Should You Self-Publish Your Book or Not? - A Crash Course in Print on Demand (POD)

When people think about self-publishing, also know as "vanity publishing", they think of scams where you send in your short story to a publisher and they sell you a thousand copies and send you on your way as a "published author". They think about the wannabe author who just couldn't get their manuscript accepted by a publisher. The truth of the matter is that it takes more work to be a self-published author. You will have to do everything yourself. The phrase "Vanity Publishing" doesn't apply.

If you are up to the challenge rest assured you will be in good company. Some famous self-published authors include; Richard Nixon "Real Peace" and John Grisham "A Time to Kill", others include, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, E.E. Cummings, William Blake, Edgar Allen Poe, Benjamin Franklin and Walt Whitman just to name a few. John Grisham sold his first book out of the trunk of his car.

The advancements in business and home computing and DSL, T3 connections and High Speed Cable many main stream distributors are now opting for Print on Demand (POD) books as a way of cutting cost associated with printing. POD has eliminated the need for self-published authors to buy up a thousand copies of their own book up front. Books are printed as they are ordered and shipped directly to the customer.

Here is how a traditional publisher works. The publisher has a set budget for each year which translates into how many books they will publish each year and more importantly, how many new authors they will accept. If a publisher has room in their budget for six books next year and are under contract with four established authors who will deliver one completed manuscript each, then they can only accept two new authors. So if five thousand manuscripts cross their desk they will only choose two. So this means that 4,998 authors will not get published by this publisher. So they all dust off their manuscripts and ship them off to the next publisher. Now most major publishers only accept manuscripts by invitation or from established literary agents. The Catch-22 is that to get an established agent you usually need to be published and have a book deal. Here is a tip; established agents, nor their assistants, post ads on Craig's List. Trust me on this one.

So why go the self-publishing route? That is something you have to answer for yourself. But one good reason is that you want total control over your work from start to finish. Another reason is that you are a glutton for punishment. Once you write your book the real work begins. In this article I'm going walk you through the self-publishing process step by step. I can't cover everything in this article, but I'll cover the basics.

Step One

You may think the first thing is to find a publisher, well you would be wrong. You don't even have a book yet, how can you get a publisher? First you have to think about what it is you want to write about. Are you writing a self-help book? Maybe you are writing a romance novel? Whatever you write you will have to start writing now. For a full length novel you are going to have to give yourself at east three months to complete your novel. I know ... I know, you can write a novel in a week. Even if that were true, you still need to edit it, rewrite it, reedit it and rewrite it again. After you've done that you will need someone with excellent editing skills to go over it for you. I mean someone really annoying that will be ruthless and rip your master piece apart. Someone you will grow to hate.

If you don't know anyone like this, it's time to go to Craig's List. You can find someone there who can edit your manuscript. Yes, you will have to pay them. You are not looking for someone to critique your work or rewrite it. You don't want someone who loves to read. You want that English teacher you had in tenth grade that tore apart every essay you turned in. Then you will rewrite it again. If you are doing a self-help or how-to book you will also need time to do research.

You will also need a computer. You don't need a Mac, unless you really want one. You will also need either DSL or High Speed Cable connection. Please promise me that you will not hang out at Starbucks with your laptop banging out your novel. You will need a copy of Microsoft Word®. You should also get a good quality graphics program such as Photoshop, Corel Draw or Paint Shop Pro.

Step Two

Now you are ready to find a POD publisher. There are several types of self-publishers out there. Some have you go through a submission process, which you will always pass. They will publish your book for a fee which ranges from $750.00 to as much as $6,000.00. They will take your book to book trade shows and shop it around to distributors and wholesalers. So you do get some value for your money. But I'll show you how to do that for far less money later on.

A POD (Print on Demand) publisher will usually charge you nothing for publishing your book. Remember they aren't out any money until you sell a book. They will take a percentage of each book you sell. Because they have less cost and take a smaller risk, they also take a smaller percentage then do traditional publishers.

I found several POD publishers such as Virtual Book Worm Publishing, Wing Span Press, Author House and Xlibris just to name a few. After doing some research I went with Lulu.com. I chose Lulu's because it cost me nothing to publish my book and worldwide distribution of my book including an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) cost me $99.95. Now you can go to ISBN.org and get your own ISBN assigned to your book in lots of ten or more, starting at $249.00. But then you will have to find and contract with multiple POD distributors.

You will have to do the research for yourself and determine which POD publisher works best for you. Some charge more, but they also do more of the work for you. Some packages include a book representative that will shop your book to book buyers for you, while others will just sell you a thousand copies of your own book.

For the purposes of this article I'm going to assume you are going with Lulu. The process will be the same for all POD publishers, with some small differences, but the basic process will be the same.

Step Three

Now that you have signed up with a POD publisher you need to upload your manuscript. But before you do that you will need to resize your page layout to a format that can be distributed. I choose to publish my novel in paperback perfect bond. This means for Lulu I had to resize my manuscript to a 6 x 9 format with ½ inch margins and ½ inch gutter.

Next I will have to create a book cover, unless I want to use Lulu's cover gallery (at no additional charge). If you are going to distribute your book, you will want your own custom book cover. You can buy an eBook cover generator, but that will not work for what you need here. Those are good to create a 3-D book cover later for marketing purposes. You can go to Craig's List again and hire a graphic designer if you can't put a cover together for yourself. Sometimes the best cover is a simple cover. You can also go to a college and get a graphic design student to whip one up for cheap.

Now you are ready to upload your manuscript. Lulu suggests that you convert to .pdf (Portable Document Format - Adobe®) before uploading. I've found that it's easier to upload the manuscript in Word format and let Lulu convert it for you, free of charge. Some charge you for this service. You can also go online to Adobe.com and convert it there for free. So there is no need to go out and buy the conversion program.

Once your manuscript has been uploaded and converted and your cover (front and back) and your price are set you are ready to rock and roll. Not so fast. You need to order a copy of your book and proof read it again. You have to see what it looks like in the printed format. Make sure you don't release the book for sell as of yet. You want it available only to you at this point.

Once you get your book, read it for mistakes and also for over all looks and readability. You may have to reformat your book so it's easier to read. One thing I do is to have all of my chapters start on an odd page number. Remember to compare your book to the distribution standards. It makes no sense do all of this work to have your book rejected by the distributor because it doesn't meet their standards. If you make any corrections you will need to reorder your book to reproof it. I know this sound like a long process, but this is the same process you will go through with a traditional publisher.

Step Four

Once your book has past the test, it's now time to send it out for reviews. I'm going to warn you now that you may have to pay for a review. Reviewers get thousands of books a year for review. So if you want a review you will need to pay for their time. You are not paying for the review itself. You of course will have reprint rights. If your book is horrible you will get a review that says that. Another thing you might want to do is offer your book to book clubs and have them review it for you. Reviews are optional; you don't always need a review. The truth is most books are released and do very well and are never reviewed. I didn't have my book reviewed. But if you want to include a review on the cover or inside of your book, now is the time to have it done.

Now you are ready to choose your distribution package, which includes an ISBN and worldwide distribution. Lulu has two options. One is where Lulu is the publisher of record. The other is where you are the publisher of record. It works best if you go with the option where Lulu is the publisher of record. Unless your name is recognizable marketing will be a lot easier. Most online bookstores will only do business with publishers they know. Lulu is very well known so there is no problem with marketing. Most of the ones I mentioned above are also very well known so that's another thing to consider in choosing a POD publisher.

It will take up to two weeks for the distributor to approve your book and then it will take another two to six weeks for Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles.com to pick your book up. Now you just have to wait. While you are waiting Go to Bookfinder4u.com and register your book.

Step 5

Create a webpage while you are waiting for Amazon to pick up your book. You can get a domain name for as little as ten dollars a year and a web space for as little as $99.00 a year. Most sites have website designers built in to help you create your page if you have no design skills. Or you can hit Craig's List again and hire someone to create a page for you. I suggest doing it yourself. Otherwise you will have to pay someone to maintain the site for you. You will have to do this even if you went with a large publisher, so this isn't an added expense of being a self-published author.

While you are waiting you are able to sell your book online through Lulu's. So now is the time to Google all eBook and book directories and start listing your eBook with them. Also go to search engines and start adding the direct link on Lulu's to your book. Lulu also gives you a book store at no extra charge that you can customize and use to market your book. Use it for the directories that require a return link to their site.

You also want to start designing a media kit. Lulu has samples you can use. Or you can hire a publicist starting at $6,000.00. Contact Lulu's customer service department online and find out who your distributor is. They will have to research it for you and it will take a few days for them to get back to you. But they will get back to you. You will need this information if you want your book carried in major book stores. Book stores buy their books from your distributors and not you. So that cuts down on your out of pocket expenses and the book store is working with a distributor they trust. My book is distributed through Ingram Books.

Step Six

Once your book is on Amazon.com it's time to start sending out press releases to local book stores, and to take out an ad in your local news paper. You will also want to enhance your Amazon listing to include a bio and book cover. Also join the Amazon Connect. It's a free service that allows you to communicate with your customers. Also select the option on Amazon.com to have your book converted into an eBook format.

Lulu has an option to convert your book to eBook format also. Use both sites to increase sales of your book. You will have to upload another copy of your book to Lulu to sell it in an eBook format. Amazon will send you a link in a few days which will allow you to create an eBook in PDA and Smart Phone format and allow you to upload it to most of the major online book stores that only deal with established publishers and authors.

Also go to Google.com and go to Google Books and add your book to Google Books. Make sure people are able to review and do an advance search which uses words from the actual text in your book to match up with potential customer search requests. I would also consider allowing Google to license your book to be read online by customers. Set your price low to get those customers who may be on the fence as to weather or not to buy your book. For a fee they can read your book online. You decide how much your book is licensed for and if they can print out all or part or none of your book.

Remember every penny counts. I have a friend who is always telling me, that if you sell a million of anything and only make one dollar, soon you will be a millionaire.

Step Seven

Now the fun part begins. You have to promote your book every chance you get. The more you promote the more you will sell. You will have to promote your book even through a traditional publisher. Most publishers do little to no work in promoting you or your book. Lulu has services that will help you promote your book. They will even represent your book at international book fairs. The most expensive package I've seen was for $275.00. Check BookFinder4U.com often to see who is carrying your book. You can use that when you are marketing your book to tell customers where they can find your book. Because you have an ISBN assigned to your book and a major distributor and book store can order your book for your customers. It's a good idea to keep extra books on hand to send out to book stores you want to carry your book.

Conclusion

Self-publishing is hard work. There is nothing vain about it. The reward is that you will keep more of the profits for yourself and you have total control over your book. If you think self-publishing is for writers with no talent go back to the beginning of this article and I dare you to find any credible person to discredit anyone on that list. So the question is not are you lucky enough to get picked up by a publisher, but do you have what it takes to believe in your talents and self-publish your own book?

Remember: For those who risk nothing, nothing is gained. For those who risk everything they stand to gain the world and beyond.

The name of my Book is Amazing Grace ISBN-10: 1-4303-1748-5; ISBN-13: 978-1-4303-1748-7. (Published under my pen name, which is my middle name, Jerome-Paul)

My website is http://www.jerome-paul.com and http://www.lulu.com/jeromepaul.

See my blog page at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1RD85ZT69PF0I

My book isn't on Google as of the date I published this article, but you can go to http://books.google.com and enter my ISBN or the title of my book and you can see the book there. Or search for your favorite book and author.

I also have my media kit uploaded on my website. Feel free to use it and modify it to fit your needs.

Well there you have it, a crash course in self-publishing. There is a lot more to it, but this article will give you an over view of what to expect. Realistically after you have a manuscript it takes about three months for your book to work its way completely through the distribution network, but you will start promoting from the day your ISBN is assigned. Good luck and I hope this article has helped you in some way.