Self Publishing, Inc. offers the assistance of a Book Coach to help self-publishing authors navigate the sometimes-confusing steps and processes of getting a book printed, published and to market. We’re pleased to share insights, to offer guidance and try to help you from stepping into the many booby traps and pitfalls that muddy the water and keep you from reaching your publishing goals.
Each month, as part of Ron’s Publishing Basics Newsletter, you’ll find a new column related to a specific step or process involved in your publishing journey. To aid in our discussions I’ll use personal experiences and analogies to drive the topic’s point home. Listen for that first whistle. Game on!
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With end of summer comes one of the busiest times at Self Publishing, Inc. Authors are wrapping up their summer efforts, putting the finishing touches on manuscripts and searching for the right publishing option for them. The end of the season also heralds the start of college football which, for many of us, is like… spring!
Be A Star!
As you consider your publishing options—before you get caught up in the multitude of Web sites and put yourself on several vanity publisher call lists—think like a star athlete for just a moment. What are your goals for the season? No successful athlete starts their collegiate sports career hoping to suit up and sit on the side lines. None of them aspire to achieve the lowest stats in university history. Not a single player wishes to blow out a knee in the first quarter of their first game and end their career before it’s started. And, yet, that’s exactly what many authors do by not putting together a game plan for the path ahead.
Set A Goal
One of the first steps of any journey or venture is to define what goal or goals you want to reach. What do you want to achieve? What will success look like when you’ve reached it?
What caused you to write your book in the first place? Do you have a personal story to share and help others? Have you conjured a tale that readers will enjoy? Are you sharing information to educate others? Are you writing something for your friends and family to enjoy? Do you have a collection of writings you’d like to have printed for your own accomplishment?
There are two components to each of these goals. The first part is the activity of putting your creative energy down on paper or into a computer. The second part is about the recipients of your work; your audience. After taking the time and energy to put your thoughts and words into writing, you want to consider who your readers will be. This is where we come to a very important reality of writing vs. publishing. Writing is art. Publishing is business.
Throwing the baseball around the backyard is harmless. A pick-up game of basketball can have an impact in the community. Walking on to the college football team is putting yourself out there to see if you can step up and play at the collegiate level. The level of intensity in the game is up to you.
E-mailing your latest poetry to your friends is an intimate way of sharing your art. Posting your insights and opinions on a blog is an online soap box to share your ideas. Printing copies of your favorite recipes for your family is personal way of passing along family information. Publishing and printing a book for market moves you into a professional industry that has professional standards to follow, or ignore at your own risk. Publishing and printing moves you from the role of artistic creator into the expanded role of businessperson, a self-representing free agent with a manuscript. The decisions you make and the work you put forward will determine your level of success.
What do you want to achieve? What will success look like?
Make A Game Plan
Whether you think of it as a play book, a strategy or a roadmap of steps, every self-publishing author needs to have in mind what path will lead them to their goals. You wouldn’t dream of stepping onto the field without knowing how to play the game. You wouldn’t step up to the operating table without being trained as a surgeon. You wouldn’t take scissors in hand at a salon if you weren’t schooled in hair design. Yet tens of thousands of writers every year publish and/or print their manuscripts without learning the first thing about publishing. Missteps can be costly—financially and otherwise—so start strong and confidently out of the blocks by knowing the steps you’ll take to get where you want to go.
A lot of authors find Self Publishing, Inc. after having spent a year or more doing battle in the land of vanity publishing. “I didn’t know I wouldn’t be the publisher.” “I had no idea that I couldn’t name my own retail price.” “I paid for marketing but still had to market my own book.” A little bit of reading before signing with a vanity publishing company can save you several thousand dollars and a year of your life. (The folks above spent between $3,000 and $30,000 somewhere else before arriving at Self Publishing, Inc. and taking control of their publishing project.)
Your publishing education couldn’t be more important to your success; it also couldn’t be easier. To get you started we offer Ron Pramschufer’s Publishing Basics—Navigating the Self-Publishing Minefield. (It’s available as a free eBook, available at your fingertips here: http://www.selfpublishing.com/free-ebooks/.) The Publishing Basics Newsletter archives are another great source of information on related topics. There are several other books available on the market about self publishing, too. Be sure you know what your goals are and choose a publishing path that will help you reach those goals.
Put Together The Right Team
In any team sport, it’s important to have the right combination of strengths and skills. You know that a traditional publisher like a Random House or Simon & Schuster is going to utilize professional editors and experienced graphic designers to build a successful book from an author’s manuscript. If your goal is to publish a book of professional quality, you’ll want to do the same.
Everyone has a favorite teacher who can find spelling errors that others would miss. We each have a colleague who knows a graphic designer from work that does great brochures. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think that their nephew or granddaughter isn’t a very talented artist. If they don’t work in publishing, don’t put the teacher or the brochure-designer or the family member on your publishing team. Work with professionals who know and can work within publishing standards.
By now you’ve hopefully read or been told that the primary difference between Self Publishing, Inc. and other companies you’ll encounter in the so-called “self publishing industry” is that we are not a publisher. Nope. Self Publishing, Inc. is a publishing services provider. You will be your book’s publisher. Simply put, if you have your expert team put together and you’re ready to go to print and publish with press-ready files, we can print your book. If you need help with editorial processes, design needs or other pre-press preparations, we’re your one-stop shop to get the professional services you need to make the big plays and put your best book forward.
No matter if you choose us to print or to help with publishing services, YOU will be the quarterback. You are the head of the team. You are the publisher. The score when the gun sounds is up to you. You’ll decide if you win or lose. We’re here to help.
Set your goals. Educate yourself. Make a game plan. Put together your team. We’re happy to coach.
Go! Fight! Win!
The ball’s in your court.
Share / Print
Phil,
I have written a book to my two ghildren. Now Ages 50 and 46). I wanted to leave them some of the travels and the tales of 27 yers in the Navy, and of my life from 1933 til april 6th 2008
It is 3 to4 days from being professionally edited. the cover design is completed.
I have it in 8.5 X 11. Written in 12 font. Easier for older people to read
needed lots of space for my pictures.
150 Pages. 9 are single sided all the rest are printed on both sides.
The are 140 pages with color photos.
Any helpful suggestion would be appreicated.
Glen Tighe Phone 928-854-6653