Are you ready to enter into the business of publishing? If you’re still in the writing stage of producing a book, you may not have given much thought to what comes next. Many hopeful authors envision their books selling like crazy through Amazon and other online and downtown bookstores. You visualize t being ordered by the hundreds for Kindle, Nook and other readers. You imagine waking up every day and finding dozens of orders to fill at your website.
But do you have any idea how you’re going to get from point A (writing the book) to point B (selling truckloads of copies)?
I can tell you that it won’t happen unless you change your writer’s creative mindset and approach the next phase of the process—publishing—with a business head.
Authorship is a business. It takes an informed, educated author to understand the business he or she is entering and to make the best decisions for his or her project. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What are some of the decisions you’ll have to make? Are you well enough informed to handle the following? Before you respond, let me say that publishing, today, is a fiercely competitive business. Are you ready to compete?
• Is your book a valid product—have you written a complete book proposal so that you know you have a viable product and a strong platform?
• Will you attempt to land a traditional royalty publisher for your professionally edited manuscript?
• Do you need agent representation for the publishers appropriate to your project or not? (Many publishers do not require or even invite agent involvement.)
• Is the contract the publisher issued reasonable?
• Will you opt for a pay-to-publish company?
• Which one has the best contract?
• Which one has the least complaints against them?
• What, exactly, can you expect from a pay-to-publish company?
• Will you consider self-publishing—establishing your own publishing company?
• What are the benefits/the downside? Is this book a good candidate for e-publishing?
• What is your responsibility beyond getting the book published? Distribution, promotion, etc?
• Do you know enough about book promotion to understand which services are of value to you and which ones are a waste of your money?
• How does one go about promoting a book like yours? Do you have any idea how difficult promoting a book in this publishing climate is and how creative, energetic and enterprising the author must be?
Can you see the truth in the statement, “Publishing is NOT an extension of your writing?” Writing is a craft and publishing is a business, requiring very different strategies, skills and mindset.
Are you prepared to enter into the world of publishing? If you haven’t spent any time studying the publishing industry, the answer is a resounding, “NO!”
Order my book today in print, on Kindle, Nook or another type of reader. It’s >Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s at Amazon, at the publisher’s website http://www.allworth.com and at my website: http://www.matilijapress.com