Category — Self-publishing

Despite the success of the Kindle and the iPad, many people still prefer the old-fashioned print book.

Like me. I have a Kindle and yet I still buy print books. Partly out of habit. Partly because many of the books I buy are reference and tutorial books. I have a book on programming (don’t ask) and I’m constantly paging through it as I sit at the computer, yanking out what’s left of my hair. Kindles just aren’t conducive to scanning large chunks of code.

But I digress.

I published The Tourist Trail in print not just because I knew readers wanted a print version, but because reviewers wanted a print version.

And whatever reviewers want reviewers will get.

So I wanted to briefly share a little about the printer I selected. It wasn’t an easy decision because it’s easy to find fellow authors who love or hate whichever printer you ultimately select.

Out of more than a dozen printers, I narrowed my list down the following:

• Lightning Source
• CreateSpace
• Lulu

I selected Lightning Source. It was a good decision. The quality of the book is quite good (and Lightning Source just announced support for matte covers, which I am now testing out — a topic for a later post).

I primarily selected Lightning Source was because it is owned by Ingram, the world’s largest book distributor. So by going with Lightning Source I was confident that bookstores would have no trouble getting my book. And, of course, Lightning Source also works with Amazon and other online vendors. Lightning Source also does printing work for

Some people have said that Lightning Source is more expensive than CreateSpace, but I didn’t find this to be the case. I found Lightning Source to be the best overall value of the three. Lightning Source does charge more in set-up costs but the per-unit printing costs were better.

But there is a huge caveat with Lightning Source — you need to know a lot about book production. There is not much in the way of hand holding. Lightning Source expects you to provide a print-ready PDF, preferably output from Adobe InDesign. If all this sounds like a foreign language to you, then you might want to use Lulu or CreateSpace — or hire a book designer who can do this for you.

I recommend working with a professional designer. My feeling here is that a self-published book shouldn’t look self-published. I can tell when a book has been more or less just exported out of Word. The fonts sometimes look blurry, the page alignments are off, the columns are too wide (or too narrow). I could go on.

My best advice is not to rush into it. Spend some time on user forums such as this one on Lulu. Ask questions. Ask other self-published authors what they’ve learned along the way. And be prepared to do a bit of learning yourself.

Most people I know who have an iPhone and love ebooks, use the Kindle app. They don’t shop from Apple’s iBookstore.

There are several reason for this:

1. If you buy a book in the iBookstore, you have to read it on your iPad or iPhone or iTouch — and only there. With Amazon, you can read your ebook on your home computer, work computer, iPhone, Android, Blackberry — oh, and on that device known as a Kindle. Apple says it is working on an app that will allow people to read their ebooks on their computers, but no word on when it will be available.
2. The book selection of the iBookstore is pathetic. It’s been more than six months since the iBookstore went live and the selection doesn’t even come close to Amazon.
3. The home page of the iBookstore promotes only the bestsellers. With Amazon, the selection on the home page is customized (for better or worse) based on your prior purchases and reading habits. But this gives Amazon a bit of personality — or a reflection of your personality. The iBookstore is, by comparison, bland and uninviting.
4. There is no community. Amazon hosts hundreds of reader forums. Some of them — particularly the Kindle forums — are extremely active. These people are voracious readers and they love to share thoughts on the books they’re reading. But Apple doesn’t really understand communities.

As a publisher, I have additional problems with the iBookstore:

1. Support is almost nonexistent. If you email Amazon for support, you’ll get a reply within a day or two. With Apple, a reply takes, on average, 2 to three weeks. I’m not kidding. I had a technical issue with The Tourist Trail two months ago. The book was taken offline by Apple and as of today it is still not live.
2. The iBookstore interface is difficult to use. With Amazon, uploading a book is painless and fast. You can manage pricing, meta data, and book descriptions with ease. But with the iBookstore, the interface is an awful experience. It’s ironic in a way because Apple prides itself on usability. But if you’re a publisher, you get to see a side of Apple that most people don’t see. And it’s not all that user friendly.
3. As a publisher, I can’t send you a link to books on Apple’s iBookstore. Unlike Amazon, the Apple bookstore is separate from the Internet, so I have to tell people to go to the iBookstore and search for it. With Amazon, I can send links, short links, even sample chapters to people.

Why am I unloading on Apple like this?

Partly because I’d like to see the iBookstore succeed. I’d like to see a healthy marketplace for ebooks. I don’t want to see Amazon be the only game in town.

But I’m also unloading on Apple because the company now appears to be playing hardball with Amazon. You can read the details here.

People are speculating that Apple is going to require Amazon to remove its links to the Amazon store from within the Kindle app (or share 30% of all revenue). Given the slim profit margins of publishing, I can’t imagine Amazon sharing 30% with Apple. So we could have an interesting standoff in the months ahead. And I can see Amazon aligning itself more closely with Google’s Android platform as a result.

Apple makes the case that it should receive a cut from commerce that originates from within its platform. The logic makes perfect sense, though the 30% cut makes less sense, particularly if the vendor in question offers its own ecommerce platform — and this platform is far superior.

The fallout is already evident here and here.

It’s hard for me to understand why Apple would want to push vendors to work more closely with Google and invest more heavily on web-based apps, bypassing the App Store entirely. But, until things change, this is exactly what is happening.

I published The Tourist Trail a little more than six months ago.

It’s been quite a journey and I’ve just gotten started.

We writers like to think that the hard work ends once you send that final draft off to the publisher. In retrospect, that’s the easy part.

So I thought I’d take a few minutes to share what I’ve learned so far:

• Don’t give up the day job. The book has sold very well for a self-published book, but I’ve also been pouring the money from sales back into sending out additional review copies. I’ve more or less broken even so far, which I consider a success. If you’re a self-published writer and you expect to make millions in the first year, I applaud your optimism. I certainly share the dream. But I have kept my expectations modest and I have not been disappointed.
• Get your book on the Kindle. About half my sales so far have been on the Kindle. There are a growing number of readers who only buy books via Kindle, and you don’t want to miss out on this audience. More important, because there is no print overhead with the Kindle, I can price the book more affordably. And the more affordable the book is the more likely people are to take a chance on a new writer.
• When promoting your book, think outside the book. The book trailer that my wife and I created has had more than 5,000 views so far. It was mentioned in Poets & Writers and the Seattle Times. And, yes, it has even sold a few books. But the key to its success was the fact that we tried to create something that we would enjoy watching. We didn’t want to create your typical book trailer, and that has made all the difference.
• Mainstream book reviews are difficult to come by. I expected professional book reviewers, like the folks at the New York Times Book Review, to ignore my book (for now at least). But I was more hopeful about the hundred or so book bloggers out there. Book bloggers are people who are not paid to review books but receive free copies from publishers. Collectively they wield a great deal of power. I contacted every book blogger I could find who expressed an interest in reviewing mainstream fiction (some bloggers focus on specific genres/categories). In the end, I found one book blogger to review my book (and she loved it). And, yes, I consider this a success. The thing to keep in mind is that your book competes with every other book for a reviewer’s attention. And the more mainstream the reviewer, the more mainstream books this person must select from.
• Find “alternative” book reviews. Just because mainstream book reviewers may be reluctant to take on your book, doesn’t mean you can’t find qualified reviewers. The Tourist Trail is about animal rights activists and naturalists. So I contacted real-world naturalists and activists and people who love animals and I offered review copies. So far I’ve received excellent reviews from Our Hen House and Penguin News Today (among others); more important, I’ve met some amazing people along the way. These reviews have by far been the most rewarding.
• Buy mailing supplies in bulk. A padded mailing envelope will run you more than a dollar each at Staples, which is insanity. So I now buy envelopes in bulk from Uline. I also recommend getting a label maker; I have a model from Dymo and it has saved me many hours.
• Sign books even if people don’t ask. I didn’t think about this at first but when I sell a book through my web site I now sign it automatically. People love it. I certainly love to have books signed by the author.
• Don’t give up. There have been more than a few days when I wanted to just forget about the book and get on with my life. This is a lonely process and boy is it humbling. Particularly when you’re self-published. In the world of publishing there is “traditional publishing” and everything else. When you fall into that everything else category, it’s not easy to break through the clutter. But if you give up, you will never break through. That’s the only thing I know for sure. If you believe in your book, don’t give up on it. It’s okay to take breaks now and then, but always keep your eyes open for opportunities to promote the book.
• Enjoy the journey. The first few months after publication were the most challenging. I spent hours every day emailing reviewers, sending out review copies, and waiting for reviews to come in. The reviews often did not come in. I have a few people who promised reviews more than five months ago; I’m still waiting. So I recently told myself (or perhaps it was my wife who told me) to stop waiting (and whining) and to start enjoying the journey. And now I am.

I’ll admit that I was at a total loss for how to create a book trailer for The Tourist Trail that didn’t bore me (and others) to tears.

In a perfect world, I would have booked a ticket to Patagonia and filmed Magellanic penguins doing their thing.

But my book trailer budget was rather tight, so I partnered up with another published writer (my wife) and, well, here goes…

If the video doesn’t appear above, here’s the link.

Does self-publishing mean you’ll never have a chance at winning a book award?

It certainly seems that way.

The PEN New England Hemingway Foundation Award for First Fiction notes on its submission form — in bold type no less:

No self-published books, electronic submissions, or e-books are eligible for consideration.

Now I realize they’re trying to avoid an onslaught of books from people like me. But what if someone like me happened to write a National Book Award-worthy book? I have to believe there are some gems out there in the self-publishing hinterland, but we’ll never know because these books don’t even get a chance to compete.  And that’s a shame. It’s not as if PEN couldn’t throw in a reading fee to deal with the extra reviewers required.

Let’s suppose Jonathan Franzen (or some other well known, highly awarded author) decides to self-publish his next book. Will the rules be changed? Will these authors get grandfathered in? I have a feeling it will take someone like Franzen to do just that to force the folks who give out these awards to take off their blinders.

And I’m not just trying to pick on PEN. Let’s take a look at the National Book Award. Can I apply for this one?

Nope.

According to the entry guidelines:

Self-published books and e-books are eligible, provided that the author/publisher also publishes titles by other authors. Note: the Foundation may request the publisher’s catalog as proof of multiple publications.

I had to read this line twice. Are they saying that self-published writers are eligible provided that they’re not self-published?

Joseph Heller would be proud.

And I’ll leave you with this little screen grab, from the home page of PEN:

All “traditionally published” authors, they mean.