Jan B. King: Book Publishing Inspirations and Explanations

“It takes a village…” is never more true than for new and aspiring authors.  While much of the idea creation can be alone work, the physical creation of the finished product we call a book is a team effort.  When I ran a publishing company in the 1990’s the model had long been established for successful publishers.  We had editors, some who worked to acquire new book manuscripts and others who polished manuscripts we had already committed to.  We had proofreaders whose job it was to thoroughly look at a manuscript, separately with two pairs of fresh eyes before that manuscript ever went to the printer.  We had a team of typesetters and book designers who created covers and the interior layouts.  We had a marketing and publicity department.  And for each book we assigned a “production coordinator” whose job it was to make sure all the steps were followed and nothing important was missed – the ISBN was assigned, the LCCN was obtained, the bar code was created and that our important quality procedures were maintained.

Those were the good old days for publishers before discount pricing and personal computers turned all that upside down.  But let’s not throw it all out because we can do it more quickly and easily than it was done before.  Because we had no choice but to take our time, we slowed down.  We left a job overnight to finish it the next morning because we knew we would come in with fresh ideas.  And more importantly we knew that as one member of a professional team if we missed something there would be someone else to double-check and time to do it.

When you are thinking about writing and publishing a book, and particularly if you have decided that self publishing is the way to go for you, then creating a publishing success team is one of the most critical things you can do to ensure success.  If you have used the services of a life or business coach, then you know how important picking the right coach can be.  A coach in the book world is often called a “publishing strategist” or a “book coach” or “book shepherd”.  As with so many other consultants these days, there are no rules and regulations regarding who can call himself or herself a professional book coach.  Getting good recommendations for these professionals is a must, but there is more you can do.  Check out his or her website to get a sense of the publishing background.  An individual who has published one or more books, even if these books were very successful, doesn’t necessarily make a good book coach.  That person has only had his or her experience to draw from.  A book coach should be someone, in my opinion, who has been an author, but who also has had a responsible job at a publisher, preferably as an acquisitions editor.

The book coach should recognize his or her value as the quarterback of the team, but not try to play all the positions.  Each individual expert brings important skills to the whole of the book process and the team may be made up of an editor, an indexer, a proofreader, a book coach, a cover designer, a book interior designer, a copywriter, a marketing consultant, a publicist, a web designer and more.  You may also want a virtual author’s assistant who can act as your “production coordinator” and handle the administrative duties and execute some of your marketing strategies.  Get personal referrals from happy authors and check out each individual’s web site for background and viewpoint. Having a collaborative spirit from team members is essential!

There are self publishing services companies that provide these services as a package.  That doesn’t let you off the hook for checking out individual team members’ qualifications.  You have a right to know who will be editing your manuscript and if you can’t get an answer about that person’s background there should be big red flags waving in front of you.

Becoming an author is not an easy process, but there is help and support all around you.  Find the right people and the journey will be much easier.

As I said in the last blog, a company who has you pay for the privilege of publishing with them is not a publisher, no matter what they call themselves. That kind of company is called an author services firm or a publishing services firm by those in the publishing industry.

If you are thinking of doing business with a publishing services company, (sometimes called a POD publisher) – a company that calls itself a publisher but charges you a fee up front – make sure they are right for you. We’ve developed a eight-point checklist. If they can say “yes” to each of these, then you’ve found a great company to work with. If there are any “no” answers, please think twice!

1. Author retains all intellectual property rights – if you have to pay up front, there is absolutely no reason you should be selling your intellectual property in the bargain. There should be no discussion of royalties (which are only paid when you have sold rights).

2. Author benefits from book profits (isn’t just paid royalties or a commission) – again, if you have to pay the full cost of producing the book up front, why should the publishing services firm get a percentage of what you sell? If they only want a percentage from the books they are able to sell, that would be a reasonable exchange. If they are able to generate bookstore orders (unlikely, but not impossible), then they should take a percentage from those sales. Otherwise, the profits from the book sales, minus the costs to print, should be yours.

3. Author has the right to terminate the publishing services contract, preferably in 30 days, but no more than 60 days. -if you get a great offer from an established commercial publisher, you will be kicking yourself if you can’t take it because you are stuck with a bad contract.

4. Timeline the author can live with - many publishing services companies do not specify how quickly they will publish your book. There is no reason they cannot create the cover and interior and have the book printed within 90 days of when they receive the manuscript. Anything much outside of that time frame is unacceptable and you should only sign a contract that gives you a full refund if they do not have books in your hands within 90 days, unless you specifically agree otherwise for some reason.

5. Professional quality cover, interior and printing – I have seen way too many books with completely unprofessional covers and book bindings that are falling apart. A professionally-designed cover is easy to spot a mile away and if you aren’t sure of what you are getting, call in a professional to take a look for you. Many of the publishing services firms outsource their printing to LightningSource.com (just another reason for you to go direct), but if they do, at least you can be sure that the quality will be good.

6. Author is given cover and interior design files if contract is terminated - if you have had to pay to have your book cover designed and the interior typeset, then you want the right to get the design files back (not just a PDF) if you terminate the contract. Most POD publishers do not allow this.

7. Reasonable prices for books – if part of your contract is for the publishing services firm to print your books on-demand, then you want no more than a 25% mark-up to cover their administrative costs than if you took your book to your own printer. The on-demand printer you would be smart to use is LightningSource.com (for more reasons than I can detail here). The formula LS uses is $.90 x .015 x the number of pages in the book. So for instance, if your book were 183 page, the LS price per book would be 183 x $.015 = $2.75 + $.90, which equals $3.65 per book. Again, using this example, if the price quoted to you by the POD publisher were more than $4.56 per book, you are paying too much.

Too many publishing services companies charge a percentage of retail, like 50% of a $20 book, or $10 a book. This is how established commercial publishers work, but they do it because you haven’t paid for publishing up front – that is a whole different story.

Don’t sign a contract that requires you buy a minimum number of books.

8. Reasonable prices for other services – many of the publishing services companies want you to buy marketing services and they will offer you a menu that you feel like you need to be successful. Much better to interview qualified professionals and choose your own after talking to other authors and others in the industry. Don’t sign a contract that requires you to buy any additional services.