Category: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions


Definitions of “Making Money” With A Self Published Book

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Blogs @ How to Self Publish by Corinne — Comments Off on Definitions of “Making Money” With A Self Published Book
December 4, 2012
Self Publishing a Book is like planting a garden

Tulip farmers count cash costs and infrastructure costs… and so must self publishers.

Most authors who self publish a book intend to make money selling it. Or at least want to break even on their costs.

As with any business venture, it’s important to define making money… and to measure results.

The cash costs of self publishing are easier to track than the infrastructure and effort. And keeping cash costs to a minimum is one way to get closer to breaking even or making money, but spending the right amount on editing and cover design is important in the same way.

My list of cash costs includes:

  • $30 for the ISBN number (it’s about $300 for a pack of 10)
  • $35 for copyright registration, filed before I self publish or submit to traditional publishers
  • $10 for proof and shipping of a finished hard copy of the book (this doesn’t count for an ebook)
  • $15 for a domain name (per year) for a website for my book. (I can make the website on a free site, but the domain is a yearly fee)
  • $50 for my assumed business name (business license fee)

My list of infrastructure and effort costs includes:

  • the internet and computer I use to write and produce the book
  • the skills I’ve learned to do book design, website design, book marketing, and self publishing
  • the space, furniture, utilities, and supplies I’ve used while working on the project
  • the time… my time… so. much. time…

And I can’t assign a dollar value to the second list. So once my book earnings top my cash outlay, at what point do I declare that I’m making money with my self published book?  Especially since I complicated my bottom line by paying for a professional cover and making a third short print run. Because I do count the second list as having a cash value… particularly due to the skills I’ve learned, since I’ve used them to get jobs to support my self publishing aspirations.

I track the costs, and I consider the effort… and I define making money as first earning back my cash outlay, and then earning money toward the infrastructure costs. And I value all the additional things that self publishing a book has brought into my life.

 

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Should I Submit My Book To Traditional Publishers? Or Should I Self Publish My Book?

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Blogs @ "Colonel C. J. Tippett" by Corinne — Comments Off on Should I Submit My Book To Traditional Publishers? Or Should I Self Publish My Book?
November 26, 2012
Col. C. J. Tippett draft cover for his memoir about his aviation pioneering life

This is a mockup of a draft cover for Col. C. J. Tippett’s memoir, embedded in my new book about him. Handsome grandfather! Well, he wasn’t my grandfather at that time… and the book is in advanced draft, entering the submission to publishers cycle – before I go ahead and self publish. Which will it be?

I’m holding a complete advanced draft of my book about my grandfather, Col. C. J. Tippett, and his aviation pioneering adventures in my hand, and I’m asking myself:

Should I submit to publishers?  Or should I self publish?

And I am a self publisher, and one of my topics on this website is How To Self Publish A Book!

I’m not alone wondering. Many authors holding a finished, or near-finished, manuscript are wondering. And if they aren’t, then as they enter the traditional publishing submission cycle, they will be. Many authors, and publishers, and agents, believe that there is a mark of professionalism – a stamp of approval – a badge of belonging – a mantle of accomplishment…. to a traditional book deal and I agree. There is.  The only way for a self published author to earn a similar mark, stamp, badge, mantle is to sell enough books to either make a profit, attract a bigger publisher, or both.

But there is another very practical aspect that drives the question.

Self publishing is a lot of work, and financing a print run large enough to make a profitable deal with book distributors takes a lot of money. Traditional publishers take on that financial burden, but then the self publisher may be giving up more earning potential on each book sale. If there are enough book sales to make a profit.

And so the spinning dervish of the decision goes round and round and round.

Here is another perspective that I hope can help. The traditional book proposal process forces me to carefully review and prepare my book’s marketing potential. I have to do this anyway to successfully self publish my book.

I have to write a catching introduction, describe my book briefly yet thoroughly, summarize each chapter, choose sample chapters, write a pertinent personal bio that does not contain “I started writing at age 8″… (ruh roh, …) and package it all up with a marketing plan that includes a discussion of competitive titles.

So why not go through the book proposal process (doing it properly and carefully) and submit to agents and publishers that I really do think might be interested in my project?
I can’t think of any reason not to.

I take it further, and continue to submit my books even after I have self published – starting my letters with “My book has sold over 1500 copies at XXX locations. I have received YYY positive reviews, and XX emails and letters from readers who enjoyed the book…”  and no, I haven’t yet attracted a publisher or agent, but I have sold over 1500 copies of my book, Just A Couple Of Chickens, so far – and going strong.

I think, one day soon, traditional publishing and self publishing will both be processes authors use. I’m starting now, despite the gap that does currently exist between the two publishing camps. My advanced draft of my grandfather’s biography, which was working titled “CJT, A Biography” and is now working titled “When No-One Else Would Fly, The Life of Col. Cloyce Joseph Tippett, USAFR, Ret.” is now in the submission process (I’ve compiled a list of publishers who accept direct proposals from authors as well as genre-specific agents) and may be self published in 2013 (or 2012) depending on the results of both my submissions and my advance marketing work.

Stay tuned to find out how it goes!  You can also sign up here to get an email when the book is ready for purchase.

Actually, the funnest part of the whole process is researching the “competitive” titles that are similar to my aviation history biography of Col. C. J. Tippett. I don’t think of them as competition, I think of them as reading material!

 

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Should I Register My Copyright On My Book?

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Blogs @ How to Self Publish by Corinne — Comments Off on Should I Register My Copyright On My Book?
November 12, 2012

Sometime after writers stopped using quills as ink pens, our copyright laws came into being. The law assigns copyright when a work is created – you don’t have to register. But it’s a good idea, especially since today’s quill is a computer and the paper is online.

Copyright on a creative work exists as soon as the work is put to paper. The author doesn’t have to formally register the work with the US Copyright office, but it’s a good idea to do it before self publishing a book, or submitting for traditional publication.

An author does have to register the copyright before claiming a case of copyright infringement, and having registered the work long before there is any question of infringement can help your case.

I see it as a professional approach to my creative work, a finishing touch.

The creative work does not have to be published before registration, and in fact, due to recent changes by the US Copyright Office, if the work is unpublished, it can be uploaded electronically for the registration process – which is a change from having to mail a hard copy. (Mailing a hard copy is part of the Library of Congress Control Number process, which happens after the work is published – including self published…)

I recently went through the copyright process with the finished draft of my grandfather’s aviation history biography, and I have some tips.

  • Prepare an electronic copy of the manuscript that is smaller than 11.3 MB, because that is the single file upload limit and a full length manuscript is almost certainly bigger than that. Make a compressed PDF or split the document into several files… the upload process does allow one project in multiple files (up to six). So getting that ready in advance will help.
  • Choose a time when you can do the whole process in one session, so that you don’t risk stopping part way. It will take about an hour, depending on the copyright office’s online response time.
  • It will cost $35, (as of 2012) payable online at the time of registration, so having a credit or debit card ready is a good idea.
  • At www.copyright.gov, you first establish a profile and choose a user name and password. You’ll use this same profile for every work you register for copyright.
  • The first step isn’t very obvious, despite the care given to try and make the process more streamlined. It’s called Register A New Claim… and from there, you go step by step.

You will have to click a confirmation button at the very end of the process, and it isn’t complete until you do, so don’t leave the process until you’ve clicked that button. It’s not a very obvious button… the Staples Easy Button is a better design, but you’ll find it.

It’s not required to register – copyright is yours once you create a work – but it’s a good idea to do it when you’ve finished your book, before you self publish, or before you submit your book for publication. Add a copy of your work to our Library of Congress!

 

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How do I get paid as a self publisher? How does it actually work?

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Blogs @ How to Self Publish by Corinne — Comments Off on How do I get paid as a self publisher? How does it actually work?
October 22, 2012
How do I get paid as a self publisher

I reveal the payment mysteries of self publishing in this rockin’ post.

How do I get paid for my self published book? How does the money actually arrive in my bank account?

Well, it depends on how you are selling your book. I’ll focus on the online and credit card sales, because if you are selling your book at a table or out of the trunk of your car, it’s more obvious how you get paid… the online sales are the mystery to most of us.

If you are selling through a print-on-demand service like CreateSpace, then every time a book sells through Amazon.com, you get a royalty. The amount of that royalty is determined by the size and cover price of your book. You would know in advance how much that will be as you go through the set up process. There are at least three different royalty amounts, based on how what sales channel the buyer purchased your book.

The following CreateSpace details were current as of September, 2012, and since things change rapidly… take them with a grain of salt:

  • You get the highest royalty if the buyer buys from your CreateSpace author page, which is a page nobody will find unless you email them the direct link.
  • The “normal” royalty comes through sales directly from Amazon.com, and you have to rely on Amazon.com to report how many of those sales took place. There can be a lag between the buying and the reporting.
  • The least amount of royalty comes through Amazon.com expanded distribution, which is a channel you have to pay to sign up for, but enables your book to be available on request (not on the shelf) in every bookstore in the world.

You never have to handle the book or the shipping, and you don’t get the direct information about the buyer. Your royalties add up and when you’ve met the required minimum balance ($25 most recently), then CreateSpace will direct deposit the money to the bank account you’ve listed. They can send you a check instead, but it’ll cost you.

If you are selling your book through PayPal, directly from your own website, then PayPal will hold the full amount you charged for the book, less their fee, until you tell them to deposit it to your bank account (free), or request a check (which will cost you). You will package up the book, which you’ve already had printed somehow, and ship it to the seller. This way you get the buyer information, but you also have to handle the book and have an inventory to ship from, which you have already paid for.

If you set up your website to accept credit cards by getting a merchant account or gateway account, then the money you process from the sales of your books gets deposited to your bank account, less the fees for the merchant account. Depending on how you have it set up, you may instead have a lump sum fee withdrawal come out of your account once a month.

All of these methods require you to allow these companies  access to your bank account, to make the deposits, and so it is very wise to set up a totally separate account for these business activities. And make sure your bank offers good fraud protection. I don’t find it entirely comfortable either, but it’s the reality of true self publishing… you are a publisher, you are a business, and these are the conditions for normal modern business.

I promise you that it all feels much better than this post makes it sound when the money from book sales is flowing in…

 

 

 

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What Should I do With My Author Platform?

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions by Corinne — Comments Off on What Should I do With My Author Platform?
October 1, 2012
How to use a website as an author platform

These may be some of my far ancestors, but since nobody labeled the photos, I will never know. To me, they represent my many inner selves. Especially the dude in the uniform and the chick in the corset. Those are definitely my inner voices.

I have been listening to expert advice regarding how-to-be-a-successful-author, and all of my sources say “create and maintain a platform online.” So I recently sat down with myself to try and figure out how to present myself online and everywhere else.

“How should I present myself?” I asked myself.

“Lie like a rug!” came one answer.

“With Dignity!” came another.

“Don’t do it,” came a third.

“You always say don’t,” retorted one.

“No I don’t,” replied a third.

“You just did,” one pointed out.

“Grow up, both of you,” said another.

“This,” I said to all of them, “is why I try not to talk to myself.”

So I set up a website and I began to blog about the subject matter showcased by my two books, Just A Couple Of Chickens, and the soon-to-be-released biography about my grandfather, Col. C. J. Tippett. And I discovered that I had a third subject to blog about… self publishing, and how to do it, and what I think about it, and how it’s going as I do it. And I began to recognize my voice through this work… my voice is my platform, and my platform is how I talk to my readers – established and new.

At first, I felt that all this blogging and social media-ing… all this platform developing… was taking time away from my ultimate purpose, which was to write and sell books and become mega-rich author. But then I realized that all this blogging and reaching out into the dark with my keyboard was developing a direction for my writing. It was giving me clarity and focus. It was giving me mental wealth… even when I though nobody was reading it. Which actually, they are… (arrgg! Writers Block!)

I realized that I have a definite niche focus for my self publishing… which is Do-It-Yourself, and Own Your ISBN.  I discovered that the direction for my chicken book sequel is not just poultry raising, but is also Urban Homesteading. And I was able to expand on the material that built my grandfather’s biography – going further with the subject than I was able to do in the book itself, because my publisher was anxious about the page count. (So far, it’s out for submission to a traditional agent, so that was another meeting of the selves that didn’t go well…)

So already my platform has brought me (mental) riches. It isn’t a timesuck, it’s a garden… a pathway… a meeting place.

What should I do with my author platform?

  • I think I should expand on my author themes,
  • be a resource by sharing my experiences,
  • connect with other people doing similar things,
  • pose questions to the industry,
  • and share my personality.

Plus it’s great fun to pursue additional subjects pertaining to my books, like Famous People Who Met My Grandfather, and Funky Chickens.

 

 

 

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What’s Going To Happen To Readers If Just Any Author Can Self Publish A Book?

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Blogs @ "Just a Couple of Chickens" by Corinne — Comments Off on What’s Going To Happen To Readers If Just Any Author Can Self Publish A Book?
August 29, 2012
What if there are too many self published books in the world?

Will the flock of self published books overwhelm readers or enrich our world? So many books, so little time…!

This is one of the biggest questions at the heart of the emotional furor against self publishing , regarding the publishing changes going on today. Bridget Kinsella frames it perfectly in her article in Stanford University’s alumni magazine, dated November / December 2010. Her question, and the discussion, continues to rage today, almost two years after the article’s publication.

Bridget asks, “If the traditionally high barriers to publication fall, will that produce a world of unimagined richness or one mired in dross?”

She first points out that one of the advantages of the changes is that books are available everywhere, and in a bewildering array of formats. Practically any book is available to anyone with an Internet connection… even out of print books because of the stashes in old bookstores made available.

But the disadvantage comes back to the issue of quality, not just of the books, but also of the reviewers. If any author can produce a book and any blogger can review it, how can a reader find a good one?

Bridget’s article goes on to pursue the issues of the business as a whole, with valuable interviews with key people in the big agencies… but my focus is the question she posed.
Will readers be enriched or mired in dross?

Because I believe this is the key issue behind the “stigma” of self-publishing and the root of the negative emotion behind so many of the traditional versus self publishing arguments. A real fear that the availability of publishing technology and distribution channels will flood readers with so much garbage that the good books will drown.

It’s not a frivolous concern on the part of traditional publishing. There are many, many, badly-written poorly-produced self-published books, and I’m just as mad as anybody else when I spend my money on one. As mad as I get when I spend my money on a bad one produced by a well-known traditional publisher.

But it is, and always has been, buyer beware.

  • I buy books from my favorite authors because of the previous books they’ve written.
  • I buy on the recommendation of friends and family with similar reading tastes.
  • I buy based on reviews that are specific about the story and its pros and cons.
  • I buy based on the back matter, the cover, the genre, and the table of contents.
  • I buy based on Amazon.com reviews, which are written by normal people. And I read every review when I’m getting ready to buy, especially the lower rated ones.

Nowhere in this list of things that drive me to buy a book is whether it is traditionally published or self published.
It simply does not matter to me… those other elements have to be in place before I will buy.

So a self published author has to do all those things same as a traditional publisher does, and has to do them well. And this is what will separate the dross from the riches, when it comes to actually selling books.

But there’s another element to the issue, and that’s outside of what is actually selling. So many self published books don’t sell very many copies. But they still exist, and the ideas contained in them, and the point of view of their authors, is an unbelievable gold mine of human thought and creativity.

In my opinion, it’s the best thing to happen to human thought since the Stone Age. Well written or not, it’s irreplaceable, invaluable, and inestimably precious.

But I still don’t want to buy a bad one, so I’ll stick to the way I buy books, and let the best book win.

 

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How Many Plugins Is Too Many Plugins?

Filed Under: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions by Corinne — Comments Off on How Many Plugins Is Too Many Plugins?
August 20, 2012
Lots of eggs of self publishing advice

This is how many plugins I have. Is it too many?

You would not believe the trouble I’ve had in getting that question answered.
I think if a writer is going to post with that question in the title, they should answer the question!

So here is the answer…

If you are having to ask “how many plugins is too many plugins?” then you probably have too many plugins.
They can slow down your site. So if your site is loading too slowly
… more than 4 seconds…
then you have too many plugins.

It was tentblogger.com who finally quoted numbers… thank you tentblogger!

Plugins should number 10 – 15 in general, and max out at 20 if you are using W3 Total Cache.

That sounds accurate to me because my website started to slow down with less than 20 and the last 5 plugins I installed were intended to try and speed it back up.
And it also means I need to give up some plugins, cuz I am at 29 and already installed W3 Total Cache (and configured it). Wah.

But another important point I came across was… why do I have so many plugins?  Perhaps I am fighting with my theme… or trying to do too much… or under-utilizing the other plugins.

That’s a big 10-4 on all of those points. Back to the dashboard…. Because a slow site is worse than any other website flaw.

I wonder if there is a plugin for figuring out how many plugins I can get away with.
Is there a plugin rehab?
because I think I may have a problem.

 

 

 

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