Do-It-Yourself Publishing
By Russ Heitz
Today, anyone can have a book published.
In fact, there are so many POD publishers out there right now that they are fighting for space on the Internet. They are also fighting each other for the privilege of turning YOUR manuscript into a sure-fire New York Times Best Seller! Guaranteed!
There is also another ways to get your book published. And that is to become your own publisher; starting up your own publishing business.
Since I’ve tried just about every other kind of publishing possible, I thought I’d take a crack at the true “self-publish” route. That means I was the one who would not only write the book. I would also do myself—or in some cases coordinate the doing of—everything else.
That included getting the ISBN, learning about copyrights, learning about and setting up a Sole Proprietorship, opening a business checking account, getting the proper state and county tax collection licenses and authorizations, applying for a Library of Congress Control Number, contracting with an illustrator, calculating word counts as they relate to page layouts and the overall layout of the book, conjuring up a cover that I hoped would be eye-catching, trying to learn QuickBooks for my financial records, setting up a PayPal account and inserting the proper “buy buttons” on my website, finding a printer, transforming my manuscript into a .pdf file that would meet the printer’s requirements, and coordinating the actual production of the book.
Are you out of breath yet? You should be. I know I am.
And I haven’t even talked about marketing plans, and flyers, and direct sales mailers, and postage, and shipping costs, and all the other stuff that’s involved in SELLING a book. And believe me, there IS a lot of OTHER stuff that still needs to be done. And since I am the CEO of this new venture, I’m the one who’ll have to do them. All of them. Or at least I’ll have to discover a way to get them done.
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There are also advantages to this pure self-publishing process. Tax deductions for expenses, for one thing. Expenses like: the gasoline and wear-and-tear on your car for company business trips. The price of postage stamps and mailing envelopes. The cost of paper and printer cartridges. Total control over the editorial content and the physical appearance of the final product. And, of course, cutting out a couple of the middlemen who want their slice of the diminishing cover-price pie.
Do the advantages outweigh the added responsibilities? The hours of extra work? The stress that results from being THE person who is ultimately and finally responsible for the end result? Is all that really worth it?
Ask me a year from now. I should have an answer by then. In the meantime, check out my newly renovated website (www.russheitz.com).
Oh, yes. That’s another thing I had to do: redesign my website and try to combine two very different worlds into one coherent package, and also add music and sound effects without risking a lawsuit that could result from infringing upon someone else’s copyrights.
But it’s all been very interesting. I will admit that.
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Russ lives in Sarasota, Florida with his wife. He is a graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia with a degree in psychology and has been writing most of his life. His new suspense novel, "Crosshairs", is available through all the major bookstore chains in the US and UK, as well as on Amazon. Russ's website: www.russheitz.com |
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Thanks Russ for the article... John Wolf
