There are essentially four ways to publish a book. I have done them all and will guide you as to which is best for you, your book and your business. They all have advantages and disadvantages.
They have many names. I have categorised them for simplicity as follows:
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Mainstream Publishing
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DIY Publishing
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Assisted Publishing
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ePublishing
Now it’s worth pointing out that the lines between them can be somewhat blurred and these methods are not mutually exclusive.
DIY, Assisted and ePublishing are also known as Self Publishing and you may hear them all referred to as Vanity Publishing.
Bear in mind also that some authors have self-published, sold a few thousand copies and then got a published deal. I have epublished books to raise money which I then invested with an assisted publisher for the printed version.
There are pros and cons to each route to publication and it’s worth having your preferred route mapped out before embarking on your project.
Traditional Publishing
Getting an advance for writing your book from a major publisher sounds like the most perfect gift for a writer. Someone is paying you to write. You can give up your day job and write full time. For non-fiction and first time authors, advances are few and far between nowadays.
The reality is however that even established writers on their second and third books will have alternate income streams – either primary or secondary. That said, in this current economic climate, your revenues from book sales could well be end up being more reliable than other investments and pensions.
DIY Publishing
With print on demand publishing, you can bypass much of the preflight process and go straight from 1st draft to printed book within a matter of days. This can be useful if you want a few copies to use to get feedback or if you are producing a workshop manual.
Note that it’s actually cheaper to have a book printed in low quantities via print on demand than to use your home printer – and you get something that looks like the end product which is a great confidence boost, a reality check and better for your sample readers.
Alternatively, you may have written something so good, that it needed marginal editing and just some proof reading. When you are ‘in the flow’ this can happen.
Note that some print on demand suppliers, like Lulu, will even create a web presence for you and implement full ecommerce (for a percentage) so you can go from word processed manuscript to online worldwide delivery within days.
Assisted Publishing
The advent of print on demand leads to a new level of service being introduced. Traditionally they were known as independent publishers or you may hear of them being referred to as cooperative publishers.
They sit between the author and the print on demand vendor and they offer a whole range of services from author mentoring through to marketing and PR. There are good ones, bad ones and average ones. Many of them too work in certain niches and genres.
ePublishing
Perhaps because I am an ex-techie turned author, the area of publishing that interests and excites me the most is the ePublishing field.
This market has been further extended recently by the development of electronic ink technology which has been incorporated into devices such as the the Amazon Kindle and the Nook. These devices take virtually no power, can store thousands of books and can be read in bright sunlight.
From preference, I still prefer to read a printed book for fiction but like the ability to annotate, bookmark and cut and paste from non-fiction work. Irrespective of your personal preference, you would be foolish to ignore the sales potential from the exponential rise in the numbers of people who like to read on their computers or their phones.
The market for audio books for people who are visually disabled is also huge as is the market for people who would like to listen in their car or while commuting.
