Well another golden opportunity to inflict upon the unsuspecting public an opinion piece of minor importance and yet great significance as long as you don't look too close or have more expertise than me. Based on my twenty five plus years of sale experience mixed with my year of book marketing savvy, I hope to help you understand and make sense of the ever changing world of book publishing.
If I were writing this, three months ago, I'd have a different perspective. Three months ago, I was thinking I had an agent, a publisher and I was on my way to literary greatness. However, I was being duped. The agent I thought I had impressed and had wanted to represent me, really was only looking to collect fees for editing, critiquing, proof reading, reviewing and reediting.
The Publisher that made me the offer to buy my book was working with the agent to collect still more fees. They are under investigation for fraudulent business practices; and they had seemed so interested in my work. I had thought I had this incredible book and that they were as happy with my style and writing abilities as I was. I believed that they'd help do a final edit and then it was on to literary stardom for me. I still dream of that, and I will get there, just not with that publisher. I discovered the editor, the one suggested by the agent, wasn't even reading my book. They sent me corrections that included characters I didn't have and a story line that wasn't mine. When questioned this, they stopped helping, but kept my money.
So after having my hopes dashed, it was back to sending out inquiry letters and making submissions, to overwhelmed Publishers, who take a year to eighteen months to publish. I'd just done that and discovered they were looking to collect fees, not to sell my book. I highly suggest that anything you send to anyone be highly polished, edited for content and context, so that what your sending them is the best you can do, because it's a money game and they don't want to work with anyone they have to invest too much in, whether it's time or money. Which brings me to the alternative.
Self publishing, what used to be called vanity publishing. To the traditional publishers in New York, LA or London, a self published book is a vanity book and it's definitely an inferior product. However, that may have been true twenty or thirty years or even months ago, it is not so today. I know of two books, self published that are being made into movies, big budget films. The vanity publishing genre has evolved into a profitable Print on Demand Publishing Industry.
The traditional publisher will handle everything for you and pay you for the privilege of selling your book, a whole, if you’re really hot, 20-22% of profit. On average it 12% and in many first time book authors cases it's 7%. If you self publish, your can receive any where from 30 to 70% of the profit, after the cost of printing and handling. Roughly, based on averages costs, you'll receive about three times the money as the best traditional contract will bring in, unless your well established and a big seller or a celebrity. You'll make three times the money, self publishing.
I wouldn't have done the research into the different ways I could be published, if I hadn't been duded so, I guess it was actually a good thing, because now I can make a better, more educated choice of how I wish to be published. The sales statistics show a dead heat between books marketed by the traditional publishers and those of the self published. Traditional Publishers do no put out big bucks for advances or to get you advertised, if your new and not a celebrity. You get lumped in the pile with the rest and its up to you to get reviews done and find ways to get the word out about your book. Nothing will happen as far as moeny expenditures go until you sell the magic number. That number could be 1,000 copies, 5,000 copies, or 10,000 copies or more. Until you hit whatever number they assign your book, you’re just like the self published authors. If your self published book, hits the magic number many times the big publishers come looking for you and then you just might get the big bucks contract, where all you do is write and sign a few books. But with the industry in such a state of flux that too may soon go the way of the old method of publishing, where you had no choice, unless you were rich but to wait on the big publishers to anoint you, author.
If you go with a good Print on Demand Publisher they will have the same distribution capabilities and opportunities as the traditional publishers so there is no advantage to having to jump through all of the hoops and be subjected to internal review after internal review and the long wait to be published as a new or fairly new writer. Usually anywhere from a year to eighteen months from the date you sign a contract.
So unless you have a dream of being with a New York Publisher because you've just got to have the prestige of it, self publish. I'll talk more about how to go about that soon but times are changing and the quicker you can get your quality product in front of the people, the readers, the sooner you'll start cashing your royalty checks. So now that you've decide to self publish, you now have to pick a self publishing publisher. We'll check that out next. What I think the do's and don’ts are what you can expect as far as costs go and some ideas to make sure it pays off in sales.
As with anything that you read, anywhere at anytime. Check the facts. Check it out and make sure the writer got it right, especially me.
Chris Keys-Write what you know, write it with passion-set the world on fire with your dreams!
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