Prior to printing the book, the following components are very important so that the book can stay on bookstore and library shelves: (1) an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) which is actually the book's social security number for identification purposes; to get this, one should fill out some forms from the R.R. Bowker Company (for US citizens) or from the National Library of the Philippines (for Filipinos), pay the fee (a couple hundred dollars), (2) a Library of Congress catalog number to get the book into libraries (a bigger market), (3) an EAN or a European Article Number, a UPC bar code scanning symbol made especially for books, (4) the book price, so you can print it on the book cover as well; traditional wisdom tells us that a book should cost at least 5 times the cost of each book in the initial production/printing (go average or higher than competition), (5) endorsements or blurbs solicited from other writers or known book critic for the back cover, and (6) the front and back material such as preface, table of contents, copyright page, acknowledgements, author biography, among others.
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MAY'S JOURNAL
August 2nd, 2008
My Self Publishing Plans POSTED AT 10:58 AM in My Life and what's left of it..., Writing for sanity's sake as a favorite post I logged in to my mylot account this morning and got perked up with one discussion started by one member (tanniebabe78) regarding books and publishing. Her discussion was titled: Publishing house or self published?. She then goes on asking others what would they choose and why. She have been in favor of having a publishing house do the stuff for her but she changed her mind. Most of the reasons she gave was on "proprietory issues" like an editor might want to change her title and sorta like "own it" for the promise of making it a best seller. She also shared that Dean Koontz and Stephen King self-published their books because publishers were tying to bully them into changing titles and sticking into a certain classification of book. Shucks! I would have to self-publish then (if ever)! I know I just got started with my book but hey! I better give this some thorough thinking as well, right? This is an important part as well. I mean, why write a book if no one's get to read it? Well, someone responded on that discussion and she had a few books on a self publishing site lulu.com. Oh there are so many self-publishing sites out there who offers different programs and benefits like selfpublishing.com, among others. I tried creating an account in lulu.com this morning and I think the site is cool for a newbie like me. I visited selfpublishing.com as well and I like the way they wanna educate would-be self publishers first before they plunge into it. There are actually so many available information in the web regarding self publishing. I digged this morning and I'm sharing it to you now (in case you want to self-publish like me). So here's the whole enchilada: Self Publishing is like a Dream Come True Yes, for writers and frustrated writers (like me), self publishing is a real cool and captivating option. It's one of those not-so-many solutions in getting your work across a wide variety of readers, helping you on your goal to educate others about life and making a name for yourself as well (not to mention earn from it!). But it's of a greater perspective to writers because it gives them the sense of "control" over their literary works, that instead of just writing the content she created the book as a whole -- a very satisfying concept of authoring a book. I'm sure it's not as easy as it sounds but well, nothing comes easy nowadays... The concept behind Self Publishing So, what does self publishing litearary means? Basically, it means that after writing the book, one must also take care of everything that a publishing house like Random House, Wiley, Bantam and others are set to do. Meaning, the writer alone will have the sole responsibilty in producing copies of books and distribute them to readers through a bookstore. But it doesn't necessarily mean that the writer herself would have to run her own printing press or bookshop. Of course, she can get any help she wants but she'll have to finance the entire project in order to produce and sell her product: her book. The self publishing writer should strive to break-even over time and of course take some profit. Thus, the concept can be categorized into three general steps: (1) Write, edit and illustrate the book, (2) Prepare the book for printing and have it printed, and (3) Sell the book. Piece of cake? We'll see...
Publishing: Dissected Self publishing is like operating a small business. Meaning, just like other businesses, (1) one must decide on a business name (be sure to check publications to see if your proposed business name is already existing and thus used by others and that it must contain the word "Publisher" or "Press" or "Books" for clarity), (2) have the business registered/licensed, depending on local rules and regulations, (3) design the business logo, (4) open a bank account dedicated to the business, (5) create business letterhead and cards (6) create and publish a website for the business, and (7) get a post office box for business mails. You must also take care of tax and tax deductions since you're more likely to be working/writing at home. The Book as a Whole
One can write about anything she wants but if money is at stake, the book must be more than just a literary contribution or a work of art, it should sell as well. Meaning, one must make sure she gets a group of readers who'll be interested in her subject. So what sells? Well, this is a highly debatable issue so we really can't dwell into the complexity of that issue right now, it's a very individualistic process that each self publisher should go through. Thus, one must go through the following stages: (1) see what kind of books sell, one can check through Amazon rankings for example (2) envision the book as an actual, physical product -- its binding, size, pages, cost and more. (3) choose a topic that never goes out of style, something that readers are still likely to pick years after it first came out (4) also make sure that the topic is universal and appealing to a very large market, and (5) see if you can come up with a topic that can sell in the speciality retail channel as well.
The Content
After one is decided in the type of book she wants to write, as well as more or less covered the whole aspect of the book, one then busies herself in writing. Others would want to shut themselves from the world, write and write, then edit/proofread the manuscript thereafter. One can also hire a freelance development editor to do the proofreading and editing part if she wants to. But hiring one could be costly, it will help you save time however.
The Reinforcements
The Book and Everything in it
Prior to Printing
Printing your Book
Printing Press/Book Manufacturer shopping/researching is the next step. One must ask for a quotation that the manufacturer will honor for 30-90 days as well as samples of their printed products. The more manufacturers to choose from, the wider the options one can get, so be sure to compare and contrast the offers. Before asking for a quote however, one must already certain of the number of books to be printed; the more books to print, the lower the price. But one must never over-estimate, because everything might not be converted to profit. (Most self publishers go for 1000-5000 books) Prior to final printing, one must ask for print proofs, this will give you the opportunity to final check the before printing the book. Errors found could either be a printer's error or author's adjustment (your own error and you may have to pay for it extra). Galleys (bound advance versions) can be printed at this point for advance marketing, then the printer can create the entire run of the book and ship the copies to your indicated address.
Marketing your Book
Selling your Book
On the day that the book is out for selling, one major goal is get people to buy the book. Thus, it is but important to take care of the following major customers: (1) Independent and established bookstores, (2) Wholesalers who deliver books to many bookstores, (3) Distributors who purchase books to resell them to bookstores, (4) Exclusive Distributors who will control everything about selling the book in exchange for an exclusive distribution rights, and (5) Online Sellers. One must consider at this point three concepts: discounts, returns and billing; thus, terms and conditions in selling/distributing the book is of utmost importance. Example of these terms are as follows: (1) Independent bookstores get 40% off the price in general, (2) Wholesalers and Distributors get 50-55% off the price in general and (3) Exclusive Distributors get 62-67% off the price in general.
Everything begins in writing actually, when one sits down and put her ideas into words. The rewards of self-publishing are generally reaped after all the aforementioned work is done, when initial costs are recouped, every book printed is converted to money and at least thousands of people (as in thousands of copies) knows of your name and writing abilities. Therefore, if one wants to publish her book, it doesn't hurt to educate herself with the publishing stuff even before writing that first draft!
Listening to: Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper Feeling: excited Share your thoughts here.
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