Writers and Editors

This world of "independendent publishing" is full of new opportunities, new problems, and lots of effort, so do your homework, see the long-range picture, pay attention to what rights you are giving up, and do things right!

• Links to resources and advice on self-publishing
• The truth about print-on-demand (POD) publishing
• Self-publishing (a basic booklist)
• Useful books on book design and production
• Quotations about self-publishing in history

Self-publishing (a.k.a. "self publishing" with no hyphen) is NOT the same as "print-on-demand" (POD) publishing and it is not the same as subsidy publishing. It is important to understand the differences between them, even if you have money to burn, because there are issues of control and ownership, as well as economics.

Print-on-demand is a digital printing process with which you can print as few books as you want--one at a time. A traditional publisher like Random House can use POD technology. So can a self-publisher (someone who publishes independently). But a self-publisher can also use the same offset printers the regular publishers use, if printing in sufficient quatity. Printing is not publishing.

Publishing is the broader process that includes printing as well as editing, typesetting, design, production, publicity, marketing, and distribution. A commercial publisher handles all of these steps and publishes the book under its own imprint (say, Doubleday), purchasing rights from an author (often through an agent), covering the costs of production, and paying the author a royalty. A subsidy publisher also publishes under its own imprint, but expects the author or organization to cover the costs of production. (Mind you, sometimes commercial publishers effectively do the same thing, agreeing to publish a book, or a special edition of a book, if the author/​organization promises to purchase a sizeable number of copies, enough to cover basic costs.) The subsidy publisher owns rights to the book and authors receive royalties, but any author expecting sizeable royalties in this set-up is probably delusional.

Self-publishing means paying for all the costs of publication yourself. Organizations often self-publish, typically creating an imprint just for that purpose. The biggest problem with self-publishing is distribution. The big advantage is that you have more control over the whole process and keep more of the revenues from sales.

When you self-publish, these are some of the more mechanical but important things you must pay attention to: choosing a good printer, getting an ISBN number from Bowker, getting copyright forms and registering with the Library of Congress (and getting the Cataloging in Publication form from the Library of Congress so you list the right CIP data on the copyright page if you want your book in libraries), getting a bar code for the cover (for scanning price, etc., in bookstores), making sure all the right pages are in the right place and order (copyright page, preface, etc.), arranging for the book's cover design (one of your most important investments), arranging for endorsements and testimonials to go on that cover, developing a marketing plan, arranging for publicity (free coverage as opposed to paid-for advertisements, which are seldom worth the investment), arranging for radio and TV appearances, book signings and other public appearances, making sure you're listed in all the right online places, and so on. (Marketing a book can take almost as much effort as writing it. You're not done when the manuscript is completed! But this is also true when you are published by a regular publisher; you can't expect them to do much for you, and whether they want to publish you will depend partly on how good they think you are at marketing yourself.)

This is a world full of new opportunities, new problems, and lots of effort, so do your homework, see the long-range picture, pay attention to what rights you are giving up, and do things right!


• Links to resources and advice on self-publishing
• The truth about print-on-demand (POD) publishing
• Self-publishing (a basic booklist)
• Quotations about self-publishing in history

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Links to resources and advice on self-publishing

There is also a wealth of information and advice available online. Check out some of the links below.

ANALYSIS OF SELF-PUBLISHING FIRMS. Dog Ear Publishing has an interesting negative-marketing approach to competition among self-publishers (subsidy publishers), which might be useful to the those considering various print-on-demand publishers. Dog Ear first lists the Self Publishing Pros Cons, suggests a strategy for comparing various POD publishers/​printers
(The Insider's Guide to Self-Publishing), and then compares what it offers to other houses, and that's where you can get some practical insights into AuthorHouse (good for very small printings, one of the big three firms), Book Surge (Amazon.com sales only), Infinity Publishing Service (Dog Ear's chief toughest competitor), iUniverse, Lulu.com ("ideal for a graphic designer who only requires a few books"), Outskirts Press, PublishAmerica(they subtly refer you to the huge amount of online criticism of this company, links to which you can find below), Tate Publishing, Trafford Publishing (in Canada), Wheatmark Book Publishers, Wordclay, Xlibris (the smallest of the "big three" self-publishing companies), and Xulon Press (Christian self-publishing).

These are useful comparisons. Now I wish a disinterested group would compare the quality of production from all these self-publishing/​POD firms. What I like about this site is that Dog Ear makes it easy for you to see what the issues are in the contracts of these firms! As always, it pays to do your homework. You do not want to sign away rights (or say yes to expenditures) without understanding what you're doing.

Ron Pramschufer, of RJ Communications, wrote about Book Expo 2009: >Ten years ago I made the point that if these Vanity/​POD/​Subsidy Publishers were really publishers, why weren’t they at Book Expo… Not long after that, they all had large booths at the show manned with dozens of smiling salespeople. This year…. The largest Vanity Press of them all, Author Solutions , who owns Author House, IUniverse, Xlibris and Trafford, had a single 10×10 booth with a few men in suits sitting in chairs behind a table. Lulu? Didn’t see them there at all. Booksurge? Didn’t see them there either. I guess we’re back to the Vanity Press publishers really aren’t publishers now… are they?" You may find his archive of articles on publishing basics helpful.

Book design: a primer. Dick Margulis has some useful material on his website about book design. Go here to read a sequence of clear, brief explanations of typography, the architecture of the page--especially the chapter opening, the color of the paper and ink, and font choice and spacing.

Hall of Shame. Irked or appalled by a badly edited or produced book? Submit details about it to the Hall of Shame, sponsored by the blog, An American Editor. Check out the first nominees. Send your nominations to hallofshame[at]anamericaneditor.com (after reviewing instructions for submissions).

Harlequin's foray into vanity publishing of romance novels. Paid subscribers to Publishers Lunch Deluxe got a useful summary of Harlequin's "Harlequin Horizons" self-publishing enterprise, an effort to make money from the romance writers it doesn't publish by selling them vanity publishing. The sharp rebukes from writers included an announcement from Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), which, concerned that the new 'self-publishing' venture's "sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers," declared that "NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA." Bestselling novelist Nora Roberts, in one of 799 responses to a story on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog, wrote: "Vanity press is called vanity for a reason. You’re paying for your ego. That’s fine, dealer’s choice. But it’s a different matter when a big brand publisher uses its name and its resources to sell this as dream fulfillment, advertises it as such while trying to claim it’s not really their brand being used to make money on mss they’ve rejected as not worthy of that brand in the first place." Writes SFWA prez Russell Davis: "Already the world’s largest romance publisher, Harlequin should know better than anyone else in the industry the importance of treating authors professionally and with the respect due the craft; Harlequin should have the internal fortitude to resist the lure of easy money taken from aspiring authors who want only to see their work professionally published and may be tempted to believe that this is a legitimate avenue towards those goals."

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"It's easy to self-publish a book, but it's not so easy to sell it."

"I cannot tell you how many people I know that tell me they have 5,000 copies of their book sitting in their garage," says Jan Nathan, executive director of PMA, a Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based association for independent publishers. "What makes someone a good author unfortunately does not necessarily make them a good publicist."
Kelly Spors, "How to Self-Publish a Book," WSJ

Price Lists for Short-Run Printing. Gorham Printing's price lists provide side-by-side prices that make it easy to compare the relative cost-per-copy of digital (print-on-demand) printing and offset printing--for books of various sizes and for various sizes of printings. Note that offset printing is done in signatures of 16 pages (this has to do with how large sheets of paper are folded and cut). You'll see from the page lengths in the digital and offset columns that digitally printed books aren't organized by those 16-page units, but if there's a chance your book will one day go to larger printings, offset will be more cost-effective, so you may want to design with page totals divisible by 16 in mind. Offset printing doesn't generally make sense for printings of fewer than 500 copies. Check out Gorham's Frequently Asked Questions, too. (Thanks, George Sheldon, for reminding me!)

What advice do you give a writer? Mike Shatzkin writes: "...when we discussed with a leading agent a panel we’re planning for our January Digital Book World conference called 'Stalking the Wild Blogger: Scouting Blogs and Self-Published Content for Fresh Voices,'which is about agents and editors finding authors through blogs and self-published books, he said that is now something that 'every agent does.' He explained: 'it is now the standard way to find new clients.' That means that blogs and self-published books using ebook and print-on-demand models are now part of the overall commercial structure of publishing. They are not something separate and inferior, as 'vanity publishing' was in the past." ~ The Shatzkin File, 8-25-09

When SHOULD you use a subsidy/​POD/​vanity publisher? (Marion Gropen, The Profitable Publisher). In responses, Dick Margulis emphasizes: "PRINTING on demand is a technology, digital printing, that can be used by all kinds of publishers, from Random House down to the individual self-publishing her first book....you can buy print-on-demand service directly from a printer with no middleman. So-called PUBLISHING on demand is a phrase vanity presses latched onto to co-opt the “POD” initialism and suck people into the vanity press business model. The problem is that a lot of people who understand the difference nonetheless play into the vanity presses’ hands by tossing around “POD” without clarifying the distinction between print-on-demand (the technology) and publish-on-demand (the business model)."

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The truth about print-on-demand (POD) publishing

I understand the convenience of print-on-demand publishing, but nothing I've seen shows that it makes sense economically, with some exceptions (books required only in very small quantities, or intermittently). Before you jump into POD, do your homework. These sites may help get you started thinking through the possibilities and economics of the POD option.

As Marion Gropen points out in Self-Publishing vs. Using a "Self-Publishing Company", "you do need a “POD publisher” to use POD printing. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of POD printers who will happily print your correctly formatted manuscript as a book for a far lower cost."

Miss Snark, the literary agent, presents a key point succinctly: "POD/​scam mills are companies set up to persuade you, the author, that printing your book with their company is the equivalent to having it acquired by a publisher. They charge you money. Unlike a respectable vanity press, they don't copy edit or produce high quality products. They are out to make money on volume. They prey on author's insecurities and lack of knowledge. POD/​scam mills are the scum of the earth. Whether a company is the scum of the earth depends on how they run their business, not how they print their books."

Fern Reiss (whose five books have been successfully self-published) points out that using a POD subsidy publisher precludes many sales or makes them difficult: "by the time you pay the POD/​subsidy company, and factor in the wholesale discount that the middlemen require, the price points are too narrow for most bookstores or libraries." (Bookstores generally want a 40% discount and the right to return books.) POD subsidy editing is substandard and although major review media such as Publishers Weekly and Library Journal occasionally review self-published books, they never review POD subsidy books. Digital printing may be a good idea in some circumstances, but you don't need to "sign with" a POD subsidy publishing to do digital printing.

What you want to do is arm yourself with enough knowledge that you can take advantage of POD publishing if it makes sense for you, but not if it doesn't. One way to use it, for example, to create an early version of a book to test on readers, get reactions, and then improve the book (it's like asking people to read a manuscript, but making it more readable and portable for them). Maybe do this more than once. Then use POD to create a test run of the book. Then, if the book seems to have potential, do a regular print run with an offset press. Be sure to protect your rights and weigh the economics of each approach.

Clea Saal's helpful articles on POD:
• Is POD for me?
• What Is POD?
• Beware: Treacherous clauses ahead
• Library of Congress 101 (CIP, PCN, MARC, LCCN)
• Balancing A Promotional Budget
That's a sample of a list of useful articles to help you think through whether POD is for you, and if so, what you need to think about. Clea Saal has done much of your homework for you.

Publish America (warning stories about one POD "publisher")
Authors Allege Publisher Deception Publishers Weekly on Publish America scam (11-22-04)
Making Books: Self-publishing companies are in the business of selling dreams. But what if the dream becomes a nightmare? (Paula Span, Washington Post, 1-23-05)
49 copies thread (on Absolute Write) and here's the full AbsoluteWrite thread on Publish America and here's the Condensed Version: Reasons We Don't Recommend PublishAmerica

Self-publishing
(a basic booklist)

Before you engage in self-publishing, check out some of the following guides. The Ross and Poynter guides are fairly encyclopedic; buy at least one of them.

· Publishing Basics (free download from Ron Pramschufer's website); also available as a free download: Publishing Basics for Children's Books

· Complete Guide to Self Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote, and Sell Your Own Book, 4th edition, by Tom Ross and Marilyn Ross

· Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual, 16th Edition: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book , 16th Edition by Dan Poynter

· The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: The Contracts and Services of 48 Major Self-Publishing Companies – Analyzed, Ranked, and Exposed by Mark Levine

· The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living: by Peter Bowerman

· 1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers by John Kremer

· Bestseller in 30 Days, Find an Agent in 30 Days, and Publish a Book in 30 Days ). Three shorter books by Fern Reiss, called collectively The Publishing Game

· Beyond the Bookstore: How to Sell More Books Profitably to Non-Bookstore Markets, by Brian Jud

· John Kremer's Self-Publishing Hall of Fame

· Publicize Your Book: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves by Jacqueline Deval

· Guerrilla Marketing for Writers : 100 Weapons to Help You Sell Your Work by Jay Conrad Levinson.

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Useful books on book design and production:

• Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers, by Pete Masterson

• Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst

• A Freelance Editor's Guide to Book Production, by Rachel Hockett Youngman (36 pages, Editorial Freelancers Association) At lulu.com Or download PDF at: the-efa.org

• The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice, by Robin Williams

• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, by Ellen Lupton

• The Complete Manual of Typography, by James Felici (not itself a model of typography, and expensive, but helpful if working with InDesign).

• Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes, by Colin Wheildon

• Perfect Pages: Self Publishing with Microsoft Word, or How to Design Your Own Book for Desktop Publishing and Print on Demand, by Aaron Shepard (almost everyone advises against designing a book in MS Word, but if you do…)

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Quotations about self-publishing in history
"...everything about the economics of American publishing until the end of the nineteenth century discouraged the publication, promotion, and distribution of American literature and encouraged the publication, promotion, and distribution of British literature, which thereby dominated the cultural scene. Thus began a pattern of alternative publishing, in this case, self-publishing, arising out of a desire to pursue an aesthetic agenda at odds with that of the major American commercial publishers and to protest the economic circumstances under which the commercial publishers operated. Looking back, we can easily see the significance of this rebellion; one historian sums up,"most of the nineteenth-century writers whom we now think of as important to the development of American literature published their own works" (Denison 193). We can distinguish between the writers in the early part of the century, writers like Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Poe, who were self-published at a time when almost all authors were self-published in the sense that they paid the costs of publication, and writers later in the century who were self-published because of lack of support from or in protest against the commercial publishing industry. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Henry David Thoreau's Walden, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, all of the work of the last half of Herman Melville's career, and Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, among other books, books that were seminal in defining the ideas of American art and the American character, were self-published."
~ Robert L. McLaughlin, from "Oppositional Aesthetics/​Oppositional Ideologies: A Brief Cultural History of Alternative Publishing in the U.S."

Links to other resources on Writers and Editors website

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From Elizabeth Hand's review of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear, in the Washington Post, 1-24-07, link below:

"The Tale of Peter Rabbit" first saw light in 1893, as an illustrated letter to Noel Moore, the 4-year-old son of Potter's former governess: "I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits." Years later, in 1899, Noel's mother suggested that Potter turn her picture letters into a children's book. Potter already had successfully marketed her drawings as Christmas cards and pamphlets, but publishers had rejected "The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's Garden."

So, in a move that has brought hope to would-be authors ever since, in September 1901 Potter withdrew her savings and paid for a first printing of 250 copies of her book, with another 500 copies ordered and held in reserve. The cost of her venture into self-publishing: 11 pounds.

"The public must be fond of rabbits!" she marveled a year later; "what an appalling quantity of Peter." By 1903, there were 56,470 copies in print. Today, the book has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide in 35 languages.

Links to other resources on Writers and Editors website
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