Self Publishing by any Other Name

Marketing departments frequently come up with new ways to sell old products and services. It may be a change in packaging or a new name for the same old product. Marketing programs determine how successful a business is and every company uses some form of marketing.

I have written several times about self-publishing and every time someone strikes me down for my criticisms of the industry. Read closely, my criticisms of them relate to their marketing which uses false advertising, and the quality of their work. They cannot point to anyone who has actually made it to the big time from self publishing, but their marketing campaigns allude to such successes in their online advertisements.

These self publishing sites claim they cannot give out verifiable information due to customer privacy. The truth is they have no verifiable results, successful or otherwise. They do not know how many self published books are sold to the public. The publishing site only knows how many books it printed and sold to their customer. These sites have testimonies of success stories, but none of their testimonies give the title of a book and no testimonies claim monetary success that is verifiable. Yet the self publishing site touts their method as a way for you to make money.

If seeing your written words between the covers is your definition of success, I concede to your success if you self publish a book. If you put out a best seller through the self publishing method, you will be the first.

It is possible to make money from self publishing; I have always said that. It is very unlikely that you will make money and I strongly maintain that position. How much time do you have to promote your book? That is the key issue to success and success may be a very small profit, not a living that will support you. Around 97% of those who put their money into self publishing never recover the investment. You will most likely give away more books than you sell. Friends love free autographed books from writers, with an emphasis on the word “free”.

The previous statement is not and indictment of friends who want a free book. One of my greatest thrills is giving my book to a friend, especially one who will actually read it. Even if every friend I have paid for one of my books at full cover price I would not recover my investment. I do not have that many friends who buy books. Perhaps I just need more friends?

One reader took exception to my last criticism of self publishing, stating that I did not present the fair and balanced alternative of print on demand (POD). Another person suggested that I take a look at lulu.com. Actually, I looked at lulu.com before my reader suggested it. If you go to their website you can calculate the cost of printing one book and that cost, especially when you add shipping hand handling is more than the retail value of one comparable book at Borders. POD is the newly packaged, newly named version of self publishing; another marketing campaign for the jobbers making money from your literary works.

I concede the argument that you can publish yourself through the POD method with very little investment. However, you will not have books on store shelves and the cost of one book when you want a printed copy far exceeds the retail price of a book. So, again, if you want to see your work between covers, you can definitely accomplish that with lulu.com, but all of the best selling authors have new releases on Borders bookshelves at far lower retail prices than the cost to print and ship your book.

Booksjustbooks.com is another site that self publishes. You can get 10,000 hardback mystery/romance novels for around $3.50 per copy. I can go down the street, about one mile from my office to Taylor Publishing and get 5,000 copies of my mystery/romance novel printed for $3.19 per copy. Taylor Publishing has been around for over thirty years and publishes a majority of the school yearbooks in America. They also have a division that publishes hardback and paperback books.

Taylor is the best. I have been to their facility, toured it, stood and watched them print and bind books, and talked to the people who run the company. I know they will not take my money and run. They are legitimate, totally above board in their dealings with me and I know the final product is going to be the best quality. The book Taylor produces will not fall apart the first time it is cracked open. No self publishing jobbers finished product can make claims of quality that compares to Taylor. The major bookstores such as Borders shy away from books that are shoddily bound. Books from lulu.com and booksjustbooks.com fall into the shoddily bound category. Major bookstores will not touch them for resale.

As good as Taylor Publishing is, here is one way they are just like the websites I mentioned, and they state this up front in their quote; when they finish printing my books, they will ship them wherever pay to have them shipped. I own all the books and have to spend my time and money distributing and promoting them.

Here is some honest math, no marketing hype involved:

• Sale of 2,300 copies (wholesale) of my mystery/romance novel $27,600
• Printing cost of 3,000 novels $ 9,570
• Cost of shipping 3,000 novels to retail outlets, including returns $ 3,490
• Promotion which consisted primarily of travel to book signings $ 9,600
• Profit over seven month period $ 4,940

As you see, I did not make a living but did not lose money either. In fact, I consider the venture a successful test for my marketing approach. If you look closely at the numbers I had 700 books left when I stopped traveling around, promoting and signing. Does anyone need a book?

Success with self publishing, depending on your definition of success, is doable; with a lot of work. Will I do it again? Yes, I have proved my marketing approach on a limited basis. With solid capital backing I will succeed beyond supplementing my income. I do not advise against self publishing, but be aware that more people lose investments than make money and it will require a substantial investment of time and money on your part.

As for print on demand, I do advise against it unless you just want to see your book in print. Printing one book each time you sell one book is a losing proposition. You can see your work between covers with that method, but it will cost more per copy than retail store prices and do not crack it open when you read it, or the pages will fall out. Find a quality printer if you self publish and stay away from the online jobbers who are working from a desk and chair in their living rooms. You can find the same printers they find. In fact, you can find one that uses state of the art equipment and produces a quality product.