This spring, let’s go back to basics and focus on Publishing, more specifically, how you can Get Published Today. Earlier this week, Penny discussed new ways to find a publisher, Today, Penny will give us more information on different ways to publish your book!
As you know, there are many ways to publish a book. And it’s important to define which type of publishing is right for you and your book.
Self-Publishing: Print-on-Demand: print on demand is a way to economically and very easily publish your book. What this means is that you engage a publisher, you pay a fee, and they publish your book. You still keep all rights to the book, but the process of creating a book, putting it up on Amazon, and getting it into various sales systems is part of what the publisher will do for you.
Self-publishing: becoming your own publisher: when you decide to become your own publisher, all the responsibility of layout, book cover design, distribution, relationships of Amazon, Baker and Taylor, all of that resides on your shoulders. This might seem like a lot of work, but a lot of authors enjoy publishing this way because they have more control over the process. They also understand that a print on demand publisher has very limited distribution. If you are new to this market, and perhaps you are unsure of the sales potential of your book, then it might be a good idea to test the market vis-à-vis print on demand and then self publish the book after you have built a solid publishing model.
Self-publishing: e-books: for many of us e-books are just another way to make their book available to an even larger, electronic-focused market. And while there’s a lot of interest in e-books now, e-book technology has made great strides and e-books themselves have been around for a long time. If you choose to publish only the e-book (much like JA Konrath has done with some of his titles), you can certainly do that. But my recommendation is to have a book available in all different formats; that way you have a book that’s accessible on the Kindle, iPad, or any other e-book reader that might come along.
Traditional publishing: if you get picked up by a publisher, you sign a contract, and you’re not paying them to publish you, then you have been published by a corporate/trade/traditional publisher. This means that you would likely sign over all the rights to your book and the publisher is responsible for everything from the cover, to editing, to the interiors, and sometimes (if you’re lucky) the marketing. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes a self-published book can get picked up traditionally if it’s getting enough momentum.
Don’t miss earlier posts in the series! Click on the links for Back to Basics 1: Facts about Trade Publishing, Back to Basics 2: Defining your Publishing Goals, and Back to Basics 3: How Do You Know Your Book is Ready to be Published?, Back to Basics 4: Determining the best time to publish!, and Back to Basics 5 – Keeping Tabs Online!.
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