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newsletter archives
November 2006 - Article: Need a Publisher? How About Yourself?
- By Diane Lau
Imagine if you found yourself the best-selling author at a great publishing company, happily planning on releasing your fifth title, when suddenly you learn your publisher is going out of business.
This was my situation early in 2006. It was the second time in my career I had lost a publisher. The first time, back in 1998, I responded by forming a little sole proprietorship myself, so I could publish my two books. I found a printer that could do very short runs for a decent price. I’m still waiting to fully recoup my $2,000 investment from that project, but all this while I kept my little company operational.
When I lost my publisher this year, publishing myself was an even more appealing option. The changes in technology in the intervening years have completely transformed the publishing industry. The advent of ebooks and print-on-demand (POD) means a publisher can release new books with extremely low up-front costs. Internet distribution, for example Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells Books, and Fictionwise, makes it possible for readers around the world to find small press books and buy them. The web also provides countless free or inexpensive marketing opportunities that didn’t exist in 1998.
I asked myself if there was anything another independent publisher could do for me that I couldn’t manage to do on my own, and I could think of almost nothing. Meanwhile, I knew that as a publisher, I could lower the prices of my titles and still make substantially more profit than my royalties had provided.
So I took the plunge. I recreated my backlist of two print books and six ebooks, and also prepared print and ebook versions of the new book I was planning to release. I worked directly with Lightning Source, Inc. to publish these books; LSI is the company many “self-publishing” companies use for ebook and POD production. While holding down a full-time day job, I completed this project in less than five weeks and published the new books right on schedule.
I spent under $750 to publish all these works. By contrast, I calculated what the “self-publishing” company AuthorHouse would have charged in fees for what I did on my own, and it was over $3,000!
I’m happy to say the new books are even better quality than the previous versions. And my income is indeed even higher than before. But best of all, I have peace of mind: I know everything is in my control, and no one but me will ever make the decision to remove my titles from availability again.
Let me explain the other reason I am so excited about the opportunities afforded authors today by technology. Let’s face it: big publishers become less and less interested in new authors every year. Independent bookstores close, and the big chains carry fewer small press titles. In other words, the trend in Big Publishing is to neglect new authors as well as the non-mainstream needs of readers. Meanwhile, however, there is a revolution among writers and readers to bypass this system. The new wave is small electronic presses, “self-publishing” companies, and authors like me who directly publish themselves. Authors and readers connect every day without any involvement by Big Publishing.
It’s a very exciting time to be an author. If you’ve been discouraged at the lack of progress in your career, consider some of the opportunities available to you that you may have overlooked. Examine your own capabilities beyond just writing, and look for the tools you could use to get your words out to readers. And if you have even very basic skills in business management, marketing, graphic design, and web design, I encourage you to consider the option of starting your own publishing company.
Diane Lau writes romance fiction as Diana Laurence. Her book Do-It-YourSelf-Publishing (www.dianalaurence.com/diyp.html) details her blueprint for being your own publisher. It is available for $2.99 from Powells Books or 15% off from Living Beyond Reality Press (www.livingbeyondreality.com).
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