The following contains information accumulated throughout my publishing career. Hope this helps. If you need clarification on certain aspects, or if time has made some of the info inaccurate, feel free to email me.
Helpful Info for the Self-Publisher
Information provided by fantasy author, Brian S. Pratt
self-published since Dec 2006 with over 9000 books sold
Advertising:
First thing to do is get a website if possible. Most providers are fairly cheap. You can even get a free one at Authortree.com. It isn't the best, but there is some customizability with it.
My website costs 9.95 /mo and I do everything myself. I designed it with a $59 software bought at CompUSA called WebEasy 5. I believe they have a WebEasy 7 out now which I'm sure is even better. A website of one kind or another is absolutely vital. When people want to know more about you and your book, where are they going to go?
Second is your Amazon.com profile. For authors, we are able to create a bibliography. Once that is done, you are then able to post messages for prospective readers. Use the following link to see what mine looks like:
Then there are other forms of advertising. Here's a site where you can advertise on the web for pennies a day. There isn't a great draw from here(at least for the low-cost sites), but if your book is well received, word of mouth should do the rest.
Amazon.com also has an in-house advertising that is pay per click that does well. These are ads you create which are then placed on pages for amazon customer's view. I did pretty well with this when I did it.
One other is adsense from Google. haven't done it yet, but here's there site if you're interested:
Hook up with other authors in your genre. Create a network of cross publicizing on each others' websites, and where possible, in the backs of each others' books. I am currently joined with another author and it helps. Maybe one or two readers a month, but each one helps.
Inexpensive postcards sent to bookstores could possibly generate interest. Postcards.com seems to be the most inexpensive place to get them. For 100, it only costs $12+shipping. Better than $69+shipping of their closest competitor.
Once you have your postcards, use this site to find complete addresses for bookstores in your area:
Search engines where you can add your site's info:
Author Sites:
An author site that I feel really helps authors to 'polish' their manuscripts.
Lots of fun, contests, and commaraderie.
You post your work--other authors review-Guaranteed at least 3 reviews with every post. Often times, more.
Very good about showcasing your work, also has a store through which you can sell your books from home. For me it is one of the best. They claim to have over a million hits per day. Here's a link to my "den":
There are dozens of others, but these two are the best.
Publishing Options:
Free Do-it-Youself options:
These are by no means all there are, only the ones that I have come into contact with. If you know of other "free" or "low-cost" options, let me know and I'll add them.
This one is so easy, it's scary. All you need is the Mobipocket Reader, and Mobipocket Creator. If you have Microsoft Word, you can do this. You set the price and recieve 35% in royalties.
When you install the Creator, make sure you check "pro" or "office," forgot exactly what it was called. If you don't, you won't be able to encrypt it for upload to their site.
From $7-$13 USD
The Best Self-Publishing Option*
*If you can do everything yourself
Initially-$105
Subsequent submissions- $75
Don't expect them to help, with anything. The initial cost is $105 for everything. You get full worldwide distribution, an ISBN if you don't have one, can make your books returnable(inadvisable-returns cost you and can kill you financially), can set your own wholesaler discount(higher makes it more competitive in the market, but reduces royalties.) Most POD publishers that you pay the exorbitant fees use this. iUniverse, the one I used, did. I paid them $500 per title, it only cost them $100 + their own labor, and they retained most of the royalties. Nice for them, huh? but if you don't have the technical savvy, which I am still perfecting, POD companies are the only way to go.
You get more royalties, better flexibility in what you want to do, access to worldwide marktes, and did I mention you get more royalties? Unless of course you set your price low, but I'll get into that a bit later.
The biggest obstacles are the cover, which you must provide to exacting specs, and embedding the fonts within the manuscript file. In order to do this, you have to have Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0 or higher. Their latest version, 9.0, costs $499.
POD Companies
If you aren't tech savvy enough to do it on your own, and you can't entice a publisher's interest, then you may wish to utilize a POD(Print-On-Demand) company. Here's a few I've looked at.
This is the one I used for The Morcyth Saga and The Broken Key Trilogy. Their covers are great and as an added bonus, they are affilitated with Barnes and Noble. They do have a program through which you might have a shot at getting your book on their shelves, but it costs, and there's no guarantee you'll be approved for in store placement.
Most PODs run from
$499 USD to well over $2,000 USD
I've been told that you can publish a book for free through them. However, there are a few things that their free service doesn't supply that are rather important. Here's what you'll have to 'add' to their free service. The ones with + I consider vital:
+ ISBN $ 99-No book can be without one.
Kindle $50(added bonus and if you expect lots of sales, worth it.)
Copyright $150(can do it yourself with the copyright office with 2 copies of your book and $25)
Returns $799(Most pods only sell around $200. Even if a third of the 200 were to returned still wouldn't equal $799)
+ Formatting manuscript $249(Need this to make it look professional. You can do this yourself quite easily.)
Custom Cover $999(This is if you want a specific cover designed)
+ Stock Cover $149(Cheap looking, but serviceable.)
Cover corrections $50/hour
With just the ones I denoted as vital you're spending : $497.00 If you want a custom cover instead of generic $1347.
They say it's free to publish.
--but that's only if you can do everything yourself, including the cover, so you may as well use LSI or CreateSpace and save the $$$.
Their basic pack looks good at $450. It includes:
--editorial analysis
--custom cover(vital)
--interior formatting of manuscript(if you can do this yourself, it's only $400
They also let you set your own price which is nice. A book sized 6x9, perfect bound, with 312 pages will only cost you $10.24. Which means. if you price the book at $15.95, you'll make a royalty of $5.71/ sale. Not sure what their wholesaler discount is, most are around 40%, which you have to have, and will lower your royalty accordingly.
Have never dealt with them, but they look pretty good.
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Upload your manuscript and they will convert it into the following eBook formats: epub; Sony Reader (LRF); Palm Doc (PDB) ;PDF; RTF; Plain Text; Kindle (Mobi). Make sure you follow their "Set up Guide" when you format your work for upload. Set your price and receive roughly 78% in royalty. Very helpful and emails are answered quickly.
eBook
Royalty: 35%
eBook
Royalty: 78%
Recommend
Recommend
Recommend
Recommend
Paperback
$0 for basic. + $20 yearly renewal. So not so free.
Unsure.
Have no experience with these guys.
iUniverse currently gives 20%(of the Retail Price) in royalties, which in this case would be $1.70. Figure to sell 200 copies for the life of the book, and you will recoup $341 of your initial "publishing fee." iUniverse currently charges $599.
Facts about POD Sales
According to the chief executive of POD service iUniverse, quoted in the New York Times in 2004, 40% of iUniverse's books are sold directly to authors.
According to the New York Times, AuthorHouse reports selling more than 2.5 million books in 2008, which averages out to around 54 sales per title.
In a 2008 article in The New York Times, iUniverse's VP, Susan Driscoll, admitted that most iUniverse authors sell fewer than 200 books.
As of mid-2007, Xlibris had 23,000 authors and had published 23,500 titles, with total sales of over 3 million--around 127 sales per title.
Once independent companies, AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and Xlibris are now all owned by the same company, Author Solutions. In a New York Times article published in early 2009, Kevin Weiss, Author Solutions' CEO, put the average sales of titles from any of the company's brands at around 150.
A Lulu bestseller is a book that sells 500 copies. There haven't been many of them.
According to Xlibris's own internal reports, recently obtained by Writer Beware, 4% of its titles had sold more than 1,000 copies.
*Check this one out, really puts it in perspective!!!
Have not used. They claim it's completely free. No up-front costs. Although, if you want it to be available anywhere but at the Craigspress Bookstore, it'll cost y ou. So many of these "free" ones cost you in one way or another. Always "thoroughly" check out any publisher before committing to them. Google their name, ask around. One of the things I like to do is hunt through their bookstore, find a book similar to mine, then see how it's doing on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Or, if it's even available on those sites. Also check the international Amazons too. Just because they'll publish your manuscript, doesn't mean it's in your best interest.
Go to:
Updated
27 May, 2009
OBOOKO is a site where eBooks are given away. You can publish through them for free, but the finished work will be given away. This will increase the distribution of your work. It could be especially helpful if you have forthcoming books, or books already published and just need a boost in getting the word out. Don't expect royalties from this site. Looks good, though, for what it does.
A "Free" eBook Company
*Smashword eBooks are now listed at B & N, Amazon(Kindle) and soon to be available for Sony at a site called Kobo.
This is primarily for those publishing in the US. Here you can publish a book and have it listed on Amazon.com for less than $20(The only cost is for the proof copy which you must order. Usually only around $6-$8 USD). Of course, you have to do everything yourself excetpt a cover. I do believe they have a cover creator now.
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