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From Idea to Published Book ... How to Self-Publish the Easy Way! by Edward B. Toupin
I've been
involved in publishing for over a decade now as an author, editor, and
project manager; however, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I
decided to move into self-publishing. Indeed, my first few projects
involved consulting for others and, now, I am involved in my own,
personal projects. It has taken a while for me to come back around to
my own works, but in the process I learned how to minimize time and
expenses in producing a book and getting it to market.
This short
article will not try to explain every aspect of book publishing in
detail, but it will brush on a few of the important topics. I have a
few other book projects in the making that will detail the book
self-publishing process; however, in the mean time, this should give
you a good basis of understanding.
● The Idea
The most
difficult part of creating your manuscript is deciding on the topic. We
all have ideas. It's part of our being. Ideas pop in and out of our
heads all day long; however, we usually dismiss many of them as useless
or too simple to be of use. You would be surprised at how many people
want "simple" and easy-to-understand information! Readers want books
that teach, inform, and entertain.
When you sit
down and really think about all you've learned throughout your life,
you'll be amazed at how much you really know! Your life experiences
alone could fill a library! Even if you feel that you don't have any
knowledge that would be of interest to anyone, you can start small.
Research a market that interests you, find your competition, learn all
that you can about a specific subject, and then write about it. Your
ideas are important, as your knowledge and point-of-view are unique and
of interest to others.
● Planning the
Product
I always suggest
keeping your book concise and informative. This provides a small
footprint, yet it also allows your readers to purchase your book at a
reasonable price. Keep it around 100 pages, which, once in book format,
equals about 50, two-sided pages.
The core content
of the manuscript consists of a title page, copyright, table of
contents, figure and table references, acknowledgements, forwards,
content, appendices, index, and back page. This list is the basic
minimum requirements to support the information necessary to present
your book and its content. Of course, you can add other items such as a
glossary and a preface, but such inclusions are at your discretion.
It is best to
produce your book in the standard 5.5" by 8.5" format in both print and
PDF. I always suggest PDF to my publishing clients because it is one of
the few cross-platform (i.e., Mac, PC, PDA, and UNIX-based machines)
document distribution products available today and it is the most
popular.
● The Manuscript
Once you've
focused on an idea, you'll have to create an outline or table of
contents to define the content. The best way I've found to do this is
to break the idea down into blocks of contiguous informationsimilar to
assembling a pyramid. Step through your idea and ensure that you are
building from, for example, the most general information to the most
specific information. Check the outline several times, and have a
friend review it, to ensure that gaps are filled in appropriately.
You can actually
over-rewrite your work to the point of frustration and burn-out. Ensure
that you've planned and researched appropriately to provide a solid
foundation. In this way you can develop a first draft and then perform
substantive and grammar edits. Then, perform a technical edit and a
second draft. Once the second draft is complete, move into a final copy
edit then, once you produce galleys or a sample version of the finished
book, perform a proof read. Don't rework any of the core steps of
document development, but ensure that each step is completed with
quality in mind. This ensures a solid product in a short amount of
time. If you would like to update or add to the information in your
first release, provide a follow-up revision.
● ISBN and
Copyright
Once you've
started your manuscript, order your group of ISBNs. You can sign up for
your ISBNs at http://www.isbn.org
for about $240 for 10 ISBNs. However, additional fees can be imposed
based on express orders. This is why I say, order the ISBNs while
you're writing the manuscript so that you can afford to wait the 10
days for standard, free, delivery.
You will have to
convert your ISBN numbers to EAN barcodes to apply to the back page of
your book. The barcode must consist of the ISBN you assigned to the
book as well as the coded pricing of the book. You can have a vendor
generate the barcodes for between $3
(http://www.toupin.com/serv_writing.asp)
and $20 per barcode or you can download and use the Barcode Maker (http://hem.passagen.se/sams/barcode.htm)
to generate your own barcodes. For the price, it will pay for itself in
just a few ISBNs for your books.
Once you have
assigned one of your ISBNs to a book, you can register it in Books In
Print (http://www.booksinprint.com/bip/).
This is how booksellers are able to access your information and sell
your book through their outlets. Additionally, you'll want to register
your manuscript-in-progress with the Library of Congress Cataloguing in
Publication (http://cip.loc.gov/cip/ecipp14.html).
This registers your book for access by libraries and government
archives. You will be e-mailed the "CIP data" to be printed on the
copyright page following the heading "Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data".
To protect your
work and ideas, copyrighting your book is a simple and inexpensive
process. There are actually several different methods of protecting
your work including government and commercial organizations. The
primary sites are the government copyright office (http://www.copyright.gov/forms/)
and WriteSafe (http://www.writesafe.com/).
● Production
There are many
different ways to produce your books; however, costs range from a
$1,000 initial setup plus the purchase of a few hundred copies down to
no setup fees and pay-as-you-go. The final choice is yours, but my
direction involved a local printing company and a pay-as-you-go scheme.
With this approach, reduced initial costs are reflected back to the
readers and your profit potential is seen immediately.
Three places
that I've experimented with to print some of my books include Kinko's (http://www.kinkos.com/),
InstantPublisher (http://instantpublisher.com/pricing.htm),
and Mimeo (http://www.mimeo.com/).
Of course, use these for starters to experiment with your books.
Eventually, you'll find the right bindery for your needs. You can
locate many publishers via Google.com or AllTheWeb.com using keywords
such as "online printing", "book printing", and "print on demand", but
once you get some experience behind you, the choice will be much
easier.
● Marketing and
Distribution
Once you assign
and register your ISBN for your manuscript, it becomes available to the
multitude of book stores around the globe including Amazon, Borders,
Barnes&Noble, and various other major book sellers. Now that
you have your book out there, the trick is to have people purchase the
book and have book stores stock copies on their shelves.
To have the book
stores purchase in quantity, you'll have to devise a solid marketing
plan to their acquisitions personnel. In many cases, book stores will
simply sell your book to their customers as it is requested, but if you
can get them to buy in bulk, that's greater exposure and sales for you!
You can also
license out the content to various professional speakers. Speakers are
always looking for ways to provide quality information specific to
their presentations. They might use your content in a handout, or
perhaps for sale in the back of the room. Locate those speakers that
fit within your audience and contact them. Find out their needs for
their next presentation and work out a deal for them to resell your
books. I've had many speakers use my articles in their presentations
and the exposure and feedback has been overwhelming.
Of course, you
should always locate affiliates to help sell your books. One way is to
offer them a percentage of the gross sales or sell them copies of the
books at a discount. Either way, you will have "agents" out pushing
your books for you to make money for them, as well as for you.
Always provide a
web site that boasts the benefits of your book. Use a book cover maker
to create a book image on the web site. One quality book cover creator
is called CoverFactory (http://www.ans2000.com/a2k_coverfactory.php)
and provides numerous capabilities to generate professional looking
covers for books, software, and services.
Free content is
an important way to bring people to your site and let people know about
your book. You can provide rewritten excerpts from your book as
articles and submit them to various article announcement lists, press
release sites, zines, and directories. I've been able to locate and
associate with over 1,000 sites and lists that accept and publish my
articles. This provides outstanding coverage for my sites, services,
and products.
● Sales and
Returns
Since you are
the publisher, you now have to determine how to handles sales. It's
important to define how you will handle direct sales and shipping, bulk
sales, and affiliates. You want to ensure that your sales go smoothly
as well as provide enough of a margin so that everyone profits.
When collecting
funds, it's important to accept credit cards through one of the popular
merchant vendors. To minimize expenses and provide a common and secure
payment mechanism, I use StormPay (http://www.stormpay.com)
and PayPal (http://www.paypal.com).
Since people have their likes and dislikes of online payment vendors,
using both allows many different types of users to submit payments. Of
course, you must always determine how to handle returns as part of a
quality customer service program.
● What's next?
Obviously, the
information provided here is merely an overview of the entire process.
However, I am working on a book that provides all of the details of
producing your own book under your own imprint. Publishing provides
excellent return monetarily as well as through enhanced self-esteem.
There is quite a feeling that comes with getting your message out there
and having people return positive feedback. Perhaps, once you
self-publish a few of your own titles, you can work on publishing other
authors and open a full-fledged publishing house. In this day, such a
venture is not unheard of!
About The
Author
Edward B. Toupin
is an author, publisher, life-strategy coach, counselor, Reiki Master,
technical writer, and PhD Candidate living in
Copyright (c)
2004 Edward B. Toupin
— ◊ —
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