E-publishing
E-Publishing is publishing on platforms like amazon's Kindle or Barns and Noble's Nook. this requires you to literally become a publishing house as you will be doing far more than writing your book. You will be responsible for cover design, uploading and getting the product accepted for publication. You will need to set up your financials so your publisher has an account to deposit your sales income into, and you will need to be aware of the commission your are paying on each sale.
E-publishing formats include Portable document Files (PDF) and e-readers like the Kindle and Nook Apple and Sony products and others.
Perhaps the simplest way to publish is to put a PDF file on your Web site and charge people to download it. This is very simple to do. You can use the WordPress blogging platform and handle the money with PayPal. Any Webmaster can set this up for you. Not to worry, the Webmaster will not have access to your money. that is between you and PayPal. You put the material online and the money gets deposited to your PayPal account, minus commission. How cool is that?
If this interests you, respond to this post and we can discuss it further.
Traditional Publishing
Here you will be dealing with a publisher for sure, and maybe an agent. Both the agent and the publisher will have input into your finished book. Also, you will be paying both for their services and your book will be expected to make enough profit for everyone to make enough money to be worth their time.
Having a book published by the traditional system is nice, very nice, but no longer the only way for your material to see print. In fact, traditional publishing is declining. Here's proof that book sales are declining and that major book store chains are hard hit.
This quote is from THE 10 AWFUL TRUTHS ABOUT BOOK PUBLISHING.
"Book sales in the U.S. peaked in 2007 and then fell by nearly five percent between 2007 and 2009, according to the Association of American Publishers (April 7, 2010 AAP Report). Similarly, bookstore sales peaked in 2007 and have fallen since, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Publishers Weekly, February 22, 2010). The major bookstore chains have been especially hard hit, with a 12 percent sales decline between 2007 and 2009 (Publishers Weekly, April 12, 2010)."
There are real advantages to having an agent who shops and sell your work. Also, to working with an established publisher. However, that the world of publishing has changed and will continue to change can not be ignored. Draw your own conclusions.
Self Publishing
Here you hire a publishing house to print your book. Some houses have distribution chains, some don't. You will find out right quick that a distribution chain is a beautiful thing because without it you must sell and deliver the books yourself.
Other ways to sell are to hire a fulfillment company to handle sending the books to the buyer. This relives you from taking checks, wrapping and addressing books, and sending them through the mail. You are still required to do the selling and to pay the fulfillment house, but you can spend your time selling.
Closely consider how you will sell, distribute, and deliver your product. Should the cost of doing all this exceed your profit you grow to hate it because you will be losing money on each sale. This must be well thought out up front.
Your sales tools are a Web site, a social networking campaign, advertising, personal networking, and word of mouth. Here too, you must consider the cost in time and dollars to set up, get running, and maintain your sales effort.
We highly recommend these books by Brian Jud. Brian is a founder of the Connecticut authors and Publishers Association and a book marketing guru.
- Beyond The Bookstore: How to Sell More Books Profitably to Non-Bookstore Markets
- How to Make Real Money Selling Books Without Worrying about Returns: A Complete Guide to the Book Publishers' World of Special Sales
These books are available online. A Google search will return Amazon and other sellers where you can order them. Also we highly recommend that you join the Connecticut Authors and Publisher Association. I'm a member, and will be speaking again this year at CAPA-University in May. This is an excellent organization and I recommend it to you without reservation.
