Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
As a writer surveys the landscape of traditional publishing vs self-publishing, which is the best choice? That depends…Let’s take a look today at what self-publishing has to offer.
Emphasis on “self”
Self-publishing puts the onus on the writer to: pay for the publishing process, get the word out about the book’s availability, and distribute the book. Picture your car displaced in the garage by boxes of books. Whatever will you do with all of them? Self-publishing is so named because the responsibility of finding a place to store the books, to locate buyers, and to send the books to those buyers falls on “self’s” shoulders.
A book in search of an audience
If you think you have an idea worthy of The Shack’s sales, just keep in mind that even if you wrote a book that had a significant audience, in self-publishing, it’s the writer’s job to find that audience. The author of The Shack first attempted to convince a traditional publisher to produce his book; when that failed, he turned to publishing the volume himself. His ability to meet the tsunami of demand for the book is testimony to his management skills. Eventually he signed a distribution agreement with Faith Words, a traditional publisher, presumably because he realized that a traditional publisher could distribute his best-selling book to venues he didn’t have the ability to reach. But the reality is, few writers will connect with millions of readers, and those who have created such a book are unlikely to know how to find the readers who are pining to buy the book.
When to say “yes” to self-publishing
Ultimately, the determination to self-publish needs to be made when the following conditions are met:
–You have the funds to publish the book.
–You have the storage space for the thousands of copies that will be delivered to your doorstep.
–You have the ability to reach the book’s audience. One of my client’s self-published several books on Huntington’s Disease because she spoke regularly to audiences either afflicted with the ailment, caregivers of those afflicted, or medical staff. This built-in audience made it reasonable for her to self-publish since most traditional publishers wouldn’t be able to reach this segment of readers, but she could. Another individual I know chose to self-publish his book on dieting because he figured he could make more for each copy sold than he could if he were paid a royalty. He was absolutely correct in his math; but he was incorrect in that he had no distribution channel to reach the overweight individuals in need of his dieting plan. I’m willing to bet his house still, years later, overfloweth with copies of his perfectly good book.
–You are willing and able to aggressively publicize your book. You are, after all, the publisher of the volume; so all the responsibilities–and rewards–of being a publisher default to you.
–You create a business plan rather than pie-in-the sky, eyes-closed-to-reality publish the book yourself. Costs are inherent in self-publishing; be prepared to confront the business side of the venture. The nice aspect of self-publishing is that you will make far more for each book sold than you can publishing via a royalty-paying publishing. But, the vast majority of those who self-publish lose money rather than make it because they didn’t create a business plan and weren’t realistic about the funds and focus it would take to find readers beyond friends and family.
Tomorrow Kathleen will present her Marketing Matters post. I’ll be back Thursday to take a look at royalty-paying publishing and its pros and cons.
What about self-publishing an ebook? No inventory, no distributions costs (well, almost none) – it seems to eliminate some of the downsides of self-publishing.
Comments such as “Picture your car displaced in the garage by boxes of books” and “You have the storage space for the thousands of copies that will be delivered to your doorstep” are inaccurate, misleading, irresponsible, unnecessarily discouraging, and years out of date.
Print-On-Demand eliminates the piles of unsold books and greatly reduces the risk and cost of self-publishing.
“send the books to those buyers falls on “self’s” shoulders” is similarly out of touch with reality.
With P-O-D, readers order books online or from a physical bookstore, and then the P-O-D printer ships the books.
The self-publishing author never has to see them or touch them, except for proofs, and books ordered for gifts or to send out for reviewing.
Point well-taken regarding print-on-demand, which certainly makes self-publishing a more enticing route to go than even a few years ago. Publicizing your book is still a downside, although blogs, twitter, and Facebook also are changing the landscape for the self-published writer.
But, having just returned from two writers conferences where questions and comments about self-publishing abounded, I have to say that most writers don’t know how to utilize the resources available to those who self-publish, including considering print-on-demand. Regardless how you frame it, self-publishing isn’t the same as going with a traditional publishing house, which takes the lion’s share of the risks in producing and selling your book (and the lion’s share of the expenses and profit). One of the disturbing trends to me is that self-publishing and traditional publishing are being equated, which is just plain inaccurate.
For those who used print-on-demand, let’s hear how your experiences went.
I have to agree with Michael’s comment wholeheartedly. Print On Demand has a lot to offer, and alleviates much of the tedium associated with postage, packaging and distribution. Like Mike said, “the author doesn’t even have to touch the book…” Although you were right when you said, “most writers don’t know how to use the resources available to them…” That’s if they even know they exist.
I am kinda in the process of self-publishing but am thinking of abandoning the project with that particular SP for the meantime and maybe taking it up elsewhere; mainly because of the compete lack of professionalism and inability to communicate and basically hold up their end of the deal. And this was apparently quite a respectable self-publisher with enough history.
The prices were relative though, and it wasn’t much more than a weeks wages. The options were there for pre and post publication services, you know, editing, marketing etc. But I’d say that much of the marketing and publicity options would be pretty limited.
My issue however was with the BS I was given as answers to many questions. It was inaccurate and my publishing advisor omitted much of the facts from the final answer, which, in the end would’ve given me a completely different perspective on things.
I’d suggest to any writer looking to self-publish to research as many avenues as they can and compare notes because at the end of the day self-publishers are in it to make a sale and will tell you what it is you want to hear and not what you need to hear.
If you want a actual price on what I spent, basically it was £675GBP. As I said, I felt it was a fairly relative price, but there are places that can do it cheaper, and online self-publishers that will do it for free.
Research whatever avenue you take well…
Thanks for your insights, Billy Boy. You’re absolutely correct that careful research is important before selecting a self-publishing venue. If you know others who have self-publishing experience, it would be good to find out what worked and didn’t work for them with the publisher they selected.