Independent Book Publishing: How can I know how to get there, if I don't even know where I'm
- Morgan Zeitler
- Oct 31, 2016
- 3 min read
The answer is: Because you have some idea where you want to go, or you would not be online researching "Independent Book Publishing." Go to the head of the class.
Why publish your book yourself?
1. Because these days you are unlikely to interest a publisher in your book unless you are already famous. How's that for a catch-22?
2. Publishers will want the rights to your book, and will offer you a pittance for it. Don't take my word for this. Here is a blunt explanation of what this looks like, in dollars and cents:
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-new-world-of-publishing-the-real-price-of-traditional-publishing/
(Posted in June, 2015. Pay attention to the age of information you uncover in your research. Publishing advice gets out of date quickly, because the industry is changing daily and trying to adapt.)
3. A publisher will do little to help an unknown author, which means you will still have to do most or all of your own marketing.
Full disclosure time: DIY publishing is no bed of roses, either.
But, considering the alternative, this is the way to go if you want to see your book in print. Here is what you must be ready for:
1. You must be prepared to do your homework. This is not as bad as it sounds. There is a ton of advice for free on the web, and you can poke around any time you have a spare minute or, more practically, whenever you have a specific question. My effort here is to save you some time and get you off on the right foot.
2. There will be costs involved, costs you may never recover. My cost to produce the first fifty copies of the novel Dancing Blind was around $2500. Most of this went for publishing software licensing (Adobe InDesign), book printing by Ingram, ISBN pricing barcode numbers for the book cover, original cover art, website and domain name subscriptions, and overheard for supplies and utilities. More about all this later.
3. You accept that you are unlikely to sell many books through bookstores, at least at anything like a profit. However, you might conceivably at least recover your expenses, particularly if you vigorously promote your book and make your print book available on the web. Moreover, the real money, at least enough to hold your head up in public, is most likely to be made by selling your book as an eBook. This doesn't mean you should abandon print book publishing and jump right over to my eBook advice. Each method of making your book available to readers can help promote the other. But yes, the upfront costs for eBook publishing are significantly less, with a few caveats.
4. You accept that you are starting a small business, and are willing to keep some basic records. This means tracking your income and expenses so that you will know if you are succeeding or not, and so you can take advantage of expense deductions on your taxes. This will also keep you out of trouble, tax-wise. This also includes legal protections like copyrights, complying with state and local laws that may require you to register your business name or get a business license, etc.
However, you will have the satisfaction of running your own business, learning some new skills, and learning a lot more about the printing and publishing trade than if you paid a so-called "vanity press" a lot of money to "self-publish" your book. This is different. This is independent book publishing. For now, this is the future.
OK, so if you are still reading, from here on out, let's assume you still want to do publish your book yourself, because:
You want a to have at least an outside shot of earning some money for your hard work.
You want to have some control over what happens to your work.
You are willing to do the homework.
Congratulations. Step right up, but grab a piece of chalk.