Ways to Publish
I just answered the question, "How should I publish my book?" as asked by someone who was considering various online publishing operations. It's a very FAQ, so I'm posting it here.
Dear Name Deleted,
I don't want to tell you what you already know, but I'm going to start with some basics, just in case:
There are 4 basic ways to be published:
Traditional publishing. You get a significant advance against future royalties. The publisher gets some or all rights to your book, and then purchases an ISBN (in the US you need to go through Bowker), has it edited, the interior and cover designed, and rolls out a publicity campaign. They then sell it into appropriate bookstores.
Self-publishing. You act as your own publisher. Most savvy self-publishers set up a separate company, and even have contracts between that company and themselves as author. Everything else is the same. You will probably need to hire outside professionals for several aspects of the process, if you want your book to be sold from bookstores shelves.
Self-publishing with a book coach. You act as the publisher as above, but hire an expert to assist you with the areas where your experience and skills are weakest. His or her contacts will help you find the best outside pros, and he or she may be able to do some of the work for you. For a fee.
Subsidy publishing. You pay someone else to be the publisher for your book. (This is often mis-represented as self-publishing. There are IMPORTANT differences.) This method will add additional obstacles to your path if your goal is making profitable sales, or seeing your book sold widely in bookstores.
Subsidy publishing is a very good alternative, however, if you have a book with extremely limited sales potential (a family history, poetry, whatever).
If you want to find the right traditional publisher for your book, you might start in your local bookstore. Go look at the shelf where you want to find your book someday. Look for the most successful books. Pick the ones most similar to yours, especially focusing on the type of reader who will be buying the book. Look at those titles for the publisher, editor and agent. (Most authors thank their editor and/or agent somewhere in the front matter of the book.)
Look up the addresses of all of the above (Writer's Market, Literary MarketPlace, etc. Use your library, as some references are quite expensive. Use only the latest years' edition.)
Pay special attention to submission guidelines and query formats.
If you want to self-publish, buy (yes, BUY) a half-dozen good books on the subject. Start with Dan Poynter's classic Self-Publishing Manual, 15th edition, and Fern Reiss' Publishing Game series. Get at least one book on production and design (I like Pete Masterson's Book Design and Production). Get at least 2 books on book publicity (there are dozens of good ones) and another on book marketing.
Read them. Draw up your plans, get estimates, make a budget, and run projections on your expenses and revenues. Revise. Rinse and repeat. And repeat.
Join a self-publishing or small publishing group. PMA and its affiliates are good. So is SPAN. (In the US) Try the Yahoo Group Self-Publishing.
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mariongropen) wrote,
