Good Rep, Baby  You’ve got to find a publisher with a decent reputation.  Ask friends who have self-published. Go to writers’ forums and websites and quiz individuals on their publishing experiences. Then go to publisher websites and read the testimonials.  But, remember, they will not print any of the critical author emails they’ve received.  And, by all means, Google a publisher too.  Don’t take all the positive reviews seriously and don’t believe all the cries of “Scam! Scam!”  But thoughtfully consider all the reports and balance them out against each other. 

You’re Not Just a Dollar Sign  When it comes to great customer service, again, it pays to ask former authors about their experiences.  Also, note carefully when you ask questions on a publishing site or mention interest in filling out an application—what kind of attention do they promise?  Too many publishers are wonderfully attentive until you sign on the dotted line and send your money. Then, suddenly your manuscript is just an item on an assembly line. Will they offer you a real live author rep to accompany you patiently throughout the entire publishing process?  Can you actually reach the rep by phone or email or do you have to wait hours or even days on end for a response? 

Many writers aspire to write books. Writing a book is a long, involved, difficult process. Book publishing is harder. A writer may submit his book repeatedly only to be turned down. The writer may eventually succeed. Wouldn’t it have been easier to get published the first time? Is that possible?

You can improve your chances of a publisher accepting your book manuscript if you understand more about what happens at the publisher’s desk. Book publishers are busy people with several projects bombarding their desks every day. They must decide quickly about what will sell. They must also delegate their time efficiently to keep the business running. Only occasionally do publishers actually seek out work. Let’s look at a typical work day of a publisher to help you understand book acceptance and book publishing.

PERSIST AND PERSEVERE

Writers must be persistent. Regardless of how many times a publisher rejects your book manuscript and throws your ideas in the trash, you have to keep going back for more discouragement. Eventually you’ll make it in the door. If you can get all the way through, you will finally get to a place where publishers accept more of your work. When working with a book publisher, the rule is the same. If you have a book that you know will sell, you must persevere to get the publisher’s attention. Most likely, you will be sending excerpts of your book, not the entire book, to a publisher. As you continually send your manuscript or book excerpts to publisher after publisher, you should try to market it in different ways. Publishers seek a particular kind of writing; they will dismiss anything that doesn’t meet their criteria and high standards. Variation in your marketing techniques may turn a rejected book into an accepted book.

Have you ever wanted to publish your own book? I thought this was the last thing that I would ever be able to do. But it was not as hard as I thought. Well, I did learn the hard way, but you can learn from my mistakes and self-publish your own books. I’ve had so many people ask me about this that I thought I’m going to write an article on it! If you’re a writer with AC, then you already have many articles that you have published already. So, in the strictest sense, you are already a publisher. If you have always wanted to publish a book and pass on your writings to your family or for posterity’s sake, then self-publishing is the way. It doesn’t matter if you have written poetry or Haiku’s, you can still publish your own book. I used the old fashioned printing press to publish my own book. But what I know now, I would do differently, and here’s where you can learn from my mistakes.

I am in the process of writing my 4th book but this one is going to be in the C.S. Lewis style of fiction with a message of morality. It is decidedly out of character for me, but I’m branching out. I normally write Christian theological books since I’ve been in education and a Sunday school teacher for years. And as a father and grandfather, I’ve learned a few things…including things from my own children and grandchildren. But me, write a book!? Never in a million years…or so had I thought. But I have learned to never say never.

When I went to publish my book, Planting Design Illustrated, I received lots of interest from traditional publishers. But they wanted to make a lot of changes including adding a co-author. These were changes that would have made me dislike my own book!

So, I turned to self-publishing. At the time, making a lot of money was not at the top of my priorities. I simply wanted to publish my own book, my own way.

Now that I have self-published my first books, things have changed.

Yes, I still want to have full control and yes I want keep all of my rights to the book. But now the royalty checks have become a top priority, especially with the economic climate that we’re in. That’s why, when I self published my second book, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) AP Exam Guide with Outskirts Press (a print on demand publisher), I took a different approach.

My book had the benefit of being published at the right time, at the right price. I earned over ,000 in royalties (,207.68, to be precise) in one month. I earned even more the next month. Within six months I had earned over 0,000!

Here Are The 5 Steps I Took When I Self-Published My Second Book…

Self-Publishing Success Step #1: Write a Valuable Book

Many first-time authors desire to get a standard publisher for their books. While books like Writer’s Market and Literary Marketplace yearly come out with new editions that list publishers, more writers are going to the web and publisher web sites to find a publisher. A big difference exists between self-publishing firms and conventional publisher firms, and for a new writer, that difference can often be puzzling. Here are a couple of things to search for to figure out the difference and to discover a publisher who is best for you.

Straight off a normal publisher won’t ever ask you to pay the publishing costs. Conventional publishers will cover all the publishing costs, which is one main benefit of being historically revealed ; another is that the publisher hopefully will have broader selling capacities than you as the individual writer.

Many self-publishing, subsidy, arrogance, and P.O.D. Internet sites ( those terms are basically interchangeable and yet there are variations in them which will require a piece in itself ) will expect the writer to pay the publishing costs. Then writers will purchase copies of their books from these publishers.

The publishers could also sell the books themselves from their publish website and to distributors. These sales the publisher makes result in the writer receiving royalties. Books the writers buy themselves from the publishers don’t. In comparison, while normal publishers will also sell you copies of your books to re-sell, again, they may not want you to pay anything up front for publishing the book.

So, you don’t have an agent and you don’t want one. You do have a manuscript and you are looking for a book publishing company. No problem! Here’s some encouragement as well – Tom Clancy and John Grisham both sold their first books without agents! Enough said.

Now, let’s talk self publishing. What do you look for in a self publisher?

First of all, many traditional publishing houses pay low royalties – as much as under 14% and lower. With self publishing, however, an author selling books can be certain to receive as much as a 95% return on the high end. That, in and of itself, is one of the largest attractions and benefits to self publishing. So, we’ve covered money. With that said, let’s talk about control.

With self publishing you maintain creative control! You also have the power to control your money flow by managing your budget individually – in the sense that you publish the number of books you want to publish according to your budget. For example with Instant Publisher, one of the top rated self publishing companies in the nation, you can choose to print a minimum of 25 books with a turnaround time of as little as 7-10 days. That’s hard to beat! Of course, most writers will publish more than 25 books – even on the first run. And, suffice it to say that many of those writers end up seeing a healthy return on their investment as pertains to book sales, hence they return to print another batch of a few hundred or more.