Don Lusk Books, Poems with a Purpose, Lessons from the Dead

Self-Publishing

A sure way to have others read your book is publish it yourself. This means paying to have your work prepared for publication, printed, and marketed. In past times such "Vanity Press" publishing was expensive. Offset printing involved making many hundreds of volumes which was a considerable expense to the author. Such Vanity companies did little to market the book once they got their money, and it was hard for authors to sell so many copies by themselves without a marketing organization. Authors wound up loosing their money in unsold books. Because of the expense involved and the unhappy outcomes, Vanity Publishing was looked down upon as a refuge for desperate or inexperienced authors.

Today the publishing industry has changed dramatically. Computerized printing has made short runs of books more economically feasible. Now one can get a few copies printed at reasonable costs with "Publish on Demand" presses (POD). If you are able to sell this first small order, more copies can easily be made because the original manuscript is electronically preserved. With internet based bookstores becoming more popular, marketing your book is also easier today. Another advantage of POD publishing is that illustrations and photographs are easily incorporated into your text for a more multidimensional product. Modifications and additions to your first edition are also easily accomplished, and costs are much below large volume offset printing. But quality and cost vary widely between companies as do extra services included with publishing.

There are many such POD publishers to choose from so compare carefully. I like "Infinity Publishing.com" because of the informative book they send out free to all prospective authors about manuscript requirements. It explains all the subtle computer rules for preparing your MS to simplify POD publishing. This little book is also a good example of the quality of their work in binding and printing which is an important consideration in choosing a POD company. "Author House" is another well known POD company which emphasizes an aggressive marketing strategy for selling both authors and their books. They have several well known national figures as authors such as Senator Bill Frisk. Each POD company has advantages and drawbacks for first time authors. Most offer many auxiliary services such as an editor to help get your book into print, proof readers and cover designers, as well as an excess of marketing tools and gimmicks, all of which increase the expense of your project.

But first time authors should beware. These services all come at a price. You are charged a hefty set up fee between $500 and $1000, plus a charge of $15 to $20 for every book printed! Even worse for every book that’s sold either by you or by their marketing methods, you only receive 10 to 15% commission while the publishers take in 80 to 90%. They say their function is similar to traditional publishers and so should be compensated accordingly. While their services (which author pays extra for) are helpful, they are not the quality of traditional houses which have their own money tied up in the success of your book. POD companies already have their money in hand no matter how well your book does, so their motivation to sell your book is less than traditional publishers.

Another self-publishing alternative is "Printing on Demand" in which the author only pays for printing, set up and binding costs. These turn out to be much less than POD publishers charge for the same services. Most modern printers now have computerized printing which duplicates the advantages of POD publishers. The POD printer helps you with the technical side of book set up, but provides no specific editor, copywriter or illustrator for these areas. This reduces costs further, but means you must provide these services yourself. Typically printing costs range from $5 to $15 per book if you choose carefully, but some companies will try to sell first time authors a more expensive package that can go has high as $20-$30 per book. So even with POD printers authors must carefully evaluate a number of companies to get the best price, quality and service. For maximum efficiency try finding a printer near you so you can visit them to better evaluate their work and follow the progress of your book during printing. Many problems can arise which require your immediate attention as editor-in-chief, and it is helpful to evaluate them in person especially where the cover and illustrations are concerned.

A good suggestion for first time authors if they go this "Print on Demand" route is to do your final manuscript on book sized pages. Choose a convenient size (such as 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 inches, half a standard sheet of print paper) or use the size which your publisher suggests. Most printers used with your computer or word processor can accommodate such smaller pages with only minor alterations. Print your MS on these book pages before final proof reading. Many text errors occur when transferring your standard sized 8-1/2 x 11 inch, MS pages to the smaller book pages, and as both publisher and author it is your responsibility to eliminate such errors in the most efficient way. A single good proof reading now gets rid of both typing and page reduction errors. Also doing the MS this way allows you to tailor the text to the page so there are no unsightly holes at the end of lines or paragraphs. Even right margins can be made attractively straight. After all a book is a thing of beauty to look at as well as read.

Another problem to consider is that most publishers and printers require your manuscript to be in PDF format. Unlike Microsoft Word, this format gives a stable page which is not easily changed by printing glitches. Most of us don’t have PDF on our computers. It requires a special program to translate your easily changeable Word files into PDF. So do your original MS in Word by all means because it is the easiest to edit. When you have it proofed and formatted to your book size pages, then translate it into PDF. A caution here: most older computers before Windows 98 SE won’t accept PDF programs so you may have to upgrade your computer which is time consuming. One thing to avoid is using your printing company's internet based PDF program which you down-load into your computer. These programs have protections built into them for the POD printer so that once your MS is converted to their PDF program only the printer has access to it. You lose all control over your book and can’t even save it to disk.

A good resource for self publishing is The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross. It gives volumes of information about writing, publishing and promoting your book, and touches on many of the pitfalls of both commercial and self-publishing. Starting at the absolute beginning of your writing project, it even suggests what to write to have the best chance of success. It suggest various ways of promoting and selling your self-published book, an aspect of the business first time authors seldom consider in enough detail. It even has information about running your own book business and how to expand it into commercial publication. It also has an extensive section on web based marketing and copyrighting of your book.