Jon Samsel

Self publishing is an inimitable stepping stone for many first time authors to see their work in print. With so many online resources available, writers have a wide range of publishing options from which to choose. The possibilities for your finished book are infinite.

Every book is a lead book for a self-publisher, who sinks a lot of money, time, effort, and sometimes real sacrifice into the book. If the gamble pays off, the self-publisher makes a bundle when a major New York publisher will offer to take over the small self-publisher’s book.

Self-publishing is certainly a way to get the attention of the big New York publishers. If your book or books take off and chalk up a lot of sales, or bestsellers, the major publishers will sit up and take notice and contact you. Cliché or not, nothing succeeds like success, in this business as in others.

The major risks to self-publishing are:

1. It’s a slow growth / low margin business opportunity
2. Success linked to amortizing hard costs and releasing multiple book titles over time
3. Self-publishing has an “amateur” stigma attached to it
4. Lots of small publishers competing for recognition and awareness
5. Many small publishers are under financed and cannot survive during slow sales periods or radical shifts in the marketplace

Another risk to self-publishers is the large wholesale order. While a self-publishers initial reaction to a large order of 5,000-10,000 books may be joy––the reality is that this large order may lead a self-publisher down the path to bankruptcy! Many self-publishers will finance a large volume of books to be put to press, then wait 6-12 months for a check from the wholesaler. Assuming they can survive that long, given the fact that they may be $15,000-$30,000 in debt, a wholesaler may later come back with significant returns and ask for some of their money back. Many small presses and self-publishers have gone under this way.

Prove as a self-publisher you can deliver the goods with strong-selling books, meaning bestsellers, and you may not have to stay a self-publisher unless that is your wish.

Sales of a book in the first year are critical and usually determine what its fate will be, when controlled by a large national publisher. It may die a quick death by, or before, the end of the first year. For a self-publisher it’s different. The first year is used to build a solid market for a future of sustained sales. A large New York publisher may sell only 5,000 copies total, but a number of self-publishers can count on 5,000 copies (or more) each year.

Realize, too, that a self-published book often has a better chance of success because it is under the control of one who cares––the author. Dan Poynter, a self-publisher who has done very well indeed, sold 125,000 copies of a book on a new sport when he began. The book reportedly took him two months of writing time. One can only wonder what sales of the book would have been if it had been published by a large company. Perhaps 5,000 or 10,000 copies or maybe a few thousand more.

There is the case of a successful woman lawyer in the Midwest who finished a novel and sent it off to a likely major publisher. After six months of waiting, her manuscript was finally returned. Undaunted, she sent it to another publisher. An incredible year-and-a-half passed, and then she finally received another rejection. So what did she do? She published her book herself, doing the artwork and handling its printing and distribution. Her book started selling and soon attracted a West Coast agent who signed the self-published author-lawyer as a client. Her agent sold the paperback rights for a large sum of money.

Vladimir Lange, M.D. self-published his book, Be A Survivor: Your Guide to Breast Cancer Treatment. He set up a book signing at a popular bookstore and hawked the new title at a medical trade show. Less than one month after the book’s initial release, sales were booming. The book went back to the presses for another 5,000 unit run.

The point is, despite the risk, self-publishing can be a way to success with the major publishers and quite possibly a very profitable way.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 2:52 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.