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Book Marketing InformationA New Way to Publish
by:
Penny C. Sansevieri
These days, there are several route to get your book published. You can get an agent and go the traditional route, you can self-publish, or you can take advantage of a new form of publication called "print-on-demand" or POD.
What exactly is print-on-demand publishing? Think of it as self-publishing with a twist. It used to be, if you wanted to circumvent the traditional publication houses, you had to tackle everything from printers to cover designers, ISBNs (International Standard Book Number) to distribution. Feeling dizzy yet? Sure, there were besides self-publishing houses called vanity presses. They churned out just about 6,000 titles per year and the author paid anyplace
from $10,000 to $20,000 to publish his or her book. Cost alone was normally enough to discourage anyone who had not spent a great deal of time in the industry. Options were pretty limited, until the Computer network explosion occurred.
Enter the on-demand publisher. Now, for a borderline fee (usually from $159 to $1,500), you can see your book in print. Essentially, what you're doing is hiring a publisher to publish your book. They take care of the cover, the book interior, the ISBN, and the distribution. They are remunerated for this by receiving a portion of the profits every time you sell a book. You are remunerated through royalties and piece these do vary, they typically fall somewhere in the 18-20 percentage range per book. The great part just about POD publication is that the "on-demand" part enables them to print books as they are needed, meaning that person (probably you) won't get stuck with a garage full of books you can't get rid of. If you only sell 100 books, that's what they'll print. There are no minimum orders, and your book wish always stay in print.
To give you an idea of the scope of the on-demand publication industry, consider this: the typical big New Dynasty publisher prints just about eight hundred new titles a year. At last count, several of the print-on-demand publishers were doing five hundred a month. Early estimates indicate that POD publishers written
about half a million books in 2001. This year, there are indications that this industry wish hit the $78 billion market. These indicators tell us that the POD industry is growing at a pace no one anticipated. Why? Because the traditional publication field is narrowing. Only one percentage of books promulgated each year are by unpublished authors. Makes this low number tell us that there are fewer new authors out there? Perfectly not. What it tells us is that publication houses are cutting back, merging and no longer willing to take chances on untested material.
The challenge with this industry is that you can't get promulgated unless you're promulgated it's a cycle from which we all draw a bead on to escape. Now, we can. If you publish your book through a POD press, you are no longer considered a first-time promulgated author. That is, if you sell the book. You still have to market your book. But take heart. With shrinking publication budgets, you have to market your own book, no matter who publishes you. The hefty marketing budgets that used to accompany new releases are dwindling quickly.
So, let's say you publish your book through a POD publisher and you market it. You market it so well that you begin to garner interest from bigger publication houses. How galore books you need to sell is anyone's guess. Traditionally, the range has been between 5,000 and 8,000. Recently, however, Kensington Books (an imprint of Bastion Press) formed an alliance with POD giant iUniverse (www.iuniverse.com) to consider any book that oversubscribed over five hundred copies. By "consider," they mean they wish consider publication it. At five hundred copies, this levels the playing field considerably. If you've written a nice book and you market it effectively, you'll sell five hundred copies in the blink of an eye.
Publishers I've spoken to at several of the biggest houses in the industry (Time Warner, Simon & Schuster) promptly admit they watch these books really cautiously to see what's selling. By picking a book that is merchandising moderately well, the publisher knows two things: the book has found an audience, and the author knows how to market it.
Even if you don't get picked up traditionally, there's still hope. If you sell a reasonable figure of books and you still draw a bead on to a bigger publication house, you can include this 1st publication experience in your query letter.
How do you find these on-demand publishers? A list of several I've worked with follows this article, but who you pick wish depend entirely on you and the inevitably of your book. For some, it’s the turnaround time; for others, it’s whether or not they can print in hardcover. Generally, though, the final product should be your 1st consideration; distribution or shipping time should be second. Once you've narrowed your publishers down to two or three, a nice idea would-be be to order a book from each of them. This wish tell you two things. First, you'll get a sense for their ordering process and how quickly they ship the book to you, and second, you'll get a firsthand look at the quality of their books.
What just about the selection process? Do these publishers accept thing
that's sent to them? The answer is no. Piece the approval process is far less restrictive than traditional publishers and you don't need an agent, several POD publishers still have guidelines as to what they wish and won't consider. These guidelines vary from publisher to publisher, so you'll need to check their individual sites or contracts for specifics. Also, several publishers wish even as see the manuscript to determine the quality; if they feel the activity is so poor it's unmarketable, they wish turn it down.
While you're in the selection process, transfer
the publication company's publication contract and look it over carefully. You'll want to do sure a few things are in place before you sign on the dotted line. 1st off, be certain you're able to retain all the rights to your book (foreign, film, audio, hard cover, paperback, and ebook). This is extremely important. Ne'er
give or sell any of the rights away to a book you're publication through the POD process. Second, determine how quickly you can cancel this agreement. Ideally, cancellation should be immediate. Cancellation clauses wish benefit you if your book should get picked up by a traditional home or if you decide to switch publication companies.
Your time to market, meaning the time it takes them to format your manuscript into a book and get it available for sale, wish vary. Generally, you should see a completed book inside
ninety days, or in several cases, even as less. This turnaround is astounding once
you consider it takes a traditional home just about twelve to eighteen months to get a new title available for sale.
As with anything, there are drawbacks to this form of publishing. One of the biggest issues with print-on-demand is that there is a no-return policy in place for these books. Returns are a crucial part of doing retail business in the U.S. In fact, a humongous 35 percentage of merchandise purchased is returned. Still, authors are finding route about this issue. Several place books in specialty shops because these stores have a lower return factor. Others sell books on-line. Several bookstores wish even as carry a non-returnable book if the demand exists.
Secondly, this form of printing is much big-ticket than the traditional trade paperback model. Generally, POD books wish be priced higher. Their cost is often determined by the page count. As print-on-demand machines become much efficient and the per-page printing cost decline, POD book prices wish drop. Galore have already ablated well from wherever
they were a year ago.
Despite the obstacles, there are galore success stories emerging from this industry and galore much are finding their way to success everyday. Here are a few titles you mightiness recognize that were (or are) POD books:
· "Legally Blond" (AuthorHouse.com)
· "The Imbecile Girls' Action Adventure Club" (iUniverse) presently
on the New Dynasty Times bestseller list
· "The Pearls of the Stone Man" (Xlibris.com) was nominative for a Joseph pulitzer Prize in 2002
With on-demand publishing, what was once a dream can now be a reality.
In an industry that is saturated with exceptional talent, the advent of these publishers has afforded authors an chance that mightiness otherwise not be accessible to them. It is an chance millions are taking advantage of. For some, it's a way to finally see their book in print. For others it's a road to publication success.
Print-On-Demand Publishers:
http://www.iuniverse.com/
http://www.infinitypublishing.com
http://www.traffordpublishing.com
http://www.xlibris.com
Just just about the author:
Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was promulgated in Gregorian calendar month
of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed
the ranks at Amazon.com to the ##1 better merchandising book in San Diego. Her most recent book: No Much Rejections. Get Promulgated Today! was discharged in Gregorian calendar month
of 2002 to rave reviews. Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She besides coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of hunt on publication and promotion. To discover much just about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.comTo subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com
Copyright ã 2004 Penny C. Sansevieri
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