Aspiring Authors

Shelita Williams, Motivational Speaker & Author

Aspiring Authors

So, you want to write a book!

The first thing that you need to determine if you are going to self publish your book on your own or are you going to go with a company that can assist you in the self publishing process?

First let's define what it means to be a self publisher; the author is responsible for dealing directly with the editor, the book cover designer, the typesetter and handles all of the distribution and promotion of the book.

Self-Publish all by myself!

Start or set up your own publishing company:
1. you can do this by contacting an attorney to set up a business entity for you
2. or you can start on your own: there are books that tell you how to do so. The most common entity is LLC but you need to do your own homework to find out what entity is best for you.
3. Once you set up your business entity. You are now able to purchase your own ISBN numbers. They must be purchased in bulks of ten and they are only sold to publishing companies. Caution! If you purchase a single ISBN number, and consider yourself a publishing company, you have been mislead. The ISBN number that you purchased belongs to the publishing company that sold it to you. This is the information that will be on the back of the book. Do your research before you purchase anything. (see the links below)
4. Once you know how much you are going to charge for your book, you need to purchase a bar code and include the price of the book on the bar code and the back cover of your book. U.S and Canadian price. How do you know what to charge for your book? The standard is 6-8 times what it cost you to produce your book individually, that’s cover design, typesetting, editing, printing, promo cards. For example: If the printer is charging you $200 per book for 1000 books which with the shipping and taxes total $2,300. You paid a total of $1200 for cover, editing, typesetting and promo cards. Your total cost to produce your book is: $2,300 + $1,200 = $3,500 divided by how many books you initially printed which is 1000. This comes out to be $3.50 per book multiply that by 8 (I like to use the higher number because once the distributors and bookstores get their cut, you want to make sure your not paying to sell your book!) equals $28.00 per book. Wow, that’s a lot of cash for a book! Your book better be awesome for that amount of money. Depending on your cash flow you may want to print on demand so you can print a few books or purchase a larger quantity of books at a reduced price. Either way you may not make a lot on your first run of books especially, if you don’t consider the things that I am discussing. On your second run however, you won’t have that $1,200 cost, you will be just paying for the price to print your books. It will be $2.30 per book multiplied by 8 equals $18.40. Considering the fact that you have done your research on books similar to yours and find the prices are in the same range, then this is a good price. If you see books that are similar to yours at a significantly lesser price then what you are considering for your book, then you have some revaluating to do! Please check out Dan Poynter’s “Self-Publishing Manual”. He goes into detail about all this and more.

If you choose to receive assistance with your self publishing efforts: You can visit the websites listed below to find out more information.

www.Xlibris.com

www.lulu.com

www.morrispublishing.com

www.iuniverse.com

www.authorhouse.com

www.xulonpress.com

Keep in mind that even though they say self-publishing. You are not using your own ISBN numbers. What most of these companies allow you to do is purchase an ISBN number from them. Since you, as a publisher, can not purchase ISBN numbers individually, you must purchase them from Bowker's, and in bulk of 10 for it to actually be considered “your ISBN number.” The publisher’s information on the back and inside cover of your book will belong to the company who you purchased that single ISBN number from. When bookstores go to order your book or inquire about your book, the information that will come up in the ISBN number national database will not be your publishing company or your information. It will be the contact information of the publishing company that assisted you in publishing your book. Bookstores don’t buy books from authors but from publishing companies. There are pros and cons to anything. I would beseech you to do your own research and due diligence and find out what process is best for you. Some people do not mind doing the legwork, others just do not have the extra time. Whether or not you self publish on your own or you receive assistance, you, the author is a responsible for marketing your book! Bookstores don't sell books, publishing companies don't sell books, authors sell books.

A word to the wise! You need to learn how to market your book before you are finished writing your book. I am learning this the hard way. You have to create a demand for your book and anticipation for your book before it is ever published. It takes a minimal of seven times promoting your book before people will even realize that you have written a book. You do not want the first time, to be after the book is in your hand. You'll be wasting valuable time approaching people through whatever means you use online, off-line, radio, television and etc. creating an expectation for a book that you already have. But if like me, you already published your book, all is not lost, you just have more work to do and less time to do! Pam Perry, is that PR guru. You can visit her website and also join the chocolate pages network to get more information about marketing your book. The links are provided for you below.

Links for self-publishers/ writers/authors

Get Dan Poynter’s self publishing guide

http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/

to get your book copywritten

http://copyright.gov/

to purchase ISBN’s and barcode

http://isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp

To get your books in the library

http://loc.gov/help/contact-general.html

Get John Kremer’s Book, 1001 ways to market) and sign up for His email

http://www.bookmarket.com/consulting.htm

American Christian Writers we have a local chapter and Pam is the founder we meet every 3^rd Monday at Greater Grace