As many small-time authors and self-publishers have discovered the
hard way, the traditional book publishing model is fraught with problems
that conspire against an individual author/publisher making a decent
living from their work.
The traditional model normally involves two basic choices: 1) use a commercial publisher, or 2) self-publish.
THE COMMERCIAL PUBLISHER ROUTE
This
option involves the author submitting book proposals or full
manuscripts to commercial publishing houses in hope of acceptance.
Once
a manuscript is accepted by a publishing house (the vast majority are
not accepted) a contract is signed between the author and the publishing
house. This kicks-off a time- consuming and often complex process
involving printers, shippers, wholesalers, distributors, marketers, and
finally, booksellers, all managed on the author's behalf by the
publishing house.
Typically, it takes anywhere from 18 to 24
months from the time the author finishes a book manuscript, until the
actual book gets onto the bookshelves.
THE SELF-PUBLISHING ROUTE
The
self-publishing option is one in which the author eliminates some of
the middlemen and manages the overall publishing, distribution and
marketing processes him/herself.
This option gives the author much
more personal control of the whole process and allows him/her to earn
more money per copy than through a commercial publisher. It also
involves a lot of work by the self-publisher who is responsible for
performing all of the functions and services that a commercial publisher
would normally look after.
This model is normally less
time-consuming in terms of elapsed time, since there is no manuscript
submission and approval process involved. On average, the
self-publishing process can save 6 to 12 months over the commercial
publisher model.
THE SHOCKING DOWNSIDES OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
Based
on my first-hand experience with the North American book publishing and
distribution industry, I have to say that it is one of the most archaic
and poorly run business models that I have ever encountered. The entire
industry seems to be decades behind current-day business practices of
other industries.
Very few people know from the outset what
they're getting into when they choose to publish their book via the
traditional publishing route. They have no idea at the beginning just
how backward, outdated and dysfunctional the entire conventional book
publishing industry business model really is.
Here's what the conventional book publishing industry WILL NOT spell out to you before you sign-up...
Give Away Half Your Book's Value Up-Front
If
your book's cover price is, say $30, you will be forced to discount at
least 40% to 60% right off the top when selling your book to wholesalers
and retailers. So, you'll really be working from an actual price of
somewhere between $12 and $18 -- not the $30 you first thought.
Don't Count On Making Big Bucks
If
you choose the commercial publisher option, the best you can hope to
receive for your book is a royalty somewhere between 6% and 10% of the
"net". The "net" is the amount the publisher receives AFTER discounting
to retailers.
Example; cover price = $30; discount to large retail
chain = $15 (i.e. 50%). Your cut would be somewhere between $0.90 and
$1.50 per sale. So, for selling 3,000 copies (a very good sales figure)
you would receive a grand total of somewhere between $2,700 and $4,500!
You'll Have To Write Lots Of Books
If
you choose the self-publishing option your main distributor will pay
you somewhere around 45% of the cover price of your book. Using our $30
cover price example; that works out to $13.50 per sale that goes to you
under this scenario. Then you have to deduct your costs which include:
printing the book, overheads, and marketing, publicity and advertising
expenses.
Example: cover price = $30; distributor payment
to you at 45% of cover = $13.50, before expenses. Deduct: printing
costs - $3.50; overheads - $1.00; marketing, advertising, publicity -
$1.00 = ($13.50-$5.50) = $8.00 per book sale. So, for selling 3,000
copies you would make only $24,000.
And don't forget, this option involves your ongoing direct personal time and effort involvement.
Wait Forever To Get Paid
Typically,
you will have to wait between 90 days and 120 days after an actual book
sale before you will receive your payment for that sale. I still shake
my head at this one. How does the publishing industry get away with such
an archaic practice in the 21st Century?
In normal business the
standard wait for payment is usually 30 days, sometimes as much as 60
days; but 90 to 120 days to pay a poor struggling author? It's a crying
shame that they still manage to get away with it. This kind of payment
delay is the norm, whether you go through a commercial publisher or if
you're a self-publisher.
Issue 100% Refunds On Unsold Books
A
trademark feature of the conventional book publishing industry is the
way in which it deals with "returns". In almost all cases -- publishers,
distributors, wholesalers and retailers - they maintain the right to
return unsold books to you, the author, for a 100% refund, even many
months later!
Example: Say you sell 200 copies of your book to a
particular retail chain through your publisher (commercial publisher
model) or through your distributor (self-publisher model). Then, let's
say that after five months, various stores in that retail chain find
that 45 unsold copies of your book are still on their shelves. The
retailer would simply send those books back to your publisher or
distributor for a 100% refund. That company would would then routinely
pay that retail chain a 100% refund for each book returned and in-turn
would deduct that total amount from your account!
I'm not kidding folks, this is how it really works!
There
is absolutely NO incentive for bookstores or publishers/distributors to
make any extra effort whatsoever to move your book off their shelves
since they know you will provide a 100% rebate for all "returns" in any
case. Go figure?
Pay Them Extra Money... Just In Case
And
just to add insult to injury, many publishers and distributors will
also withhold funds from your regular royalty payments (20% or more) as
insurance to cover the costs of possible future returns.
So, not
only do you get paid 90 to 120 days late, you will NOT receive the full
amount to which you are entitled, as your publisher/distributor hedges
against the possibility of eventual returns of unsold and/or damaged
books months down the line.
Get Stuck In Someone Else's Time Cycle
Most
commercial publishers operate on a time-frame of 18 to 24 months from
approved/accepted manuscript until the book is released for sale. If you
are a self-publisher you can whittle this down to maybe 3 to 6 months
depending on when your book is ready vis a vis your distributor's
catalog publication schedule.
If you time it perfectly, or just
get lucky, there might only be 6 to 8 weeks between your book being
ready to ship and it getting it onto store shelves.
BOTTOM LINE
In
addition to the foregoing, there are other problems with the
traditional book publishing model which I won't go into here. So, as you
can see, from an author's point of view it is a highly dysfunctional,
badly flawed business model that wouldn't survive in most industries.
In
fact, the system is so stacked against the average author I'm amazed
that some people actually try to eke out an ongoing living in that
thankless industry. I guess they feel they have no other choice, or they
are hoping against the odds that they will one day get lucky and pen a
mega best-seller.
So, if you are an aspiring author, and you're
hoping to make a modest living writing and publishing your own books or
ebooks -- the traditional book publishing and distribution model is
definitely NOT the way to go.
The good news is that over the past
couple of years a new publishing model has evolved that eliminates all
of the negative aspects of the traditional publishing model and adds a
number of additional benefits.
It's called the "Online Publishing Model".
It's
a combination of online digital download delivery and print-on-demand
(POD) publishing that sidesteps most of the pitfalls of the traditional
book publishing model.
