Author beware! You are responsible to make good choices
Dave Bricker posted a long article today about the dangers of publishing without knowing the expenses and requirements of book production. You need to read the article if you are ignorant of the scams perpetrated on authors. Most publishers you run across with a quick Google search as you start your hunt for help will be vanity houses seeking to scam the author.
There are countless people lusting after your production money
This is where you need to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. It is very easy to get yourself into a position where you own your copyright and your original manuscript but little else. Vanity houses survive and thrive on author ignorance.
Many things about publishing have very little to do with writing the book. With a raw manuscript completed, your book has merely begun the publishing process. Many authors need to hire an editor to get the raw manuscript completed. The following ten steps all occur after the author completes the manuscript.
Steps necessary to produce a book from your raw manuscript [Word doc]
- Copyediting
- Technical editing
- Book design
- Page design or layout
- Typography or readability
- Cover design
- Proofing
- Printing costs and/or server costs for ebooks
- Marketing, advertising, & promotion
- Reader relationships
And the list goes on. Even for the self-publisher, these costs can be substantial. Guy Kawasaki in APE claims that editing, cover design, and book design costs are unavoidably around $4,000 or so. These costs are for the self-publisher doing it himself or herself. However, my publishing costs are zero. I wrote a book to show you how to do it.
Writing In InDesign covers the options thoroughly
It discusses all ten areas listed above. You learn how to do what is needed to self-publish professionally for free or as close as it is possible to do so. But do not be deceived! All of the issues must be dealt with and paid for by someone. They are either part of your production costs or they get a cut of your royalties. The choice is yours.
The radically new Writing In InDesign CC is due to be released in January 2014
Related articles
- Questions from authors about publishing their book (bergsland.org)
- Can you afford to be a writer? (wendyreisediting.wordpress.com)
