Two-Minute Guide to Book Publishing by Grant Davis
Have you written a book you want to share with
the world? New York is the capital of the book publishing world, but
remember small and midsize independent publishers in other locations
can also be elite and do business with unpublished authors.
It is not absolutely necessary to engage the services of an agent, but
it usually is a good idea. Today agents who know their way around the
publishing industry have thousands of books to select from to present
to publishers.
Some agents will offer encouragement and suggestions to improve a
client’s work. Also remember that with new clients agents have
additional costs such as duplication, mailing/shipping and other
incidental costs. Very rarely will an agent lay out expenses for
beginning writers who are expected to pay these costs and fees.
Large publishing houses usually only deal with literary agents.
Many public libraries have copies of the LITERARY MARKETPLACE on their
shelves. This book lists publishers, agents, and submission
requirements. The smart writer will spend time reading requirements
publishing houses have specified. Entries are often listed by subjects.
Have you already tried the traditional route and submitted your
manuscript to various publishing houses, and gotten only rejections?
You are in the company of the most famous authors, many of whom have
received rejection after rejection of now best selling books. What is a
new unpublished author to do? It often seems that only celebrities or
relatives of book publishers get book deals these days.
That is where self book publishing comes in. Many famous authors got
their start through self publishing books that later became best
sellers.
One such author is James Redfield, who self published his blockbuster
spiritual novel "The Celestine Prophecy" after he received rejections
from several conventional publishing companies. He was so successful
selling copies of his self published novel out of the trunk of his car
that Warner Books paid him $800,000 for it and "The Celestine Prophecy"
went on to sell over 5 million copies.
Often, as with James Redfield’s example, self publishing your
book is the only avenue left you. While many unpublished works do
deserve rejection, there is a viable amount that does have potential
marketability. If you feel strongly about the merit of your work, the
next step is to find the best method to get your book in print.
Some publishers are offering Print On Demand services. They accept your
manuscript and for a fee will print the manuscript. After the author
pays the cost of setting up the book for printing, he or she may order
as little as one book or as many copies as the author wants.
It is a comparatively new method of publishing a book. The drawback of
this service is since you are not bulk purchasing copies of your book,
your cost per book at a one book level greatly reduces your profit.
You must ask yourself: do you want a token book, or do you want a truly
marketable book? A marketable book is one that has a conservative
production cost that allows you to sell it at fair market price, and
realize a reasonable profit. A token book is one with such a high
retail price that only your family and friends would purchase it,
making it a token publication for your ego only.
To determine a projected fair market price for your book, visit your
local book store and price the selling price of books similar to what
you are planning for your own manuscript. If the going price for
similar soft-cover books is $7.95, then your out-of-pocket cost to self
publish your book in the same format should not be more than 50% or
$3.98 for this example of a $7.95 selling price.
If you use the services of a Print On Demand service, you could find
your out-of-pocket cost to be no less than $12 per book, no matter what
the going market rate is. That exorbitant production cost and
consequent too high selling price required, would then classify your
book a token book.
To help you in your book publishing quest, many self publishing book
services offer self-publishing guides at a small fee or even for free.
Lessons in style are also offered by internet companies. If you want
everything done for you, from artwork to editing services for your
manuscript, these services can be provided for a fee.
No matter the route you go, if you persist you will see your manuscript
published, either through a major book publisher or self publishing.
Publishing, however, is only the first step. The key factor to how
successful your book will be is how aggressive it is marketed. Often
that depends on your own enthusiasm and tireless promoting to realize
initial success. But, on the other hand, word of mouth could explode
your book sales and catapult it to the next blockbuster, where it will
go on to sell millions of copies.
If you need further help, you may want to visit http://www.bestbookpublishing.info which covers a wide range of issues and information on book publishing.
About the Author
Grant Davis is a freelance writer and has worked in a variety of fields, including teaching. Feel free to use the above article, as long nothing is changed, the bio remains, all hyper links remain as is and the rel="nofollow" tag is not added to any links.