So you’ve toiled for two years and finally finished your masterpiece. Now what do you do? You can package up your manuscript and send it, or more likely the first three chapters, to an agent or a publisher. In three months, six months, twelve months or maybe never, you will receive a reply, for the lucky few a letter of acceptance, for the vast majority a rejection slip.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the book you have written is no good, or that publisher’s aren’t interested in finding new books to publish, far from it. Book publisher’s are in the business of publishing, books are their lifeblood, and while they have a whole stable of established money spinning authors, the need to discover new talent is always there. After all, without new authors they would stagnate and eventually die.
With over a million manuscripts sent in each year and maybe 150,000 published – a lot of them by existing authors, celebrity chefs, celebrity anything, historians and educators, etc – and few hundred books actually making it onto the bookshelves, you can understand why it is hard for a new author to become a published author.
If you have tried and failed, or have simply been put off by the horror stories, but you still would like to see your work published the alternative is to self publish.
Why self publish?
There are many reasons, the main one being the inability to attract the attention of a mainstream publisher, either because your treasured tome – perish the thought – is not a good bet commercially, or the publisher is inundated with manuscripts and your precious prose ends up on the slush pile.
Maybe having written your book, you just want a few copies for family and friends.
Maybe you’ve written a local history and want a few hundred copies to sell locally.
Maybe you’ve researched your family history and want a dozen copies for family members.
Maybe you are like me, you have written your novel and would like to publish to a wider audience.(I should warn you that everything I have read on the subject suggests that the best sales to expect from a self published book, are three to four hundred copies, not enough to make a profit, but maybe, just maybe, enough get your investment back.)
Oh yes, if I haven’t mentioned it before, you have to pay to self publish your book, and have a lot of work to do besides, but more of that later.
First things first, for smaller quantities, print on demand seems to be the answer, i.e. copies only printed as required. (No stock to carry) For those who think they can sell more than 500 copies – and make no mistake, as a self-publisher you are the one who will have to sell those copies – it is cheaper per book to have a print run done.
How much will it cost?
Well, I might be telling my granny how to suck eggs, but in for a penny in for a pound. (How’s that for a pair of clichés) Simply type self-publishing into your search bar and you will be inundated by a great mass of companies wanting to help you self-publish your book. If you click on to several of them you’ll get some idea of what it will cost.
Warning, a lot of them will do you a full package that includes the ISBN number, if that number is in their name, they and not you, are the publisher of the book and you have not self-published your book.
So what? So, after your initial outlay you will still have to pay for and sell each copy of your book yourself, but will receive somewhere in the region 10% –15%. instead of pocketing the full balance, i.e. the selling price less cost of printing.
Need more information before making a decision?
Sorry I can’t tell you what to do, but what I can do, is tell you, warts and all, (Another cliché) why and how I am going about self-publishing my book FINDING ROSY. It will be an ongoing exercise as I am only halfway through the process, but as each stage is reached I will add the information to part 2.Not only that, once the book is printed, I will list the total amount I have spent and as sales are made, (or not.) I will list those, so that you can work out for yourself whether I succeed in covering my costs, or fail miserably.
