The Publishing Season Part Two: Determining your Publication Path

The next step in “The Publishing Season” is to determine your publication path. In June, I instructed a course on this topic. I spoke about what publication path is best for you. Not every writer wants to have their book on shelves. Some would simply like their book to be printed into a few copies to give to family members. Some would like for it to just be an e-book. In the end it needs to be what you want and you need to make that decision before you go looking for publishing companies.
Determining the publication path is very important simply because each path is different. It might seem wise to publish your book through Print on Demand but it might not be the best choice for you and your book. So let's take a look at the difference between Print on demand and Traditional Publishing.
Print on demand is a "self publishing" company that you pay to print your work. The price range of self publishing is from $200-$3000 depending on what your work needs. Print on demand means that the company will only print books when they are ordered. The company will give you a set amount of author copies once your book is published and the rest you will need to purchase. The time frame for POD is about 6 weeks to a year. POD is known to be the fastest and easiest way to publish a book. It’s known to be the most unprofessional. When publishing through a POD company there is a chance that your work will not be high quality. Your cover could look dull or not very eye catching. The internal work may not have any editing. There's no guarantee that your book will be placed in bookstores and on their shelves. Most companies will supply the book to bookstores but may only be sold online. POD companies have add on packages that can make the cost of publishing your book more than you can handle.
*We’ll speak about packages later.
Traditional Publishing is a professional publishing company that does not take your money to print. Most likely they will pay you an advance for the book. Writers will lose most of the control of the book. But on the flip side, the publisher pays for editing, production, printing, promotion, distribution etc. This book is guaranteed to come out looking very professional. But there is a possibility that it could take years before a company actually accepts you. These companies take long processing journeys before accepting an author. They look for authors to submit proposals which normally take an additional month to prepare the proposal and send it in. They are very particular in the authors they pick. When all is said and done it will take about two years to get the book in stores. Traditional publishing is the way to go if you are looking to get your book in stores, on shelves and get the public’s attention. It will take much longer to get there and it will be much harder then Self-Publishing. The most important question is do you want your book in stores now or will you wait for your big break?
Every writer has unique things that their book must have or should I say their publishing company must have. Some authors are looking for a company that has great quality in designing a cover. Some authors need great editors. Other authors need great illustrators for the many pictures to go in their book. No matter what you need, you need something and that could be the deal breaker for you when it comes to choosing your publication company.
In most POD compaies they offer packages. These are add on packages that do not come with the base pay of your book. It may cost $299 to publish the book but that may not include editing, marketing and you may only get 2 authors copies. Well then you must ask yourself, is that enough? If not, you may want to look at the next higher up package that is $599. It may include editing, custom book cover design, e-book package (we will discuss this later) but no marketing package and this time you get 5 author copies. Is that enough? While looking at what is needed for your book, keep in mind that you still have a base pay that will be added to the other amounts. This is where Print on Demand gets tricky. You need to determine if you have the money to pay for all of this. It’s like buying a house. You will have to give and take. You may get a great location but very small square footage. What is important to you?
With Traditional publishing, everything sounds so wonderful there. You can get an advance, they do all the work and your book is put into the stores. Well what about the fact that you lose control of your book. The editor of the company may make you change the title of the book or change a few chapters around. They may also make you wait a year before putting the book on shelves. But what can you do, you’ve already signed the contract so it’s in their hands, right?
An e-book is an electronic book. A lot of people have used this option to download it to their computer or PDA’s. E-book publishing normally comes with the package of regular book publishing and may only cost the customer $5-$10 depending on how big the book is.
My opinion is it’s not necessary to include this package unless you really need it. If you feel like its not necessary to have it in your package don’t get it and if you think your readers will not buy this type of book, don’t get it.
A lot of readers now a days still like to read a book the good old fashion way; by holding it in the hands, literally!
The downside of e-book is your eyes get tired when sitting at a computer for hours trying to read a book. You get uncomfortable and your back could hurt. When holding a book in your hand, you can go anywhere and get comfortable. The choice is yours if you really need it but if your company does offer it for no extra charge, it’s a great option.
You have to remember the economy is in a financial crisis. We must consider the amount of money we put into everything. What if you pay $1300 for your book to get published but you only make $500 back in 1-2 years? You are then losing money.
This is where authors and writers become their own editors, they begin their own publishing companies (Which can be very expensive too) they learn to advertise themselves and become their own PR and marketer. But do you have the skills to do all of that. Can you really work your book good enough to get it out there like a traditional publishing company would do?
All of these questions are questions you must ask yourself. My personal advice to you at this stage is if you are in the beginning stages of publishing, you’ve never published a book before, do not put thousands of dollars into a book when you do not know how much money you will get back from your sales. And if you feel like you can handle the wait, the stress and process of traditional publishing, then go for it. But keep in mind this is your work and only you know how it should be published and only you know what you want.
Once you have determined your publication path and you have found a few companies you are interested in, make sure they offer what you want and can make your book come to life the way you see fit.
Stay tuned for Part Three: Creating a proposal
Tips for you to think about:
·Now that you know what POD and Traditional publishing are, what do you think is best for you? ·Have you considered finances?
·What exactly does your company need to offer you?
Before we end today's blog...
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Signing Off,
Dominique Watson