Why Self-Publish? A Guide For Writers In Search of a Publisher

It’s not hard to get published.

Oh, it can be hard to get published writing the things that you want to write, especially if you’re trying to write fiction. I’ve known people who have written manuscripts and spent years trying to find a publishing company who will give them a chance. Some of them have succeeded, but most of them haven’t. And you know what?

Of those who have, most didn’t get much more out of it than a few cheaply books with their name on the cover.

What a lot of writers fail to understand is that the publishing industry is just like any other entertainment or information industry out there: it’s a business built on exploiting the contributions of others. “Exploit” is not necessarily a bad word; it just means using something to its maximum potential. But the reason it has a negative connotation is because the entity doing the exploiting is benefiting at the expense of the person being exploited. And, in the case of the publishing industry, that usually means that the publisher is taking advantage of its authors.

It doesn’t make sense, really; one would think that the authors, being the creative types who come up with new ideas, should have the upper hand. After all, the publishing industry needs authors to survive; without them, it won’t have anything of value to publish. But the problem is that the supply of would-be authors is much larger than the demand. And publishing companies have money, and connections, and credibility, while most authors do not.

If most writers understood what’s involved in getting published, they probably wouldn’t want to go through with it.

Search the web, and you’ll find tons of articles on “how to get published.” But most of them are just advice on what a writer needs to do to catch a publisher’s attention; they don’t talk about what to expect from a publisher, or how things like advances, payments, and royalties work. That’s partially because it’s impolite to talk about your salary, but it’s because most authors who negotiate these deals themselves are embarrassed to talk about the details, while those who have agents are generally forbidden to because it will lose them leverage in the future.

There’s no standard rate an author gets paid to write, but there are some ranges that tend to show up. From what I’ve pieced together (and I welcome input in the comments section from those who know more), most adult fiction authors get between $5,000 to $25,000 in advance to sell their manuscripts to publishers, with a royalty rate of around 3-5% of cover price sales, paid out quarterly. The advance must be covered by the royalties that roll in before any additional royalties are paid out. So, a book that generates $550,000 in sales for a publisher (a hit title) nets the writer a tidy $2,500 in royalties after the advance, giving the writer a maximum total of $27,500 for a book, plus any additional monies that might trickle in.

Before you get big dollar signs in your eyes, consider that the writer may have spent a year or more on that manuscript, and that $27,500 is on par with a retail assistant manager’s salary. An author would have to sell two or three books per year at this rate to make a comfortable salary, especially once taxes are taken into account. Remember too that this is the maximum the writer could have made, and that he or she likely made more around $15,400 on the sale. And remember that the writer has likely surrendered control of that manuscript to the publisher in the process, which means that he or she cannot go elsewhere for a better deal down the road.

And even if the publisher made, say, $50,000 in sales, which is far more realistic, the author still only gets a paltry $1,500-2,500 in royalties, assuming they aren’t trying to pay off an advance.

See why I said writers get embarrassed?

Publishing can be a crummy system, because it forces the people doing the actual work (the writers) to find a company willing to pay them a small sum to take a big risk. If the risk pays off, the publisher reaps the rewards, and the author gets a small amount of leverage for the next time around. If the risk fails, the publisher can still write all the expenses off on its taxes and recoup some of its losses. But the author loses credibility and has that much harder of a time getting something else published.

That’s why some authors turn to self-publishing. Self-publishing has long had a bad reputation in the publishing industry because it’s synonymous with high cost, low quality books that would-be authors finance out of their own pockets and then sell direct to friends and family. (That’s actually because they’re often lumped in with the “vanity press,” which we’ll discuss in another article.) Publishers often sneer at self published books, as if the books are less credible because they don’t bear the imprint of some company with an office in New York. They tell would-be authors to stay away from self-publishing, and to just keep playing the standard publishing game until they finally find someone who will give them a chance. After all, who doesn’t like rejection letters?

In the old days, I would agree that self-publishing was a risky endeavor. But now that writers have the power of the Internet at their disposal, self-publishing is definitely worth a second look, because it’s entirely possible now to sell a book online directly to customers without having to deal with the hassles of working with a publisher. Here are a few things to consider.

1) Self-published fiction is a hard sell unless you’ve got some amazing hook at your disposal, like being the nephew of the President or something. It’s not impossible to self-publish a novel and sell it directly to readers, but you’re going to need one heck of a promotional strategy. On the positive side, you don’t have to sell that many copies to succeed as a self-publisher of fiction; by selling 4000 copies directly to customers, you could probably match that $15,400 I quoted above. A trade publisher would have to sell more than double that many copies to realize that sort of profit since their expenses are so much higher.

2) Self-published books can be really costly to print since small quantities are generally involved, so it’s better to use a printing on demand service like Lightning Source. I like Lightning Source because they’re owned by Ingram, and they can intercept orders from both Ingram and Baker & Taylor and get them shipped out within days. Better yet, the shipping costs are built into the price. From what I’ve seen, you can expect to pay about $3.50-$4.50 per book for a simple black and white title around 200 pages once you factor in setup fees, but you don’t really have to worry about distribution or returns, so it’s not a bad deal at all.

Sure, you’ll pay less for traditional offset printing if you shop around (as low as $2-3 per book for 500 copies, and $1-2 for 1000 copies of a simple black and white title around 200 pages), but you’ll have to pay for the books up front, you’ll have big setup fees, and you’ll have to store them somewhere and ship them out when they’re ordered. The main difference will be quality, though print on demand books are getting closer and closer to looking exactly like their offset counterparts.

3) One of the nice things about self-publishing is that you can start selling directly to customers through your website. Yes, you have to be a shameless self promoter, and no, you won’t be able to rely on publications like Publisher’s Weekly to review your material if you self-publish. But your chances of getting a one-paragraph review from PW are slim anyhow, and you’ll make a lot more money selling directly to customers. The trick is to give your readers a nice preview of your writing on your site, maybe with some promotional ebooks, guides or short stories that tie into your book in some way. If they love what you give them for free, they’ll likely assume that they’ll get even more out of reading whatever you’ve taken the time to publish!

4) Self-publishers get to be their own bosses, true. But if you’re going to self-publish, think like a businessperson and make some smart decisions. For starters, give your imprint a name, just in case you decide to continue publishing down the road. Make sure you register the domain name, too — it’s only 10 bucks to do it through EasyCGI , and it’s worth having.

If you have a friend who’s an editor, cajole them to edit your book for you. Otherwise, go hire a grad student or an out-of-work English major and have them work cheaply with you to make sure you writing is the best it can be. From there, all you’ll need is someone to paginate the book and someone to design your cover. Unless you have the skill, outsource all of these jobs to cheap but experienced contractors; there are plenty out there.

Morris Rosenthal’s website has some great articles about this topic, as well as book you can order on how to publish print on demand titles. I recommend checking it out!

5) Promote your book wisely once you get it set up; use all the tips I’ve published on this site, and then some. Be careful about public book signings, though; they can be a disaster for a small publisher if they don’t go well. At the very least, have your friends hang out around your booth and talk about how wonderful your book is amongst themselves so you don’t look pathetic and lonely if no one else shows up!

As a final note: I went into self-publishing because I worked with several publishers on the corporate level and found the process agonizing. Many other writers have done the same. Sure, it’s a tough road to walk, but the rewards are worth the trouble. And now that you’re at least open to the idea, keep checking out this website for ideas on how you can make self publishing a profitable venture. You’ll be glad you did!

Writing Scraps

by Sean J. Jordan