Publishing Methods   by EelKat

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So You Need to Publish Your Book?

How should you publish your book? Self-Publishing? Vanity Press? Traditional? POD-People? The Big Five? What's the difference? On this lens I explore the different options you have as a writer to get your book published.

Why Did I Write This Lens? 

As the administrator of an online writers forum and the editor of a Small Press publishing house, question I see time and time again is: Is *name of business here* a self-publisher, vanity press, or traditional publisher? How do I tell the difference?

While there are many branches of the publishing tree, these three are the big limbs, from which all the branches shoot off. POD-People can fall under any of those three, while The Big Five are considered traditional.


    #1.) Self-Publishers
    #2.) Vanity Press Publishers
    #3.) Traditional Publishers


This lens is here to help you know how to tell them apart.

I hope this helps.

~~EK

NOTE: As of October 25, 2007 this lens is a member of Squidoo's Top 100 Best Lenses!

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Sites Every Writer Should Check Out 

Publishing Law Center: Copyright, trademarks, intellectual property, contracts, licensing, rights, PubLaw Update Newsletter
Legal information for publishers of magazines, newsletters, books, and multimedia products including copyrights, trademarks, contracts, licensing, & rights. A wealth of information for authors, editors, agents, and publishers looking to learn more about their field.
National Novel Writing Month - National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month is an annual novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world. Check out the forums, for a massive user-written source of information on making your next book the best one ever.
US ISBN Agency - ISBN Assignments, SAN, Bookland EAN Bar Code Symbols, Technical Information and Advice
No other source can assign legitimate ISBNs to US publishers.
Bowker provides technical advice on uses of the ISBN standard to the publishing industry.?
Also includes SAN and EAN Bookland Bar Code information.
A Writer's Desk: The Author's Corner - Home Page
Welcome to The Author's Corner! Here you well find items selected just for the writer in you. This Amazon Store is brought to you by A Writer's Desk, the forum for writers. Our product list is always changing and being added to, so look around today and come back tomorrow to see what's new!

What is a writer? How Does a writer become an author? 

A writer, simply put is one who writes. Everyone who writes on a regular basis is considered a writer whether or not they have ever been published.

Writers can mean those who write for newspapers or those who write fiction, those who write for medical journals, or those who write TV sitcom scripts. They all write. They all get Writer's Block. If I was to start detailing all of them, I'd have to write an encyclopedia on the subject, so, for the sake of simplicity, in this article, we will assume that a writer is one who writes fiction in novel or short story format. Now, back to the question: What is a writer?

A writer is someone who writes, probably every day or nearly so. Usually they feel compelled to write, as though they have no control over it. It is as though they will die if they cannot write something down. Their every fiber burns with the sensation, the uncontrollable passion, that they must put words to paper in order to survive. They feel every emotion their characters feel: the love, the pain, the horror, the fear, the anxiety, and the lust for adventure. They not only feel their characters, they become their characters. Everything in life sparks a new story idea. They awake at night from their sleep to jot down in notebooks. They pull their car off the road to write down ideas on the edges of maps. They are obsessed with the fever that is coming known as writing. That is a writer.

An author however, is generally perceived as a writer who has been published. For some writers, it is enough that they write, publishing their work is not their goal. For most writers, however, the goal is to become a published author. The trick is being published. You have many options. Which one should you choose? Let's look at your options:

What Is Self Publishing? 

My Explaination:

A self publisher, is an author who gets a business license, buys the ISBN #s, hires a printing press (print shop/printer) to print the books, than sells the books themselves. The author keeps 100% of the profits, because no one pays royalties; you keep 100% of the copyright (which btw, does not cost a penny). You market the book and distribute the book yourself through local bookstores, a personal Website, your blog, and on online bookstores such as Amazon.com.

Self-Publishing gets it's name from the fact that the author does everything themselves.

The author gets their book printed up in two common ways:

1) They hire a local or online print shop to print up the book all at once. Most printers require a 5,000-copy minimum, with cash up front, though it is common, for printers to require a minimum of 20,000 copies. Printing up your books in this manner, unfortunately requires the author to have a very large sum of money all at once. If you choose this method, be sure you have taken into account the cost of printing the book, which for most writers is rarely under $30,000 and often more than $200,000, and this money has to be paid to the printer BEFORE they will print up your book.

2.) The other method is to hire a print-on-demand printer. These may or may-not ask for money up front, depending on how they run their business. To find out more about print-on-demand, simply scroll down to the POD section of this article.

It should be noted, that regardless of the method you use to have your book printed, you are the publisher. The company that printed your book up, is just a printer and only a printer, never are they considered the publisher.

What Wikipedia says about Self-Publishing: 

Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. Although it represents a small percentage of the publishing industry in terms of sales, it has been present in one form or another since the beginning of publishing and has seen an increase in activity with the advancement of publishing technology, including xerography, desktop publishing systems, print on demand, and the World Wide Web. Cultural phenomena such as the punk/DIY movement, the proliferation of media channels, and blogging have contributed to the advancement of self-publishing.

The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is the absence of a traditional publisher. Instead the creator or creators fulfill this role, taking editorial control of the content, arranging for printing, marketing the material, and often distributing it, either directly to consumers or to retailers. Less often, the author prints the material, usually using a xerographic process or a computer printer. In some cases, books are printed on demand with no inventory kept. This places the bulk of the financial risk for the venture on the creators, with many self-publishers ultimately subsidizing it rather than making money from it.

With the advancement of digital printing technology from Indigo N.V. and digital photography, the self-publishing concept has become mainstream in digital photo book printing. Firms like Apple's iPhoto, FotoInsight, Snapfish and Printing-1 supply individually printed photo books on demand.

Many self-published books utilize printing and binding techniques which are chosen for their suitability for short press runs. They may be printed with a xerographic process rather than offset printing. In many cases, the covers are designed by amateurs, or a standardized template is used, rather than a higher-quality professional cover designer. Recently, the majority of the self- and subsidy-published books have been perfect bound, although some are hardbound, and some are still saddle-stitched (large metal staples in the fold), comb or coil bound. Technology has enabled high-quality short-run print jobs to be less expensive, although they are still more expensive per copy than longer, off-set printings.

Because professional-quality typesetting suites, such as LaTeX, are available as free software, the typesetting of a self-published book may be as good as a traditionally published work. However, these tools require some technical skill, and many self-published works are formatted using a word processor, which can give less appealing results by comparison. The development of relatively low-cost desktop publishing software has put more powerful tools in the hands of self-publishers, but without any guarantee that they will be used to professional standards.

Authors using lower-cost, short-run techniques are often focused on content rather than appearance. They may wish to avoid a polished appearance for reasons that have little to do with cost, such as maintaining an anti-establishment aesthetic.

Recently the very short run, usually xerographic, printing techniques are approaching off-set quality for black and white, non-halftone jobs. There are still visible differences for more complicated work. Very short run printing is also called POD or PQN printing. This is not the same as POD publishing. Any author or publisher can use POD printing, without the need to go through a POD publisher (also known as a subsidy publisher, or even more confusingly, as a "self-publishing company") if they have the skills to do the work of setting up the book for print themselves.

Because bookstores believe that cover appearance and content are important for successful sales, self-publishing authors that plan to distribute their books through mainstream distributors and bookstores often strive to achieve an overall appearance similar to that of the major publishing houses. This in turn mandates a larger initial press run, usually offset, if the endeavor is to be profitable, because of the expense involved in getting professional level design and editorial work. On the other hand, many successful self-publishers avoid traditional retail outlets altogether, and market directly to their target audience.

Promotion and marketing of self-published books are critical. Authors must undertake book publicity which means developing lists of editors and book reviewers within various media, as well as looking for ways to get coverage "off the book page."

There are several other difficulties faced by self- and small-publishers. Bookstores cannot afford to deal with tens of thousands of small publishing companies. They tend to buy from the larger publishers, distributors, and wholesalers. But even these aggregators cannot deal with the recent flood of new publishers. The competition to get into bookstores is extreme, and the terms of trade (discounts and return privileges especially) can be financially onerous.

Self-published books do not necessarily reveal their origin. Subsidy press books do, via the ISBN records or the imprint. Therefore, subsidy published books may face additional obstacles on the way to the bookstore shelf, beyond those discussed above.

Motives for self-publishing:

There are a number of reasons that writers choose to self-publish, although one of the most common is that their work is not of interest to a commercial publisher. Publishers must be confident of sales of several thousand copies to take on a book. An otherwise worthy book may not have this potential for any number of reasons:

    *author wishes to retain complete editorial control over content
    *author is unknown and does not have substantial resume
    *popular topic but of interest only in a small geographic area
    addresses an obscure topic in which few people are interested
    *content is controversial enough that publishers do not wish to be associated with it
    *author wishes to obtain a larger percentage return from retail sales


Occasionally authors choose to self-publish for reasons of control, because they want access to their customer list, or because they love the business of publishing. When working with a publisher, an author gives up a degree of editorial control, and sometimes has little input into the design of the book, its distribution, and its marketing. This has been a substantial motivator in the rise of comic book self-publishing. In the late 1970s, creators such as Dave Sim and Wendy and Richard Pini chose -- in spite of offers from publishers -- to publish their work themselves because they wanted to retain full ownership and control over it, and they believed they could do the job of publishing more effectively than a publisher that did not have an ownership stake in the material. This was facilitated by the development of comic book specialty shops, and the distribution network that serves them, which is more open to small- and self-publisher material than traditional bookstores have been. Numerous cartoonists have followed their example since then, and by the late 1990s, the majority of comics (in terms of titles) were self-published. They remain a small percentage of overall sales, however, with sales of a given book often falling short of 1000 copies. A similar movement took place in the music industry during the same period, coming largely out of the punk rock phenomenon, as some musicians eschewed deals with record labels and published their own recordings.

In addition to the issue of control some authors with limited markets may also self-publish in order to obtain a better financial return. Authors in a specialist area may be confident of a certain number of sales but also realize that the maximum number of sales is limited, and wish to maximize their earnings. In this situation authors may risk a significant amount of their own capital to self-publish their own work. This avoids a publisher taking a significant cut of the proceeds and if also self-distributed avoids distribution fees as well. The payoff is a much larger percentage of the sale price being returned as profit.

In recent years, television writer and producer J Michael Straczynski has self published an extremely successful series of books containing his scripts for Babylon 5, his most famous television creation. [1]

Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. Although it represents a small percentage of the publishing industry in terms of sales, it has been present in one form or another since the beginning of publishing and has seen an increase in activity with the advancement of publishing technology, including xerography, desktop publishing systems, print on demand, and the World Wide Web. Cultural phenomena such as the punk/DIY movement, the proliferation of media channels, and blogging have contributed to the advancement of self-publishing.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Before You Self-Publish: 

What you should know, and how to avoid the scams!

US ISBN Agency - ISBN Assignments, SAN, Bookland EAN Bar Code Symbols, Technical Information and Advice
No other source can assign legitimate ISBNs to US publishers.
Bowker provides technical advice on uses of the ISBN standard to the publishing industry.?
Also includes SAN and EAN Bookland Bar Code information.
US ISBN Agency - Important message about the ISBN resale scam!
No other source can assign legitimate ISBNs to US publishers. This online scam is reaching alarming levels. Read the ISBN's warning. Help put an end to the ISBN resale scam!
U.S. Copyright Office
U.S. Copyright Office is an office of public record for copyright registration and deposit of copyright material.
Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
Welcome to the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. Working to create a more informed, empowered, and efficient book industry supply chain. Get informed answers to all your publishing questions.
The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. The #1 authority on publishing laws.
Bar Code Service from Bowker - ISBN, Bookland EAN Images and Graphics
Bar Code service from Bowker saves time and effort;electronic one stop shopping provides uniformly accepted bar code graphic files of the highest quality, and learn how and where to use your bar codes.

IMPORTANT info for first-time self-publishers! 

Many self-publishers are also first-time publishers with little or no knowledge of the laws regarding copyrights, ISBN, EAN, and other such things. All those online sites can confuse those new to publishing. Problem is, many sites offering, "advise" to new self-publishers are run by scam artists seeking to make a quick profit and leave you hanging. How can you avoid being caught in their snares?

1.) NEVER pay money to buy a copyright! If you wrote the book, you own the copyright.

2.) NEVER buy an ISBN from anyone other than ISBN.org themselves! They are the ONLY ones who can assign your book an ISBN.

Below are direct links to both of these government sites, as well as the EAN site, and the BISGI:

Some popular online printers used by self-publishers. 

So you wrote a book and now you want to self-publish it, but don't know how. Check out these top printers used by thousands of successful self-publishers worldwide.
Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free
Looking for self publishing resources? Lulu.com lets you publish and sell and print on demand books, e-books, online music, images, custom calendars and photo books.
Publish Your Own Book - Morris Publishing
The leader in book printing and manufacturing for the small publisher, self-publisher, or business. We offer perfect binding, comb binding, 3-Ring binding, and plastic coil binding.
CafePress.com : Create, Buy and Sell Unique Gifts, Custom T-Shirts and More
Known for their custom t-shirts, sweatshirts, bumper stickers and unique gifts the CafePress.com Marketplace is also one of the top places create and sell your own books.

I'm Self Published! ... Now What? 

Need to find a distributor for your self-published book? Here are a few to help you get your book up and running.
Amazon.com Advantage
The world's largest bookseller and the self-publisher's best friend. Be sure all of your titles are listed here.
Wal-Mart Stores Online Product Submission
It may be harder for a self-publisher to get accepted to become a Walmart Vendor, but it's well worth filling out these forms, because if you do get accepted, your book could end up on 5 million store shelves.
C&B Books Distribution
C&B BOOKS, was started in 1995, by Carol Rogers & Brenda Piper. The motivation behind this book business, was the lack of affordable books written by black authors. Focuses on self-published books.
Barnes&Noble.com
Another great place to get your book listed on.
AbeBooks: Sell Books
Join AbeBooks to sell used, rare, and out-of-print books worldwide.

Need More Help in Self-Publishing? 

Check out Dan Poynter, and his 130+ self-published books!

Amazon.com: Profile for Dan Poynter
Find, shop for and buy at Amazon.com
Dan Poynter's Books
Google's list
Para Publishing - Welcome to Para Publishing
Writing Books: Guidance and Tips for Creating Your Content.

Producing Books: Editing, Design, Typesetting & Printing.

Running Your Publishing Business: Organizing & Contracting.

Marketing, Promoting & Distributing Books.
Fulfillment: Picking,
EmpoweringMessages.com - Who is Dan Poynter?
The mission of Empowering Messages.com is to empower people who are short on time yet long on motivation. Interview with Dan Poynter.
Dan Poynter Interview - Publishing and Book Promotion
Dan
Poynter is an authority on self-publishing and low-cost
book promotion.

Great Stuff for Writers on CafePress 

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What Is Vanity Press Publishing? 

A vanity press is a print shop/printer/printing press, which does all the layout, designing, font setup, cover design, and printing for you. Most will say that they are the publisher and not you, even though they ask you to pay to have the books printed.

Vanity press publishing is very similar to self-publishing. It differs in that it usually costs a lot more, and more often than not, for a poor quality item. It gets it's name from the fact that it is most often used by authors who have had their manuscripts denied by several traditional publishers. These authors generally only want to see their name in print, and usually have enough cash laying around to pay to get a lot of copies of a poorly written manuscript printed up by a publisher who rarely pays royalties. In other words, a Vanity Publisher is a publisher who is paid by the author to publish a book.

Vanity publishing has been around for over a hundred years, and some of the world's great classic authors used this method. It was very common during the late 1800's and early 1900's and most of the books we consider the great classics of that period, were published via vanity press methods. Vanity publishing has had a long and successful history and many author prefer it to other publishing methods.

Unlike traditional publishers, vanity publishers usually ask you to pay money for them to edit your manuscript. They also often charge you extra if you want a color cover. In some cases, if you don't pay the extra you end up with a blank colored paper cover with black ink, so be sure to find out what they offer before you agree to pay for their services.

Some Vanity Presses offer to sell your books through their home page Website. A few offer to list it on Amazon.com for a fee. More often though, it is up to the author to do the marketing for the book, so be sure you find out what services they do when it comes to marketing your book and getting it in front of customers.

WARNING: Beware of The Vanity Press Scam Artists! 

Over the years, literally thousands of Vanity Press operations have come and gone... often disappearing with tens of thousands of dollars from the author, who never sees their book. In the early 1990's, there was an alarming rise in scam artists poising as Vanity Press Publisher, given rise to a massive breakdown in author trust in any small-press publishing house. Luckily, this scam seems to have died down, and Vanity Press publishers are once again what they were originally: A publisher who is paid by the author to publish a book.

Do beware of the telltale signs that the vanity publisher is a fraud artist and not a real vanity publisher: The fraud ones usually charge you for such things as "the right to keep your copyright", or to put an ISBN # on your book.

A common trick the scammers use is to promise to pays you a percentage (royalty), after you first pay them for the books. The royalty they pay, though it may sound high at first, is actually very low. You don't see that money until after they have deducted what you "owe them" for printing the books. In short, they make money, while you go broke, and you may or may not get to keep the rights to your book, depending on how much money you paid to buy your own rights back from them.

The scam artist vanity publishers are illegal, if you think you have run up against one, be sure to report them to the B.B.B.

Some Vanity Press Printers 

Morris Press Cookbooks - Cookbook Publishing for Fundraising or Keepsake
Organizations, businesses, churches, schools, clubs, and non-profit groups from across the United States have raised thousands of dollars by publishing a fundraising cookbook. Families have published a cookbook as a heirloom or keepsake.
Publish Your Own Book - Morris Publishing
The leader in book printing and manufacturing for the small publisher, self-publisher, or business. We offer perfect binding, comb binding, 3-Ring binding, and plastic coil binding.
BookSurge, part of the Amazon group of companies
Self-PublishingPublisher Services Bookstore Author Resources FAQs
iUniverse - Self Publishing Company
iUniverse, the leading book publisher, offers the best book publishing services in the self publishing industry. Chosen as the leading print on demand book publisher among self-publishing companies.

What is Traditional Publishing? 

A traditional publisher hires editors who read your MS, which you send to them. They receive thousands of MSs each week. It may take up to 2 years before they get around to reading yours. After they read it, they either reject it or accept it. If they accept it, you well be sent a contact (and often with a recommendation that you go over the contract with your literary agent/lawyer before you sign it). Once you sign the contract and send it back, than the publisher's lawyer checks it to be certain that all is in order (and done legally). The publisher is given a "temporary copyright" allowing them to print and distribute your book to the public. In most cases, you still own the copyright, but while the book is in print from the publisher, you can't do anything with it until it goes out of print.

They hire an editor/typesetter to type set and spell check your MS. Cuts and additions are not unusual at this point. You the author have no control over this, and it is not unusual for an author to read the finished book and ask: "When the hell did I write this?" or "Where is that chapter I wrote on....?" Next they hire an artist to create the cover art. You the author has no control over this either. Finally, they distribute the book to bookstores worldwide. You never own them a cent. They pay you royalties. Some also pay with advances. Most do 100% of the marketing and promotion, as well. You the author are free to sit back and relax, while the publisher does the work, leaving you with plenty of time to write your next book. Something Self-published and Vanity Press authors can only dream of, while they are rushing about writing press releases, and hunting down places to sell their book.

Traditional Publishing: Small Press vs Large Press vs The Big Five: 

Once you jump into the publishing race, a term you'll start to hear is "The Big Five". You hear warnings, not to even attempt to submit to The Big Five, unless you have already published three or4 books and have a high-fee agent. You'll hear others say that it was one of The Big Five who gave them their first big break. On one hand authors will sing their praises, while on the other hand, authors tell the worst horror tales of their evil corrupt editors. What's a beginning writer to do? Whom should you believe? The answer, believe all of them, until you have a good reason to believe otherwise. Why?

Well, when it comes to publishing, about 90% of the publishing houses classify as Small Press. Small Press simply means that they are a Traditional Publisher, who pays author royalties, but they publish less than 100 titles per year. Vast majorities of Small Presses publish less than 10 titles per year. Many Small Presses only publish titles within their "niche market". Some publish only cookbooks, others publish only law books, some only publish books about their local history, some publish only horror, others publish only books written by women over 50, and so on and so forth.

Small Press is by far the easiest to be published by, esp. for the first time author. However, the pay is often very low, advances are rare, and payments may even be a "one-time-fee", such as $1,000 payment regardless of how many books are sold. While payment is low, many authors prefer Small Press, because they often keep the book in print for many years, and do more to promote the book than larger publishing houses do.

Large Press Publishing Houses are what most authors strive for. Higher payouts, a name that most people have heard of, and usually bigger sales. Most pay an advance (usually less than $5,000), and 4% - 12% royalty. They usually have a catalog and keep titles in print less than 2 years.

The Big Five are the mega giants, whom nearly everyone in the world knows their name, and whom most every author sends their manuscripts to, regardless of how many other places they are also sending it. They pay in large advances and higher royalties, but most titles go out of print in just 6 months or less and usually the author has to sing away reprint rights, meaning the book can never be reprinted by anyone else.

Who are "The Big Five"? 

The Big Five: They are the five giants of the publishing world, known for gobbling up Small Presses and spitting them out under a new name. Sometimes they even take turns buying out each other, and then they become The Big Four or The Big Three. But who are they? What are they? Why should you try to be published by them?

They are not actually five publishing houses, but the way they buy and sell each other out, usually there are five big names being thrown around at any given time, so the term "The Big Five" is just easier for most authors and editors to say.

But who are they and why should you try to be published by them? I can answer that in one word, well, two: Harry Potter.

Who reading this article has a copy of Harry Potter near by? Pick it up; look at the name of the publishing house. What does it say? Scholastic Books. Yep, Scholastic Books is one of The Big Five, possibly the biggest of the big house publishers out there. If Harry Potter hadn't been picked up by Scholastic Books, chances are, that no one would ever heard of it at all. Why? Because Scholastic Books has nearly unlimited finances and a marketing team that can literally make or break a book.

Random House. Dell. Penguin. Signet. Bantam. DoubleDay. TOR. Who hasn't at least heard of Harlequin Books? These guys are not only big press, they are monster-sized huge press. Because they are so big, unfortunately, your chances of getting your foot in the door are rather slim and requires that you hire the best agent money can buy. Why? Because these huge publishing houses, shred anything that comes their way that was not sent to them by an agent. It won't do you any good to explain why you don't have an agent in your cover letter, because they will never even open the envelope. Each of these publishers get an average of 15,000 manuscript submissions each week, many of which they never open. The secret to being published by one of The Big Five, is to go out there and make a name for yourself, write a best seller, hire a high profile agent, and than do what your agent tells you to do.

In other words: 

All Three in Summary

Self-publishing is you starting your own business (a publishing house) and earning an income.

Vanity press is you doing a lot of hard work, getting your book printed, and being scammed out of the money that should be yours, while they get rich and leave you with nothing, unless of course you can sift through the scams and find one that is not a scam.

Traditional publishing is you hiring a business to do the work for you and you both earn an income.

Some of the Top Big House Publishers 

eHARLEQUIN.com - The Ultimate Destination for Women's Fiction
Thank you for bookmarking eHarlequin.com! The URL that you?ve linked to has recently changed. Please update your bookmarks?— and don?t forget to come back frequently! In the meantime, we?ll take you to the new page momentarily or you can click here. ?
Scholastic Books: Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling with games, book reviews, and message boards for muggles and wizards | Scholastic.com
The Official site for Harry Potter, from Scholastic Books. Harry Potter book series and author J.K. Rowling site with games, activities, book reviews, a pronunciation guide, and a glossary of wizarding words. Test your Harry Potter knowledge in the Wizard Challenge, download free Harry Potter stuff, and join Harry Potter book fans in the new message boards.
Bantam Dell Publishing Group - Home
Random House: Dell Division: Bantam Division.

What is POD Publishing? 

How can I become one of the Pod-People?

There is a common change that is overtaking thousands of authors all over the world. They no longer send their manuscripts in for consideration to be published. They are writing books faster than ever releasing two or three books a year instead of one every 2 or 3 years. This new mutated breed of authors are no longer authors as we know them... they are: The Pod-People!

The Pod People have invaded the earth. Editors run away screaming in terror. Publishers shake their angry fists vowing revenge, and agents devise plots to put an end to this newfound reign of the pod people. Yet, in the daily lives of the average civilian, people have no idea of this invasion that has taken the publishing world by storm, uprooting every tradition that traditional publishers hold dear.

But who are these Pod-People and what have they done? They are authors who have turned their backs on traditional publishing and set out to self-publish. Not only do they self-publish, but also they do it using the Print-on-Demand method.

Print on Demand or POD for short is quite simple: the book is stored on a computer hard-drive and when a customer wants to buy it, the printer prints up, one single solitary copy. Just one. Not 10,000, not 1,000, not 100, not even 10... just one single copy, custom printed and bound just for you. This environmentally friendly method saves trees by not having tens of thousands of copies stored away in a warehouse not being sold. This method uses small sheets of paper, not giant rolls with lots of scrap-waste, also helping to save trees. There is no longer the need to store 2,000 unsold copies of your book in your basement. And best of all, your book NEVER goes out of print, it's always there, always available at any given moment, and ten, twenty, fifty years from now, it'll still be in print whenever a customer asks to buy one!

Where to find more info about POD: 

Warnings and Cautions for Writers--Print on Demand
About Literary Fraud and Other Schemes, Scams,
and Pitfalls That Target Writers
Writers' Alerts Book Doctors
Case
Studies
Contests and Anthologies
Copyright
Electronic publishing
Literary Agents
Vanity Publishers
Writers' Services
PRINT ON DE

Print On Demand Book Printers 

Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free
The world's #1 POD-Publisher. Looking for self publishing resources? Lulu.com lets you publish and sell and print on demand books, e-books, online music, images, custom calendars and photo books.
CafePress.com : Create, Buy and Sell Unique Gifts, Custom T-Shirts and More
Buy custom t-shirts, sweatshirts, bumper stickers and unique gifts from the CafePress.com Marketplace or create and sell your own designs on over 80 products in a free online store. Though famous for their POD t-shirt service, CafePress also offers a POD book publishing service and ranks as the second most popular POD, after LuLu. Recently one of thier books, written by Sparkles The Cat, was given honorable mention by NYTimes Best Seller List.

What about LuLu.com? Are they a printer or a publisher? 

The answer to that is they do both. They offer two services: one is free and the other you have to pay for.

For their free service, they are a print shop, which you, the author and publisher hires to print up copies of your book. In this instance, you are the publisher. You are self-publishing a book. LuLu is simply the printer.

For their paid services they act as the publisher, provide an ISBN#, print their name in the book as the publisher of the book, and market your book for you on Amazon.com. In this case, they are the publisher.

In both cases, you, the author, keep all copyrights, and all profits. In addition, in both cases you never pay the costs of having your book printed. LuLu.com is paid by the customers who buy your books. LuLu.com takes a commission off the cover price of the book, which varies depending on if it's a hardcover or paperback; has b&w text or color pictures; is 4" x 6" or 8" x 12". For most books, they get $4 - $7 per book. You the author get to pick your own commission. How? LuLu's commission is automatically in the cover price; your commission is determined by how much you decide to sell the book for.

Example:

Let's say that for the book you have chosen, LuLu takes a $4 commission, yet you decide to sell the book for a cover price of $9.95. When a customer buys the book, LuLu takes their $4 and you get the $5.95 extra.

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More Links an Author Might Find Useful 

Sites I have visited in the past and found helpful.

Seventh Sanctum
A site of generators to randomly produce concepts, characters, and descriptions for stories, role-playing games, and art, as well as have fun or combat creative block.


A Writer's Desk: Forum for Fiction Writers - Home
Writing lessons, story starters, writing exercises, character creation, plotting, message boards, and free blog for writers of fiction, short stories, horror, sci-fi, romance, mystery, and fantasy. One stop spot for all your writing needs!


National Novel Writing Month - National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month is an annual novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world.


Writers Write
Writers Write(R) is a
professional resource for editors, journalists
and writers which provides information, markets, job listings,
writing news, events and discussion.


Poewar.com -- The Writer's Resource Center by John hewitt
News, articles, information and opportunities for writers.


MyWritingGroup.com
Find a writing group and improve your writing at MyWritingGroup.com Get feedback on your writing and learn to improve your skills. All writing is protected., help with your writing, private writing group, writing tips, writing feedback.


How to market your book online
How to market your book online without making a nuisance of yourself.


Absolute Write Water Cooler - Powered by vBulletin
Active message board for writers, where you'll find 'writers wanted' ads, bewares, and general discussion about all aspects of the craft and business of writing.


Forward Motion Writer Index
Index of writing articles and writing workshops by Holly Lisle.


Can a Book be Both Traditionaly Published AND POD Self-Published? 

If you self-publish via POD than you have printed up this book's "first edition" and when you finally find an agent and the agent finally finds you a traditional publisher, you will only be able to offer "second edition" (aslo known as "reprint") rights. As a general rule, unless the book as sold over 10,000 copies a publisher will not buy second rights.

The average book sells just 500 copies. (at the average 4% royalty of wholesale price that averages out to : $1,000 - $1,500 total pay for you the author for the entire life of the book)

Rarely does a first book make over $2,000 for it's author.

The average life of a book is 3 months. (meaning the publisher pulls it off the shelves and stops selling it just 3 months after it went to print)

In order to keep you book in print past those 3 months it must become a "bestseller".

In order to become a bestseller, you must sell an astronomical total of 10,000 copies in that 3 months time.

Most publishers DO NOT promote your book. The books that become bestsellers, had an author that put a lot of their time and money into marketing the book themselves. Most books, regardless of publisher, sell only as many books as THE AUTHOR promotes. This is true wither you publish via Scholastic Books (with it's 100 new titles each month, including Harry Potter) or Twighlight Manor Press and it's 10 books every other year.

Basicly all a book publisher does is list your book in their catalog and hope that book stores choose to stock it on their shelves.

Books (such as Harry Potter -- traditional published--- and Eragon ---self-published---) get famous, not from the publisher's promotion, but from THE AUTHOR'S having gone out there and told everyone under the sun how great their book was and paying large amounts of their own money (we are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of the author's private pocket money, mony they already had BEFORE book's release, in the case of such authors J.K.Rowlings, Palini, Steven King, etc.) for advertising in such newspapers as The New York Times. Eragon, a self published book, became an over night best seller because of a single one day full page ad in The New York Times, that cost Palini's parents over $14,000! Within a few weeks he had big name book publishers begging to sell the reprint editions.

So you see. What you the author are willing (or can afford) to pay for a marketing campaign, is going to determin how many book you sell, not who you choose for a publisher. Keep in mind that when you see ads for book, either in newspapers or on tv, those ads were paid for by the author him-herself, NOT the publisher.

Most writers, once hit in the face with the harsh reality of these facts, never attempt to write a second book, which is why there are so many one book authors out there.

On the other hand a self-published POD book never goes out of print and you earn 100% of the profits off the retail price.

If you are willing to promote and market your book hard enough, you'll make more money in the long run by self-publishing, because you can keep selling your book for the next 10 or 20 years.

If you want to do both POD self publish AND traditional publish, than you MUST do it the other way around. Traditional publish first and POD later.

Your best bet is to hold off on the POD right now, and focus on finding that agent. Let the traditional publisher buy the first edition rights, get paid your advance and your royalties, let them sell the first edition, than next year after the book has gone out of print, you bring it back out as a POD reprint and continue to sell it for the rest of your life. (A lot of authors do this and after writing 4 or 5 books, they have a pretty steady monthly income coming in.)

I hope this helps.

So What Should I Do? 

You've reached the end of this lens and you now have a better idea of the different roads you can take to get your book published. Now the question is, which of those roads should you choose?

I'd recommend that regardless of which you choose to do, you should at least self-publish one book when you are starting out. Why? Because there is no better, way to learn what it takes to bring a book to your readers. By self-publishing a book, you the author, can't just stop after writing the script. When you self publish, there is no editor for you to send the MS to. You are the editor. YOU must strive to up your editing skills and edit the MS yourself. This is not only a great learning experience, but it well help you to be less critical of editors you may deal with in the future.

After editing the book, you must than track down a printer to print up copies of your book. This like-wise is a good learning experience for beginning writers. It helps you to understand the difficulty that publishing houses have to deal with when getting your book into print: typesetting, cover design, layout, format, getting an ISBN, etc. etc. etc. It'll do wonders to open your eyes to the reason it takes 2 to 3 years for a publisher to get your book in stores.

Lastly, you must do all the marketing and research and advertising yourself. You must track down dealers and distributors. You must contact bookstores and place adds in newspapers. Once you have put in time and money into selling your self-published book, you'll have a greater understanding of the work that your publisher puts in.

In the end, there are two advantages to self-publishing your first book:

#1.) You won't head to a publishing house all high and mighty and demanding to see your book on shelves next week. Yes, many first time authors approach publishers and editors with such demands, in fact, 9 times out of 10 a new write comes in, acting like they a the greatest thing since Stephen King or J.K.Rowlings, and they often say as much. They seem to think that publishers just wave a magic wand and voila, a book suddenly appears. By self-publishing their first book, they get knocked off their high horse and get to see the publishing world for what it really is: a lot of hard work, time, and money, with very little return.

#2.) Secondly, by having self-published your first book, you now know how to do it again, and do it better next time. Why is this important? Because less than 1% of all manuscripts that are sent to publishers, well ever get published. Nearly all MS are rejected, tossed out, or mailed back unopened. If you should find that you are one of the millions of authors who publishers reject, you can always say: "I did it before, I can do it again!" That way you have something to fall back on if your next greatest hit, gets ignored by the publishing houses.

Copyright Info 

The content of this lens was created by Wendy C. Allen compiled from posts on EK's Star Log, the official blog of author and artist Wendy C. Allen, a.k.a. EelKat. Reprinted here on Squidoo with permision.

EK's Star Log Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 2005-2007. Star Log, Space Dock 13, The Twighlight Manor Press, Moonsnails, Buried Treasue, Copper Cockeral, and Xavier's Nest Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 2005-2007. Twighlight Manor, EelKat, White Rock Asylum, Planet Ptarmagin, Crystonite Chronicles, Etiole, Sir Roderic, The Swanzen Family, and all other related characters, info, writings, names, images, and content Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 1978-2007.

All content written and designed by Wendy C. Allen unless otherwise stated. No part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted without the express permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Reuse of these names, characters, writings, and images are not allowed without prior authorization.

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