

Ask HN: Advice for self-publishing books - andr

I have an idea for a short series of books and I have found a few ghostwriters to write them. Do you have any experience with the rest of the self-publishing process? Is it better to go with on-demand printing or order a conventional run? How much should I expect to pay for editing, design and layout? Is a Kindle/iBooks-only release a good measure of interest?
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economtricks
I have written and self published two books: Zero to Superhero
<http://3.ly/9tBV> and EconomTricks <http://3.ly/KN4y>.

I went with Lulu, a POD (Print on Demand) service for both books because there
is no initial investment required (none, only your time) which allows you to
make changes and improvements to your book on the fly. I can't tell you how
important that is!

Once you've got your book written, edited, formatted and released to the
public via Lulu, Lulu (for a fee) will get you into the big online retailers
like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and a bunch of small ones. I've seen Zero to
Superhero in online stores based in Norway (or was in Finland?) and niche
online vendors elsewhere in the world.

And you can have it both ways. You can have a conventional run done as well
from Lulu (pricier though). It's a win/win.

I probably sound like a pitchman for Lulu, but it's a great service. I can't
understand why someone would take a big upfront risk and do a traditional
launch without testing the market first (and a POD soft launch is perfect for
that). You'd have to be pretty darn sure that you've got pre-built demand for
the book, and that your marketing plan is a solid multi-channel one (you'll
need that anyway).

Good luck to you.

~~~
estherschindler
That's great useful advice.

How do you promote your books? And if you're willing to share: How many have
you sold?

~~~
economtricks
Glad you find it helpful estherschindler.

To date, I've sold maybe 500-600 of Zero to Superhero, mostly the ebook
format. I marketed Zero to Superhero through the website and blog (won't
mention the urls because I'm not trying to sell anything), and answered
questions on related discussion forums (I put a link to my website in my sig).

The most sucessful of these marketing vehicles was the blog. I "linkbaited'
posts I thought were compelling on Digg (which was huge at the time).

Sales for Economtricks, on the other hand, have been quiet. I've sold maybe a
dozen. Then again, I never marketed it in any serious way - just a landing
page and some SEO.

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cstross
Have you done your market research? What's the size and make-up of your
intended audience, do they prefer e-books or chunks of dead tree, do they
habitually browse bookstores or buy online -- or do they not tend to read
books at all, but prefer a different written format (magazines, piece-works,
chapbooks, or the like)?

How much of the potential audience do you think your marketing channel(s) can
reach and how high a conversion rate do you expect to get? From that point,
how many books do you expect to sell? Only once you have a ball-park figure
for the market can you run a title P & L sheet and use it to do what-if
modeling considering different printing technologies (POD, conventional
offset, or whatever).

Intro to P & L calculations:

<http://www.bizmark.net/publishing.htm>

Hint: marketing and distribution are key. The distribution tail eats around
60-70% of a conventional publisher's lunch -- the SRP for which books are sold
-- and it you don't pay _very_ close attention to your distribution chain
you'll run the risk of seeing it eat your profit margin.

(As the old joke puts it, the easiest way to make a small fortune in
publishing is to start with a large one.)

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patio11
If you're doing fiction, can I suggest reading everything J.A. Konrath
(jakonrath.blogspot.com) has to say on this issue? His strategy is building a
stable of cheap genre fiction distributed via the Kindle, and he is both
killing it and clearly having a ball doing what he loves.

~~~
economtricks
Yes, Lulu can format your book for the Kindle (although I have not done so).
Great point Patrick.

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bakbak
I strongly suggest you read book written by Aaron Shepard on self publishing
...

Visit : <http://www.newselfpublishing.com/> and
<http://www.newselfpublishing.com/books/PODProfit.html>

I would also suggest to go with Lightning Source as your POD provider as most
of the big names go to them directly or indirectly (very few people know this
and that's the reason you should read that book by Aaron) - Good Luck

~~~
gallerytungsten
For those who don't know, Lightning Source is owned by Ingram, one of the
largest (if not the largest) book distributors.

Additionally, anyone interested in publishing should probably subscribe to
"Book Business" magazine, a free trade publication.

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JonathanFields
I'm traditionally published (Crown & Portfolio), but I've also spent a lot of
time researching the options available for self-publishing and promoting. A
few thoughts...

1\. EBook or print + eBoook - If you are open to starting out with an ebook
only, options get a lot bigger. I'd move beyond Lulu.com and look at
<http://www.smashwords.com/> and <http://www.fastpencil.com//> as fast, very
affordable alternatives who can also help get your ebook listed at major
online sellers. FastPencil can also help with book design and packaging and I
believe they can do print books as well.

2\. Cover/Jacket Design - Depending how serious you are and what genre the
books are in, the cover can become hugely important. Cover design can cost
anywhere from a few hundred to thousands, depending on the quality of the
designer. I'd do two things. First, just google "book cover designer" or "book
jacket design" and you'll find the sites of a bunch of designers with
portfolios. Second, go to the bookstore and write down the names of the jacket
designers for the books that really jump out at you, then search for them
online. You can usually find their names in small print on the bottom of the
inside fold of the back cover. Many are findable and will freelance.

3\. If You Build It...They'll Rarely Come - Writing the book first, then
figuring out you're going to market it after it's done is a giant mistake.
Start building your platform, if you haven't already NOW! There is nothing
more important (beyond writing a phenomenal book) in making your book succeed
than having already developed relationships with a sizable, rabid community of
potential readers and second-wave influencers who line up to not only buy your
books when they come out, but champion them.

At a bare minimum, for authors these days, that should include a blog, FB fan
page, twitter and potentially a 4th community that is topic relevant. And,
yes, this is still mandatory for fiction writers today as well. You just have
to go about sharing in a different way.

I spent nearly two years just building my online platform before my first book
was published, then piled on a bunch of more tactical launch strategies in the
months leading to publication. But, truth is, in the end, even that's just
kindling designed to build enough momentum to get your book to tip into a word
of mouth phenomenon. And, for that to happen, you've also got to write or hire
someone capable of writing a fantastic book.

Hope that helps!

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c0riander
Unless you have storage space and are prepared to handle distribution yourself
(including drop-shipping and getting it into stores), POD will probably suit
your needs best. Most POD publishers these days have relationships with
retailers (particularly online ones) -- Lightning Source, as was mentioned, is
one that serves both self-publishers and smaller presses, and has very
legitimate distribution channels (i.e. if you go to your local bookstore and
convince them to carry your book, they will do so because they will be able to
order it through the traditional publishing catalogs).

Editing costs will depend on how far along the book is. If it needs major
structural work or substantive editing, expect to pay more; if you just need
copyediting, then you will be able to find it on a fairly reasonable hourly
basis. (Many "vanity" POD services like Lulu or Xlibris offer editing
services, but you can also find it through other freelancing sources.) Design
and layout are also frequently offered by POD services, and Amazon's
CreateSpace has pre-made templates you can use.

Kindle/iBooks release as a gauge of interest would depend on your target
audience. Who are you trying to reach? If you're looking mostly for tech-savvy
early adopters, it's probably useful. If you have a built-in platform already,
like Seth Godin, also probably useful. If you are trying to capture a more
traditional segment, it may not show you a true indication of potential reach.

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kmfrk
This is right up your alley: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1797868>.

You should also state whether you intend to publish solely online or also sell
through brick and mortar. The latter makes Lulu a lot less attractive.
Otherwise, Lulu are a great choice for an online PoD store.

Another thing to consider is that if this is your first time publishing, you
will look a lot less attractive to a publisher in the future, because they
can't promote you as a debut author. I have a bookmark about this somewhere,
I'm sure, but it's on another computer.

~~~
JonathanFields
Interesting, I've actually found the exact opposite to be true. If you self-
publish and do the work of building a platform and marketing enough to show
that you have to ability to move books in a real way, not only will publishers
be more interested in your next one, they'll more interested in picking up the
one you've self-published.

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thibaut_barrere
Would anyone have tips to promote books published via Lulu ? Do you go the SEO
road, or try to get your book in reviewer's hands, or anything else ?

One thing I did for a book done by my brother [1] was to create a quick heroku
app that displays a lulu preview, a "buy" button and more informations about
the book, on a dedicated domain.

[1] <http://www.zoo-imaginaire.com/> french book for kids

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Writersglen
Buy block ISBN numbers from Bowkers if you want to sell through commercial
channels. Use Lyx to typeset. Design or have a designer design covers. Run to
Createspace. Pro Plan costs $35.00/year. You buy proof copies (Proofs of my
200 page novel, Freein' Pancho, cost $3.85 plus shipping), when you release,
they place in Amazon, Ingrams and other distributors. You market (hardest
part).

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estherschindler
Asking "how much should I expect to pay for editing, design, and layout" is
like asking, "How much should I expect to pay for a software developer?" It
depends on the expertise and experience of the person you're apt to hire, the
size of the project, and a number of other factors. Not the least of which is
"How awful is the text to begin with?" and "How much formatting is necessary?"
and "How much of a PITA will this client be?"

That said, I'm a professional editor (as well as writer) who has bid $4,000 or
so for a project that sounds similar to what you describe (though that was a
full-length book). I'm an eensy bit well-known ::cough:: so I expect you can
pay less; depending on the expertise of the book editor, you might need to pay
more. (And I'm too busy right now, so that's not an offer of assistance --
just a ballpark number.)

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dpapathanasiou
If you're in need of an ebook creation tool, please consider using
eBookBurn.com, which is a service I recently released (mentioned on HN here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1972827> and an early review here:
[http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2010/12/07/ebookburn-
launc...](http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2010/12/07/ebookburn-launched-new-
epub-creation-service/)).

I'd be happy to offer you a free trial subscription.

Also, I'm a co-founder of Fifobooks.com, so please consider selling your
ebooks there (we're non-exclusive, so you can still try Lulu or Amazon, but we
give you a higher percentage of every sale).

~~~
revorad
I just signed up to ebookburn. When I tried to create a new book, the first
thing I'm asked to do is pick the amount of editing time which costs from $25
to $7300. Can I first at least try your software? How can anyone trust you
with their money without first seeing what you've got to offer?

EDIT: It looks like the same is the case with fifobooks.com. It asks me to
fill in tax and payment information before I can publish a book. I understand
it must be a legal requirement, but I think it's a bad idea to not even let
the user see what you are able to provide them. At least let me go through the
process to see how you process my book. Then don't publish it until I give you
the necessary details. Seriously, I think this is a really bad user
experience.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
Let me know which email address you used to sign up on eBookBurn, and I'll
issue you a trial subscription (if you use the contact form on that site, I'll
see your message much sooner).

I do intend to charge for it, though I may have to experiment with the
pricing.

As for Fifobooks, we need that info b/c of taxes we file on your behalf if you
sell anything.

It's difficult to ask that after the fact, since there's no way of knowing if
you'd provide it (and FWIW, it's the same setup as the iphone app store).

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petercooper
Get the audience first. Tailor your work to what the audience wants to buy.
Then get the books written. Don't write a book and then look for an audience
unless you're doing it for fun or sheer passion in the topic you're writing
about. Approach it like a startup.

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mindcrime
I have not self-published anything myself, so I have no direct experience to
answer your question. But if I could throw out a suggestion... you might get
some useful info from Henry at <http://www.publishandsell.com/> He's basically
a consultant who helps folks who are self-publishing books. He was one of the
early employees at Lulu and is a very sharp guy.

(Disclaimer: I used to work with with Henry at Lulu, and he is a friend. This
plug was not solicited by him however, and I have no financial interest in
publishandsell.com)

