Thoughts on Writing 38
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First shipment of author copies for the third Stone Island Sea Story.
The last time we focused on publishing, we talked a little about publishing with the so called "Big Four" or smaller regional, independent presses, both of which could fall under the heading of Traditional Publishing. In traditional publishing, the publisher takes all the financial risk and does the work to get the book out to the public. Based on how well the publisher believes the book will sell, the author might receive an advance against future royalties. Once the book sells well enough to cover that advance, the author will start to receive royalties as sales continue.
It's my understanding that advances actually came about because of non-fiction. As we've discussed previously fiction is usually not put int the querying/acquiring pipeline towards publication until it is complete and polished to a fairly high degree. A lot of non-fiction on the other hand is sold, or offered a publishing contract on the basis of a book proposal. Basically the author says, I'm going to write a book about something. Here's a list of what I want to include, my table of contents, and a sample chapter. (Yes there are specifics for how these should be done, but they exist outside of my current level of expertise.) Anyway, once a publishing contract is established, the author than has to write the book and turn it in within a fairly limited amount of time. Publishers began offering some sort of advance to writers in this situation so they would concentrate on writing that particular book and not be working on other projects in an attempt to put food on the table. Pretty soon it seems the practice made it's way to the fiction writing and publishing ranks as well.
But if one cannot connect with a traditional publisher willing to publish one's work, there is an alternative. Self-Publishing. To me, the easiest way to define self-publishing is to simply say that the author pays the expensed involved in getting his or her book published and into the hands of readers. Theoretically I suppose you could take your book to the publisher who declined to publish it and say, "Hey, I'll put up the funds, just use your recources to get it printed and out there!" That technically would be self-publishing. I don't know that any publisher would take you up on that deal, but there are a number of companies that do that same basic thing. We can refer to them as self-publishing assistance companies. Technically they don't publish but assist the self-publishing author. They have the resources and the contacts the typical self-publisher doesn't have. The down side is, they can be expensive. They charge for everything, and some have rather unsavory reputations as for how they deal with those who publishi through them. Some of these companies are often referred to as "vanity presses," because they seem to play on authors' egos and the desire to get published.
Of course self-publishing author could do a lot of the work themselves or directly hire others to do it. That would or could include editing, cover design, cover art, formatting, printing, binding, and more. Since it's possible a typical writer doesn't have the abilities or know those who do, a lot of folks still tend to go the self-publishing assistance companies.
In the past, one of the big disadvantages of self-publishing was the need to order vast amounts of books when having them printed. Back then, when type was physically set one would want to print as many as possible because once the print run was done, the plates were destroyed and no more could be printed... Unless the book was reset. Setting the type was one of the most expensive parts of the process, so the more copies printed, the cheaper each became. So you'd hear stories of self-published authors with hundreds or even thousands of books in their basements, sparerooms, hallways, and the trunks of their cars. The advent of the computer as put an end to this, as now there is the idea of POD or print on demand. The book exists as a computer file, usually as two, one for the cover and one for the text. If a print order comes in, the operator selects that book and can then print one copy or a thousand copies from those two files. The books can be printed and shipped if and when someone orders them on line, or the author can order a few or as many as he wants to have one hand.
Well, we seem to be rambling on here, so the next time we'll talk a bit more about self-publishing and look at what seems to be the most common way of doing so at present.
Dave
First shipment of author copies for the third Stone Island Sea Story.
The last time we focused on publishing, we talked a little about publishing with the so called "Big Four" or smaller regional, independent presses, both of which could fall under the heading of Traditional Publishing. In traditional publishing, the publisher takes all the financial risk and does the work to get the book out to the public. Based on how well the publisher believes the book will sell, the author might receive an advance against future royalties. Once the book sells well enough to cover that advance, the author will start to receive royalties as sales continue.
It's my understanding that advances actually came about because of non-fiction. As we've discussed previously fiction is usually not put int the querying/acquiring pipeline towards publication until it is complete and polished to a fairly high degree. A lot of non-fiction on the other hand is sold, or offered a publishing contract on the basis of a book proposal. Basically the author says, I'm going to write a book about something. Here's a list of what I want to include, my table of contents, and a sample chapter. (Yes there are specifics for how these should be done, but they exist outside of my current level of expertise.) Anyway, once a publishing contract is established, the author than has to write the book and turn it in within a fairly limited amount of time. Publishers began offering some sort of advance to writers in this situation so they would concentrate on writing that particular book and not be working on other projects in an attempt to put food on the table. Pretty soon it seems the practice made it's way to the fiction writing and publishing ranks as well.
But if one cannot connect with a traditional publisher willing to publish one's work, there is an alternative. Self-Publishing. To me, the easiest way to define self-publishing is to simply say that the author pays the expensed involved in getting his or her book published and into the hands of readers. Theoretically I suppose you could take your book to the publisher who declined to publish it and say, "Hey, I'll put up the funds, just use your recources to get it printed and out there!" That technically would be self-publishing. I don't know that any publisher would take you up on that deal, but there are a number of companies that do that same basic thing. We can refer to them as self-publishing assistance companies. Technically they don't publish but assist the self-publishing author. They have the resources and the contacts the typical self-publisher doesn't have. The down side is, they can be expensive. They charge for everything, and some have rather unsavory reputations as for how they deal with those who publishi through them. Some of these companies are often referred to as "vanity presses," because they seem to play on authors' egos and the desire to get published.
Of course self-publishing author could do a lot of the work themselves or directly hire others to do it. That would or could include editing, cover design, cover art, formatting, printing, binding, and more. Since it's possible a typical writer doesn't have the abilities or know those who do, a lot of folks still tend to go the self-publishing assistance companies.
In the past, one of the big disadvantages of self-publishing was the need to order vast amounts of books when having them printed. Back then, when type was physically set one would want to print as many as possible because once the print run was done, the plates were destroyed and no more could be printed... Unless the book was reset. Setting the type was one of the most expensive parts of the process, so the more copies printed, the cheaper each became. So you'd hear stories of self-published authors with hundreds or even thousands of books in their basements, sparerooms, hallways, and the trunks of their cars. The advent of the computer as put an end to this, as now there is the idea of POD or print on demand. The book exists as a computer file, usually as two, one for the cover and one for the text. If a print order comes in, the operator selects that book and can then print one copy or a thousand copies from those two files. The books can be printed and shipped if and when someone orders them on line, or the author can order a few or as many as he wants to have one hand.
Well, we seem to be rambling on here, so the next time we'll talk a bit more about self-publishing and look at what seems to be the most common way of doing so at present.
Dave