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?

[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 → economtricks]

That's great useful advice.

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

[economtricks → estherschindler]

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.

[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.)

[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 → patio11]

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

[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 → bakbak]

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.

[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.

[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 → kmfrk]

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.

[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

[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).

[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.)

[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!

[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.

[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...).

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 → dpapathanasiou]

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 → revorad]

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).

[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)