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TwoPenny Publications is my response to today's publishing
and bookselling industry. It results from a learning experience
and is an attempt (no, a decision) for a sheep (albeit a feisty
ram) to hide in wolf's clothing.
This page tells of the steps
I went through in publishing my work, from standard queries to
Print On Demand and subsidy publishing to becoming a serious
self-publisher.
The Beginnings
When I began writing fiction
I bought several books with titles like "How to Write Novels"
and "47 Ways to Write a Query." They all told of the
steps for getting published: have a good idea, do an outlilne,
write the book, send forty queries and hope to get one response.
Beginning authors are told to thrive on low expectations; it
is part of the learning experience.
If you do everything right, especially
with regard to writing the query, an agent or an editor will
ask to read some of your work; that is, if you provided the infamous
SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope). Of course, getting a
rejection notice means you did not write a good enough query
letter. So write another letter and send out another query.
If you get a positive reponse,
you have to print your manuscript (or some part of it) to strict
specifications on good paper and send it to be read, hopefully
within a couple of months. And many of the possible agents or
publishers do not want you to send your offering to anyone else
while they are reviewing it.
I sent the first three chapters
several times and my entire manuscript once, and waited and waited.
Finally, the SASE came back. "No, not my genre," or
"It looks really good but we are fully booked and cannot
take on a new author," or "NYET!" I never heard
anything back on the full manuscript submission. When I checked
I found the organization had disappeared, with my story. At least
it has not resurfaced somewhere else under someone else's name.
In the meantime I kept writing
and editing my work and sending out queries. I also kept investigating
the Internet about the publishing business and attending writer's
conferences. I kept hearing about self-publishing and the great
pitfalls of taking that route.
At one of the seminars I attended,
I learned about what happens after a publisher accepts your work.
Of course, that is after the agent who finally took you on finds
a publisher.
You sign your rights away, maybe
get an advance on royalties, and the book goes to an editor.
There are horror stories about editors who almost rewrite your
work. They say you can disagree and ignore the editor's suggestions,
but that can slow the process down to a halt. Then when you agree
to the suggested changes, the book is formatted and first drafts
(or galleys) are printed and sent to you for final corrections.
At the same tme the publisher draws up a marketing plan and schedule.
Your book is put into the queue for printing, maybe a year away
if you are lucky.
Finally, the first run is printed
and distributed to reviewers. When their comments come back,
their words can be added to the final cover and there can be
another round of revisions. Finallly finally, your book is printed
and sent out in the marketing channels with whatever hype the
publisher has to offer. You go on a whirlwind of book signings
and publicity tours. It is your day in the sun. Your book is
displayed in the front of bookstores across the country.
Normally within six weeks the
flurry is over, and your book drops back from the front of the
stores to the shelves, and if it doesn't continue to sell, back
to the distributor as returns. Usually returns have their covers
ripped off and are "thrown" away.
If the first printing of the
book sells out, the publisher may do a second printing, and you
will be paid royalties as those books are sold. If your name
becomes as well-known as Stephen King, there are many printings
and you can go live in a condo on Maui. Dream on.
At the end of the seminar that
told me all this, the lecturer made the comment that all this
could take one to three years, so be patient.
Subsidy Publishing (not quite
self-publishing)
In May of 2003 while visiting
our son and his family in Dayton, Ohio, I received a rejection
letter from an agent I had met at a conference who had promised
she was most interested to look over my work, After a year on
Medicare I was feeling older and older, and not in the mood to
accept rejection. Besides, I figured I might not last long enough
to see the book in print.
I borrowed my son's computer
and started serious searching for sefl-publishing services. One
thing was apparent: there was a wide range in pricing, and if
someone did all the work for you, it could cost a bundle. Since
we are retired and living a frugal life, I did not see a high-cost
approach as a feasible alternative.
I also concluded that Print-on-Demand
would be my best approach. I could keep the size of the print
run as low as I wanted, down to a single copy.
I looked at several POD publishers
and found some comparisons. Among the top three choices, I picked
the publishing arm of Booksurge
LLC, now called Global Book Publishers.
Their website offered complete
details and specifictions for how to prepare the formatted manuscript
files for Print-on-Demand (POD). If I did all the editing, layout,
cover preparation, and formatting and presented them with two
.pdf files (cover and body), for $99 they would setup my book
on their system, send me one author's copy, and offer my book
for sale on the Internet. And if I would order 100 copies (at
50% of list price) for myself, they would waive the setup fee.
And they could have books to me within two to four weeks.
What a deal!
My book, Memphis 7.9,
was in Microsoft Word, and I had a PDF writer. I also had Adobe
Photoshop 5.5 on my laptop. Over the following week while RVing
in eastern Ohio with the family, I worked away and converted
my efforts into a final book. When we returned to Dayton and
again had Internet access, I placed my order and uploaded the
files.
After more research I realized
I did not have an ISBN for Memphis 7.9. I sent email to Booksurge
asking what to do, and they sent an email back with an ISBN number
and instructions on how to format it for the back cover.
What I did not realize at
the time was I had just moved from self-publishing into subsidy
publishing.
The ISBN that Booksurge supplied
was assigned to Booksurge. That meant that Memphis 7.9 was being
published by Booksurge. All the rights and obligations of the
publisher belongs to the owner of the ISBN. Though I still retained
all rights to the story of Memphis 7.9, I was only the author
and not really in control of my book.
Learning To Be A Self-Publisher
One of the first things I learned
about the book business is that Mrs. Murphy is in full control.
If anything can go wrong, it will. It does indeed take a lot
of patience.
First, since I revised the cover
by adding the ISBN to it, my project was put on hold. Then they
lost my files. But it was nine weeks later before I realized
that. After a few frantic phone calls, my project got back online
and by mid-August, Memphis 7.9 was listed as available by Booksurge
on the Internet. I finally received my first shipment of books
the middle of September, four months after submitting the first
files.
I quickly learned that the marketing
of books is not a snap. I worked on business cards, bookmarks,
collateral, and press releases. I searched for book reviewers
and contests. I learned about the costs of order fulfillment
and shipping. I visited bookstores and sold copies to my friends
and family. In the meantime I worked on Broken River whenever
I had the chance.
The first real inkling I had
that I did not qualify as a self-publisher was when I approached
the local Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Temecula, CA, to see
if they would be interested in promoting a local author. If I
had been a member of the Earl Stanley Gardner family, they might
have found a way, but instead they explained that my book had
to be available through "standard" channels, and that
meant through a wholesaler like Ingram.
So my next step was to get my
book into Ingram or the likes, and that is when I found that
you must be the publisher of the book to offer the book to the
channels, and that meant you must own the ISBN. I know there
are some arcane ways to getting around the system, but they were
not worth the effort or the cost.
The last thing I learned, though
one of the first lessons I was taught, was how important the
look and feel of your book is. I lurked through the digests of
the Self-Publishing yahoo group and listened to the heated discussions
on which kind of editing and formatting programs to use, which
are the best fonts, and a variety of other technical matters
that publishers worry about. Arguments about what was self-publishing
versus subsidy and vanity publishing raged.
It all made an impression on
me but did not really make sense until we attended the Publisher's
Marketing Association (PMA) University in Chicago in conjunction
with Book Expo America in June, 2004. I sat in on seminars and
asked questions of small publishers and presses. Finally understanding,
I purchased the proper computer tools and sought some professional
help.
Life of an Author as a Self-Publisher
I am still primarily an author.
However, since I have decided to self-publish, there are things
that I have taken on as my responsibilities that would normally
be handled by a big publishing house.
My writing technique has become
more standard and professional.
I still use Microsoft Word for
much of my writing and editing. It is relatively easy, and I
am comfortable with it. When writing I make use of the on-line
Thesaurus/Dictionary. I have recently begun to dictate some
of my work using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7.0 Preferred. I am
also speaking what I have written and recording it with Goldwave
4.25.
I found that editing by professional
editors is a good investment, especially as I have learned a
great deal from standing back and looking at what they caught.
I have always believed that the editor is a writer's best friend.
Never cast disparaging remarks on those who keep you from smearing
your image with literary muck.
The task of editing actually
does work best on paper. An editor needs to have double-spaced
type in a non-descript font like courier. Editors are interested
in the words, not the fluff. They need room to write, scratch
out, and rewrite. Go with a standard format.
If anyone, editor or otherwise,
sees and points out something that is confusing in a piece of
writing, the author must realize that there is a problem that
must be fixed. The suggested fix may not be what the author wants
to do, but at least the location of a problem is now known.
Though I could pay someone to
format my books, I feel it is important that I assume that responsibility.
Besides, I have found that when formatting there are situations
where a slight change in the wording makes the layout much more
readable. As the author and the formatter, I can make that change.
For formatting of the book I
use Adobe Pagemaker. I copy and paste from my Word files into
Pagemaker. So long as the style names are the same, their appearance
can be different in the two programs. Pagemaker is adequate for
my kind of material, and again I am comfortable with it. I use
Adobe Acrobat 6.0 for the creation of my PDF files.
I could also pay someone to design
and format my book covers, but have chosen to do them myself.
I have spent quite a bit of time studying front and back covers
of books on the Internet and in the bookstores, looking for what
attracts attention and looks professional. It is not plagarism
to copy good design, it is good sense.
Again, ask for opinions and listen
to what people say. You want a cover to reach and grab the reader,
not turn people off.
I do the cover design using Adobe
Photoshop 7.0. I still have the .psd template for a 6 by 9 inch
trade book that Booksurge provided. I have been working on developing
a consistent set of images, backgrounds, and color palettes for
the books.
So once I have the book ready
to go (as a set of PDF files), it is time to send them off to
the printers, make sure the results look right, and then turn
on the presses. After that we don the publisher hat.
TwoPenny Publications in the
Standard Channels
Life is a journey, not a destination,
and its choices are about which roads to follow.
I have read a great deal about
the need to hide the fact that you are self-published from the
industry, but I do not subscribe to that approach. I believe
that the people who matter will find out anything you try to
hide. The important thing is to be honest and ethical, present
a good professional image, and offer quality products. Besides,
I decided to build on my name and expertise as part of our marketing
plan.
In 2004 my wife and I established
the DBA of TwoPenny Publications in Livingston, Texas. The business
uses the same mailing address as we do, and it is registered
in Texas as a business. We had decided that all of my books should
be published with this imprint and done in a professional manner.
Next TwoPenny Publications went
to Bowkers to obtain
a unique publisher identity and a set of ten ISBNs. We could
have paid more and purchased a set of hundred, but cost is an
issue. We also registered with the Library
of Congress for pre-assigned LCCNs for my books.
I believe there is a need for
using a POD printer with order fulfillment capabilities. This
is a good way to check out the first edition of a new book and
to produce relatively inexpensive books for initial distribution
to reviewers. If the book will never be produced in quantity,
there is never a need to enter it into the standard channels.
And when a book reaches maturity, it can remain available on
the Internet at the POD printer.
Booksurge
LLC fits that need for
TwoPenny Publications. It can both print the books and can offer
them through its online bookstore. However, all books to be printed
there must be listed with TwoPenny Publications as the publisher.
Next we need an offset printer
for larger quantities. We need a storage and shipping facility.
We live in an RV, and we do not (cannot) depend upon our children
or friends to fulfill those functions. There is a need for order
receipt (preferably online and 800 number), processing (credit
cards), and fulfillment (packing and shipping). We also need
a means to work with the likes of Ingram to get into the brick
and mortar bookstores.
We have chosen AdiBooks/King
Printing as our offset printer and storage facility. We expect
to begin with a print run of 1,000 for each book which they will
store and ship in bulk as we direct. Printing prices are competetive
(about $3.10 per). Storage costs are $300 per year per palette
of 1,000. Shipping costs are $3 per shipment plus freight.
We have chosen Book
Clearing House as our fulfillment and distribution house.
They are prepared to take orders, process payment, and ship product
(at 35% discount). They will also process credit card sales we
may do at bookfairs (25% discount). They also will provide books
to Ingram for shipment to bookstores (69% discount).
The Internet will still be a
major channel for the books. Sales from this website and from
Amazon.com are especially important. Other products, such as
CDs and audio tapes, are also possibilities being considered.
The journey continues.
TwoPenny Publications and Marketing
Now that the product supply and
channels are in place, it is time to produce the buzz and drive
the sales into the corral.
This website is a central part
of that effort. Watch here for events and promotions. |
