Which Publishing Alternative is Right for You?

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I feel for authors these days.

In days of yore if you wanted your book published, you put together a proposal or sample manuscript and mailed it to various publishers. It’s true that you then sat by the front door waiting for the post to come in – in most cases with form-letter rejections. It’s true that months and even years could pass in the process. But at least the ground rules were clear: authors submit, and publishers, except in the rarest of cases, reject.

Things aren’t so clear-cut, today. Courtesy of the digital revolution, print-on-demand technology, and the seemingly limitless room for books on amazon.com and other bookstore sites, it’s easier than ever for authors to get their books published. Authors can visit sites such as Lulu and Author House and opt for various services that will see their manuscripts take on flesh.

But wait a minute. I should say not that it’s easier to get a book published but that it’s easier to get a book produced. The word “published” implies “announcing” the book to the world. It means promoting the book and selling the book and getting the book reviewed. Sadly, no matter what the Lulus and Author Houses of this new age tell you, the books they produce are rarely actually published in that sense, even if they bear an ISBN and barcode and can be found on amazon.

So here’s a quick categorization of production/publishing options to help you cut through all the buzz and find the approach that’s right for you.

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING

If you have a story to tell or information to share, and the proper market for you is a broader public, and you are a very good writer, and having a name-brand publisher on the spine and on your C.V. is important, and being in the public eye through bookstores and traditional media interviews, you should go the traditional route. In large markets such as the US, your first pitch may actually be to agents not publishers. If you snag an agent, that person will refine your pitch and get it out to potential publishers. If you submit your proposal or manuscript on your own, you will want to research which publishers publish which kind of books and what their submission requirements are. Many are called, few are chosen. However, you owe it to yourself to try. And try again.

SELF-PUBLISHING

If your book is very limited in its audience – for instance, your own family, in the case of a family history – and you have your own means of selling the book, and it doesn’t matter to your audience or doesn’t hurt the image you’re trying to project if your book is not up to the best professional standards, then go with services like Lulu and Author House. They provide a great service for just such situations. Your book will be produced, and the onus will be on you to publish it for your audience. This is the least expensive route, which is the deciding factor for many.

COOPERATIVE PUBLISHING

If you want to submit your manuscript and yourself to the full publishing process, and can pay for that, and want the book to be promoted and sold through the book trade, in addition to your own sales, then cooperative publishing is the route for you.

Full disclosure: My list, BPS Books, is just such an approach.

We do not publish everything that is submitted to us. It must fit our list in terms of type of book and level of writing. If the idea is good but the writing lacking, we say so and offer to work with the author until the book is of publishable quality. We will not publish an inferior book, plain and simple. When we sign an author to a contract, we do include a list of fees for the services we will perform. These services go well beyond production. For example:

  1. We first of all advise authors on building or strengthening their own promotional infrastructure so that they have a ready audience once their book is out. We want them to be good Internet citizens, finding and creating a community – making connections, meeting new friends, increasing the quality of their online presence. The book, when it comes along, will be fed into that system of connections, not simply for the purpose of selling books but also to build business opportunities, get a message out, make the world a better place. This is the atmosphere in which books are successfully sold on the Internet.

  2. Meanwhile, we discuss the title of the book with our authors, the optimal format and page count of the book, the cover design and text design, the best price at which to sell.

  3. Then we go through the intensive and very personal process of editing the manuscript, typesetting, and proofing. Such a process simply cannot be done well as part of a “customized” package.

  4. Then we produce and publish the book. We come back around to the promotional infrastructure question and help authors to coordinate their websites, blogs, Facebook accounts, etc., so they can get word out about their book and make it easy for their audience to purchase it.

DB

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Cooperative Publishing

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My two previous posts dealt with the advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing and self-publishing. Now it’s time to put cooperative publishing under the microscope.

Two quick preliminary points.

First, what do I mean by “cooperative publishing”?  I see cooperative publishing as the middle way between traditional publishing and self-publishing. It typically uses print on demand technology, selling on amazon.com and other bookstore Websites.

• In traditional publishing, the publisher bears the freight financially. The publisher pays the author an advance against royalties on sales of the book and covers all the costs associated with editing, design, printing, and marketing. The author typically receives a royalty of 10% of the list price on each copy sold in bookstores. 

• In self-publishing, the author bears the financial freight and (a) acts as the publisher in producing and publishing the book or (b) subs this work off to Trafford, Lulu, or other such Internet publishing sites. The author retains a high percentage of sale revenue.

• Cooperative publishing roars right up the middle: Authors pay to have their book published, but they go through a second-party publisher and work with that publisher on every aspect of the publishing process. They receive a much higher percentage on their own sales and the publisher’s sales than they would with a traditional publisher.

Second (I’m putting my cards on the table), I am a cooperative publisher. I worked for many years in a large traditional publishing house, managing the editing and publication of up to 75 books a year. Now, however, I am running Bastian Publishing Services Ltd., the main work of which is BPS Books. You can learn more about the BPS Books publishing process here.

DISADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE PUBLISHING

1. Cash Flow. Most people are not awash in cash and therefore find it difficult to come up with the funds required by cooperative publishing. 

2. Image. This is particularly important for authors who are building a career as a writer, or who need to be in the public eye for their cause or their work. It is important for such authors to be published by a publicly recognized house that sells to bookstores. Authors of academic books definitely need the imprimatur of a traditional publisher.

3. Reach. Traditional publishers can get books out to a broader public by selling through bookstores and on the Internet. Cooperative publishing sells primarily on the Internet and through the author.

ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE PUBLISHING

1. Income. Authors published by a cooperative publisher can quickly recoup the money they spent in publishing the book. For example, authors can buy copies of their book from the publisher at, say, 75% off the list price, and sell them at full price. So they might pay $4 for a copy of their book and sell it at $20, making $16. 

2. Timing. A cooperative publisher can move much more quickly than a traditional publisher. Getting to market more briskly is helpful, for example, to an author who has a market to sell to through speaking engagements and can’t wait the year or longer it takes for a traditional publisher to publish.

3. Getting Published. Many authors cannot be accommodated by traditional publishers. Sometimes because the latter don’t have room on their lists. Other times because an author’s book is too specific for the publisher’s marketing system. Or the book’s topic is not marketable enough to a broad spectrum of readers. Cooperative publishing allows such books to see the light of day and reach their market.

4. Quality Control. Unlike self-publishing – for example, through Author House or Lulu – cooperative publishing puts books and their authors through the same hoops as traditional publishers do. Not every manuscript is chosen. The editing process is rigorous. Design of text and cover are done by third-party experts. Cooperative publishing helps authors avoid the mistakes that happen when they try to be chief cook and bottle washer – not only writing but also publishing their book. Cooperative publishing retains the important author-publisher relationship that makes for great books.

I predict that cooperative publishing will be the “Hegelian solution” for many authors: thesis, traditional book publishing; antithesis, self-publishing; synthesis, cooperative publishing.

DB