The Advantages of Self-Publishing - Part II

Self-publishing has vastly improved over the past decade. The quality of the printed books, the formatting, book cover design, and feel, give self-published books the look and the pricing of royalty publishing. Depending upon how much you can do for yourself, you should reap a greater profit.

Niche books sell the best. Non-fiction religious books have a nice built-in appeal. Books on self-improvement do well. How-to books can be winners. In fact, books on self-publishing are among the biggest self-publishing sellers. Fiction writers have to be able to find and reach their audience. Unfortunately, this is a huge problem, since genre writers can find each other far easier than they can find readers. Hence, we receive and delete thousands of emails a month trying to sell each other our stuff. lol

If you are a serious author, you must have patience. Don't expect to sell a thousand copies the first month. In 2006 Publisher's Weekly estimated the average book sold 500 copies in the first year. With today's economy, the average has dropped to closer to 250, and less than 3000 in its lifetime. Put your book out on the market and market consistently and persistently.

Okay, if you are consistent and persistent, self-published authors have an advantage. The publisher can't Backlist your book for poor sales. Typical houses pull novels off the shelves after eighteen months. A new author needs more than eighteen months to build a following, a platform, and generate a readership. The lifespan of a self-published book is unlimited. Score a point for self-publishing. Don't give up.

Enough for today, I'll be back with Part III in a few days.

Link to Room 1515 sales on Amazon.

Amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/179-1218424-9234869?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Bill+Wetterman&x=17&y=25

Advantages of Self-Publishing - Part 1

Before I begin my second series on self-publishing, you need to know I will present both sides of the issue, the pluses and the minuses. In fact, most of the points I'll bring up can be looked at as an either or, depending on people's situations and opinions.

Advantage 1. Your book will be available in a matter of weeks, not a couple of years. I chose my publisher on January 9, 2012 and my book, Room 1515, came out February 22, 2012. Unless you are an infamous celebrity, you will search for months, maybe years, for an agent. The agent is not a magic genie. He or she may never sell your book to a publisher. Once the book is sold, you will get in line with the publisher's schedule, an average time of another year to publication. I'M RETIRED. I COULD DIE BEFORE THIS ROUTE PAYS OFF. Just saying.

Advantage 2. Timeliness: If you're writing about a hot topic or in a hot genre today, will that genre or topic be so hot two to three years from now? One month, I think you're safe. Three years, you've missed the bus. Fact: eBooks have changed the ballgame. Today, to publish in one month is a reality.

Advantage 3: Control and Rights: A well researched, self-published author retains the rights to the product and its uses--foreign sales, movies, and television. Note: The percentage of self-published books being made into a movie is minuscule. The author controls the content and the cover design. There is no editor demanding you rewrite whole sections of your book. THIS COULD BE A REAL NEGATIVE IF YOUR WORK NEEDS CORRECTION. lol

Enough for now, below is the link to my novel. The topic is timely. International politics, betrayal, seduction, and romance. plus nasty villains and a lot of action.

Amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/179-1218424-9234869?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Bill+Wetterman&x=17&y=25

Beware of Pricey Extras

As I've said in past posts, if you are going to self-publish, you need to create everything you can yourself. Then you pick a package that provides the rest. You need to know your rights. What do you own the rights to do? What is owned by the publisher? Can you set your own prices?

I have a friend who went with a recognizable POD publisher. That publisher set the price of the paperback and the hardcover books. My friend had no say. She was priced way out of range and had difficulty selling those books, except for the meager few free copies she was sent. Who is paying $22.00  for a paperback and $33.00 for a hard copy today? She has changed publishers now, but that's a hard lesson to learn.

In my case, I was given the publisher's cost, plus shipping, as a zero profit figure. I was then able to price both my eBook and paperback with a reasonable margin. However, it's the pricey extras that will kill you. I compared one (they shall remain nameless) publisher's low cost option to their first step up program. The difference was $800. What did the author get for $800? The author's book was made available in an overpriced hard copy book, one-hundred copies of promotional materials, and the Look Inside the Book  feature on Nook and Kindle. You can design and have all the promotional materials printed for around $160. Many publishers offer the Look Inside the Book feature at no charge. Remember, overpriced hard copies don't sell.

Shop around. Read the whole contract and all the instructions before you sign up. How many books do you have to sell to earn the extra $800.00 in profit? The add-ons can go as high as $10,000. But it's only money. Right?

Remember, my book Room 1515 is now out in paperback and eBook. Here's the trailer if you haven't seen it.

Self-Publishing-Part 2

Research Permissions and Obtain Them

Not all that says free is free. An author can't see a neat photo online and decide to use it. You have to get permission. There is heavy research involved to find out what you can use free and what you can't. My book cover and my book trailer are excellent examples. A free photo has limited use. So even using a free photo website, be prepared to spend money.

If the photo is going in a YouTube trailer, you have to review the various contracts regarding the photo's use. There are standard contracts, extended use contracts, and multi-user contracts. The globe and gold bars photo I use in the trailer costs more than the others, because I use it on the book cover, my business cards, and bookmarks, as well.

You can't assume music can be used without permission. I use Mahler's 1st Symphony in my trailer. Mahler's been dead for a century, surely he won't mind. Ah, not the case. Production companies have copyrights. Performing artists have copyrights. You have to submit your intent to use their work and receive permission. All totaled, I paid right at one-hundred dollars to clear all of the copyright agreements. And I have peace of mind. I did the right thing.

When you self-publish, you have the responsibility for everything. You can't point the finger and say, "The publisher missed the word 'form.' The word should have been 'from.'" Sorry, not the publisher's fault. The buck starts and stops with you.

To view the YouTube Trailer for Room 1515 click on the following link:
http://youtu.be/yx4wLFD2GTY.

Advice for Authors Considering Self-Publishing Part 1

Part 1: Count the cost!

When I decided to go the self-publishing route, I made a list of every possible expense item. Then I researched my options, concentrating on the cost of each. Ask my wife, I'm a cheapskate. Should I pay for a line-by-line edit? Do I try to format and publish without help or use an AuthorHouse or iUniverse? What marketing tools will I need? Will there be extras required such as business cards and bookmarks? And what about the expense of purchasing my books for book signings?

I found so many program offerings. I can't possibly discuss them all. Suffice to say, the cost ranged from literally zero to over $10,000. I'm not technically savvy, however I do want to market. So zero was out. $10,000--not even to bet Mitt Romney. Nope, I decided on seeing if I could do wide-distribution, both eBook and paperback, for a thousand dollars or under.

Obviously, the more you can do for yourself, the less you have to spend. I chose a package from Book Country, a division of Penguin. You will see more New York publishers buying or creating printing companies to grab a share of the Self-Publishing market. So far I'm please with my choice. The cost to-date is worth the return.

A huge decision for me was the line-by-line edit. On a thousand dollar budget for an 81,000 word novel, a line-by-line edit was far too expensive. But I had some resources to my advantage. A dear friend who is a grammar specialist and avid reader helped me. A text-to- speech program that read my novel to me identified errors, and my patience, editing over and over, factored in. The book is as solid grammatically as I can make it.

I'll be writing Part II in a few days

Be sure to click on the link to Room1515 YouTube Trailer in the left hand column if this blog. The link will take you to the video. I made the video on Windows Movie Maker.

Only 8 days until Room 1515 is available for sale.

Isn't a Workman Worth His Wage?

With my first novel coming out, I'm paying more attention to posts from other authors. Help me out here. I see a number of free book offerings being pitched, as well as the minimum 99 cents. This could be my age showing, but when anything is reduced to the absolute minimum, I think poor quality. Yet, I know this isn't the case, particularly when I see books I've read and enjoyed being discounted to the ridiculous.

I can understand Amazon Kindle offering some classics free to entice readers to use their product, but I believe craftsmen and women should be rewarded for the excellence of their work. Enlighten me.   

Shameless Marketing!

It's time for shameless marketing. Room 1515 comes out February 23. It will be available on Amazon, Apple, Kindle, Nook, and Sony, and at Barnes & Noble. The trailer I'm developing will go on YouTube with links to Facebook etc, as soon as I get feedback from you. Several people gave helpful suggestions on my first attempt. As a result, I made significant changes. Let me know if you like them. Watching the trailer will only take 70 seconds.

I understand your time is valuable. I know we get sick of the endless stream of pitches our fellow authors shower on us. Not that I'm against shameless marketing. Obviously, we all have to do this. I don't mind taking five minutes to help someone out. But some requests like the one that follows are frivolous.

        Could you go on Vanity Novelspot and write a quick thumbs up for my book, Detective Morgan: the Cop that Cures the Common Cold. (Minimum review 200 words)

This type of request is doubly disturbing when its being sent to a 600 author group. To really do this you have to read their book. Duh? Then you'd have to write a 200 word review. Now, I'd gladly do this for people whose book I've already read. In fact, I do this now without being asked. However, our time is valuable.

Thanks for taking your time to help me out. To watch the trailer on full screen, click the box on the lower right corner.