Tag Archives: Self-Publisher

Disadvantages of Self-Publishing

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In the last year not only have sales of eBook readers like the Kindle and Nook exploded, but the number of book titles available to download into these devices has more than doubled. With major online retailers offering writers a means to self-publish works for sale, one can expect to see thousands more novels and works of non-fiction and poetry on virtual shelves. For the author frustrated by the traditional, agency publishing model, self-publishing offers the freedom of creative control and the opportunity to keep more revenue. Despite the recent successes of some authors, though, it’s important to note the challenges that self-publishing brings.

Self-publishing may not carry the stigma it did in years past, where one assumed that an author putting out his own work could not interest a “real” publisher. These days, writers choose to self-publish rather than submit a work at all. In fact, some authors who have published traditionally now take the liberty of producing and distributing their own work. That said, one must realize there are disadvantages. This article is not intended to discourage anybody from independently publishing a novel, but rather to keep people aware of possible obstacles. Let’s take a look at some of them.

1) As a self-publisher, you are responsible for every step of the process, from writing to work to making sure it is edited and proofed. You will need to find suitable cover art and distribution channels, and handle marketing. Now, you’re probably wondering how this is a disadvantage – well, it really depends on how you look at it. When you sign a contract with a publisher, many of these items are handled for you. You will not cover the cost of an editor and artist, and depending on the publisher’s budget you probably won’t have to spend too much for promotion. When you take the DIY route, everything comes out of your pocket, and you are investing time in finding the right people to assist you. One could view this as time that could be spent writing your next book.

2) You may run into complications with distribution. Whether you publish exclusively in digital format or make your work available in print, you need to work with distribution channels to get your work to the public. While Amazon and Barnes and Noble welcome self-published authors to join their platforms, other distributors may require you to build an extensive catalog before you can distribute through them. Brick and mortar stores may require you to place your books with a service like Ingram or Baker and Taylor before they will order your books. It’s important to research whether or not you can work with such companies.

3) As a self-publisher, you are held accountable. If you produce a book of poor quality, you risk alienating readers or inspiring word of mouth that discourages new readers from checking out your books. This is not to say that all books published with agency houses are perfect – opinions on quality will always vary – but acting as publisher and writer means taking extra care to ensure a good book. You will need to commit to every step of the process.

If you choose to self-publish, do not feel rushed to get a book in the stores for the sake of having something to sell. This is your work, and you want to present the best written story possible to readers. Take caution to know the pros and cons before you make any sudden leaps.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on self-publishing services.

Author: Kathryn Lively
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Writing a One-Page Business Plan: 5 Questions A Self-Publisher Must Ask

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Whether you are about to self-publish your first book, or start a micro-niche publishing company, you need to have a business plan in place. A business plan will give you a basic roadmap for your new business. An easy and quick way to do this is to create a one-page business plan. This will let you quickly clarify your own thinking about your new business. This short, one-page plan can also be used as an outline for a longer more in-depth plan. With some research, you should be able to complete this one-page plan in under one week. Here is a list of five questions that you must include in your simplified, one-page business plan.

1. WHY do you want to self-publish?

Your answer cannot be only about the money. It needs something more than that. It also needs to be short, very specific, and very personal.

Examples:

a. “I want to write a book that will help new nurses be more productive, more effective, and more marketable in today’s tight job market.”

b. “I want to write small-business management books so that I can share my knowledge and expertise with others that would like to start their own small-business. I gained this knowledge and experience over the last 35 years while starting and managing my own successful small-business.”

c. “I want to write and self-publish a book to give myself more credibility in the eyes of my peers.”

2. WHAT will you write about?

Explain it in one sentence, in very specific detail. You must understand what your writing niche, or specialty, will be.

Examples:

a. “I will write and publish books about all aspects of self-publishing for people who have not written a book before.”

b. “I will write a how-to book for experienced nurses who want to advance to become part of nursing management in a hospital.”

c. “I will write a how-to guide for new parents who are raising a deaf child.”

3. WHO is your market?

You must narrow this down to a very specific group of people. Your answer cannot be “everybody and anybody”. You must know exactly who buys your type of book. You only have a limited amount of time and money for marketing and promotion. You must target your best efforts at those who are most likely to buy your book. Keep your answer down to a few tight sentences.

a. “The market for my book is American nursing students that are in nursing school, or have just graduated as RN’s with an AS or BS degree in nursing and are searching for their first job. They are generally females between 20 and 26 years of age. Half of them like to read a hard-copy of a book; the other half like to read the ebook version. They are very worried about getting a job after graduation, because the nursing shortage has ended.”

4. HOW do you define success?

You might spend the next twelve months writing your first book. And then a year later you are selling less than 8 copies a month on Amazon. Therefore, you must come to terms with what success means to you. Does success mean seeing your name on the cover of a book? Does it mean being able to give each of your customers a copy of your book so that they will have more admiration and respect for you? Does success mean getting letters and emails from people who read your book – telling you that your book has helped them in some positive way? We all can agree that making a lot of money is great – and is possible as a self-publisher – but it cannot be your only reason for writing a book. Therefore, you should write a paragraph here about how you define success for your book.

5. HOW HARD are you willing to work at it?

How much time and hard work are you willing to put into your self-publishing venture? This is probably the step that you must put the most honest thinking into. Are you willing to spend most of your time marketing and selling your book? Your book might take 6 to 12 months to write. But you will spend the next several years marketing and promoting it. Are you willing to put yourself out there and market and promote yourself, your name, and your book, the for next several years? Are you willing to keep writing and building your next book? The more time and effort that you put into your self-publishing venture, the more success you will have. It will be much easier to go the distance if you love your subject matter. And the more you love your subject matter, the more successful you will be at self-publishing. It is as simple as that.

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. is an author, publisher, educator, business manager, and entrepreneur. Life-long love affair with books and reading. Very excited about being part of the new media movement. Known for casual, easy-to-read writing style and ability to explain complex topics in an understandable way. “If you are serious about your work you should self-publish. Retain creative control. Retain the profits. Enjoy the satisfaction and status that comes with being published.” Visit Kunz’s website about all aspects of self-publishing at http://www.KunzOnPublishing.com/, for an insider’s guide to becoming a financially successful and happy self-publisher, and sign-up for his free newsletter.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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How to Sell Kindle Books and Be a Self Publisher

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If you are reading this article, then you must want to know how to sell kindle books. Reading e-books on kindle is one of latest ways of reading e-books. Kindle is an Amazon’s product that allows readers to keep their favorite stuff with them wherever they go. As life is getting more and more depended on World Wide Web; the internet is becoming the sole and foremost requirement for every need. People are more and more serious to be self publisher and sell their e-books on kindle. Here, in this piece of writing we would discuss how to sell kindle books.

To start with digital publishing, the very first thing you would need is to sign up with Amazon Digital text platform account. It is a must. If you are without this platform, it would be impossible to sell kindle books. Like in real world, we need proper platform for everything we do. Similarly, we will need a platform when we are to sell our ebooks online. If you’re wondering and wandering about how to sell kindle books you must start with a proper platform.

For selling kindle books, the most suitable and the best platform is Amazon. As a fact, kindle is the product of Amazon. Amazon’s text editors are fully compatible with kindle. It assures high definition contrast and best quality of text with crystal clear editing to the readers for giving them best reading and full pleasure of reading their top picks. Without this proper platform it is worthless to work on other aspects of selling kindle books.

After choosing the right and most compatible platform, the next thing required is the quality of what you’re writing and what you’re selling. Many people don’t understand the significance of quality when talking about online and web content. This is definitely a very wrong perception. Even though you’re writing for web, quality of what you’re writing does matter more than anything else.

After quality, comes the proper publishing. Publishing in the proper way is a must to do when you’re on the task of selling kindle books. Without proper publishing, readers will not be able to reach on your book. So, it is logical; how they would buy it when they cannot reach it. Publish you’re e-book in a way that it is easy to reach for everyone. Making money by selling kindle books is easy when proper care is taken about all necessary things. Consulting Amazon’s official guide to know how to sell kindle books is a good idea as well.

If you want to sell kindle books, then get your guide here:
http://AutopilotEbook.com

Author: BJ Min
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The 10 Reasons That Convinced Me To Become A Self-Publisher

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Here I share my favorite reasons for becoming a self-publisher. Some reasons are much more important to me than they might be to you. But I am certain that on this list you will find a reason that is important or intriguing to you. I hope that you find one that gets your internal capitalist into gear, and gets you onto a new path too.

1. Retain Ownership: As a self-publisher you retain complete control and ownership of the book – forever. I’m sure that for all of you reading this article, this is a very important reason – as it was for me.

2. Instant Credibility: The book will instantly give you credibility – and help boost your career or business. We all want this. The more professional your book is, the more credibility you will have with your audience. With self-publishing you can easily and quickly make improvements to your book – especially with an ebook.

3. Control Fate of My Book: As a self-publisher you control the fate of your book – not some publisher that has no interest in your book or subject other than how much money they can make from you. Self-publishers are writing and publishing books because we love our subject, and want to share our knowledge with others.

4. Speed to Market: Traditional publishers take way too long to bring your book to the market. A big publisher would think that you are a silly fool to believe that you could get your book into a world-wide audience within a few weeks. But of course, we now all know that we can – and do.

5. Plenty of Help Available: As a self-publisher you can choose to be involved with as much, or as little, of the creative process. Self-publishing is where you, the author, bypass all the intermediaries that are involved in traditional publishing. These intermediaries do the editing, designing, illustrating, marketing, promotion, etc., of your book. As a self-publisher these functions will typically be your job. Although, you can easily hire people to do these functions for you and still be considered a self-publisher. As a self-publisher you get to choose which functions you want to do, and which ones you need to hire someone to help you with.

6. Keep All Profits: As a self-publisher you keep all of the profits. A traditional publisher will keep almost all of the profits. Then, after several months, when your book sales start to slow down, they will dump you for someone else that is more profitable for them. Even if your book makes you just a few hundred dollars a year, these profits will come to you year after year after year. The more effort you put into making your book look professional, and into your marketing and sales, the more profit you will make. You have complete control as to how much success your book will have.

7. Low Entry Cost: It is much less costly to produce a book now than it has ever been before. You can get an ebook online with a big-name website for free within minutes. You can also get your book accepted by a big-name print-on-demand company that will distribute your book to the entire market for about $112. Additional expenses like ISBN fees, and CIP fees, will add about $100. Hiring a professional cover designer can be anywhere from $250 to $750.

8. My Knowledge of The Market: With some effort and study, you can do a much better job promoting your book than a traditional publisher can. This is especially true when your book is directly related to your career or business. You know your market, your audience, your customers, and your readers, much better than anyone else does. This intimate knowledge of their needs is what will help make your book and career a success.

9. Niche for Success: Your book’s subject might fit into a very small niche – one that is too small for a traditional publisher to even bother with. Filling a small, tight niche is where the money is for many self-publishers.

10. Creative Outlet: Self-publishing is a great way to satisfy your need to be creative – writing, designing, and illustrating – as well as being creative with marketing, advertising, and promotion. Self-publishing will force you to be creative in many areas.

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. is an author, publisher, educator, business manager, and entrepreneur. Life-long love affair with books and reading. Very excited about being part of the new media movement. Known for casual, easy-to-read writing style and ability to explain complex topics in an understandable way. “If you are serious about your work you should self-publish. Retain creative control. Retain the profits. Enjoy the satisfaction and status that comes with being published.” Visit Kunz’s website about all aspects of self-publishing at http://www.KunzOnPublishing.com/, for an insider’s guide to becoming a financially successful and happy self-publisher, and sign-up for his free newsletter.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The 10 Commandments of Becoming A Financially Successful Self-Publisher

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1. Publish Ebook First: Start with an ebook (pdf and epub) first. This is the easiest and fastest way to get started. Creating an ebook first will also allow you to get some feed-back from your readers, and make adjustments to your book accordingly. After you get your ebook online and get all the kinks worked out, then add a print-on-demand paperback edition.

2. Stick To Your Niche: Your book should be directly aligned with your market niche. For many self-publishers, success comes from focusing their book, and their marketing, at their particular niche. Part of sticking to your niche is that you must learn about and understand the subject of branding.

3. Design A Great Cover: Spend a lot of time developing and designing a great cover. Design many sample covers for your book. Especially look at books that have a similar topic as your does. If you are not creative, and have the money, pay a professional to do the cover design for you.

4. Perfect the Contents: Spend a lot of time perfecting and editing the contents of your book. Make improvements and corrections even after it is published.

5. Get Testimonials: Make great efforts to get testimonials and endorsements. You must never stop asking other guru’s in your industry and celebrities to write them for you. Keep adding them to your book and to your book’s blog. Convince one of these guru’s or celebrities to write your book’s foreword.

6. Set-up Blog: Set-up a blog to support your book. This is not difficult or expensive. By far the best way to do this is to set up a blog with a big company like WordPress. These blogs are specifically designed to be user friendly. They are also designed to work very well with search engines like Google.

7. Max-Out Third-Party Websites: Max-out your use of every website that lists your book. Many websites, such as Amazon, allow you to add a large amount of information about yourself and your book. Doing this will be like giving your book another website devoted to you and your book. Take advantage of everything Amazon has to offer.

8. Avoid Bookstores: Do not put your book into the bookstores by using a wholesaler or distributor. This step is for much more advance publishers, and self-publishers with big bank accounts. Bookstores sell very few books – especially by self-publishers that are not big-name celebrities.

9. Use All Major Online Retailers: Get your book into every major outlet such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, Scribd, etc. – just to mention the major ones. Using services like SmashWords, BookBaby, and Lightning Source, will get you into the big-name ebook outlets. Also, some professional organizations allow their members to list their book in the organization’s catalog.

10. Market, Market, Market: Getting your book online is the easy part. Making your book financially successful is the time-consuming part. But now, because of the internet, it is not difficult. The more effort you put into marketing and promotion, the more financial success your book will have. Even if you are not a business-minded person, you will find that marketing and promotion is a very interesting process.

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. is an author, publisher, educator, business manager, and entrepreneur. Life-long love affair with books and reading. Very excited about being part of the new media movement. Known for casual, easy-to-read writing style and ability to explain complex topics in an understandable way. “If you are serious about your work you should self-publish. Retain creative control. Retain the profits. Enjoy the satisfaction and status that comes with being published.” Visit Kunz’s website about all aspects of self-publishing at http://www.KunzOnPublishing.com/, for an insider’s guide to becoming a financially successful and happy self-publisher, and sign-up for his free newsletter.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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