Have you ever wanted to publish a book? It might seem quite a daunting task, and it is certainly not something you would want to undertake lightly, but with the power of the internet, it is something that has never been easier to achieve. I’ve been engaged in creative writing for a good many years but for a very long time I’d never enjoyed much in the way of success. Quite often I’d submit work to publishers and agents but I never really got very far. I did get one novel read but in the end, after a very long wait, it was finally rejected. I did occasionally win a few minor prizes in writing competitions but I never got over the "publication barrier". I tried quite hard to work out where I was going wrong and spent a lot of time and effort seeking out constructive feedback. In a nutshell my work was never considered of sufficient marketable value.
Traditional publishing houses have to put a lot of investment into any book they decide to print. Not only do they have to print thousands of copies of books to achieve the very best discounts, they also have to invest in marketing and promotion. Before they’ll take such a risk, they have to be fairly certain they are going to be able to sell any book in sufficient quantities. In many cases they fail and as a result they frequently lose significant amounts of money. They need to be confident this will not happen before they accept any manuscript for publication. That explains why publishers tend to choose the books you see on the shelves in most book shops. Walk into any high street bookshop and take a look at the books on sale. A huge percentage of the first books you’ll see as you walk in through the door are likely to be “by” celebrities. The reason for this is simple – these are the books that sell and often they sell really well.
But that doesn’t mean to say you have to be a celebrity in order to write a book that sells. In fact many of the books that are presented as being written by celebrities aren’t written by them at all. They are often written by contract writers but of course, in most cases, the famous person in question will have endorsed the book and will be getting a “cut” of the proceeds. This does however prove to be a very important observation – successful marketing is a major key to success. The same is true in many areas of commerce and it is very true in the world of publication. Think about the most famous brands that you know. For example do you know which newspaper sells the most copies each day in the U.K? The best daily seller is “The Sun” which sells over 3 million copies each day; this is nearly a million more than "The Daily Mail" in second place. You might be of the opinion that "The Sun" is in fact better quality than any other newspaper in the U.K. but I’m not sure many people would agree with that view. If you look at almost any area of commercial activity, you will see the same kind of results. What for example is the world’s most popular soft drink? Is that down to quality? I don’t think so. However the companies behind these fabulously successful products do something really well and that is they are highly successful in marketing their products.
So you see the book you write doesn’t have to be the best quality book to be a success. However you do need to make sure the quality of your work does you credit and reaches the minimum required standard. I’m sure the most successful companies in the world would soon struggle if they ever let their standards slip. But the important point is, you don’t have to be the best to succeed. These days, thanks to the power of the internet, you can easily publish your own book very cheaply. In fact my first book was published for less than £20. For that I got an ISBN registration number and free entry into a worldwide booksellers’ database. The site I use for self publication is http://www.lulu.com
This site is used by thousands of authors from all over the world and it is easy to use and very well supported. There are of course other such sites but this is the one I prefer. The books that are sold are printed on demand. Lulu are incredibly quick at turning round orders and the quality of the print is excellent.
My storefront (it’s basically an online shop) is available at;-
Lulu is very easy to use and I would urge anyone to look at giving it a go if, like me, they have failed repeatedly to get into print through the traditional routes. Lulu certainly make the publication process easy; they deal with all the payment handling and payment of royalties. In truth, I believe the books prices that are calculated are generally higher than you’d expect to see in most bookshops and in some cases they are significantly higher.
You can set your own royalties but this impacts the resultant sale price. I’ve generally found that Lulu works best for shorter books with royalties set to modest amounts. Generally I look for a royalty of about 5% on books of about 100 to 200 pages in length which seems to work reasonably well (size US Trade often seems to give the lowest price.) A royalty of 5% is probably lower than you would get from the traditional publishing houses but the way I look at it is that I’d rather have something than nothing. The amount I’ve made from publication isn’t huge but the books I prefer to write are never likely to sell in their thousands. However I feel certain that there is some potential to do quite well if you created the right product.
In many ways the financial rewards are secondary to the truly wonderful sense of satisfaction you get when you release a book on to the market that you alone have created from start to finish. Like in so many other sale scenarios, which product proves popular is quite difficult to predict. There are surprises all the way. Some things which don't appear that promising often outsell those products that you think might be safer bets.
They often say there’s a book in every single one of us. Are you going to set yours down in print in 2011? Good luck if you do and I hope you derive as much enjoyment from the process as I’ve done over the last few years.
/ends
