VANITY PUBLISHING ONLINE and

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING

A vanity press is what they called printers who would print anyone's book for a fee, or a self-published book.  In the "old days" self-published books were not looked upon as being legitimate literature, but these days, that has changed as many successful authors begin with self-publishing. Bear in mind, however, the SUCCESSFUL self-publisher is quite rare. Anyone can write and print a book-- but selling MANY COPIES and creating a real demand for your book is something that takes quite of bit of effort, or enormous talent, or tremendous luck, or all three.

Having a thousand copies of your book printed is generally (if you shop around) the most cost effective way of self-publishing-- but only if you have the initial capital.  In order to get the best price per book, you have to order a large quantity in general.

I've gotten a fair price even from local printers, and a company in Denver such as John Phillips Printing (and there are others as well) would print any number of books for me at the same cost, even one or two if I needed it. But the dirt cheapest price is to order from a specialized book printing company and to order several hundred or a thousand copies.. Do your homework if you go this route.

The disadvantage is DISTRIBUTION--- if you just print through a printer, you probably won't get any retail distribution and will have to do this yourself, or sell exclusively through your own web site. This is  a HUGE task.  Read on.....

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Now a days, you have the option of printing just the books you sell- this is called Printing On Demand, or POD.  It is a nice option for people who are not sure if there is actually a market for their book, if they don't have much money to invest in self-publishing.

There are presently three main players--  www.Lulu.com  www.Booksurge.com  and www.LightningSource.com

You can very easily set up a book on Lulu, and only have a Microsoft Word File and go from there. They even will supply you with a generic cover. Lulu makes publishing a snap, and they even provide you with your own web site page and listing on the Lulu Marketplace where you can describe and sell your book.

The downside is that they initially make you wait about 45 days before you get your royalties, and then they continue to hold on to your royalties for that same period after sales. No a big deal, but I find it somewhat annoying. The upside is, as long as you sell on the Lulu Marketplace (their online book store) you make a phenomenal royalty of about 50% on the retail price. You will not find a better royalty rate anywhere. Compare this with a traditional publishing deal where you are lucky if you make 10% of the retail, but generally far less.

Of course with Lulu, you will not get any advance, and your audience is limited to shoppers on the Lulu site-- but this is a growing audience, and if you can get lots of people (you clever internet marketer, you) you will have a nice presence on Google for your search keywords.

If you want to sell your book on Amazon, Lulu makes this possible through a Retail Distribution package that costs $50. You get your own (and you own it) ISBN, and they will list the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and a few other retail sites. HOWEVER, I DO NOT RECOMMEND LULU FOR RETAIL SALES OF YOUR BOOK because the royalty rate is SUBSTANTIALLY lower in their arrangement. Instead see THIS PAGE for LightningSource POD Info, which is currently the best POD deal out there, and what I am using.

Bear in mind, I am also a regularly published author, published by one of the largest and most respected publishing companies in Europe. I have sold a German language edition of one of my own books, and through nothing more than being in their catalog, I sold 5000 copies of The Frontal Lobes Supercharge, and I did nothing but write the book.

These days I have Lulu print the English version of my book, and sell it through their site-- for now, until I also set up the title through LightningSource. Fortunately, I don't have to rush to do this, because sales of my other books is fine, but it will be done over the next month or so.

However, if you do have a lot of chatter out there about your book, and a waiting audience, you may want to consider PRINTING THE BOOK AT HOME YOURSELF.

This sounds crazy, but it is not.

I sold THOUSANDS of books for a couple of years that I printed and bound myself, using first laser jet printers (not recommended any more) and then better yet, on Canon Inkjet printers.... and I made three times the amount of money than I would have on Lulu/.

My production costs here in my office for a totally acceptable book (of which I've sold tens of thousands) is $2. I used a GBC comb binder (like university text books), and a $50 inkjet printer. The labor involved is insignificant, although admittedly, if you start selling lots of books, it does take time to do this, and this was the case here.

 LULU would add $10 for this same book before I would even begin to make a profit.

The real labor is in the creation of the material. In the case of my 260 page book, 25 years of experience, testing, teaching, and learning.

So, I charge the customer $20, and I make $8.74 royalties with LULU. The customer is actually paying $20 plus $2.50 for media shipping.

When I charge the customer $20 for the exact same book I make, I include a nice hour long CD, and include free shipping. my take is still $15.50, nearly double.

I sell 1000 books- that's $8700 from LULU or $15,500 from my own efforts- and the customer gets a better deal.

I don't know about you, but I can buy a lot of stuff for $6,800.

I have to sell nearly twice as many books to make the same money I would making doing the production myself.

This is especially important because most authors don't even sell near 1000 books, and the loss of revenue is even more notable.

For some people who have no time, no desire to print themselves, hey, LULU is for them. These days, I don't NEED to print my own books any more, and I've accepted a loss in income because my publishing income is fine, and now I have more free time to do other things-- like make films, music, and write another book.

 

Traditional advance-paying publisher?

Making money as an author in the publishing business is like winning the lotto. It almost never happens to any significant degree. I know, because I know a lot of known professional writers who have publishing deals. When I tell them how much money I make publishing my own materials, they invariably shreek, "YOU ARE DOING GREAT. You do NOT want a publishing deal."

We have this ideal vision of authors like Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling making a comfortable living as an author. These people are 1 out of 100,000,000. Most authors IF THEY ARE LUCKY get a few thousand dollars upfront for a manuscript they have worked months or years on, and then they never see another dime. And if they do, it is a paltry percentage on the sales price with all kinds of stipulations.

The publisher holds the rights, and can put the book out of print before you can say "starving artist". The publishing business runs on a 5% profit margin-- you think tens of thousands of authors in the country are making a real living wage from their efforts on this kind of operating percentage?

I believe authors should be able to reap the rewards of their efforts. But selling a book, and getting a well selling title is a difficult task. It will not occur by simply putting your book on a web site with a million other titles and sitting back and waiting for success.

If you do sell some books, and you can, you will likely start by selling a few books. If your production costs are high- i.e. giving a significant slice to the production company, you will have to sell twice as many books unless you take on the relatively simple task of printing your own books, or putting your books online upon your own web site.

 

If you have an incredible streak of luck, you are enormously talented, you have unfailing effort it writing and you have figured a way to make your book desired by a great many people-- then traditional publishing may be the best route for you.

In the end....

Consider ALL the possibilities and USE YOUR BRAIN to know which way to go.

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Other pages of Interest- Your support is appreciated- thanks- Neil