Steven Craig

In the Book Publishing world we meet all sorts of interesting people. Meeting with a variety of different personality types, who have interests that can range from anything in the world to anything under the sun. Some are highly intellectual, some are seasoned by life experience, and some are just seeking information that may apply to them or someone they know. But over the course of time, I find that I keep answering some of the same questions over and over. Or I find that many Authors or aspiring Authors have not quite fully comprehended the entire concept of all that is needed to publish their book and do not really grasp the difference between Book Publishing, Book Printing and Vanity Publishing.

In this article, I am going to address each of these and my hope is that it will help send people in the right direction so they may accomplish what they are intending to accomplish.

Let me start by giving you an example of a typical conversation that we have on a daily basis with some people who call our company. And I know other Publishing companies out there are getting the same type of phone calls, probably due to lack of proper information for the author seeking advice.

The dialog usually goes something like this:

(Caller) “Hi, I want to meet with someone about getting my book published”

(Publisher’s Representative aka PR) “Wonderful! do you have your manuscript completed?”

(Caller) “Not yet, I just wanted to get some ideas of what to do next”

(PR) “What do you mean? Do you need a Ghost writer?’

(Caller) “NO, I just want to know what I need to do next to get my book published”

(PR) “The first thing you need to do is finish your manuscript”

(Caller) “Well, I need money, and I want to sell my story for a few thousand dollars to a publisher, I already have about 25 pages written and it is going to be really good.”

(PR) “Great start! Good Luck with that however. Before you can do anything to be paid, the work must first be completed, once completed you need to have it edited professionally. Once you do that, then you can submit your book to Publishing Houses, but you must follow certain guidelines before you submit your manuscript, such as write a very good query letter.”

(Caller) “But I have something that I know will sell and it will make a lot of money, My friend told me it should be a movie. I could finish it pretty fast, but could I get $1000.00 up front before I submit it?”

(PR) “No.”

(Caller) “Well, how can I get some money for my book?”

(PR) “Finish your manuscript first, then take the next steps, if you want to publish traditionally, you need to acquire a literary agent, you can find a lot of information on the internet, even on our own website www.Empirebookpubishing.com  that will help you, or you can even download our free publishing guide “Self-Publishing Simplified“

(Caller) “Well I don’t have my own computer, and can’t do downloads.”

(PR) “What are you writing your manuscript in?”

(Caller) “I have a journal book I write in, I already have 25 pages written, I am writing in pencil so it can be erased if I make a mistake”

(PR) “When you are done with your story, you need to type it in a Word Doc, so that it can be uploaded, for publishing”

(Caller) “I don’t type very good, I thought the Publisher typed it up?”

(PR) No, there are typing services you can call to type it for you, but that is not what the publisher does.”

(Caller) “Well who should I call to get my book published?”

(PR) [re-explains the above steps]

—– 20 minutes later –  End Conversation —–

Okay so you can see why I am writing about this from reading the above scenario, right?

So in order to simplify this message allow me to give you a brief idea of the different types of publishing available.

• Traditional Book Publishing: Where a Publisher retains rights to your book and receives 60% to 70% of the royalties depending on intellectual negotiations, between Author and Publisher. A large publishing house will not accept unsolicited manuscripts. They do not want to be bothered with the troublesome of having to sift through the thousands of manuscripts submitted monthly. Instead, the large publishing houses have handed the job of finding marketable manuscripts over to literary agents. To get through the door of well-known publishing houses, you must have an agent behind you, and acquiring an agent can be a difficult task. In the traditional publishing model, the publisher assumes the risk of publication and production costs, selects the works to be published, edits the author’s text, and provides for marketing and distribution, provides the ISBN, and satisfies whatever legal deposit and copyright registration formalities are required. Such a publisher normally pays the author a fee, called an advance, for the right to publish the author’s work; and further payments, and royalties, based on the sales of the published work.

• Self-Publishing: Where the Author retains all rights to their book and receives all the royalty and profits. Author controls the pricing of the book above the production costs, and promotions are the responsibility of the Author. The publishing process is usually outsourced, depending on the needs of the Author. An ISBN number is either purchased with Self-Publishing packages offered by Literary service bureaus or can be purchased through Boker.

• Vanity Publishing: In the words from Wiki, “The term “vanity press” is considered pejorative, implying that an author who uses such a service is publishing out of vanity and that his or her work would not be commercially successful.” A vanity press may assert control over rights to the published work and provide limited or no editing, some will offer cover art, or marketing services in exchange for their fee. Vanity presses may engage in deceptive practices or costly services with limited recourse available to the writer. Typically, a Vanity Publishing often times has their own press, and they will print and bind your manuscript, however, they have limited distribution if any for the Authors finished work. This is not a good option for those looking for worldwide distribution and a consistent residual income. However, a Vanity Press will serve a good purpose to those only needing a short run of printed books, or for those desiring to have less than 500 copies printed for their own use or for sales tools, such as someone who does lectures or teaching at conventions.

• Literary Service Bureau: A Literary Service Bureau assists a Self-Publishing Author in getting their book professionally published and available for mass distribution, so their book can be sold on the World Wide Web, such as AMAZON, Barnes & Noble and more than a dozen other online book distributors. Using a reputable Service Bureau with a highly trained staff can save a lot of time and headache. Service Bureaus offer services from editing, proper interior formatting, Cover Art Design, Author Webpage, eBook formatting, Websites, and Marketing materials to establish a solid platform for an Author to be successful. You can pay a Literary Service to do as little or as much as you like depending on your needs, and or depending on the word count of your book. For instance, if you have an 80,000 word manuscript that needs to be edited, you re going to pay more than someone who has a 30,000 word manuscript. Editing is charged by word count in most cases. But many Service Bureaus include editing with full service packages. Full service packages can be costly, ranging from $5,000.00 to $12,000.00 but most of these packages come with expanded distribution and marketing bundles, that will help launch the success of the book.

• eBook and iBook Publishing: This is also called “Digital Publishing” –  An electronic book (or e-book) is a book publication made available in digital form, that is readable on the flat-panel display of computers, or other electronic devices such as Kindle by AMAZON or the eBook device Nook presented by Barnes & Noble. Although sometimes defined as “an electronic version of a printed book”, some e-books exist without a printed equivalent. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-reader devices. Sometimes an Author may want to include an eBook to enhance sales of their printed book, and yet there are some Authors who only choose to publish their work on digital devices and bypassing the printed book altogether. Another digital publishing device is iBooks, an Apple division, to download books on Apple devices such as iPad’s, iPhone’s, iPod Touch etc…

If you want to be a Self-Published Author of your work and share your story with the world, the best option is to choose a highly trained company designed specifically to do all that is required to ensure the best possible scenario for the success of your book. Empire Publishing makes publishing easy and stress-free. We have simplified book publishing by streamlining the process and making it virtually effortless for the author. Our publishing packages are superior in all regards to that of our competitors.

Write – Publish – Market – Make Money!