LOCATING YOUR MASTERPIECEON THE BOOKSTORE SHELVES 

Writing and publishing your book is tough enough work, but too often, it sometimes it takes just as much effort to find it amidst the hundreds of volumes filling the shelves of your local bookstore. Worse yet, perhaps you have wandered the aisles of a Barnes and Noble or a Borders, searching for your book. 

That’s not really the fault of the bookstore manager. From what they tell me, many books create areal quandary when it comes to categorization. That started me thinking about my own latest work, The Writer Within You, and I realized how difficult the choice would be for me if I were the retailer.  

Since it serves as a guidebook for seniors to fulfill their dream of writing in their retirement, the seller could locate it on a shelf with books for seniors or among business books because it deals with retirement. It very logically could also be placed with writing books or with reference books.  

Just stop and think: If you write a biography of a celebrity, will it go with other bios? If it’s about a Hollywood celebrity, does it belong on a celebrity, movie or Hollywood shelf? What if the subject is a politician? Does that relegate it to the politics shelf? 

Too many of us don’t bother to give this issue serious thought. I strongly recommend to you to visit the bookstores in your region that carry your work, and discuss its most suitable category with the manager. After all, he/she is as interested in moving copies off the shelf as you are. Determining the best location or locations (if the store has enough inventory, multiple shelves might be the best answer) will benefit both you, the author, and the book seller. 

Sure, there are a number of pre-publication tasks you’re faced with when you self-publish. Yes, they do steal time away from writing and promoting. Even though it may be a lot easier to head to a POD house or possibly fight your way into a traditional publisher, the challenge of doing it yourself is exciting and the sense of accomplishment is well worth the effort. I know. I've done it, and I recommend it strongly to any author and to my peers who want to write in their retirement.  

Wearing Two Hats
When you go it alone, you're no longer just a writer. You’re a publisher as well. Writing your book is only the beginning. When you finally type “The End” on your manuscript, you are responsible for pre-pub preparations, printing, distributing, marketing and promoting your book. Although you personally won’t perform every one of these functions, you will have to oversee how the people you hire accomplish them.

There are several outstanding books available to guide you through the processes of self-publishing. Two of the best are Dan Poynter's classic Self-Publishing Manual and Patricia Fry's The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. Read them carefully as you develop a business plan and a timetable to execute it. When you follow their advice along with the guidance you find in my latest book, The Writer Within You, you will quickly discover the challenges are nowhere near as daunting as they may have seemed at first.

The Pre-Pub Nuts & Bolts
Preparing your book for the printer goes well beyond just formatting type and designing a cover. It is your responsibility to secure your book's ISBN, obtain barcodes, copyright it and catalogue it with the Library of Congress. All of these are easy, but they take some time and effort. We’ll discuss them in detail in next week’s column.

You must ensure that your book is attractive enough to stand out from its competitors on the retailer’s shelf. Selecting an experienced, creative cover designer is important. Without a quality cover, the looker will undoubtedly pass up your book in favor of another in the wide selection the bookstore offers.  The cover is the first view of the book a reader experiences. As your book stands upright, squeezed between the others, the spine tells the browser the name of the book and its author. It must be distinctive enough to motivate a shopper to reach for it.  The front cover then has about two seconds to convince the potential buyer it is worth looking further. Most people will then turn to the back cover for more information. If the short précis of the book and the blurbs and endorsements do their job, the looker opens the book.

Critical to the decision-making process is a strong, well-designed table of contents. Done properly, it will tell the looker that the information contained in the book meets his/her needs and offesr a substantial benefit. Finally, he/she skims several pages to get a sense of your writing. If the looker is pleased by the design of the interior pages and by the readability of the text, you can feel sure the next stop will be the store’s cash register.
Although going to press is the last stage in the production cycle, you better find time to interview printers and make your choice early on. A poor print job can destroy the most beautiful cover and text. You'll need to know the specs required to print your book so your cover and text designers can meet the printer's needs. In a future column, we’ll look carefully at all of the considerations and concerns of choosing the right printer.

Post-Pub Essentials
Printing the book is a two-fold process. Because of the importance of reviews, you will want to do a short run of Advance Review Copies (ARCs). Several of the most important reviewers in terms of exciting retailers and distributors about your book insist upon review copies at least three to even four months in advance of publication date. Some of these trade reviewers are Publisher's Weekly, Foreword, Library Journal, Kirkus, the New York Times. 

You also will want to send an ARC to prominent leaders in the field you are writing about and ask them for a short testimonial. These will go on the back cover of the book, along with quotes you can pull out of any favorable reviews you might get before the final version is printed. Many authors include as many quotes as they can attract in the front pages of the book. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Reviews and endorsements are perhaps the most effective selling tools you can have. The reader considers them objective evaluations. They are not you, the author, praising your own book. Keep up your search for willing reviewers well after the book reaches the market. Although you won’t be able to quote them in the book until a later printing, you will have exposure wherever the review is posted. Turn to the Marketing Page on the navigation bar and read the article “Snaring Reviews” located in the blue box to the right.  

While all of this is going on, the publisher and the promoter (that’s you) must juggle the other elements of your promotional plan. You need a web site, and that requires some careful thought to make it effective. It also demands a good deal of writing as you keep adding fresh content to your site. But you should be doing these things regardless of the publishing method you use.  

In addition to reviews, you must start writing articles. These should be given to an article directory like www.ezinearticles.com for distribution to web page, publications, newsletters and blogs throughout the digital world. People who read these will turn to your web site to learn more about you…and that’s your real chance to sell your book. By touching base with other quality web sites that deal with the same subject, you will be able to develop links from them to your site. This is best done by submitting articles you write to those hand-picked sites. If the articles impress the web master, you will likely enjoy still another link to your site. 

Getting Your Book Out
As though all of that isn't enough to make your head swim and keep you tossing and turning throughout the night, it's time to develop a program of distribution for your book. That usually means a two-tiered process. A distributor has a sales team in the field that reaches out to retailers, libraries, schools and other outlets to promote your book. When the buyer orders, he/she usually turns to one of the leading wholesalers in the industry to fill the order: Ingram concentrates on retailers, while Baker & Taylor emphasizes institutional sales. Each of these, however, can and does service any category of buyer. 

In addition to bulk sales, such as those talked about above, single copy sales are extremely important and can mount up amazingly fast. Getting the individual copies to a buyer is called “fulfillment.” It can be done on your own web site or by your distributor.

If you decide to fill orders yourself when they arrive on your site,, you will have to install a shopping cart and a merchant program to accept payments of cash and credit cards. You also must have the capability to package and ship, a time consuming, tedious task.  

Other alternatives are to accept the order on your web site and have the distributor pack and ship from its warehouse. Most distributors are also capable of accepting and processing orders in your name. My distributor, Atlas Books, for example, automatically receives an order sent to my web site through an autoresponder. It also answers phone orders in my name. It processes credit card payments, and then packs and ships.  

Of course, as the services a distributor provides become more sophisticated, the cost goes up. But in most cases it is well worth the price since it leaves you free to write more books and promote the one you are distributing. 

I know all of this sounds a bit intimidating. Once you begin the process, you will find it is nowhere near as demanding as it sounds. However, if you do feel overwhelmed there are many qualified consultants. We stand ready to offer whatever level of assistance you require. 

So go for it. Self-publish if you want to retain control over every aspect of your masterpiece and not be subservient to the decisions of another publisher. The additional revenue you can develop by doing it all yourself and the satisfaction of a challenge overcome can not be equaled by any other form of publishing.

AUGUST BOOKSTORE SALES UP…BUT 

Yes, there was glee in bookdom when the Bureau of the Census released figures showing a 9.3% jump in bookstore sales for the month of August. That’s welcome news, but dampened a bit when you realize the boost came from sales of the Harry Potter release. Despite the two-month bump Harry offered, sales for the year still couldn’t break even. Sales for the nine months are down by a little more than half a percentage point. 

But does all of that make sense? Just last week, this blog reported that the Association of American Publishers crowed the fact that book sales for the year through August were up 11.2% over last year. Who is right? 

Hopefully early buying in November and two book celebrations scheduled for the month will help boost those YTD numbers, regardless of who is right. Children’s Book Week runs from November 12 to 18. Click on the Children’s Book Council web site (www.cbcbooks.org)  to see how you can tie into this event. The theme is “Rise Up Reading!” 

The month starting on November 16 will serve as Jewish Book Month. That incorporates Chanukah, which begins on December 5 and continues for eight days. Like the Childrens Council, the JBC has prepared a number of promotional materials including posters and bookmarks. They offer authors and publishers help in developing exhibits, speaking events and even book fairs. The web site is www.jewishbookcouncil.org. 

IS THE INTERNET THE BOGEYMAN

BOOK PUBLISHERS THOUGHT IT WAS?

Do you remember the concerns the literary world expressed just a few years ago as predictions were rampant that eBooks and other digital products were about to undermine print book publishing? As all of us know, it hasn’t happened.  

EBooks have grown in acceptance, but still lag miles behind print. Sales of used books on EBay and even on the .com book retailers has burgeoned, but apparently not enough to severely affect the print world. 

An interesting article appeared in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald this week. While reporting a 2% increase in sales this year, Penguin Books stated that the damage they anticipated from the Web has not occurred. In fact, Penguin has used the Web to develop several promotional programs that have already proved successful. 

Spinebreakers, a web site with book reviews, both video and audio, is targeted and managed by teenagers. Penguin Chairman John Makinson recently explained to a group of journalists, “These are our readers of the future.”  The site is www.spinebreakers.co.uk.  

He also discussed a Penguin novel writing competition conducted in combination with Amazon and Hewlett Packard. Amazon readers will serve as the judges. Reaction has been huge, Penguin officials report, with an average of 60 manuscripts an hour  submitted in the days immediately following the announcement.

 A PEEK INSIDE THE NY TIMES BEST SELLER LISTS 

A Stanford University professor reports that making the New York Times’ best seller list means an increase of 57% in sales. It’s no wonder that publishers and authors battle to be included, although the selection process has long been a carefully guarded secret. 

The arcane process became a little more confusing with the recent removal of Elie Wiesel’s superb chronicle Night, a book that has flown way past the 57% marker with millions of copies sold. The reaction to its removal motivated the Times’ Public Editor Clark Hoyt to devote a column in the Sunday paper to the book review section. 

In his article, Hoyt states, “Much of what the publishing world thinks it knows about the (Best Seller) list is wrong or out of date.” He goes on to clarify several points: 

The list isn’t compiled by the Review editor or his staff as widely thought. It is completed each week by the paper’s news survey department 

The list isn’t tabulated from paper questionnaires sent to booksellers. The process is entirely computerized. 

The roster of companies surveyed changes regularly, not every five years as many think. 

The names of booksellers used by the Times are kept secret to avoid allowing publishers to “game the system with strategic bulk buys to inflate sales numbers.” 

As I am sure most of you know, the Gray Lady recently expanded its lists to make more space for niche books and separate trade paperbacks from the more literary ones. There is even consideration of adding still another list for perennial best selling classics. That certainly should guarantee the return of Night to the Book Review pages.

WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU

The intent of the "Charlie’s Choice" column is to provide guidance for writers. I will never accept payments or other gratuities for recommending a source. My purpose is purely educational.

On occasion, I’ll single out a specific company, pertinent to the subject I am talking about, that I feel is outstanding. That company will always be one with which I have had adequate experience before recommending it. At a reader’s request, I will happily supply lists of resources that I feel comfortable recommending. Request at charles@retirement-writing.com.

Send a question to the same e-mail address if you’re having a problem with any aspect of your writing, publishing or promotion. We’ll normally respond within 24 hours with an expert answer. This "Writer to Writer" program is one of the many free benefits of our Retire Write program. No charge. No obligation.

POD- A WORTHY PUBLISHING ALTERNATIVE,

BUT BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING

To the average person publishing a book means placing it under the umbrella of one of the major publishing houses. But there are several very effective alternatives to the traditional mode, and choosing one requires no more than recognizing which will best serve the specific needs of the book you have written. 

Up until fairly recently there were few options. But with the development of digital printing technology, a new and comfortable world opened up for authors. It meant that presses were now available to handle runs of any length from as little as ten copies to runs of thousands.  

Never before had it been cost effective to print less than at least 1,000 copies at a time. That meant beginning writers often sat with garages or basements full of dust-covered books they weren’t able to sell. The simplicity of the technology also made self-publishing far easier.  

It also heralded the birth of a new category of publishing company, one that took advantage of the ability to print as few or as many books as an author might need and to fill in with additional short runs to meet future demand as it developed. No more excess books collecting dust. 

Publishing on demand (POD) is a unique approach that is particularly useful for newcomers eager to publish their first book, but unable to attract a traditional publisher and not skilled enough to attempt to self-publish. Once looked down upon by the industry, POD has gained respectability through the awards its writers have captured and the inclusion of an increasing number of their books on the best seller lists. 

Making Life Easy

When you contract with a POD house, you no longer must worry about the myriad chores of preparing your book for market. The house formats your manuscript to the page. It designs a professional-looking cover that is shown to you for your approval. 

The house obtains copyright, Library of Congress cataloguing, barcodes and, of course, an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). A word of warning, however. In almost every case, the POD house obtains the ISBN in its own name, not the author’s. The owner of the ISBN is the final controller of the finances of the book. While the POD advertisements you read indicate that you, the author, control everything related to your book, you soon discover that’s not so.  

Understandably, the house charges a flat fee up front to accomplish all of these chores, print your book and make contact with a major distributor or wholesaler to handle it. Usually the fee is not exorbitant. However when it comes to pricing your book and determining your royalty, the house, not you, sets its share of the profits, and it is usually ridiculously high.  

The following chart was produced by a major POD house for a 300-page paperback. It should make all of this clearer by showing you the wide discrepancy between the income the publisher derives from sales and the minuscule return left for the author. That's in addition to the initial production fee the author paid to the publisher. The author is “graciously” given the choice of three levels of royalty payments, but unless the tiniest royalty is selected, the retail price will never be competitive because the publisher will not reduce its disproportionate share of profits.

BOOKS SOLD ON THE POD HOUSE'S WEB SITE

Despite the wide discrepancy in the share of profits, POD houses do offer a valuable service, not available just a few years ago when very costly vanity presses dominated the self-publishing world. It is an option welcomed by beginners and by those persons who seek only very short press runs for distribution essentially to family and friends. 

Since major publishing houses no longer subsidize promotional activities, even some experienced authors have begun to consider POD as a possible alternative. However, most shy away when they discover the royalty schedules. 

Choosing Your POD Publisher

The number of POD houses has grown exponentially over ten years, creating a fierce level of competition. The benefit of that competition has been the elimination of many of the charlatans that populated the industry in its infancy. Most of these quick-buck operators could not survive as potential customers were able to choose from increasing numbers of legitimate competitors.  

POD houses offer a variety of deals. But they are all businesses and while the vast majority ore highly ethical, the bottom line rules. Key points to check before signing a contract include:  

    Who owns the ISBN?
    What are the formatting requirements for submission?
    Which distributors or wholesalers does the house use?
    What is the return policy on unsold books?
    In addition to receipt of the initial production fee, what percentage of sales does the house keep?

Go to your favorite search engine and enter “POD Publishers.” You will bring up a number of sites that discuss the pros and cons of specific houses and of the industry in general. Some of these are very helpful.  Select the handful of houses you wish to consider, and study their sites with great care.  

Request any brochures they offer, and be sure to get a copy of their contract. Once you’ve reviewed and compared the companies, don’t be afraid to contact their sales staff and ask questions. Don’t accept any generalized statements that appear on the web site or in your conversation with a sales person. Pin them down.

For example, I mentioned above that the holder of the ISBN controls the finances of the book. Despite that, a number of POD companies will state that you, the author, control all aspects of the book production. That’s true. But the way it’s presented the unsuspecting author believes he/she controls everything. If you don’t hold the ISBN, it just ain’t so when you get to the stage of distribution, sales and royalties.  

Some of the more respected names in the industry are Author House (formerly First Books and now merged with Iuniverse); Xlibris (a partner of Random House ventures); and Infinity Publishing, which prides itself on giving the greatest degree of control to its authors. Interestingly, as of this post, Author House and Iuniverse still maintain independent web sites. 

Pricing

The initial fee advertised by POD houses usually ranges from approximately $399 to $699. Find out whether the fee increases if the number of pages in the formatted book is above a preset maximum. Once you know the fee for your book and the percentage of profit the house takes on sales, you can estimate what the retail price of your book will be. 

As you saw from the chart above, the cost of POD publishing creates a retail price well above the competition unless the author is willing to accept a very minimal royalty. Go back to the pricing chart to fully understand this key point. The price also precludes the possibility of bulk sales to airport stores, discount chains, pharmacy chain stores and other mass users who demand very substantial discounts.  

I strongly urge you not to purchase any of the promotional programs offered by POD houses. They are priced independently of the basic fee. Most of them involve little more than a generic press release or printed bookmarks and/or postcards. Future articles will discuss handling the promotion of your book, and show you how you can promote it far more effectively at little more cost than you would pay the POD house. And your neighborhood printer can probably supply the bookmarks and postcards for less as well. Just be sure to get a digital of the cover artwork from your POD publisher to give to your printer.     

The task of choosing POD technology is a matter of deciding whether it is worth receiving a relatively low return financially to have the comfort of a professional staff moving your book from rough manuscript right through to distribution. It’s a very interesting trade off, and authors will vary widely in their response. POD has become a major factor in the book publishing world today, so give your decision very careful consideration.  

Next week we’ll look at self-publishing, the third alternative for publishing. See you then.

LATEST STATS FROM THE BOOK STANDARD 

There’s good news from the Association of American Publishers. Book sales for the year through the month of August were up 11.2 percent.  

Oddly enough, the stats for the month of August fell almost one and a half points below the yearly trend, even though summer is generally considered a great time for reading.  

Even more surprising was the fact that adult hardcovers were down 21.3 percent for August, although year-to-date sales were up 14.6 percent.  Adult paperbacks sales were just the opposite: up 12.8 for August, but down a tenth of a percent year-to-date.  

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Are hardcovers just too costly or possibly too heavy to lug to the beach?

WHAT A DIFFERENCE 50 YEARS MAKES

Just does prevail.

A little more than 50 years after Hitler’s demise, an Israeli historian won the coveted top price at the Frankfurt Book Fair for his work documenting the horrors of the Holocaust. The award was given to Saul Friedlander by the German Book Trade Association.

The Association stated that Friedlander’s writing “gave memory and a name to those human beings who were turned to dust.” The citation continued, “The acknowledgment of human dignity forms the basis for peace among mankind, and Saul Friedlander returned  to the murdered millions the dignity of which they had been robbed.”

Amen.