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Publishing Your BookThe Facts About Publishing |
The New Publishing Reality
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Your goal is to be a published author. Your story is special, and people will get so much out of reading your masterpiece.It’s time to take it to the next level--publishing. But how? See how the publishing industry has changed over the past few years. |
Mainstream publishers are very choosy
Big publishers have always been the way to go for serious authors. They give you royalties, and you sit back and collect your checks. You concentrate on writing your books, while your publisher concentrates on everything else. But the problem is, it is now almost impossible for new authors to get in. Why? Because the publishers are really choosy. The reality is that most of the big publishers have less time and fewer resources to develop new authors. That’s why we see the same big-name authors cranking out book after book, year after year. It’s not easy getting to the top, but once you’re there, you stay. And you push all newcomers aside. |
The new way to go: self-publishing is best
So, what do you do if you can’t get into a big publisher? There are all kinds of options. Self-publishing is the best. It costs a little money to start out with, but it doesn’t break the bank. And you keep control of your book and can pocket bigger profits for each book sale. Mainstream publishers pay you only a few cents in royalties for each book they sell. But depending on how you operate as a self-publisher, you can pocket more than half the cover price for your books. And if you’re really smart, you can take a cue from the services mainstream publishers provide--you’ll get help doing the actual publishing--so you can have more time to write more books. |
Self-publish with quality in mind
Self-publishing is a great way to go. But don’t forget about quality control such as editing and professional design to make your book look and read as well as one that has been published by a big publishing house.
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Buying Publishing Services
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Why Use a Service Provider?Publishing service providers make it easy to self-publish. They give you more time to develop more books, let you skip ahead to work on your marketing plan, and concentrate on setting up your future TV interview with Oprah. Service providers give you the time to do what you do best. They can give you writing assistance, editing, proofreading, layout, cover design, and printing. The goal: to publish a book that makes a difference in the world. |
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Get What You WantWhen seeking out professional help, how do you know you’re getting the best? Insist on the following:
Keep the profit
Be aware of how much you’ll make with each book sale. Most publishers and some publishing service providers give you royalties for each copy of your book. While this sounds good, it means that they keep a large part of the profit. For instance, if a book sells for $15, your publishing services provider might take a cut of the sale along with a distributor, wholesaler, and retailer. You’ll end up with 50 cents in royalties, or less. That’s all you get per book. Control who gets a cut. Choose a service provider who gives you flat-price printing rather than a royalty. This way, you take the publisher’s cut yourself, and if you don’t sell through big bookstores, you take the cut away from the middlemen.
Keep control
Don’t give up your rights. Never sign over your copyright to anyone, make sure the publisher or service provider isn’t liable to hold up your publishing date, and buy only the services you need.
One-on-one guidance
The best service providers are available to talk to you. Make sure you have access to a real person who can offer a bit of personal guidance through the process.
Look at your costs
Before you commit to buy publishing services, review the up-front costs, book printing prices, and any add-ons. Examine any fine print and contracts.
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Compare Bluefish Bay With the Other Publishing Choices |
 | Bluefish Bay’s publishing services glean the best from all of the various publishing options, and eliminate all the negatives. Let’s look at what else is out there and see how we compare. |
| Traditional Mainstream Publishers |
Mainstream publishers are wonderful. You drop off your manuscript on your editor’s desk and he’ll take it from there. You quickly get on to your next project. And in just 18 months, you’ll see your book on the bestseller list, proudly displayed in your local bookstore.
But wait a minute. It’s just not that easy. Everyone wants to break into a mainstream publisher. Great writers work for years to get accepted. Many give up trying. Publishers have huge stacks of queries and submissions that they rarely get through. It’s much easier for them to maintain the big author names.
Bluefish Bay has no acceptance/rejection process like big publishers--we publish what you submit to us. You control the book’s cover price, and you make much more money per book than with a traditional publisher.
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Self-Publishing
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Self-publishing means that you write your book as well as publish it. While it means more work, there are many benefits--you keep the control, design, price, and make more money. If you’re serious about getting your story out to the world, you’ll also make sure you get booked on talk shows and do public appearances, which is most likely to sell more than any mainstream publisher could, and you don’t have to share the profits with anyone.
Bluefish Bay helps authors become self-published. We do the work of publishing, but you become the publisher of record, and you keep all the control and revenue advantages.
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Vanity Presses
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Vanity presses don’t advertise they are “vanity,” so it’s hard to tell if a company is a vanity press, a publisher, or a self-publishing services provider. Vanity presses are good for one thing--they’ll publish your book. But there are too many down sides. One clue is that when you find their Web page, they don’t actually give you much information--instead, they ask you to fill out a form and they’ll get back to you. And what they do show you is almost too good to be true. Beware. This is the worst publishing option around. The mark of a vanity press is that it charges you thousands of dollars in up-front set-up fees, takes ownership of your book, and sells you copies at wildly inflated prices. Marketing is no more than a mention in its published books list. You lose control and give away everything.
Bluefish Bay makes sure you retain ownership of your book, our up-front fees are inexpensive, and per-book charges are reasonable. You keep all of your sales revenue.
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Print on Demand (POD) Publishing
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POD publishers have become popular because they print any number of books you want. If you want to order three books, they’ll do it. Most of these publishers offer a couple of different publishing package options and make it easy to get published.
There is a catch, though. In the end, POD publishers are expensive, and the quality is generally mediocre. They usually charge high prices for each copy of your book they print, and they often set the retail price of your book, which can be inflated, making sales difficult.
Bluefish Bay lets the author set the price for his books. We do short-run printing, in as few as 50 copies per order, and our book printing costs less than half that of POD publishers. |
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