Getting Your Book Published: 10 Reasons Why You Should Choose a Publisher | healthcareleader.info

How to get your book published is one of the major questions an author has to face. Do you do it yourself, or do you submit a proposal to a publisher. As part of a series of articles on publishing your book, in this article we discuss some of the benefits of having a professional publisher. Here are 10 reasons you may prefer to have one on your side:Publisher knows the business
Experience counts in the publishing business. Publishers know what works, from the preparation that goes into developing your manuscript, giving editorial guidance, cover design, costs, timing and other factors authors take for granted. As well, they help keep authors on track to achieve their goals.

Publisher knows the market
Publishers tend to specialize in particular markets. They know those markets extremely well. They keep up with market trends and what the buying public is looking for. They know how to tap into those markets and where to find leverage for your book.

Publisher has book distribution expertise
How is your book going to be distributed? Most publishers have ongoing relationships with major wholesalers and bookstore chains. They know how to get your book into these distribution channels so as to ensure the best exposure for your book.

Publisher knows the pitfalls
So many things can go wrong in publishing. The timing for a particular book may be off. The publisher is realistic about how many books to print, as well as controlling the amount of stock shipped to wholesalers to avoid returns. Publishers also take into account whether similar books are either in the market or about to be published, and how that might impact sales.

Publisher knows if your book is any good and if there is a market for it
Publishers have a pretty good idea whether your book is viable. Yes, they’ll have accepted your book proposal, but based on their experience, they have some idea of how successful it will be in its market. They also recognize limitations. Rather than commit to larger print runs, they start smaller to first test the market.

Publisher has a vested interest in seeing you be successful
If a publisher takes you on, they figure that if you succeed, they succeed. It comes down to the bottom line. Your book must be profitable otherwise you won’t be retained as an author. You’ll therefore be expected to help them make you succeed by doing what your editor suggests, and going on speaking engagements and book signings.

Publisher relieves you of most of the costs
The publisher takes on the financial responsibility of getting your book published and onto the market. If they really like your book they may give you some kind of advance based on expected sales. Or you may not receive any revenues until there are sales. They also take responsibility if your book fails in the market by absorbing the costs incurred.

Publisher provides expert editing
Read any book and among the credits are thank yous from the author to editors. Good editors make a book better. Authors are so close to their books that they often miss or are unaware of a plot with serious holes in it, or characters not true to their values. Editors bring these errors to the attention of the author so as to correct and improve the author’s work.

Publisher has experts to design book cover
It’s well known that a great cover can make a huge difference in book sales. Publishers have expert cover designers on staff or as part of their freelance workforce.

Publisher better placed to get your book reviewed
Book sales can be dramatically increased thanks to great reviews. One of the challenges self-published authors face is getting a book reviewed. Such authors are usually unknown and don’t have the contacts. Established publishers know who they want to review a particular book, and how to go about getting that review.Making the right choice between publishing your book yourself or going through an established publisher is not always easy. We’ve listed some of the main reasons you might prefer to go with a publisher. One major benefit if a publisher takes you on, is that the activities you must do as a self-publisher are taken out of your hands. You can focus on the work at hand – making your book the best it can be.

Potential to Make Money As an Author – Part 1: Traditional Publishing | healthcareleader.info

I was at a networking event a few nights ago and I was talking to someone about independent publishing and how I believe that independent publishing is the best opportunity for someone to make money as a writer in today’s world. All of a sudden a woman with extensive experience in the traditionally publishing world overheard our conversation and said she strongly disagreed with my opinion. She is of the opinion that the best way to make money as an author is to be traditionally published. Unfortunately, we were not able to finish our conversation so I thought I would write a couple of articles to explain my position. This article is going to cover income potential via traditional publishing.I should clarify that when I say writer I mean a writer of books, not journalists that get paid to write for news media or for magazines. So for all of you out there wanting to write and publish a book this article is for you.I know that many people dream about writing the next New York Times’ best seller. While a good dream, the odds are that it is most likely not going to happen. Before you can be a best-selling author you need to get your book into the hands of a traditional publisher and then have that publisher actually publish your book.Publishers are in the business to make money not to satisfy egos of authors. I know that may sound harsh but it’s true. The most important thing to a traditional publisher is the number of books they can sell. Another important thing a publisher wants is to sign authors that have many more books inside them that they can later publish. The older you get the more difficult it will be for a publisher to take a chance on you. In the old days publishers knew it was going to take three books to break an author and were willing to invest time and money in a new author. They knew they would lose money on the first two books but then make it all back plus their profit on the third book. Well, publishers want to make money on the first book and make money on the next two as well. What’s changed over the past 20-30 years is that they are no longer willing to lose money on the first two books to make it back on the third book. The first book has to be profitable and it has to be profitable in the first 21-90 days or the publisher will lose interest and move on to the next book in the publishing queue.Now without a selling platform established in advance your chances of signing a lucrative book deal are practically zero. There may be exceptions to this publishing practice, but for you, a member of the general public; these exceptions probably will not apply to you.Did you know that 95% of all traditionally published books sell less than 500 copies? Remember the premise of this article is to earn a living as an author via traditional publishing. Can you really live off of the royalties on the sale of 500 books? Of course not. Not only that but if you only sell 500 copies of your book you will receive no royalties at all.That’s because royalties are only paid after the publisher recoups their production costs. Those costs include: the advance, editing, interior and exterior layout, etc.What does all this mean to you? Let’s do the math and see:Congratulations, John Doe Publisher is going to publish your book. You will be paid a $2500 advance and you will receive an 8% royalty on all books that are sold. John Doe Publisher will own the copyright, publishing and distribution rights of your book.Okay, now that you have signed the contract what happens next? Well, you’ll be paid the $2500 advance and your book will go into production. This part will take 12 -18 months. This is the time it will take to finish your manuscript (if not already complete) go through editing/re-writes, interior and exterior design (text layout and cover design) and printing and distributing your book.Unless you’re financially independent or have a spouse or significant other supporting you, you’ll need to keep working your full-time job while your book is going through the publication process and then continue to work while you promote your book after publication.How much did the publication process cost? I don’t know for sure and I don’t think the big publishers are going to tell me what the author is charged. But I do know how much I charge for preparing a book for print…
Editing- These costs vary depending on how much editing you need. My guess is that all books published at the big publishing houses are going to put your book through comprehensive editing – plot, character development, continuity, grammar, spelling, etc. Costs for this service are between $.10 and $.20 per word. If you’ve written a 70,000 word book then editing will cost $7,000-$14,000.
Interior Layout- this is how your book will look inside. All the formatting and laying out of the text takes place at this stage of production. The process of preparing your text for print will cost $500 – $1,000.
Cover Design – A professionally designed cover is extremely important for the success of any book. Cover design will cost $500 – $1,000.The total for just these three steps plus your advance is $10,500 – $18,500. That may not seem like much money but if you receive a royalty that is 8% you need to sell 13,125 – 23,125 books just to break even! This is assuming your book’s retail price $10 and you are receiving your royalty of the full retail price. However, you are most likely receiving your royalty off of the wholesale price. If the wholesale price is $5.00 then to break even requires sales of 26,250 – 46,250 books!This doesn’t include money to be paid to your agent and any marketing or promoting costs the publisher has incurred. All of which comes out of your royalty income requiring that even more books be sold to break even.Remember that 95% of traditionally published books sell less than 500 copies. Even if you take an average of the revenue reported by the traditional publishers and using an average sales price of $10.00 per book, divide that by the total books published this results in an average number of sales of about 7,500 books per title.In this example the total earned and payable to you is $2,500. You don’t break even and the only income you’ve received is your advance. If your goal is to still publish your book via traditional publishing methods then work very hard to create a platform in order to sell your books. Always remember that regardless of publishing method authors sell books!Part two of this topic will go over the expenses and income potential of independently publishing your book.

A Few Pros About Self Publishing | healthcareleader.info

• Creative Control – Design your own cover or let us help you!
• Financial Control – Determine the number and type of books you want!
• Inventory Control – Order when you want to and when you need to!
• Competitive Pricing – (as in VERY affordable – compare for yourself!)
• Fast Turnaround – As quick as 7 days!You can develop your manuscript on your time, at your leisure, at your own pace, right at your PC and then simply upload and wait for your professionally bound, bookstore quality books to arrive. You determine the amount you want to publish and you determine the amount of money you feel you can spend at any given time. Again, many authors publish a hundred or so books at first and then find themselves ordering hundreds more.Creative Control –
You may have a favorite literature category, you like to read and there are scenarios you have never seen written in your genre, then you’ve most likely experienced frustration. Now you are left to ponder and to speculate. The reason your favorite sub-genre has been ignored is money matters in book publishing companies of today.A great example is fantasy fiction literature. Until a few years ago, the number of fantasy books (i.e. Dragon books and Warlock books) that had been published could be counted on two hands. Without saying there’s current development of ebooks. And ebook sales are only getting bigger. A large collection of fantasy fiction literature has entered the marketplace and is available or in some cases free of charge. Some offer their ebooks free of charge.Why are all these bizarre and wonderful sub genre literary selections appearing? The new “e” platforms [electronic] platforms allow authors to self publish their creative works, as we know them in the literary field. These writers have about 100% freedom to write about virtually anything that comes to their creative mind. Do not feel left out. Start writing. Write until you’ve put down all your ideas, then edit. Your goal is to get self-published to an ebook format to share on the world-wide web. Then think about publishing in normal book form. Note, before ebook formats – self publishing became easy and affordable for almost anyone. However, the editors in publishing companies made the decisions on what choices we had to read. Now, readers and authors can make those decisions.*** Self-Publish! ***The Internet and companies like Amazon have made this all possible with their self publishing platforms. They allow writers to publish their ebooks on their websites and gain access to large numbers of potential readers. This particular business model has become very successful. Publishers are scrambling to try to figure out how they will survive in the age of digital books.If you are an author who has an agreement with a traditional book publisher, I am sure you have had issues with their editors in making changes to your creative work. Moreover, I bet you have some wonderful manuscripts lying around that no one would purchase. With the self publishing options of today, you can publish your manuscript without a publisher or editor who changes your book in a fashion you are not satisfied.Retaining creative control of your content is but one of the many advantages of self publishing your ebook. Remember you have control with self publishing.Some of today’s top selling authors are still with traditional publishers, but this will change soon. The superstar authors of tomorrow are likely to be self published authors.