How many of you would consider self publishing over publishing? And what do you think would be the main problem you may have to tackle?
How many of you would consider self publishing over publishing? And what do you think would be the main problem you may have to tackle?
I intend to try to exhaust the traditional route to publishing. However, I would self-publish if my attempts fail.
Below is an interesting article, but it's 18 months old.
Self-Publishing Statistics May 30th 2012
Despite some highly publicized successes, the average book from a POD service sells fewer than 200 copies--mostly to the authors and to "pocket" markets surrounding them--friends, family, local retailers who can be persuaded to place an order.
Respondents who’d had their work rejected by traditional publishing and then opted to self-publish it were among the lowest earners.
Rejection isn’t all bad though. 32% of the “Top Earners” tried and failed to get a traditional publishing deal before self-publishing, but now make a living from selling their work.
Self-publishing authors who went straight to publication without submitting their work to traditional publishers earned 2.5 times more than those who submitted it and got rejected.
29% of the Top Earners have an agent, compared to 10%. Having an agent was correlated with earnings more than three times higher than unrepresented respondents.
Respondents who paid professionals for services like story-editing, copyediting and proofreading earned on average 13% more than those who didn’t. Hiring a professional cover designer earned them on average 18% more. Yet, not all paid-for services translate into a significant increase in earnings. Self-publishers who hired professional e-book formatters only saw average earnings of 1% more.
The Top Earners group spent more time writing than they did marketing, and those in the group who spent the least time marketing were making the most money. Out of all respondents, those who spent the most time marketing earned the least.
Top Earners had almost four times as many reviews for their most recent book than authors outside of the group, and those books were earning those Top Earners six times as much revenue for those who reported the figures for their second most recent book, the Top Earners still had about the same amount of reviews but the revenue gap rose to fourteen times the income of other author’s second most recent books, which had been on the market for about 14 months.
Another factor that seemed to improve the earning power of a self-published author is to make a book trailer. Romance writers also did better than science-fiction, fantasy or literary fiction writers.
Yet, the most effective single tactic, submitting to popular reviewers on Amazon, was the least used. Authors who used this strategy received 25% more reviews than average, and more importantly, 32% more revenue for their latest release.
I hope that helps.
I agree hard constant Marketing is everything if you self publish. If want to go the normal route, and wait the six months for a rejection slip, good luck to you. Being plucked from the slush pile is the writers equivalent of winning the Euro Lottery. Here is a link to some interesting info on using the Self Publishing route print on demand route.
http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/print-on-demand/
The bottom line is, its tough at the top, and self publishing/self marketing is as tough as it gets. Unless you win the Euro Lottery. Then you can do a Katie Price and get a Ghost writer to do all the work;D~
I had 2 books published by Musa Publishing in the USA - and sold a total of 30 in 18 months. They did a lovely cover, and although I had some problems with editors the final books were fine. But they churn out five or six books a week and don't promote any of them properly. So I self published Stage Struck a couple of weeks ago and already it's sold a few. Because it's a novel about amdram I have a number of places I can promote it as I think theatre buffs will enjoy it. My hope is that if it does start to sell, readers might look for my other Musa published books as well. But I'm not booking my world cruise yet!
I think if you can get a decent publisher that's still the best route...but one of the 'mushrooms' which have sprung up everywhere are likely to leave you disappointed.