What Is The Best Method To Publish My Book?

“What is the best method to publish my book?” This is a question that Monique and I get asked all the time by aspiring authors. The answer depends on your needs. Some writers may need to hire a company to take their book from manuscript to completion. Others may have the skills and abilities to self-publish from startup to finished product. It all depends on what your needs are.

A subsidy publisher is a publishing company that requires the author to pay for the cost of publishing. Another term often applied to subsidy publishing is “vanity publishing”. A subsidy publisher is not selective at all about what authors they work with. They will happily take your money and charge you thousands of dollars so you can see your book published. then they try and up-sell you on additional services they might offer.

These publishers are very slick with their marketing gimmicks. However, an author must be cautious when working with a vanity publisher. They are often expensive and cannot guarantee your book will sell no matter how much they promise.

If you are not working with a tight budget and have money to burn, this may be right up your alley.

Subsidy Process

Here’s how the subsidy process works:

1. You send in your manuscript to be evaluated by the publisher.
2. The publisher tells you how great your manuscript is and that you are a perfect fit for their publishing service.
3. You receive a contract from the publisher send in your manuscript for around $5,000. This is how much it will initially cost you to work with them. They have to setup their printing process, invest in labor and materials, etc. They will look to you to pay for those costs.
4. You will receive a few copies of your printed book for the thousands of dollars you spent. They will pay you royalties on your book if and when it sells. In the end, they own the ISBN of your book and reap the greater profits. Do you feel buyers remorse yet? You bet you do!

Book Packaging

Book packaging is different from subsidy publishing. A book packager is a company you hire to help you with printing your book. You tell them how many books you want and they deliver as promised. You own all of the copies. One of the best book packagers in the market is SelfPublishing.com. They can help you for a fair price. All you need is a finished, edited manuscript and they can print your book for you. A contract is required to protect both you and the publisher.

Cooperative publishing is a hybrid of subsidy publishing and book packaging. Using this method, the author signs a contract with the co-op publisher to produce a fixed number of book copies for however many dollars. A certain number of the printed books remain the property of the author and the rest are kept by the publisher for joint marketing and sales. The contract between the author and the co-op publisher typically stipulates that if the publisher sells out of all of the copies they have on hand, they will print additional copies at their own expense. Royalties for the copies sold by the co-op publisher are paid out to the author at set intervals, typically twice per calendar year. The royalty percentage is around 50%, which is better than traditional publishers who pay out only 10% on average.

Co-op publishers, such as Book View Cafe, do not accept all authors. They only print the books of their members, and in order to become a member, you will need to have a history of being a paid-in-advance writer who has worked with traditional publishers.

Print-on-demand (POD) publishing is a great method for writers who just want a few copies of their book to give to friends and family. Print-on-demand publishers require that you send your manuscript to them in digital format so that they can print your book one copy at a time. You may pay a one-time fee of around $400-$1,000 and receive a copy of your book. If the publisher sets the retail price of your book at $20, you can buy additional copies for 40% of that cost. They basically give you a 60% discount. You can then take those copies and sell them to whomever you want and keep the profits yourself. If a bookstore or a wholesaler orders your book, you will receive a royalty from the POD publisher. The royalty is usually a few dollars. Using the POD method, you are better off buying copies of the book and selling them yourself because you will keep more of the profits.

In order to be carried by some major bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble, you will need to use their preferred wholesalers like Ingram. You may work with Ingram to have your book published in print. Our book New Breed is carried by Barnes & Noble and is fulfilled by Ingram. This is a great opportunity for authors to work with one of the best brands in the bookstore industry, Barnes & Noble! If you are like us, you love visiting a Barnes & Noble bookstore. We are a big supporter of Barnes & Noble! Our local store gave us our big break and invited us to participate in their local author events. Now New Breed is selling like crazy (you should buy a copy of our book and check out why it’s so popular)! I’m not joking, if you have a good product, you need to work with Barnes & Noble stores.

If you are like most authors starting out, you should use IngramSpark. IngramSpark is available to anyone and is very affordable. There is a $50 setup fee per title. This fee includes both an e-book and a print copy. You will need to buy your own ISBN through Bowker and bring to to Ingram. There you can either pay for additional services such as cover design or upload your own cover art like we did. If you want to be carried by Barnes & Noble and you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg, you should use IngramSpark. Of course, using a POD publisher like IngramSpark means that you are 100% responsible for selling your book. They are basically the printer only. If you don’t feel comfortable selling your book personally, you should definitely work with SelfPublishing.com and they can guide you through all of the steps. They have a lot of experience working with new authors and are very friendly and helpful.

e-Publishing, or online publishing, is very affordable and easy to do. However, you have to know your market. Are you trying to reach people who use digital readers like a Kindle or a Nook, or read using one of those apps on their smartphone? Are you trying to reach readers who are book people and love the smell and feel of an actual book? ePublishing is perhaps the most economical of all of the publishing methods. It is also, however, entirely your personal responsibility to do all of the design, copy editing, marketing and sales yourself. You can list your book in the Amazon Kindle store and buy ads to sell it online. Or you can work with IngramSpark to create an e-book to sell through Barnes & Noble. Both are viable options that create additional sales channels for you to read a wider audience.

The Kindle and Nook are great tools for reading on the go or even in the comfort of your own home. They fit neatly in your purse, satchel, backpack or cargo shorts pockets. Best of all, they become an all-in-one multimedia tool for reading, watching movies and playing games. I’ve use mine to read comic books, novels, played game apps, and more. Everyone should own at least one!