Indie publishing Then and the Wow of Now
Believe
it or not, Independent Publishing has been around a long, long time. And
although for a length of time it was considered to be the most horrible road an
author could take to get their works into the world, many, many authors have
done it with success.
Just
let me name a few authors that were my inspiration to self-publish: Carl Weber
(who now owns and operates his own publishing company and line of book stores),
Earl Sewell (who is currently with a traditional publisher), KL Brady
(who self-published then got picked up by traditional publisher) and lastly, LA
Banks (who was a traditionally published author who self-published her YA
book).
The
above weren’t the only ones to inspire me. I grew up in Washington DC where the
arts and entrepreneur spirit go hand in hand. As a reader and an urban teen who
thirsted for books that spoke to my life, I hungered for self-published books
produced by authors in my local area. I still have books I’ve purchased by
the authors themselves from vendors in downtown DC and at
surrounding colleges like Howard University, Bowie State University and
Maryland University.
HOW DID SELF-PUBLISHERS IN
THE PAST BECOME LEGIT?
In the
past, in order for a small publisher or self-publisher to make it in the sales
game the easiest road to entry was to (1) Create a publishing company (whether
you desire to take on other authors or not) (2) Find a distributor (check John
Kremer’s page for them: http://www.bookmarket.com/distributors.htm)
to get books into stores, libraries and listed with major distribution
companies (3) Add a few authors (4) Beg for reviews. (5) Find your niche market
and promote to it.
This
method
worked for my publishing company that I co-own with my husband. Lucky
for me, my husband’s sales background and determination to get my books
out
there pushed me farther than I’d ever thought possible. In 2 years I
went from a nobody engineer to an AUTHOR who had her books and over 40
bookstores and 20 libraries or more. He cold called book
stores, visited stores/libraries in person, he represented our
publishing
company at trade shows and followed up with every lead. But if we
weren’t with a distribution company that supported our
efforts the road would’ve been harder.
Distribution
If you
didn’t have a distributor, the cheapest way to entry was to set up a
Print-On-Demand account with both Lightening Source AND Createaspace. Then you
would have to send your actual print copy of your book, your marketing plan,
media kit, and supporting materials directly to the book sellers to get placed
in their system. As for Libraries, you had get an LCCN then mail their main
office to try to get them to allow your books to be ordered.
Another
tidbit about distribution, would be exposure. It allowed your books to be
priced much lower than Print-On-Demand (POD) options of the time. In addition
using a distributor allowed many small press or self-publishers to offer
discounts to book resellers, immediate shipping, and be able to compete with
large publishers on pricing.
PRINT ON DEMAND wasn’t a
good option
Before
the
technology of POD improved, a 275 page book would cost the reader
between
$18 and $20. Whereas, if a small press or self-publisher purchased the
printed
books in advance (either as Digital or Offset print runs) they would be
able to
have more competitive prices and better quality books, but they'd have
to put up about $1500 to $2000 for about 500-800 books for an initial
print run. There was no way a self
published author or small press could actually entice a reader to
purchase a
book the cost of a POD produced book that cost about 40% more than
similar books.
The
barrier to entry to get your books to consumer was the access to bookstores and
premium placement within those stores. Organizations such as Independent Book
Publishers Association and Combined Book Exhibit popped up to help push those
independent publishers in front of booksellers.
Marketing of then
Indie
publishers of the past had to really take the time to learn their markets.
Market penetration had to be on a personal level which means doing tours. Since
getting books into bookstores was difficult, many would pay money to rent tables
at book festivals, try for speaking gigs, work hard to be literally ‘face to
face’ with prospective readers.
Roadblocks and the ‘Self-publishing’
dirty word
I have
several letters and emails from various reviewers that refused to even peek at
my books because I was considered ‘self-published’. My husband addressed each
one of them personally stating that ‘We are a small business like any other.
Give our product a try before you decide you don’t like it.’ When he responded too
many of them they would give my books a shot and some would review and support
our small business. Others were rather adamant about their prejudice of
self-published works.
THE WOW OF NOW
Ebooks
made things so much easier! Cheaper! And opened doors for many more to sell
their books direct to customer. It knocked out the middle man.
Therefore,
now a self-publisher or small press, can basically release their ebook cheaply,
send out eARCs (ebook Advance Reader Copies) to reviewers, and distribute their
books themselves reaching a MUCH larger audience than just the chain
bookstores. AND the cost of returns are much less!
In
addition the major cost of printing a book, mailing out hardcopies, and paying
for returns/storage/postage is virtually gone. A small press can get their
books out with minimum cost and effort compared to print productions. Also,
they can wait and release the print copy in order to prolong the life of the
book. And they can reproduce that media in so many different slices. Not to
mention the wealth of growth of the SHORT STORY market that allows for another
reproduction of 1 story idea with much less investment from the publisher.
Print On Demand Improved
POD quality has improved by leaps and bounds which allows new
Independent publishers the opportunity to save on the upfront cost of offering
paperback book options to their format list. Now a POD book can have a
competitive cost to it’s former Offset and Digital print rivals.
Marketing via the internet
direct to reader
Now
with the reader population opening up to reading online materials, it’s much,
much easier to find your book’s market, and you don’t have to leave home to
find it. Now, much more than ever, data on readers and where they hang out is
more readily available. Touring now via Skype, author blog, virtual fairs and
tours, offer the opportunity for a limited budget author to market directly to
readers from the comforts of home. Why? Because those same readers can
instantly ‘click’ purchase directly after or during the virtual interaction.
This means the need to spend large amounts of money touring the country,
fighting to get into bookstores and libraries is no longer needed to have
successful sales numbers.
NaySayers
They
are still around. However, the overall quality of Independent and
Self-published books are getting much, much better do to authors starting to
consider self-publishing as a viable option for their career. Therefore, they
desire to put their best foot forward since they are branding themselves,
instead of expecting a publisher to do it.
ONLY GETTING BETTER for the
LITTLE GUY
I
don’t believe that the large publishing companies will ever go away. However, I
believe that large, small, traditional, indie and self-publishers will find a
proper place in this sea of sales and products. Authors are getting a lot smarter
about the ‘business’ of writing. And the days of writing books and sitting back
while someone else promotes you as an author is long gone.
I can
honestly say that my sales have quadrupled from the Indie Publishing on THEN to
the WOW of now. I still do things a bit like I used to, but with a new spin to
build my ebook market and I must say, it’s way easier to do than it was before.
By:
LM Preston,YA SciFi Author
Writing stories for and about kids that overcome the impossible...
