Posts Tagged literary agents

Best Seller Formula

11 July 2011
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How does a book get to the top of the “Best Seller” list?
It isn’t always because it is a good read. (more…)

Self Publish #3: Printed

25 March 2011
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BLOG #3, PRINT YOUR BOOK

If you have decided you want a printed version of your book, you should Google “book printers” on the internet to see what the costs might be for the following options:

1.     Do you just want to have a book to show to your relatives and friends? This might cost about $500.

2.     Do you want to invest the smallest amount possible and still sell some books? This might be in the neighborhood of $5,000. In Blog #4 or 5   I might have some actual costs on my Aunt’s book that she wrote at age eighty-five. Her granddaughter self published it through Lulu in a limited number.

3.     Are you prepared to invest some of your savings and try to make a serious profit? This can run $20,000 or more. They say promotion of a book can be three times the cost of printing.

If you have selected #1, then you are trying to stroke your vanity—hence this is called “Vanity Press.” You get ten books to hand out to your friends and brother-in-law. But you will have to make a small investment.

But when you decide on #2 or #3, you are going into a business, so be able to do the numbers. The costs will go up if you don’t include all the costs in your plan. I have a schedule showing some of the cost that I had.

 

EXPENSES FOR WRITING

 

 

AMOUR ET VENGEANCE

 

DATE

EXPENSE

ESTIMATE

 

RESEARCH IN FRANCE

 

 

 

  

 

WRITING CLASSES

 

 

 

 

 

EDITING

 

 

French Editors

 

 

German Editors

 

 

Content Editor

 

 

Proofreading Editor

 

 

 

 

 

PRINTING

 

 

Formatting

 

 

Cover Design

 

 

Printing

 

 

Freight

 

 

 

 

 

PROMOTION

 

 

Business cards

 

 

Post cards

 

 

Book signing placards

 

 

Set up Web Site

 

 

 

 

 

FULFILLMENT SERVICES

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL

 

 

COST PER BOOK

 

 




In Blog #4 there will be some new ideas to consider.

Self Publish #2: eBooks

10 March 2011
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You have decided to Self Publish instead of trying to find an agent and then a publisher. This decision should be based on your conviction that this will be the best way for you to have your book available.
If you have had numerous rejections from agents, it may mean that your book needs work. My advice is to be sure that you have a book that your relatives, friends, and possibly customers will enjoy.

        If you decide to self publish, you may be satisfied just to get your work out on the e-book market. This is the easiest, fastest and by far the cheapest way to go. This takes a day, a printed version might be three months, if all goes well.

If you want to have a printed copy of your book, this will be discussed in my Blog #3, PRINT YOUR BOOK.

If you think your book is ready, you can make it available on a number of outlets in a few hours. But first you need to go to bowker.com and buy a ISBN number. It will cost you $100 for one number and $125 for ten. I recommend purchasing ten, since you have to have a different number for printed and e-book versions.The biggest sellers now are Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Both make it easy to get your title on their sites. You should have a cover ready and the text in pdf.  There may be more than one number for each e-book format. You can also make your book available in e-book off your website with one click purchase. I am checking this out and will cover this in a later blog.

Unless you are a very knowledgeable person about computers and the internet, you probably want to have a helper looking over your shoulder when you get ready to enter your work in the e-book market.

I read a publication that was five years old that stated Barnes & Noble was going to drop their e-book sales option. How things have changed. They now seem to be the easiest to work with and your take of the price (which you set) is 65%. On $9.99 price this would be $6.49. The Lulu percentage is 56% to the author. I haven’t been able to get the Amazon percentage.

But you can see, no matter what price you set, there is no further cost to you, beyond publicity costs, which you control.

Next blog is on my experience on getting a printed copy of your book.




 

Self Publish Options #1

7 March 2011
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You are one of hundreds of thousands of writers who have a book that you feel is ready to present to the world. But you are not sure how to proceed. The traditional way is to find an agent that will present your work to publishers and get your book printed. But you may want to self publish.

Why should you try to find an agent?

1. If an agent and a publisher agree to a deal, then you now have two people who agree your work is pretty good. Your work is validated.

2. But if you are unable to get an agent to represent you, it might be that your work is flawed. Back to the typewriter.

3. Best of all, if a publisher agrees to print your work, you won’t have to invest any of your money.

4. So you can sit back and let the money roll in. Or not. Very few authors get Oprah to plug their book. Book sales don’t start to skyrocket and the publisher stops promotion after a few weeks.

5. Many authors have found that they have to personally take charge of promoting their book even though a publisher has printed their book.

6. You might then hire a publicist to help you promote your book, and be involved with publicity and promotion. Some authors have made this work.

See Blog #2 YOU CHOOSE TO SELF PUBLISH