“So What Have You Done About It Today?”
Richard Neumann
Stone In The Surf Press
Why Publish?
Why Become An Indie Publisher?
This is an easy question to answer. Why publish? Because you can. Today like no other time in the history of the printed word, has there been such an incredible opportunity to share you story with the world. For the price of taking a family of four to Disneyland for the weekend, you can be published. Is it really that simple? No. But, if you begin this journey with false expectations of time, money and your own definition of success, it can be a long, costly and very disappointing process. If you approach it with a good understanding of the process, a reasonable time and money budget and it can be very rewarding. In the following section I have tried to lay out some basics on how to become your own “Indie” press. I don’t proclaim to be an expert nor wildly financially successful. I still work a day job. I have published three, going on four books, a handful of stage plays and a few articles for the local paper. Certain things worked for me and other didn’t. This doesn’t mean a different combination of story, printer, distributor, fulfillment, marketing and sales won’t work better for your book and your audience. But, as I tell my son, it never hurts to learn a bit about what others have tried on this same path.
"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment.
The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
One could always stockpile one's rejections with the view to breaking
the world's record which, according
to the Guinness Book Of World Records, stands at 106 received for
World Government Crusade
by Gilbert Young.
Lee Pennington, a well-published magazine writer, papered a room (all
four walls) with the rejection
slips he received in a six-month period. "If a writer finds that
collecting enough to paper a room is too
overwhelming or depressing, he/she might consider gathering enough to
paper a lampshade, laminate a
coffee table, or a wastebasket. The latter project might be especially
appropriate."
Thoughts On Writing
GOAL
To have your story printed and bound as a book and available to any bookstore or
any person in the world.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote this section before I developed the iPub concept. Since this piece was written the two largest POD's merged (giving many hardworking folks on the loosing side a "career enhancement opportunity" as Cisco likes to call their layoffs. In the last two years I have learned a lot, made a few more mistakes, invented one or two new ones and come to the realization that all of the pieces now exist to easily become an indie. I experimented with the process with When The Force Isn't With You and found it to work surprisingly well. The information below is still relevant, I just felt it needed a bit of explanation as to why it doesn't exactly jive with the main page of this site. A 400 year old industry has changed that much in two years.
Taditional vs POD vs Indie
Which is right for you? It will all depend on your circumstances, time, resources and abilities. It’s like a person who decides to remodel a bathroom. Some do-it-yourselfers can do everything, others will hang cabinets and hire out the plumbing and others will hire a contactor who can do it all. You are the only person who can make that decision. My goal is to give you some help deciding which option to take.
Although the odds are very small, I think every author should submit their work to a traditional publishing house or agent. I would suggest doing your homework and picking ten publishers and ten agents to send your work to. While waiting the next six to nine months for their reply, you can be working on and probably have in print your story. Nothing you do during that time will hinder the process of approaching a traditional publisher. And, in some cases the marketing work you do can only help to show them that there is interest in your book. It will also show the publisher that they are working with a person who is dedicated to their work. This has value to them, because they know you will do talk shows and signings and festivals to help them sell you story. That is a plus.
{section on traditional}
POD or Indie
I will make a bold statement here that I am certain is a sweeping generality and should be treated as such. If you only have one story that you wish to publish. Then I would seriously suggest you go the route of a POD – Publish On Demand service. There are many good ones out there and like any one-stop service, you will need to research each one carefully and make the best decision for you. If, like myself you have more than one title and want greater control over your work, then the route of and Indie is probably the right choice. It will require more work and more involvement, but for me, being able to control more aspects of the process are worth the additional effort.
Key Points of Consideration of a POD
There are many companies that will print your book and get you into the market, but it can be very confusing when trying to figure out which is the best. What I do in these situations is to make a list of the things that are important in making my decision, and let the other items fall below that. Then I call as many companies as I can and compare their answers. No one company will ever provide everything I want, but this allows me to make the best choice. It’s like buying a car, everything is negotiable. They want to sell you a service and the sales reps have room to deal. But like buying a car, you have to do your negotiating up front, it’s impossible to renegotiate the price or the options once you’ve driven off the lot.
Two items are very important in deciding on a POD. Will their system allow bookstores to return books? And if so at what cost to you? Under Industry economics, I discuss why bookstores won’t stock books unless they can return and why most POD’s don’t meet that criteria or do at a significant cost to you. The next is the issue that I continually bump heads with them on, initial copies. POD’s will generally give you a few books as part of the package. I think with mine I got 3. You’ll need at least 100 – see marketing. For Charlie’s Treasures, I allotted 1,000 copies as promotional stock. If you think that’s high, start thinking about how many reviewers, radio stations, television programs, bookstores, etc you would like to market your book to. You can rack up 100 very quickly. If I buy copies at “author’s price”, I pay $7.00 for The Chronicles of Adrian Smith. That’s $700!. I could have 250 copies printed of the book for that price if I went Indie.
Once you find a POD it is important to realize that they make their money form you NOT from the sales of your book. They will bombard you with offers to place adds for you and put your book in their catalog. It all sounds very exciting. Do the math. You know your story, you know best who your audience is going to be. If they offer to sell you ad space for $1,200 and you make $1.00 per book, you have to sell 1,200 copies just to break even. That’s a lot of books. Ask the tough questions, where will my book be positioned in the ad? Where in the publication will the add appear? On what day? Who receives the ad? How many will be sent out? And, (this will probably stop them in their tracks) what is the historic sell through? Since the books they advertise are all their customers they do know what kind of traction their ads get. They should be able to tell you, on the average this ad generates 500 sales per title, or what ever the number is. They should also give you names and contact information for previous authors who have used their ad. If not, ask for a copy, look up the authors who have works similar to yours and contact them. Highly targeted advertising works. If you have written a cook book for children and this ad will go to every elementary school in the US this could be a very good thing. If on the other hand it will go to general distribution or bass fisherman of Canada, probably not so good. The key here is to ask a lot of questions. If they seem too squirmy or don’t give you answers – that’s a sign you should be very cautious. Remember if you call any publication, they can usually tell you their circulation, demographics about their readers and give you references to their clients. What they sell is exposure for people who advertise, POD’s should do the same.
One more side note, often times they will send out a “press release” about your book. You should have control over every recipient on that list and have input into who you want that release to go to. When my press release went out it was sent to radio station in the greater San Francisco by area. All well and good, except that the bay area is rather culturally diverse. I’m not sure that an historic/science fiction/romance would have as much interest to a targeted Chinese speaking audience as it may have perhaps somewhere else.
It is important to remember that even with a “one stop shop” you must be involved as much as possible to get the most from your investment. Know one will care as much about the success of your story as you will. Be informed.
What To Look for In a POD
How long have they been in business
Number of clients
Format they print in
Hard bound
Trade Paperback
Print Sizes
6x9
8x10
4.5x6
Do they provide Copyright
Do you own
Cost
Do they provide an ISBN
Do you own (meaning is it transferable)
Cost
Can you provide your own?
Do they provide a UPC
Do you own (meaning is it transferable)
Cost
Can you provide your own
Will you book be available through Ingram and Baker & Tayler?
Will they allow returns
Cost
Do they handle all of the wholesale distribution
Do they handle all of the retail fulfillment
Manuscript submission
Template?
Word Format
Cost of conversion
Illustrations
Cost
Format
Conversion
Cover Art
Do you control
Template
Formats
Cost
Retail Price
Your Royalty
Payment schedules
Author’s Cost per book
Marketing Copies
Mailing/Announcements
Do you have input/control
Timeline Start to Finish
On going costs
Monthly
Annually
Total Costs
Once you choose to go POD or indie, you should also check out my section on marketing. You will be the greatest force behind the success of your book.
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