Self Publish Your Book - You Will Need to do Most of the Work Yourself Anyway


by Michael Mould - Date: 2007-04-17 - Word Count: 460 Share This!

Not too many years ago the only way to get your book published was to send a manuscript to a large publishing house and hope they liked it enough to publish and distribute it. Even then, there was no guarantee of success because the publishing houses did little or nothing to promote a book unless it was written by a well known author or likely to garner some impressive sales. Whether it might have been in the best interest of the publishing house to promote a book did not seem to matter, advertising dollars were only pumped into those works most likely to return multifold returns for the publishing house.

Another drawback to having a large publishing house publish your book that is still true today is the distribution of revenues from sales of YOUR work. If you are "lucky" enough to have a major publisher "accept" your work and publish it, you are on your way to receiving pennies on the dollar for each copy they sell. Did you ever wonder why you are given such a small percentage of the sales revenues - maybe as little as 2 percent? Well, it boils down to corporate profits and shareholder dividends. Almost all of the large publishing houses are publicly held stocks, and like any other stock, shareholders expect double-digit growth on their investments. That, combined with huge CEO and executive salaries, corporate inefficiencies, and a need to show profits, means that they can only pay you - the author, the one that did all the real work - a few cents for each copy of YOUR book that they sell.

There is an alternative, Print on Demand, POD. Several POD printing firms have sprung up in the last decade, making it easier for an author to get their work published. With the Internet online bookselling marketplaces growing as they have, it is even possible to market your own book alongside those published by the biggest publishing houses out there. Other than a marketplace commission of about 15% on the sale of your book and the price of printing, you do not have to give anyone a penny to publish your book. On top of that, you do not give up any of your rights to your own work.

It no longer makes much sense to beg a big publishing house to publish your book. Of the hundreds of thousands of books they publish each year, few make the authors rich anyway. Why not take the entire matter on yourself. You will need to do most of the marketing yourself anyway, and setting up a website to promote your book, writing some articles to draw attention to it, and mailing it to customers that buy it will secure the profits for you instead of some corporation.


Related Tags: home business, online bookselling, sell used books, bookselling online, sell used books online, sell books on amazon, sell book on ebay, bookseller, home bookstore

Michael E. Mould is the author of "Online Bookselling: A Practical Guide with Detailed Explanations and Insightful Tips," [Paperback ISBN 1427600708, CD-ROM ISBN 1599714876] and the developer of "Bookkeeping for Booksellers" [CD ISBN 1427600694], you can learn more about online bookselling at: http://www.online-bookselling.com , or by emailing mike@online-bookselling.com . Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category:


  • Don't Put Off Writing that Book! by Linden Gross
    If writing that book you've always had in mind tops your list of resolutions or regrets, hiring a wr
  • How To Write A Better Press Release by Brian Konradt
    A press release is the most effective way to generate free publicity for your business or organizati
  • Writing on the Hoof by Rick Chapo
    Finding inspiration when you are writing is often a haphazard affair. When you are physically ready
  • Focus On Nigeria by Andrew Sandon
    Focus on Nigeria Nigеria is a natural gas and oil rich country that is bordеrеd b
  • How to Write Great Dialogue in Your Book by Steve Manning
    Dialogue isn't so much read as it is heard by the reader. The eyes see the words on the page, the b
  • Women SUV Driver from www.thefrap.com by Eric Schmidt
    Why do so many women drive around in the oversized SUV's, the Tahoe, Excursion, Escalade
  • How To Write Good Articles by Jonathan White
    As a writer you may be ready to cash in on the need for web content. There is a lot of money that c
  • NEWS FLASH: Technical Communicator Saves World by Peggy Bennett
    I had a boss several years ago who was amused by my earnest and relentless preaching about the impor
  • Writers Resources by Josh Riverside
    Writers use certain inherent talents to come up with their pieces of writing. However, they do need
  • Popular Articles by Roel Sundiam
    Articles are those that are available in plenty these days in the internet. The articles are written