5 Tips for Publishing Your Own Book
Here are five steps to help you get started:
1. Decide on an engaging topic. Not sure what to write about? Stay away from recapping your company blog posts or simply publishing marketing
material. You want to demonstrate your expertise in a distinctive,
engaging way, says Cavanaugh Gray, founder of Entrepreneur Café, a
Chicago-based small-business development firm. "Don't get too
theoretical or too technical, unless you are speaking to a very specific
niche of readers." Both print and e-books can be as short as 100 pages
or as long as 300, he adds.
2. Know the basics. Do your homework on the rules of
publishing before starting out. For example, owning the International
Standard Book Number, which can be purchased at
isbn.org
for $125, can help you retain publishing rights in the future to more
easily create updated editions of your book and allow you to switch
publishing platforms, says Marna Friedman, an Atlanta-based consultant
who advises small businesses on self-publishing. But some publishers
acquire ISBNs on your behalf, which means you'll need to stick with the
same company for future editions, she adds.
3. Plan your budget. A big expense will be
publication costs, which run about $5 to $20 per printed book. (Most
e-books have minimal fees.) Friedman recommends choosing a publishing
platform that offers a print-on-demand option, which lets you order
books as needed rather than paying for a bulk order. Otherwise, you
could end up ordering too many copies and getting stuck with leftovers.
Sites typically ask authors to buy at least 15 copies to get
preferential bulk pricing.
Related: Website Creates Author Community for the Self-Published
You also need to factor in editing and graphic design costs, which
can together total $4,000 to $8,000, says James Altucher, a New
York-based
hedge fund manager
who has self-published four books. If you're tempted to cut corners on
editing and design, remember that a visually unappealing book with
errors will hurt your credibility. "Nothing looks worse than grammatical
mistakes in a self-published book," Altucher says.
4. Develop a marketing strategy. Even if you didn't set out to write a bestseller, you should figure out a
marketing strategy for the book before it's published. Will you promote it via
Twitter or
Facebook?
Or will it simply be mailed to potential clients? You also can use your
company website to promote the book by creating a separate tab on your
home
page or a special blog. If you plan to market your book to a larger
audience than your target customers, compare royalty fees from various
publishing sites to see where you'd make the most money.
Related: How to Create an E-Mail Marketing Campaign That People Will Notice
5. Pick a publisher. Here are four sites worth
considering. All of them offer self-publishing software and allow users
to publish and distribute their books.
CreateSpace: Started in 2007, Amazon's self-publishing arm lets users publish e-books for the
Kindle, as well as print hard copies. The books are sold on
CreateSpace
or Amazon.com. The site offers expanded distribution options for an
additional fee. Creating the book is free, as is the Kindle version. But
printing-on-demand costs about $4.50 per copy for a 300-page book. If
that same book is sold for $15, the author can expect $4.50 in royalties
when using Amazon.com.
Blurb:
The six-year-old site enables users to create coffee table books with
colorful photos, as well as other types of printed books. Hardcover
books cost from $3.95 to $49.95 per copy when ordering on demand,
depending on the book's size. Authors retain all the revenue from
selling copies themselves.
Booktango:
Started earlier this year, this self-publishing service offers only
e-books. It's free to publish and distribute the e-books, while writers
pay from $49 to $359 for more services including editing, marketing and
design. Writers retain all sales revenue. Books are sold through the
site, but can also be uploaded to other sites including Amazon and
Apple's iBookstore.
Lulu: Founded
in 2002, this website offers e-books and printed books. Authors pay
$8.50 per printed copy of an average size book, while e-books are free.
The company takes a 20 percent commission on book sales, and writers
collect the rest.
Lulu
offers e-book distribution to iBookstore, Barnes & Noble's Nook
bookstore and the Lulu Marketplace, as well as Amazon and the Lulu
Marketplace for print books.
