book is equal in sales or impact on society… for now. Though, the average consumer does not care about the publishing, printing or distribution of a book. Where, how and for what price they consume are their highest priorities; all of which are affected by the medium and social acceptance and peer pressure.

The combined effect of millions of small authors may dwarf the influence of the few major ones in the very near future. If an ebook or POD book can find a market it has merit. If it has merit, perhaps it is no longer fair to call it vanity.

Chrystine Julian is workshop leader, business consultant, performer and poet based in the Inland Empire of Southern California. She blends creative talents and professional experience to offer a unique and memorable blend of excitement in her Mystic’s Guide to Dragon Riding, Team-Tribe team building with percussion, Talking Your Power public speaking sessions and other programs. More information about Chrystine is at http://www.ChrystineJulian.com or http://www.facebook.com/Chrystine.Julian. She can be reached by e-mail at ChrystineJulian@aol.com