With the State of the economy as it currently is, would you consider self publishing?
What are the pros and cons into self publishing. It seems to me that more and more people are considering this route. Have you considered it or are you doing it or have you done it ?
I have had some advice from someone who was rejected despite previous status, self published and went global - which (last bit) is pretty exceptional.
1. Primary costs. Only invest money you can afford to lose (like any gambling).
1(a). If you take out any sort of loan the end-cost of the finance is the primary cost of your effort. Is this viable? Will it cause a net loss?
1(b) I have been told "don't risk that route - if the product doesn't sell you are still stuck with the bill - including interest".
2. Production. Printers and binders... What control will you have over quality? You must have secure contracts that you can enforce - without incurring too many additional costs if things go wrong. You need to be very clear about costs - in case materials costs for your contractor increase - how much (if any) gets past on to you?
2(b) Deadlines. Progress monitoring. Fulfilment obligations - this can apply to you regarding getting the material to your printer on schedule.
2(c) There are also issues of formatting for printers - can you set up your digital version 100% correctly for them to run the print without issues? You do not want 500 books with messed up pagination... Some printers will sort this out for you - at an appropriate cost - which can be flexible depending on what needs to be done - you need to have clear arrangements (in writing) about this.
2(d) Collection from printers - or delivery to you... They may charge if you don't collect on time - it counts as storage. Similarly you (or someone who can check the parcels adequately) must be in to receive a delivery (and shift the weight of parcels) - you are very likely to be charged if the consignment has to go round in circles.
2(e) On the weight issue - you might want to invest in a sack barrow - that will be both strong enough and compact - to fit in your car (for the later stage of distribution - two things you do not want at that stage - parking charges/fines and/or to have to carry boxes of books - hopefully - hundreds of yards - especially not into a busy shopping mall). You also don't want you or anyone else to get an injury - learn to lift heavy boxes correctly - and practice it!
2(f) All this arranging printing, monitoring progress, receiving the product etc is going to cost you time - which you might have to take off from work... an additional cost....
2(g) So you eventually receive your books... Take digital pics of the packaging before you open it - all sides... Then all you have to do is put it all somewhere nice and safe...
3. Storage. Although you can get "print on demand" now (any information on this from those with experience would be useful please) the traditional route is batch printing. This really is a gamble. Too many or too few? (On the latter -what is your production lead time going to be? Can you pre-aarange this?).
3(a) Any cost of storage - including relationships and the ceiling below the loft collpasing under the weight (or just feet missing unboarded joists) takes away from the possible margins - just as much as finance can.
3(b) (You will just love this one...) Damage to stock... Water and/or vermin damage will make stock unsaleable... That not enough? Sunlight can at least damage the colour of covers. [P.S. There are all sorts of vermin that can contaminate stock...]
3(c) Remember - books are heavy - not individually - but 500 (or however many) at a time... Guess who will have to move them...
4. Distribution. Having taken delivery and got the books into sound storage - someone has to get them back out again and then get them to a point of sale - or points of sale...
4(a) This means transport - and vehicle (tax insurance etc) and fuel costs - plus your time... Guess what these all cost and eat into...
4(b) You can distribute by mail - this is not cheap. It also has costs in time, packaging and losses in the system - complete loss and/or damage - al take time and effort to resolve.
4(c) But before you distribute you have to have somewhere for them to go... which usually means someone else that wants them - and they wil want to realise their %age - which is likely to come out of anything you can make...
4(d) You can sell them yourself. "Market" stalls cost up-front cash. There is a charge on places like E Bay (and for Paypal etc)... And there are always the costs to you in time and effort - plus getting there and back (and food) if you go to a real marketplace - back to 4(a)...
5. Marketing. To a greater or lesser degree you will always have to market your product before you can achieve anywhere to distribute it to. Again - guess what this is going to cost you... up front...
5(a) Think seriously about what marketing skills you do (or don't) have. What connections? What networks?
That's all I can recall off hand. (You will be pleased to know :-) ).
All that said...
Why not go for it?
Seriously... My intention is not to put anyone off self-publishing as an option...
But there is a need to have thought it through before getting involved.
In some respects the writing - and editing - and revising - and editing... They are the easy part...
Another question... Essential... What price will your work realistically command? How does this compare to realistic estimates of costs? That has to be ALL the costs...
And - have you asked yourself why most books are still published by specialist companies? If it is so easy why are they still in business and why isn't everybody doing their own (very profitable) thing?
Happy publishing!
David
Debbii,
Thanks for the info. I have paid for the whole of the manuscript to be edited In UK English. The manuscript has also been through a proofreader, I was never going to take the risk of leaving that down to me. Good advice.
Jonathan,
Thanks for the info, that has helped me out. I'll check out the info you give me. It certainly sounds like a lot of work but then it was never going to be easy. ;)
Regards
Damien - for the paperback I priced a few intermediaries (Createspace, Lulu etc) but I thought they were extortionate. I wanted something that would retail at a price real customers might buy, not just family and my (few) friends. This was 2008 when there weren't that many intermediary 'publishers' around.
I used Feedaread in the end, previously the publishing part of Youwriteon.com They produced a 9x6 gloss cover POD paperback of 396 pages on decent quality paper (ie a lot better than trade paperback) printed by Lightning Source, which retailed at £7.99, giving me around £1.20 margin. That sounds good, but when you're purchasing at trade price for resale some of it's eaten up by carriage costs. And the margin drops further on anything sold via a distributor because they buy at a discount.
Talking of which, the Feedaread deal included the cost of an ISBN and distribution to all major online retailers and book wholesalers, which means anyone anywhere can order your book, though obviously it won't be on the shelf at Waterstones. At the time that cost me less than £50 (though it's since increased) which was worth it, IMO. You can go the completely self-pub route and set yourself up as publisher, because Lightning Source will print for just about anyone, but I didn't want the hassle. You also pay an annual subscription for distribution which covers insertion in new supplier catalogues. That might be money for old rope but it's only £20 - why risk losing visibility for that sort of money?
Hope that's the sort of thing you're after.
Oh, one thing I forgot to say is you retain your copyright entire (but I suspect that might vary depending on who publishes for you) so if you decide to switch 'publishers' after a while, or if one of the Big Boys wants to take you on (we wish!) there's no complication regarding rights :)