Publishing Your First Book:

Some Issues and Problems

Introduction

Many years ago I had the opportunity to engage in the publishing of a construction management book. I was the author, I had a publisher, and a contract was signed whereby I would write the book and the publisher would publish it. Pretty simple I thought. After spending a year writing the book, at considerable cost in terms of my time writing it long hand (word processors were really not developed for consumers), typists and editing, the book was ready for publishing overview. Here the publisher's editors would read the book and make comments and corrections for the final version. The publisher started the editing process and even arranged for a trip to meet my editors. After a few months of back and forth editing and rewriting, I was told that the business climate at the time was not positive for the book and the publisher was dropping it for publication. The attorney I hired to examine the contract stated without explanation that the publisher had the right to pull the book. So much for traditional publishing.

Self-Publishing - An Option

Today many publishers are not even taking on new assignments because the market is not good. What the publishers are not admitting is that with the advent of word processing and the internet, book publishing has become a writer’s blessing. Anyone who wants to author a book without having to spend thousands of dollars up front and who has no political connections to the publishing world has many publishing sites available for very little money. You do not have to be affiliated with a news agency, college, or large company to be published today. If you have an idea you want to express, or pictures you want to show, self-publishing organizations are waiting online to help you produce your first work.

One must be careful however how the choice of publisher is made. Traditional publishers offer much in terms of marketing, promotion, and sales. The choice should be analyzed in terms of costs and benefits. If you believe that your work will be a winner with a substantial profit then it may pay to invest in a traditional milieu. If, on the other hand, you do not believe that your work is a blockbuster, then self publishing might be the choice. Please note that the marketing difference between traditional and self is being challenged by the Internet distributors such as Amazon who offer marketing, sales and promotion.

The Concept of 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 (Wiki). Self publishing has been around for a time and many famous authors such as Tom Peters, Nathan Lane, Zane Grey, published without a traditional publisher. Some have used self-publishing to promote a cause, express an unusual point, or just to have one's name in print for posterity. Presently, Blurb/Book Smart, LuLu, BookSurge, Instant Publisher, Createspace, Apple and others are available to publish your book online.

There are some who would argue that since such publication is without critique or evaluation, such works are without merit. Other critics would note that since much traditional publication has to do with being well connected to the right people, much like securing the right position in the corporate world, self publishing serves those who have not been blessed with the proper social dresses.

Deciding What to Put into Your Work

Self-publishing companies allow authors to produce a work in various sizes, colors, fonts, cover pages, page types, and bindings. Your book may be a 5x8 portrait or 8x11 landscape with glossy pages and hard cover versus a soft cover and non-glossy pages. Text-only books are available as well as photo books, and combinations of both are not unusual. You may also have the opportunity to use the inside covers for your biography.

Overview of Self-Publishing Process

The typical process of self publishing consists of the following steps:

• Publisher chosen based on evaluation of cost, benefits, and ability to follow author's wishes regarding the total package provided.
• Manuscript set in format required by publisher
• Completed and edited manuscript sent to chosen publisher
• Cover design chosen
• Down payment provided
• Publisher response to manuscript
• Author response to publisher
• Publisher/author agreement that no issues exist
• Provide payment
• Manuscript printed
• Book bound
• Book shipped.

The Costs

Small size text-only books are the least expensive. One company offers a 5x8 inch book, 76 pages, softcover, 25 copies for about $130. Others offer similar books for about $8 per copy. The driving force of increasing costs has to do with volume and complexity, hardcover versus softcover, cover design, and so on. Plain text in few pages is inexpensive; many color pages in large book size increases the cost. Additional size, color, and quantity of pages increase the cost to the author. Further, as with any purchase, shipping costs add to the cost of the project. And add taxes to the job also.

Each book is published as is. The author provides a manuscript and the manuscript is not changed via editing. GIGO (garbage in and garbage out) prevails. I have opened one book being sold online by a self-publisher and most of the text consisted of curse words interspersed with some normal language. Most self-publishers do offer editorial services for a price.

Manuscript Submission

The manuscript to be sent to the publisher should be something developed from a software program in your computer. Document files in .rtf (Rich Text Format), .doc (Microsoft Word document), PDF are usually acceptable file types for manuscript submission. Different web publishers accept different file types. Some do not deal with PDF files at all. The Web publisher will indicate what types of files are acceptable for submission.

Some publishers provide a price based on hitting the buttons of a provided software program to determine what you want your book to look like. Such programs are not without problems. The cover might be free but you have to supply it even if your manuscript has a title and author's name. Tracking your publication is not accurate either. Information on the status of the publication is providing data about one stage of the process only to be contradicted later by other information. Notes such as, "Your book is ready to be bound and your cover page has been selected," along with "Your cover page is not selected, please provide a cover page", create losses of time trying to bring the publishing back in line. In point, the language and directions are often not totally clear. One important note is that once the manuscript is downloaded by the publisher no corrections may be made.

Please note that self-publishing and self-publishing programs are a relatively new activity which is constantly in a mode of improvement. I am not sure that any one publisher is perfect in its delivery. One should play with each program if trial versions are available. The experience from the trial will dictate the individual's comfort level of use.

Blurb, a forerunner in self-publishing, is constantly updating the self-publishing process. Many have complained about its constantly changing system, while others have commended its approach. My experience has been satisfactory after the third try. My first two were trial balloons. The new system of PDF files submissions thereby preventing changes as it arrives in the publisher's system with no unexpected typos and text changes, quick turnaround 8-9 days from submission to my mail box, inexpensive cost per book ($8 for softcover, B&W inside and 4-color cover), and shipping costs remaining the same for a small or large order allows the author to have his first book in his hand for less than $20. In point, the first book allows the author to edit what he or she wants to change for the final run. Note here that the shipping costs are not per book but per quantity of books.

Converting Existing Files

Although the text of most files can be edited, PDF files cannot. The way to handle a PDF file is to edit your document in some other program (such as Microsoft Word or Pages on the Mac or a page layout program such as Adobe InDesign) and then, once all the editing is done and the manuscript is proofread and perfect, you can convert it to a PDF. There are many conversion packages available and some offer a free trial period to test a given program’s use such as Nitro, Docsmartz, 123, Samzar, Microsoft Word, Nuance and many more are available. The best program is Adobe Acrobat Professional, but that is not a cheap program. Many other programs allow conversion to a PDF using the Print menu. Instead of printing the document to hard copy, you can save it as a PDF in the printing stage. Both Microsoft Word and Apple Pages have this capability. The problem with the trial periods is that some only allow one conversion every given amount of hours. Others only allow a given amount of text and no more. Others work during the trial period but fail after purchase. Here one should pay for such programs with credit cards that protect purchases which ultimately fail. In point, purchases made on the Internet or any place for that matter should be made with a credit card which has a return policy of funds if the product or service is faulty. Some credit card companies have this service for free, others charge for it, and others do not provide this service at all. (Please refer to the Park West scenario on the FAR® website, whereby the credit cards used to pay for the art had no return of funds policy if the customer was dissatisfied with the work received.)

One major problem which occurs is that some files do not convert precisely: bottom page numbers appear on the top, text is in and out of the new file, some changes cannot be made, and so on. I have tried five different programs and no one program was perfect. The problem with formatting issues is that there are situations whereby some errors cannot be corrected by the writer. In these situations one might engage the services of an editor. EditAvenue, EliteEditing, FirstEditing, are organizations providing editing services.

Converting photo files creates issues of size. Some publishers need particular sizes for uploading and some photo programs cannot create such sizes. Photo software editing packages may have to be secured to enable such conversions. Weqsoft, Softpedia, Photonet, are some. Adobe Photoshop is the king. A less expensive and easier to learn version is Photoshop Elements. On the Mac you have iPhoto which does just about everything you need and is easy to use and comes free on a new Mac.

Editorial and Design Services

Struggling to produce a new book for publication may be helped with the services of an editor. Experienced editors are available to proof and design your book. They also know how to send the manuscript so that the chances are minimized that the book will have to be reordered and proofed again. The costs associated are a function of who does the editing. Some editors may be very costly and others are fairly inexpensive. Similar to constructing a building, a writer cannot always do the whole job alone. My first few experiences were costly and a waste of time without an editor. My last one with an editor who was also able to do the necessary page layout and design the cover was virtually non-problematic. Having an editor makes the process simple, without aggravation, and an end result of actually having a book published and waiting to be sold.

Marketing

Publishing your book does not entail having bookstores displaying and promoting it. Some self-publishing companies allow a few pages to be seen on their site for would-be buyers, and others charge a fee for promotion. There are software marketing packages available and books describing ways to sell outside the traditional channels such as emailing lists to the public, setting up a website, using another's website, using a cooperative website, and sending out ads to the community. Google is now promoting its search engine to access books for sale.

The ISBN

The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. It is for each edition and variation not including reprinting of a book. Most bookstores want an ISBN on the books they sell (Wiki). Self publishers offer the ISBN for an additional cost – $75-95. They buy the numbers in bulk. They usually want the number before they publish. This is not a legal requirement to selling your book. If your plan is to ultimately market your work for sale, the failure to have an ISBN might curtail your sales. Bowker, the only ISBN vendor, charges $125 per number and $25 per barcode.

Conclusions

Although bricks and mortar publishers are available to potentially publish your book, you will need an attorney to watch over the contract. Some would advise that you engage an agent to work with the publisher. This costs money up front and can be a waste of resources if organizations are available to perform the same tasks for much less. Self publishing requires patience, motivation and independence of action but from my experience it is worth the struggle. It is an inexpensive way to promote your expertise and cause.

Summary

Self-publishing companies make it clear that what you provide will be printed as is. Unfortunately much time and energy could be wasted with constant clarifications and corrections of information provided.

Some points to keep in mind are:

1. Make sure your manuscript is totally complete
2. Use a word processing program with a grammar and spelling check, and fixed text
3. Shop around for the best program
4. Remember that what you have in your manuscript is what will be seen in the finished project
5. Engage an editor to check over your work
6. Check the work before it is submitted both interior text and cover
7. Know what is covered in the publishing and what is not
8. Pay with a credit card so that if the product specified is not what was provided, you can at least argue to have your money returned
9. Note that publishers require that manuscripts be provided in definite file types
10. Put in the effort required to produce a professional product which does justice to your creative work in authoring your book - get someone to help you lay out the book properly and design an attractive cover if you lack these skills yourself.

— by John Daab Ph.D.  |  October 2, 2009

Print   |  

back to top