There’s an old statistic that says, “81 percent of the population believes they have a book in them.†I maintain that more and more of those people are actually producing their books.
It used to be that we only dreamed of becoming authors. It was darn hard work to write an entire book using a typewriter, and not everyone had access to one. People who actually managed to complete a book, had no idea how to find or approach a publisher. Information about publishing was not so readily available to the general public.
Now more and more wannabe/would be writers are coming out of the closet, completing book projects and finding ways to get published. Nearly 300,000 books were produced last year alone and a good portion of them came from first-time and one-time writers.
Who are these authors? Why are they writing books? What are they getting out of authorship? The answers are varied. While the traditional author spends his life following his passion for writing, the new author might write a book related to her particular passion. Countless people are writing their memoirs and others love a good novel and want to try writing one. As for the benefits to non-traditional authors… that varies, too. While it’s easy to get published these days, few authors are mentally and emotionally prepared to leave the comfort of their home offices and enter the highly competitive business of publishing. And most of them fail. Here are the figures to back up this statement: In 2006, ninety-five percent of all books in print sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Seventy-six percent of them sold fewer than 100 copies. Of course, if you land a traditional royalty publisher and collect a royalty of $3 per 1,000 copies of your book, you’ll earn $3,000. I guess that wouldn’t be considered failure, would it? If you spend $5,000 to self-publish your book and you sell 1,000 copies at full value (say $19.95 each), you’ve earned $14,950. If, on the other hand, some of those sales were through Amazon, a wholesaler and local bookstores, your profit could drop to around $5,000. But it’s still a profit.
If you sign with a fee-based POD “self-publishing†service and manage to sell as many as 1,000 copies, which is unlikely for most people, your profit may well be nonexistent. You may even end up in the hole. Of course, this depends on the company and your contract agreement.
Is publishing for you? Perhaps, if you are well-prepared. Here’s what I suggest:
• Study the publishing industry so that you absolutely understand how it works. Know your options, the possible consequences of your choices and your responsibility as a published author.
• Write a book proposal for your nonfiction or fiction book. This includes a children’s book, memoir, book of poetry, business book, novel… If you’re still unclear as to why you need a book proposal, read my article and sample book proposal at http://www.matilijapress.com/articles/write_bookproposal.htm And go to my blog archives and look at my August 5, 2007 entry. Also read my book The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
• Be willing to put as much or more effort into promoting your book as you did writing it. Marketing is a reality that most non-traditional authors don’t want to face. Those who refuse to become active promoters or who can’t afford to hire someone to do this work for them, will surely fail. No book is good enough to make it into the limelight without tremendous effort on somebody’s part. In fact, a large percentage of books being produced today are third rate products at best.
For additional assistance with your book proposal, sign up for my book proposal course. I offer this course on demand, meaning you can sign up at any time as long as you are willing to work through the 6 weeks consecutively. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm.
Is publishing for you? It could be if you are willing to put all of your ducks in a row. To recap: Study the publishing industry, write a book proposal and establish a realistic marketing plan. Contact me at plfry620@yahoo.com with your questions and concerns.