What This Book Will and Won't Do

Even a few years ago, getting your book into print on your own, without a traditional publisher, was a daunting task. It took skill, deep pockets, and sheer determination that you were going to get it done, no matter what. In fact, getting it done at all was downright near impossible unless you had cash to burn. So manuscripts languished in drawers, on disks, or in authors' heads because, after all, there was no point in putting them down on paper. 

Then, in the early 1990s, digital presses were introduced to the market. These presses, which can produce high-quality books in runs as short as one, revolutionized the future of book printing. Today, these machines, which are essentially giant high-quality laser printers, allow authors to print very short runs at reasonable prices. It might cost you $5 per book instead of $1.50 per book, but you can print 500 copies instead of 10,000 copies, and the quality is nearly indistinguishable from that produced by a traditional offset press. This opened the book publishing market to authors savvy enough to use the technology to their advantage.

Gradually, the word began to spread, and the number of self-published books began to soar. Still, there were hurdles. Most authors did not have the skills to produce print-ready files or high-quality four-color covers. The printing outlets were there, and some retail outlets like Amazon.com began to accept self-published books, but the demand for self-publishing services far exceeded the resources available. This fact was not lost on the marketplace, and in the last 12 months, there has been an explosion of printers, designers, and marketers whose goal is to help writers fulfill their dreams.

As it has gotten easier to self-publish, there has been another kind of explosion, as well: self-help books promising to help authors prepare hot-selling manuscripts, get them into print, and make a lot of money. In fact, as of this writing, a search on Amazon.com for “self-publishing” resulted in 225 titles, each promising to provide authors with the inside information necessary to achieve big financial success. Authors, frustrated by the incongruity between the explosion of new titles on bookstore shelves and the impenetrable wall of traditional publishing, are snatching them up.

Unfortunately, most of these books make promises they cannot keep. Either this or they set the bar so high that all but the most determined and resourceful can reach it.

Hard Nuts to Crack

There is a reason that the traditional publishing market is so hard to crack. It has nothing to do with merit. It has to do with marketability. In order to make money, traditional publishers must do two things: they must print their titles in runs long enough to create a profitable cost structure; and they must choose titles that will sell enough copies to make a significant profit. The number of manuscripts that fulfill these criteria is few. (Although thousands of new titles are published each year, most publishers only accept 5% or fewer of the manuscripts they receive, and even smaller percent of the accepted manuscripts come from new, unpublished authors.)

Traditional publishers have something else going for them, too: size. Because they can print in high volumes, they can drive the per-unit book cost very low. They can also tap the resources of their designers, publicists, marketers, and administrative staff for multiple book projects to amortize the cost of each book over the entire organization.

Even so, when publishers decide to pick up an author's book, those books are chosen carefully. Publishers know what sells and what doesn't, and they often pre-sell thousands of copies before taking the book to press. That is why, even though you've spent years developing empathetic characters, a thoughtful storyline, and carefully polished dialog, a big-name writer who spends no more than a few months throwing together a half-baked manuscript gets a contract and you don't. His name sells — yours doesn't — and for a publisher whose goal is to make money, that's enough.

It's not fair, but that's business. And selling books is a business. There will be holes where self-published writers can squeeze in, but you will be fighting an uphill battle.

Most of today's on-demand printers can create an outstanding product, but even in the best-case scenario, if authors are printing on-demand, their costs will be far higher than what traditional publishers are paying. Unless you can suddenly afford to print 5,000 to 10,000 copies at a time, no matter how meritorious your book, you are going to have trouble overcoming a cost structure that is working against you. There is no special “insider” information or marketing gimmick that will get around that.

Furthermore, if you want to sell a lot of copies, you must be willing to pull together direct mailings, obtain book reviews, get radio and television interviews, and get involved in associations. You must explore the vast labyrinth of web sites, promotion books, commercial service offerings, and Internet discussion groups to determine what makes the most sense for your book, your market, your time constraints, and your budget. The amount of time, energy, and money required are daunting.

For some writers, however, national publicity is not their goal. Perhaps you simply want to preserve your memories for family and friends. Perhaps you are a professional speaker and need a book you can sell through your organization or ministry. Or you just want to write the history of the local iron master's mansion for your county local Historical Society. If this is the case, then self-publishing is for you.

But if you want to be the next Tom Clancy, Erma Bombeck, or Tim LaHaye, you have your work cut out for you. And there are some things you ought to know before going in.

What This Book Is About

For this reason, this book is not really a “how to” book. Its purpose is not to tell you in detail how to go through all the technical steps of publishing, although it tells you what many of those steps are. It is not a marketing primer, although it tells you the kinds of steps you will need to take and gives you some resources to get you started. It is also not a “rah rah” book, enticing you with tales of the glories and rewards of being a published author.

This book is a “whether or not to” book, designed to give you a down-and-dirty, no-nonsense look at the punishing world of self-publishing, with all of its costs, stresses, and hurdles. It is a candid look into the basics of this process, with all of its good and bad, so you can make an informed decision about whether or not this is something you really want to do.

This book will, for example, give you basic information about the infrastructure of the book publishing world, the costs involved in getting your book to market, including the hidden ones, and the rules for how the game is played. It will help you determine how much you would need to price your book to make a profit, what kind of discount schedule you could offer, and whether or not it's worth your while to pursue working with a distributor.

Should you decide to move ahead with your project, this book will save you time and hassle by discussing the basics of preparing the document, finding a printer, selling directly to retailers, and getting started in marketing, including getting on the Internet. It will also provide you with the addresses of the major distributors to the Christian and secular marketplaces, the names, addresses, and descriptions of various publishing facilitators, and other resources, such as self-publishing guides that contain prices, file preparation tips, and cover templates.

Any company names, web sites, or services, however, are mentioned for example only. I have not used some of these services personally, so they are not to be taken as recommendations.

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