The next few entries will evaluate the different options authors have to publish their books. This entry will compare “mainstream” publishing, i.e. Ballantine Books, with self-publishing. Later entries will compare the different types of self-publishing.

Mainstream publishers are like venture capitalists. These publishers are going to take on several books each year, invest money into the production and promotion of the book and in return take most of the profit from the book. That is, if the book is successful, which many are not, so the publisher is taking on a lot of risk.

For the author, going with a mainstream publisher is usually a love/hate experience. I was having dinner with an author last Friday and she showed me a book she published years ago. She seemed a little sad when she explained she had to sell her book (and all the rights to it) to a publisher because she needed the cash.

My personal opinion is if a publisher is willing to give you cash for your book (and hopefully a royalty along with it) then that is not a bad business deal at all. Especially if it is your first published book, because getting your first book published is important. But as only 4% of all submitted books will be published, it is hard and takes time to get that first book published.

The fact that only 1-2% of all books get published, the fact that an author can now print professional-looking books on his/her own and the fact that authors can now use the Internet as a way to promote a book has led to the recent popularity of self-publishing.

My definition of self-publishing is:

1. The Author writes the book
2. The Author gets his/her own ISBN number
3. The Author designs the cover and the inside pages - or pays someone to do so
4. The Author pays someone to edit the book
5. The Author pays someone to print the book
6. The Author builds his/her own website or pays for someone else to do so
7. The Author does his/her own promotions
8. The Author takes home most of the profit

As you can see, the self-publishing author needs to have the “do-it-yourself” mindset in order to be successful. By they way, I was reading an article the other day written by a mainstream publisher and she was saying that the best way to promote a book was for the author to self-promote through book signings, radio shows, TV shows etc. So even if you go with a mainstream publisher, you are still going to need to be very active in promoting your own book.

For mainstream publishing, the list we created above for self-publishing looks like the following:

1. The Author writes the book
2. The Publisher owns the ISBN number
3. The Publisher designs the cover and the inside pages - or pays someone to do so
4. The Publisher pays someone to edit the book
5. The Publisher prints the book or pays someone to print the book
6. The Author builds his/her own website or pays for someone else to do so
7. The Author and Publisher jointly promote the book
8. The Author takes home an advance and a royalty of 5 to 15%
9. The Publisher keeps most of the profits, if any.

The key point when comparing mainstream publishing with self-publishing is really all about return vs risk. From a financial point of view, if you can sell your work to a publisher then your return is pretty good as you haven’t spent a lot of money on the book, just a lot of your time. The Publisher takes on the larger financial risk and therefore will make the higher return if the book sells well. With self-publishing, the author is taking on the financial risk and so the author should keep the bulk of the profits, if there are any.

And don’t forget, mainstream publishing and self-publishing are not exclusive paths you have to take. In fact, I recommend all authors self-publish while they are waiting for their rejection slips (and eventual acceptance slips) to show up in the mail. If you are able to sell several hundred or several thousand books on your own and then a publishers picks you up, your negotiations might be a little more productive for you. And by self-publishing you might catch the eye of a mainstream publisher. So this game is not an either/or game.

Over the course of the week, I will compare the different options available to self-publishers, primarily the difference between using a vanity or subsidy press and using a company like ZDocs (www.zdocsonline.com) which assists authors with the publishing process, but does not take any ownership in the author’s work, which means the maximum profits will go back to the author.