I’ve been doing some consulting for a local women’s writing group. And they asked for my advice in figuring out how to go about getting an anthology of their members’ contributions published.
This particular writing group is one that is more focused on the process than the product. They’re all about nurturing self-expression and personal growth, and only marginally focused on publication.
For years they’d been copying and binding the poems, stories and essays that sprang from their sessions. But this group had reached the point where they wanted to put out a more professional looking collection, mainly to offer the anthology to their own community.
They definitely wanted hard copies of the book, so epublishing—my first recommendation—wasn’t going to be a solution for them.
This my friends, is the perfect example of when it makes perfect sense to consider self-publishing. I don’t typically recommend self-publishing as a first strategy, but this is exactly the kind of project that it works perfectly for. No traditional publisher would consider taking on a book like this. Also, this group wanted to keep control over how the book got published and distributed.
Here’s what I recommended to them: Print On Demand. I’ll let you know what service I recommended and why tomorrow.
I’m going to explore some more self-publishing topics this week, so please leave any questions here in the comments.
-Maria Schneider
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Great info and insight about the writing group’s anthology, Maria. Will look forward to your posts this week. I’ve been drawing attention to your blog via an online class I’m taking through mediabistro.com The Advanced Book Proposal Writing participants are not e-savvy / social networking savvy, which lead me to think you’d be a great mediabistro teacher if you were interested in teaching on said topic!
Best,
Louise Ross
Maria, This is just what I’m trying to learn. I’ve been told definitely not vanity press, definitely not POD, I definitely have to go with self-publishing or seek an agent. I need to learn more. Looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
Susan Cross
@Louise, I’m surprised that your MediaBistro teacher’s aren’t more emedia savvy! I am thinking about putting a workshop together so thanks for the tip.
@Susan, if you have specific questions please let me know and I’ll try to answer.
Maria,
I look forward to anything you can do to clarify the lay of the land in this area. The rapid transformation of self-publishing from something tinged with an admission of failure to something as banal as self-service laundry is as amazing as it is impossible to keep pace with.
The Espresso machine seems to be the bleeding edge, but I’m wondering about other options, including options which include more customer service, hand-holding, etc. Who’s out there that’s reliable and easy to work with?
In trying to understand all this myself I’ve visited some sites that seem to be no more than elaborate cons, with ridiculous per-service fees and charges. I also know that ‘back in the day’ there were plenty of vanity publishers who were less than reputable. So what’s changed? Are the self-publishing sharks sprucing up their brochures and websites in anticipation of a feeding frenzy? Are there any start-ups coming at this in a new way? (I have a half-finished blog post on this very subject myself, but I don’t know the players, which means I don’t know who’s playing me.)
You could probably spend a year researching this subject — at which point you would have to throw out half of what you learned because it was already outdated — but I’m eager to hear what you think. And I think more and more people are going to want to go down this road as the process becomes simpler and more mainstream.
My first publishing credits were in small-press comic books. In the early to mid 90s, there was a boom in self published comics. There wasn’t the stigma attached to self publishing a comic book that there is with self publishing a novel. In fact, many readers sought out self published comic books for something different.
For some, self publishing was all about the freedom to create what they wanted. For most creators, though, self publishing seemed to be another way to have their work seen and picked up by publishers.
I think most people who self publish, if given the choice between self publishing and having their work accepted by a publisher, would take having their work accepted by a publisher. I agree that self publishing isn’t a great first strategy, but I still wonder if we’ll see more people publishing their own work and if we’ll see more self published fiction being picked up by publishers.
Blogging is a form of self publishing (one that I think has much more going for it than POD books), and we’ve all seen blogs to books/movies.
I look forward to your posts about self publishing this week, Maria, and the discussions that will follow.
Maria,
It seems the author’s/authors’ goals drive part of the decision. My first book was POD and the physical book is no different than most other 6×9 trade paperback.
My decision to go this route was the niche aspect of subject – an anthology of radio drama scripts – combined with wanting as much control of the process as possible. My investment was modest, between $400 – $450, and has been nearly recouped.
My second book – another anthology of radio drama scripts plus short stories and spoken word – is going to be self-published. I am currently raising funds through Kickstarter.
My third book, just started with the first chapter to be included in the second book, is a novel. Based on subject, mainstream historical YA, my strategy will be to go the traditional agent/publisher route.
All the best,
William E. Spear
# 30 #
Maria, I suspect this column is going to generate you a lot of comments!
I can speak to both the traditional and self-publishing experience and why I have chosen the latter for myself.
I had a mainstream publisher for the first two books I wrote and it was a very unhappy experience from start to finish (except for that golden moment of acceptance). I didn’t understand copyright or royalties and blindly signed a contract that ended up giving me roughly a 50 cent royalty on the 30 or 40 thousand copies of those books that were eventually sold (over many years).
I started my own self-publishing press in 2000 precisely because I had had the first traditional experience. Print on Demand, which I used through a POD ‘publisher’ as oppposed to a ‘printer’ (I’m sure your articles, which I will look forward to will make that distinction for your readers) was ‘not ready for prime time’ back in 2000 and I ended up having to do a traditional print run on that first self-published title and start again. However, I didn’t give up…and have self-published four titles in all (including re-publishing my first book which the original publisher let go out of print).
The reasons were the following (which other readers here may find useful):
1. I publish non-fiction which is the best suited genre for self-publishing because the window for promotion and the length of time the book remains relevant is helpful in the process.
2. I write for a niche market, know where my readers are, was able to get to them via a web site (and now social media) and gazillion of miles flown hither and yonder to sell books through lectures which leads to point 3:
3. Back of the room sales can be incredibly lucrative for self-publishers because we own the books. So instead of a bookseller sitting there taking a 40% fee, if you have enough hands to sell books, take money, and also sign them at the same time, all the money goes back to you, the self-publisher. In other words, you don’t have to sell a lot of books to make money at it.
Finally, the other advice I give others who ask me about self-publishing is this: you must not care if my book is in a bookstore (they take 40% distribution fees and if the book doesn’t sell fast enough, return it, often marked in some way, and they can take up to 18 months to pay!); you must also not care about book reviews and your name being in bright lights. Reviews do not sell books or certainly not as many as people might think (except for Oprah of course).
So if people really are interested in the ‘process of writing’ (which is sort of like an actor claiming it’s ‘all about the work’ etc which can often be bunk) they will write what they want to say; enjoy the process of doing just that; try to engage a traditional publisher if they don’t want to be a publisher (because it’s almost the same with investment in time and money); and then, and perhaps only then, consider the self-publishing route. But be prepared for a lot of work!
Yes, I totally agree. I have very recently put together a mini-anthology for my own writing group using a similar idealogy.
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/shot-glass-stories/7626845
Robin, thanks for the detailed post. Many of my clients have pursued the same track, and with great results.
It remains true that, rather than something tinged with an admission of failure self-publishing is often the most advantageous course for an author who 1) is an acknowledged expert or authority in their field, and 2) has access to the majority of people interested in their topic. It also doesn’t hurt if she 3) is experienced at, and enjoys, promotion.
Before POD lowered the bar for entry into publishing, self-publishers knew they had to create a quality product, one that could stand toe-to-toe with the books from major publishers, if they hoped to get any attention or shelf space. This is still necessary, but has been obscured by the “everybody can publish everything for free!” rants about POD self-publishing.
It’s my opinion, from helping launch many self-published books, that the really good ones are not identified as “self-published” by the public, and often not by retail book buyers, assuming the publisher has done his job correctly, gotten some distribution, and followed a sane and pragmatic course for publication. For niche non-fiction, self-publishing is still, for some authors, the best alternative, with the greatest control and financial leverage of all. But … you have to do it right!
Hi Maria,
I belong to the Henderson Writers Group, http://hendersonwriters.com. We publish our anthology ‘Writers Bloc’, every other year with our third edition coming out in 2010. Our president Jo Wilkins, owner of Mystic Publishers http://mysticpublishers.com, publishes this for the group. Her publishing company provides ‘the office staff needed to self-publish’ I mentioned this post to her and she will be more than happy to answer any questions or assistance in providing the road map in accomplishing this task.
Contact: joawilkins@mysticpublishers.com, also on twitter under mysticpublisher (not enough character space for the s ;)
We publish our anthology as a fundraiser. Giving our members the publishing credit and they can purchase books at cost to sell on their own.
The Henderson Writers Group also sponsors a Student Writing Contest each year. The 1st and 2nd place winners stories are published in the anthology, thus giving students their first publishing credits.
Our submissions are chosen from a group not affiliated with the Henderson Writers – so no favoritism-
Great Post!
Teresa Watts
Publicity Chairman Henderson Writers Group
Las Vegas, NV
I take it you meant they wanted a book not just for themselves but for potential customers.
POD is indeed the smartest option for your book. You control the number of books you want to have printed and you can cater to your target readers as well. The flak against self-publishing may still be there, but i think more and more people are getting more discerning about it. More power on your publishing plans!
Time is what is preventing me from pursuing an agent. I thought if I could get 500 copies out to the people who are waiting for them and simultaneously send queries to editors I might be okay. Is my strategy flawed? Of course I’d be using a vanity press. I have an editor and proofreader to work with. I’m on the fence.
Great post, Maria! I’m not one to tout self publishing either, but there are cases when it’s the best choice.
Thanks for the great info!
@Susan, If your goal is getting on with an agent and getting your book published by a traditional publisher, I would definitely hold off self publishing. Self publishing a book can hurt you if you aren’t able to seriously move some books. If you have a marketing plan to sell 5,000 books or more, then it might make sense to go the self pub route. Otherwise, I’d focus on building a blog audience until you have a critical mass to buy your book.
I find that one of the drawbacks to self-publishing is the fact that a lot of the end products look less professional simply because most writers don’t have access to software like InDesign, which is necessary to pull together a good layout. Have you had any experience with snags in layout?
@Susan, I’d like to second what Maria has said above. Once you’ve published and filled all those orders, the publisher has that much less incentive to acquire your book. After all, the first enthusiastic buyers are the ones that will cover the publisher’s initial outlay. After that your only opportunity would be to generate pretty massive (and provable) sales to get a publisher interested.
@Thursday, that’s why smart self-publishers who intend to sell into the book trade (bookstores, etc.) hire on professionals to produce their books. What’s the point of learning InDesign (no small undertaking) if all you’re ever going to do is one book? For instance, take a look at this: http://bit.ly/WTmuT
@Thursday – If you want to do it all yourself you should be able to produce perfectly satisfactory layouts using an ordinary word processor, and a simple cover can be designed with any vector graphics program. I use Inkscape which is free and runs on both Linux (which I use) and Windows. There is plenty of information on the internet telling you how to set up a suitable layout in a word processor like Word or Open Office, although I have heard that Word will not export to PDF (which surprises me). Open Office does. You will need PDF files for a printer.
I recently published my own book using only my everyday working computer programs and the total cost of production was zero for the PDFs and about US$40 for a commercial printer to set up for production. And I am assured it is not rubbish. You do need some ability to do the artwork, but you do not need expensive or complicated software, or ten years experience in publishing. You need attention to detail and a few basic rules. And look at lots of other books to see how they are laid out. I think you are better spending money on professional design than on professional software, as Joel suggests, unless you envisage publishing an awful lot of books.
@Joel and @SleepyJohn, I’ve actually done a lot of book design in InDesign — but I’ve been working with quite a few people lately who try to design their books and ebooks in Word and other word processing software, due to a lack of funds. I’ve been recommending Scribus (because it’s free) and I’d be interested in hearing any recommendations you have in that vein.
I know I’m atypical — I used to do newspaper layouts in InDesign, so the learning curve wasn’t an issue. But there are better options out there than Word, even if you can’t afford layout software.
On a few client projects in the past, I’ve had to lay out work in Word. Even with professional design experience, using Word as a layout software can add hours to a project — it’s really not meant for that job, and it automatically makes changes in pagination every time you make a change of your own (often ruining hours of work in the process). My first recommendation is, of course, to hire a professional, but when that’s not an option, it’s still faster to download and learn a tool like Scribus than trying to wrangle Word.
Thanks for the topic. I’m glad that you said you don’t usually recommend self publishing as a first option. I have had many people suggest it to me since they say I would make more money that way and I wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of finding an agent. My primary goal is reaching as many people as possible, so I’m happy with my choice.
Maria -
Following the Writers Digest Business of Getting Published conference this past weekend, I’ve come to believe that within 5 years, self-publishing will no longer be an option, but a prerequisite for unknown, debut authors in all genres. I talk about it in an article I wrote for Publetariat (click on my name above to read it), which also serves as a trip report on the conference. Essentially, I’m just seeing self-pub as the logical and inevitable next step in author platform.
@April, I totally agree with you on the importance of building a readership, but I’m not so sure that publishing hard copies is the best alternative for many authors. See today’s post.
@Thursday – Sorry about teaching grandmother about eggs, your brief post gave me the impression you were a total beginner. I have never used Word so only know what I have heard. I tried Scribus and although it is highly praised I found it complicated and not very intuitive. I now use a word processor called Textmaker which I find fast, simple, intuitive and perfectly capable of laying out a straightforward book. It is not free but is quite cheap, and comes with a full office suite. For the sort of people you are talking about it has the advantage of being very similar in operation to any word processor they are used to, so is easy to learn.
@SleepyJohn — Thanks, I think Textmaker is exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for: simple enough that I don’t have to spend hours training people to use it, but robust enough to actually put together a quality layout.
Susan Cross is confused when she says, “I’ve been told definitely not vanity press, definitely not POD, I definitely have to go with self-publishing or seek an agent.”
Self-publishing can be POD, and so can an agented book.
Michael N. Marcus
author of “Become a Real Self-Publisher,” due soon
http://BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
http://www.SilverSandsBooks.com
@Maria (belatedly),
The image of the forlorn self-publisher with no room in the garage for his car, piled to the rafters with cartons of books, is from the time when only offset printing was available. The switch to digital printing—employed by the Print-on-Demand publishing model eliminated the need to print 500, 1000, or 2000 copies to get a decent unit price.
Digital books in small quantities are much more expensive than books printed offset. The reason the model works is the efficiency of digital production for extremely (down to 1 copy) short runs. Depending on the book and the printer, somewhere over 500 copies the offset model will start to become less expensive on a unit basis than digital printing. Offset printing, of course, is still much higher quality but this may not last forever.
I encourage you to watch this 4 minute video if you haven’t seen it already. This is the “next step” in the digital production evolution: 1 book, printed for the customer at a kiosk, within 7 minutes: Espresso Book Machine