Publishing Blog | Book Production and Design Excellence | Grey Swan Press

Traditional vs. Self-Publishing

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:15:34 -0400

You have written your book, sent out inquiry letters to publishers, heard nothing, did some research, discovered that you need to represented by an agent, sent out more inquiry letters, heard nothing, etc. That's the way it goes in about 99% of the cases. But, let's just say that you hear from an agent, who decides to represent you, and that agent gets your manuscript past the "slush pile" (where most manuscripts languish and die at publishing companies), and you get signed to a contract with an advance. Hooray! In eighteen months your book will hit the shelves of bookstores. And every step in the process of getting it there, what it looks like, and how it is marketed is under the control of the traditional publisher.

Now, what do you make for all this effort? In most cases, you get a small advance on royalties--$5,000 is typical for a first-time writer at an average publishing company--and your royalties range from 5% of the net price of the book to as much as 15% of the selling price. The "net" is what the publisher receives after giving what amounts to a 55% discount to the wholesale buyers of your book. Let's say you have produced a "trade" paperback, as opposed to a "mass market" paperback (the former is a better quality book measuring approximately 6" x 9"--the latter 4.25" x 7"), and it has a retail price of $13.95. If you have been given a very generous 10% of the selling price royalty (you are not Stephen King who commands 15% or more), you would receive $1.40 per book sold. Your payment would be only $.31 per book if you were on the lowest end of the royalty scale. If you were to sell one million books, you would be doing well in either case. But if you were to only sell 2,000 books that would mean royalties of $2,800 on the 10% deal and only $627.75 on 5% of the net. And, you still owe your agent 15%.

And, what's even worse, in 2004, Nielsen BookScan tracked the sales of 1.2 million books and found that nine hundred and fifty thousand of them sold fewer than ninety-nine copies.

I don't mean to be so discouraging because many writers do make it, but for the time being you should not consider quitting your day job.

Then, there is self-publishing where you can get your book into print within a little more than a month and have complete control over the process.

True self-publishing means that the author forms a publishing company and that company name appears on the copyright page of the book as publisher and the book's ISBN number is registered by Bowker (the ISBN agency) to the author as publisher. The true self-published author not only produces the finished book, but also markets it.

Companies that charge authors for producing their books can accurately be called subsidy, cooperative, partner, or even joint venture publishers. In the past, the term "vanity" publishing applied to the process of authors paying to have their work published. The stigma attached to vanity publishing arose because many companies printed works with little or no regard to quality.

Today the publishing industry is changing, and two factors make author subsidized publishing more acceptable: (1) the emergence of digital print-on-demand technology (POD); and (2) the significant increase in rejections of first-time authors by traditional publishers. The number of books produced by authors who have paid to have them published is approaching the number printed by traditional publishers.

Printing hardware and software advances make it economically feasible to print from 1 to 500 copies of a book. Conventional offset printing requires the printing of significantly more copies, and, hence, a much larger up-front investment. The exceptionally high cost of printing and marketing books today have forced traditional publishers to accept less than 1% of the works of first-time authors.

If you are in that other 99%, you must consider either self-publishing or subsidized publishing. The stigma of taking control of producing your own work is much less of a factor today.

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Vonnegut's Eight Rules for Writing Fiction

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 10:10:35 -0400

Here is Kurt Vonnegut's advice to writers in "Eight Rules of Writing Fiction" from his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things – reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them – in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Vonnegut conveys more on his craft with these brief rules than many who have written books on the subject.

Grey Swan

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Promoting Fiction and Non-Fiction

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:29:52 -0400

Non fiction is easier to promote than fiction because it can either be newsworthy and current, or it can fit into a niche. Niche marketing is an effective way for authors to impact the sales of their books. While it is not advisable to slant a book just to fit a niche, it is smart to consider what non-traditional avenues can be pursued beyond the conventional bookstore or online giants like Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. These can be gift shops for books on dolls or crafts, gourmet shops for cookbooks, garden shops and nurseries for books on plants or landscape design. Companies or organizations could buy and redistribute special interest books: a major producer of toothpaste might be interested in a book which teaches children proper care of their teeth, or national health organizations could use a range of wellness books as a means of bringing attention to their activities. Keep in mind the audience for your book, and ask yourself the places where they shop or visit frequently.

With fiction, you must be a little more clever. If there is a dog in your novel, make it a specific breed, so that you can direct releases to associations, groups, magazines, etc., interested in that type. If your work centers around a terrorist group attempting to blow up an LNG tanker, the radio and TV stations, as well as newspapers, in cities where LNG tankers dock would likely be interested in reviewing your book or even interviewing you.

Whether you are trying to promote fiction or non fiction, remember that it is more difficult, and expensive, to promote your book to a broad audience than it is to a specific, definable, and easily accessible group.

Many great writers are great promoters, too.

Grey Swan

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The Cost of Seeing Your Book on Barnes & Noble's Shelves

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:52:41 -0400

Selling books directly to your audience is the best way of selling books. If you signed a contract with a book distributor, you would have to pay that company at least 25% of everything they sell either to independent bookstores or wholesalers. But that is not all you would have to pay. Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other large chains usually buy through wholesalers like Partners, Ingram, and Baker and Taylor, who demand a 55% discount. That means that if your distributor sells to a wholesaler, the return on your book would be 33.75% of the selling price: a $16 retail trade paperback would yield $5.40. If you get wholesalers to list your book, and you do not use a distributor, sales of each book would return $7.20. Selling your book on Amazon.com would yield the same. Alternative methods of book distribution – through organizations, associations, corporations, trade shows, festivals, conventions, fund raisers, back-of-the-room sales at lectures, or your own web site – are the most profitable ways of selling your book.

Grey Swan

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Paying to Produce Your Book Can Lead to Major Publishing Deals

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:09:05 -0400

Publisher's Weekly today announced that a children's rhyming picture book by Laura Duksta and Karen Keesler, entitled I Love You More, self-published (or more accurately, self-subsidized) by the authors in 2001, was picked up by traditional, independent publisher, Sourcebooks. This book will join this publisher's new children's imprint called Jaberwocky. What makes this acquisition all the more interesting is that the authors have already sold almost 180,000 copies of this book through non-bookstore channels, like specialty retailers, museum shops, and art galleries. Publishers Marketplace, which lists the kind of deals that authors receive from publishers, rates the deal as "significant," which means that they will receive an advance of between $250,000 and $500,000.

In addition, Jaberwocky selected two other author-subsidized books for its Fall 2007 catalog: the first two books of The Fairy Chronicles by J. H. Sweet, who is presently at work on books 31 through 60 of this series. The author commented on an online, young adult site: "The Internet offers many authors a way to sell books that traditional bookstores are not willing to carry on their shelves... I also think that a lot of print-on-demand books and e-books do deserve to be published. I think the Internet has benefited both traditional and non-traditional publishing." And the reason she offered for self-publishing her books is quite obvious: "Most authors, even brilliant ones, still have to know someone to get into the traditional publishing industry because it is so exclusive. It is nearly impossible for those not already in the circle to get an agent, much less sell a manuscript to a traditional publisher."

So, we learn two things from today's PW story: (1) Author-subsidized books do get picked up by traditional publishers (and the payoff can be significant); and (2) one can sell an enormous number of books through unconventional channels. As I explained in an earlier listing: not only is it costly to see your book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble, it is not necessarily the best way of selling your book.

Grey Swan

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Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007): "So it goes."

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:13:49 -0400

Kurt Vonnegut died this year. In 1969 I met him during a book discussion group sponsored by a local newspaper. I was a recent Harvard graduate in English, confident that I was destined to write "The Great American Novel," and was looking for any shortcuts I could find. My first question: "I want to be a successful novelist. Should I start by writing short stories?" He politely replied that after publishing 45 short stories in magazines, he saw the demise of that market for a freelance fiction writer, "whose yearly income was equal to that of a cafeteria worker." He pointed out that major sources for short stories, like The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's magazines, had gone out of business, so the novel form was the only realistic way for a writer of fiction to make a living.

"You mean you only write for the money?" I asked.

"Not entirely, but mostly. Yes." he replied.

("OK," I thought, "so he didn't starve while writing in a garret. What else could I learn?")

"I just read your latest, Slaughterhouse Five. I understand it took you almost 25 years to write it? Why so long?"

"I started out writing it with Frank Sinatra playing the role of Billy Pilgrim in the movie. And the longer the book took forced me to continuously change the actor I had in mind to play him," Vonnegut explained quite seriously.

(Writing for money. Writing for the movies. In my naivety and hyper liberal idealism I thought that these motives were anathema for serious writers.)

A bit disillusioned, I never asked another question. My mistake.

NOTE: Slaughterhouse Five chronicles the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, a prisoner of war in Germany during the bombing of Dresden – based on Vonnegut's own experience when captured during the Battle of the Bulge – where both he and his character were locked in a meat locker under a slaughterhouse – and actually survived the bombing because of it. The novel satirizes the absurdity of war among civilized people and details Billy's eventual capture by aliens from the planet Tralfamador. He resigns himself to the unreality of life with the slogan, "So it goes." I include the book in my list of the 10 best American novels.

Well, I never wrote the great American novel, and Mr. Vonnegut came damn close. If one commits to being a serious writer, financial survival is necessary – a kind of Hobson's Choice, which means that there is really no choice at all.

In his 84 years, Kurt Vonnegut wrote 19 novels, countless short stories, essays, and plays which place him among the pantheon of great American writers. He drew a tombstone in Slaughterhouse Five with the inscription, "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt." Yes, Mr. Vonnegut: Everything you produced was beautiful!" Thank you for your wit and all of your words. And thank you for inspiring so many. It only hurts us that you left.

Grey Swan

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