Our interview with Allan Cobb on 4/13/ is a great tutorial on Print on Demand publishing. Allen did everything himself and got his first 50 books for a total investment of $300. He breaks down all the costs, right down to shipping. He also discusses the pros and cons of self-publishing verses traditional publishing, purchasing ISBN numbers, listing yourself on Amazon, and much more. If you’re looking into self-publishing, this is interview is a must-listen.
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Pay-to-Publish companies can have an array of contracts and services. They all require money from the writer to print the book, but they often do some marketing, retain rights to the book, and take a percentage of proceeds. They may give the writer a few complimentary copies and sell books to the writer at a discount. In some cases, you pay at the front end to be published and marketed, and you pay again to get copies of your book.
Print-On-Demand companies are pay-to-publish companies who are set up to do very small runs of a book. This means that the initial total cost can be much lower, but the price per book is much higher. This usually means that the selling price of the book needs to be much higher to cover the printing cost.
My research for this project will yield a self-publisher comparison chart that I’m looking forward to sharing on the site.
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When a royalty publisher considers taking a risk on an author, an already established fan base and track record of book sales is a big plus.
I remember when, in music circles, self-produced CDs were known as “coasters”, anticipating the eventual fate of those stacks of CDs most of us had of our own work. But now, the tables have turned, and producing your own CD is an important step in getting a record deal. Record companies woke up to the idea that they needn’t risk millions of dollars on new artists when they could select from self-produced artists with an established fan base and already impressive record sales. Why gamble when you can invest in a sure thing? I saw this first hand when I travelled with a friend to Nashville for a meeting with a major record label. The label was very interested in her work and encouraged her to keep writing, and to contact them again when she had reached 50,000 sales on her own.
This wouldn’t have been possible in the past, but in both music and writing, this is now possible, and for many artists, it is the way to go. Among successful “self-published” authors are Mark-Twain, Mary Baker Eddy, and Deepak Chopra.
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A little time on Google yields an important, but often misunderstood fact of self-publishing. We often apply the term “self-publishing” to any kind of non-traditional, pay-to-publish publishing. However, true self-publishing means that you buy the ISBN number and bar code for the book. The ISBN number is the “International Standard Book Number” that is assigned to every newly published book. Even E-books often have ISBN numbers to give them credibility and open additional sales avenues. In order to buy an ISBN number, you have to register a business name. So, the true self-publisher starts his or her own publishing company.
It’s easy to see why we still apply the term self-publishing to pay-to-publish publishing. I mean, who wants to say, “So, did you go with a regular pay-to-publish publisher, or was it print-on-demand pay-to-publish publisher?” And certainly, nobody wants to call these options “vanity” publishing any more. The industry has changed, and paying to publish can be a very smart step for authors.
The same situation is true in the music industry. A truly “self-produced” CD would be one where you did the recording and editing yourself, hiring someone to record you produces a “Vanity Record”, and it used to be that only a record contract was considered “serious”.
That just isn’t so any more, and since there is no better catch-all term for hiring a publisher (or recording studio), I still prefer to use the terms “self-published” and “self-produced”. The important thing is that the prospective self-published author knows that doing it all him/herself is an option, right down to getting the isbn number.
If a person has a book and wants to get it out there, here are the basic options:
1. Self-Publishing
2. Pay-to-Print Publishing (“vanity” or “subsidy” publishing)
3. Contract with Traditional Royalty Publisher
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I’m about to embark on a project, and I’d like to invite you to share the journey with me. I’m going to go through the process of “self-publishing” a book. Although I’ve heard dozens of stories from authors we’ve interviewed on Writers’ Voices, I’ve never personally gone through the process of publishing a book. Hopefully my “beginner’s mind” perspective will make my journal a useful tutorial for others.
The book I’m working on publishing is a young adult fantasy novel called Color Changer. It was written by Monica Hadley, President and Founder of Writers’ Voices.
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