Guest Post
By Judy Cullins
Opinions vary about self-publishing. I self-published 11 of my own print and eBooks that are business books about book writing, self-publishing, and marketing.
Self-Publishing vs. POD
Self-publishing is not a vanity press option, where you can get a company to get your family cookbook or anything into print.
Print on Demand is a digital print offering however, but does not include publishing or marketing for your book. Many choose POD and get disappointed because they don’t know its downfalls.
Think YOU when you think self-publishing.
YOU are responsible for all the things that you must do to get your book into the hands of your readers.
YOU get an ISBN number for each book, which makes you the publisher, unless you plan to only sell your book at your website. YOU can set up a publishing name/business as Dan Poynter advises since some book printers won’t work with individuals. But, you don’t have to.
YOU will need help on your book.
You choose a book coach, such as myself, to help make your book more saleable. And a good book coach knows a lot about non-fiction chapters to help you engage your readers, not lecture to them. It’s amazing how few people realize this. A book coach will look at the whole picture and help you set up proper pre-marketing and develop your author platform to sell a lot of copies and brand you, your book, and your business.
With a professional book coach’s expertise, YOU arrange for your own editors, proof-readers, book cover designers, and formats.
If you want a print version, YOU choose a printer.
Or a combination printer-and-distributor such as LightningSource or CreateSpace who allow you to print-on-demand with your own ISBN. Or you go to an offset printer who has experience in making books, some of whom can recommend providers of services you can’t or don’t want to do for yourself.
As a 24+ year book coach, I advise my clients to not do what many POD services tell them to do – such as printing huge numbers of books for a discount. Forget the discount and use a digital printer like Deharts to print only the number of books you can sell in three months. Then, you’ll have more money for promotion and marketing – the self-publishing task that matters even more than what’s inside your book. Without marketing, not much will happen.
You can self-publish an eBook with little effort and money.
It’s a good idea, because you can get the mistakes and kinks corrected before you spend a lot on printing. I often advise clients to write an eBook first, then a print book which you may wish to expand on and make longer. You can actually write them at the same time.
Think about your audience before you write your book.
Know for non-fiction or self-help, your target readers want a much shorter book – easy-to-read and one that solves their problem.
About the Author, Judy Cullins
Book and Blog Coach Judy Cullins helps you gain confidence and transform your ideas into life-long money-making content. Author of 14 books for business people and authors include "Write your eBook or Other Short Book--Fast!"Judy offers free, up-to-the minute weekly publications on book and blog writing and online marketing at http://www.bookcoaching.com
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2 comments:
You've made some great points here. If you'd like to protect your authors, start referring to Independently Published rather than Self Published and keep them from being rejected by talk shows.
Sharyn
this website provides the information for the self publishing or how we can the self publishing, i appreciate to this information, thanks. if any one is interested to take the services for ePub publishing
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