Wheatmark

Does My Book Have a Market? Find Out with a Web Marketing Analysis!

2008-05-06T08:40:00.003-07:00

If you are writing a book—even if you're just thinking about writing one—your biggest concern may be whether there is a market for it, whether people would be interested in buying your book.

If you could answer the question, "Is there a market for my book?" how would that affect your writing? Chances are, you might rework your title, carefully select keywords and phrases, maybe even write a different book altogether!

How can you tell if there is a market for your book?

Enter the Wheatmark Web Marketing Analysis (WMA)! As of today, you can send us your manuscript or manuscript idea and we'll give you an analysis about your topic's market on the Web. Find out more about the Web Marketing Analysis here!

Wheatmark Chess Title Achieves Master Rank

2008-04-23T13:49:00.001-07:00

Ray Cheng’s Practical Chess Exercises captures best position on Amazon!

Wheatmark, Inc. (http://www.wheatmark.com), the independent author’s most powerful ally, is proud to announce that Ray Cheng’s book, Practical Chess Exercises, has achieved a #1 rank in the Chess category on Amazon.

The best-selling title also cracked the 1,000 mark on Amazon’s Sales Rank for the first time this week, placing it among the elite of the millions of titles for sale on Amazon.com.

Mere months after its release, the book earned admission into Wheatmark’s coveted Great Expectations program (http://www.wheatmark.com/greatexpectations.cfm)—one of the fastest sales records for a title in Wheatmark’s nine years in business (http://www.wheatmark.com/aboutus.cfm).

Practical Chess Exercises is Ray Cheng’s first book.

“It has been an absolute joy to work with the Wheatmark team. They have been professional, thoughtful, creative, and responsive through the entire process of getting my book into print and into the hands of my readers,” he says.

For more information on Wheatmark’s services, including the Great Expectations program, and to get started on publishing your book today, call Wheatmark toll-free at 1.888.934.0888 or visit http://www.wheatmark.com.

Nonexclusive Publishing Contract: What It Means to You

2008-04-21T15:26:00.002-07:00

Wheatmark's publishing agreement is nonexclusive. What does it mean to you, the author?

In short it means you are not locked into an exclusive contract; you are free to cancel or publish elsewhere at the same time.

Let's say you have been publishing your book with Wheatmark for a while, and you have an opportunity to get thousands of copies of your book printed cheaply by a different printer, say, a printer in Hong Kong or even one in the United States. You still want to keep selling your book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble using Wheatmark's book distribution system, but you just don't want to pass up the opportunity to get thousands of copies for a better price. The good news is that you can do both: publish your book with Wheatmark and have extra copies printed by different printers. Because our publishing contract is nonexclusive, you have the freedom to do so.

Now, what happens if, some time after you publish your book with Wheatmark, a New York publishing house calls you and they want to publish your book?

Most likely they will want you to sell your book to them in return for exclusive rights. They would want to make sure that no other publisher or printer would be able to sell or print your book. This, too, is possible when you are publishing your book with us: you can cancel the publishing agreement with us at any time.

When you hear nonexclusive, think freedom!

Market Share of Online Booksellers Grows

2008-04-07T11:00:00.006-07:00

A follow-up of sorts to my last post...

In case you're wondering what the actual market share for online book sales is these days:

try 30.5% of projected consumer book purchases in 2008.

The same source (Fairfield Research/Greyhound Books—as cited in an article in the March 31st Publisher's Weekly) expects chain bookstores to claim 32.5% of the same market in 2008.

That's a pretty close margin—one that Publisher's Weekly predicts online booksellers will close (or even overtake) by 2009.

Looks like Robert S. Miller is on to something!

New HarperCollins Non-traditional Publishing Imprint

2008-04-07T10:34:00.003-07:00

In a sign of things to come, HarperCollins announced that it's starting a new imprint that will not pay advances to authors... nor will it take returns from booksellers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new operation "also likely won't pay for more desirable display space in the front of bookstores, a common practice. Instead, the as-yet-unnamed unit will share its profit with writers and focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet, where a growing portion of book sales are shifting."

I'll bet that this is the first of many new imprints at traditional publishers that will follow this model.

Meanwhile, I can't resist quoting Robert S. Miller, the founding publisher of Hyperion (who'll be leading the as-yet-unnamed HarperCollins imprint), who was himself quoted in Friday's New York Times:

“The idea is, ‘Let’s take all the things that we think are wrong with this business and try to change them,’ ” said Mr. Miller, 51. “It really seemed to require a start-up from scratch because it will be very experimental.”

Methinks Mr. Miller need not reinvent the wheel.

If he's looking for successful models to emulate, he might check out the self-publishing services and independent presses that have been selling via the Internet (mainly using Print-On-Demand technology) for oh, about ten years now!

To read the full New York Times article, click here.

Bad News for Borders

2008-03-26T11:12:00.003-07:00

Speaking of Borders' financial troubles ...

Borders may put itself up for sale.

The company has also taken out a $42.5 million loan to help with day-to-day operations in the coming months.

This loan may complicate Borders' ability to sell all or part of its operations, however.

Barnes and Noble—the most likely prospect for buying Borders—may not be interested anyway. B & N recently reported that fourth-quarter profits had declined 9 percent.

To read more about Borders' financial situation, as well as the general pressure on booksales nationwide, click here.

Good News for Borders

2008-03-26T10:11:00.003-07:00

Another update on the ongoing Borders kiosk saga ... this time, on prices.

Soon, customers at select Borders stores will be able to publish their books using Lulu's software at prices ranging from $299 to $499.

That's a pretty cool thing, but it's only part of the story.

My guess is that prospective customers will be especially intrigued by the possibility of their books being carried in Borders stores—which the new service touts.

I can't help but bring up the issue this raises, which I cited in my Feb. 15th post:

"A final note: I wonder how this move will affect Borders' relationship with its customer-authors? Barnes and Noble had a terrible problem regarding the customer service involved with this kind of relationship when it was a part-owner of iUniverse, another self-publishing service (customers kept asking when their books would be carried on B & N bookstore shelves; the answer almost always disappointed them).

"The problems were so severe, apparently, that they eventually led to B & N severing its relationship with iUniverse altogether last year.

"I guess Borders—a bookseller whose financial problems have been well-reported over the last few years (in large part because they completely missed the boat on online bookselling)—has decided that the possible rewards are worth the risks."

You can check out Borders' new program here.

Ebooks--Will They Work for You?

2008-03-18T11:29:00.010-07:00

I have been following the development of ebooks for eight years now. The one thing I still remember from Book Expo America 2000 in Chicago is how the topic of ebooks seemed to dominate every single workshop I attended. Ebooks were the next big thing.

We've been publishing books for eight years now and converting to and distributing our titles as ebooks has always been in the back of our minds. (We were even fortunate to register the domains ebookpublishing.com and ipublisher.com in time!) Yet the big ebook invasion promised in 2000 never really happened. There are still too many competing ebook platforms and formats to choose from. (See the recently resolved battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD for high-definition DVD formats.) Digital rights management (DRM) is also a mess. Besides, we already offer superior book publishing services and distribution of paper books, and we will do the same with electronic books only if it benefits our authors and the sales of their books.

Having said that, this may be the time to reevaluate launching our ebook services and I need your help! Amazon has recently introduced its ebook reader, the Kindle. This device breaks away from the other competing technologies by including its own wireless distribution system: you don't need a computer or Internet connection to be able to purchase and read ebooks on the Kindle. As we look into the launch of our ebook publishing services, Amazon's Kindle will definitely be on the top of our list for available formats.

I need your help with the following: Assuming that you have written or are writing a book, post a comment below with your thoughts on whether you think your book would be well-served by distribution as an ebook. Do share with us also whether you have a strong preference for a particular ebook format: Kindle, MobiPocket, Adobe Reader, Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader, etc. If we were to provide you with your ebook, would you want it distributed and rights managed by Wheatmark (through Kindle, Amazon, online ebookstores) or would you just prefer to get a particular ebook file (e.g. PDF) that you would host and distribute on your own website yourself?

Any comment you have, please, share it with us by posting it below. Anonymous posts are OK.

How to Increase Your Book Sales without Spending Money

2008-03-06T16:47:00.004-07:00

May Sinclair, one of Wheatmark's published authors, has sent us some valuable tips she learned on how to increase your book sales without spending your money. The technique involves utilizing Amazon.com's closed platform for selling books. Click here to read the article in our Author Resources center.

Sell Yourself, Not Your Book!

2008-03-05T13:34:00.014-07:00

Here's a book marketing advice I hope you'll take the right way:

Forget about trying to sell your book. Nobody is interested in buying your book.

What people are interested in is you, your services, your cause—and not a book.

There are many, many great books. But hardly any book out there can sell itself on its own. The bestselling books out there became bestsellers not because their authors were trying to sell books.

You will sell the most copies when people you have sold yourself to will want to get you and your ideas packaged between two book covers. It is not a book they are looking for, therefore, it's not a book you should be selling to them. Sell them yourself—in the form of a book. Most authors get it backwards: They are trying to sell a book instead of selling themselves. They are using their profession to sell their book, when in fact they should be using the book to sell their professional services.

What you want to do is to market not your book, but what your book is about. Use your book to promote your business, your practice, your cause. If you are a professional speaker, sell your speaking service using your book, rather than try to sell your book using your speaking business. If you are a counselor, use the fact that you've written a book about relationships as a way to solidify your credentials. If you are exposing human rights abuses in your book, all the more you should be thinking about advancing (marketing!) your cause, not your book.

"I don't know how to market a book!" is the most common excuse I hear from authors. Forget marketing books. How good are you at marketing YOU? Are you or your service marketable? Can you sell yourself? If the answer is yes, you don't need to know that much about book marketing. When you "market your book," do not market it, market yourself. Market your practice, your services, your advice, your concept, your cause! If you do a good job marketing YOU, your book sales will follow.

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Borders Kiosks

2008-03-04T10:30:00.005-07:00

Follow-up to my post of February 15th, in which I noted that Borders bookstores would be installing kiosks using Lulu's software for self-publishing: the Guardian (seems to) report that the kiosks will simply mirror the experience of using Lulu online. To quote:

"Would-be authors will be able to go into the stores and use interactive kiosks to create their own books for the cost of a few hundred dollars. They can pay extra for editing, marketing and other services."

To read the whole article—which is a good summary of the new self-publishing universe in general—click here.

Better Writers: Better Books!

2008-03-03T15:58:00.007-07:00

This morning I received an email from an author that really made my day. It was from Matt Arnold, author of An Open Universe and Crossroads. The gist of the email was this:

Since publishing my novels, I've made it a habit on occasion to search through the Wheatmark bookstore and have ordered at least a half a dozen books by fellow authors. Most of them have been amongst the best books I've read and it feels good to support other authors who have self-published. I've exchanged emails with a few of the authors and we've read each other's novels....

Now, in the business of self-publishing you sometimes hear the charge: If you publish anything, surely you must publish a lot of bad books, too!

As a professional self-publishing service, we publish books that our authors want to publish. We focus on finding great authors. It's true, within certain limits, we will publish what they write... And, as seen form the quote above, it appears that better authors invariably write better books!

Check out each other's books in your genre. You will likely agree with Matt and find books that will make it to your top-10 list as well!

Don't Make Assumptions—Ask Questions

2008-02-29T08:46:00.004-07:00

For many novice authors, self-publishing can seem a daunting venture. It involves plunging yourself into an industry that you probably know very little about, and can result in expensive and time-consuming mistakes. The good new is that most of these mistakes can be easily avoided if you educate yourself before and during the process.

As a book editor and designer, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard authors shamefully admit: “I'm new at this...I’ve never done this before.” Of course you haven’t. Believe it or not, this doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Almost all the authors we publish are in the same boat—most are rookies. The good news is the learning curve can only go up.

One piece of advice I’d like to give new authors is this: Watch your assumptions. As a matter of fact, don’t assume anything. Ask questions. Remember, this is all new to you, and your publisher understands this. They don’t mind answering your questions and would prefer this to having misunderstandings later on down the line. There are many things that new authors assume, and in almost all cases, their assumptions are wrong. Here are just a few:

1. Don’t assume that you know how to prepare your manuscript so that it is in a format that can be easily understood by your book designer. Instead, ask your designer what they need. For example, I often get books that have block text on nearly every page. Block text is an excerpt of text that is set apart from the regular body text by larger margins and often smaller type. If an author wants these types of excerpts in their book, they need to format their book so that it is evident to the designer. If you are unsure about how to do this, ask your designer how they would like you to communicate this in your manuscript. Whatever you do, do not try to make text look like block text by pushing the tab button on the left side of the margin and the return button on the right side. This will only create a headache for your designer and will likely cause additional labor charges to you when all of these tabs and returns have to be taken out.

2. Don’t assume that you know how to send images to your publisher. Images can be tricky and often need to be a certain resolution in order to be book quality. Find out what these specifications are and how you need to send the images. Make sure that you indicate inside the manuscript where the images need to be placed and include captions for the images. Also understand that space constraints in book layout change after taking your manuscript from a 8.5x11-inch Word page format into a 6x9 InDesign format. That picture of Uncle Henry may no longer fit between paragraph five and six because paragraph five is now near the bottom of a page. Be flexible.

And while we’re on the subject, remember that published books are commercial items. You can’t “borrow” images you find off the Internet and use them without permission. In most cases, these images are at a low resolution anyway. If you didn’t purchase the image with permission to use it for commercial use, or you didn’t create the image yourself, then don’t use it. It’s against copyright law.

3. Don’t assume that all books are the same. What I mean by this is, don’t compare the price of your self-published, print-on-demand book with the mass-market paperbacks you see at the grocery store or in Barnes and Noble. They are two different animals. Mass-market paperbacks are printed on offset printers churning out thousands at a time. Print-on-demand (POD) books are printed on digital printers as they are ordered. The paperbacks at the grocery store will naturally cost less because of the volume involved in the printing process. But let's face it, not everyone can afford to print thousands and thousands of books at a time and then have the market appeal to sell them at the grocery store. POD technology is far superior for self-published authors, but does have some trade-offs. Because POD books are printed in small volume, some of the printing costs will go into the retail price of the book. Because of this, they will be more expensive at the retail end. However, the good news is many of the books sold online will also be POD and therefore comparable in price to your book.

That’s probably enough assumption "no-nos" for one blog post. If any of you bloggers would like to add to them, please feel free to comment. I’ll keep a running list on my end and will try to update it every now and then.

BusinessWeek Wants You to Get Published

2008-02-28T13:21:00.003-07:00

This just in: publishing a book is a smart move for your business. Yesterday, BusinessWeek ran a nice article about how to get a book published to help you grow your business.

To summarize:

1. You could try getting an agent and selling the book to a publisher of business titles.

2. You could publish the book yourself by getting an ISBN and marketing it online.

3. You could use a "transitional" publisher. (This, apparently, is a new way of referring to a "self-publishing service.")

It all sounds so simple!

All sarcasm aside, however, the article is a good introduction to the broad strokes of how book publishing works.

To read the full article, click here.

Internet Domain Name for Your Book

2008-02-25T14:57:00.003-07:00

An Internet domain name for your book is a part of some of Wheatmark's book publishing packages, and a question I often hear from authors is, What's it for?

Let me explain.

When you publish your book with Wheatmark, your book will have its web page on the Wheatmark online bookstore, as well as on most major online bookstores. Here is an example of such a bookstore page for the title, Transplanted: A Love Story:

http://www.wheatmark.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BS&Product_Code=9781587368974

This is quite a long web address, isn't it! At this point, when you set out to market your book, you can either tell people, "Go to Amazon.com or the Wheatmark website and search for the title Transplanted," or you can email them the complete web address to click on.

It doesn't have to be this hard, however.

You see, an Internet domain name for your book can serve as a shortcut that will take your audience straight to the bookstore page selling your book. Generally, the domain name is the same as or is similar to your book's title.

Here's how it works:

Click on transplanted-alovestory.com. You will see that it takes you directly to the same page as the long address above. Now all you have to do is mention the domain name and people will no longer have to search for your book. Print this domain on your bookmarks, postcards, business cards, and add it to your email signature so that everyone you contact knows about your book.

When you get a domain name for your book, it doesn't have to be pointed to your book's page on the Wheatmark bookstore site. You can set it to go to your book's Amazon.com page, or to any other web address.

Another great destination for your domain name is your book's online press kit. When you are targeting the media, you may want to set up a domain name that takes them directly to your electronic media kit. For example, the book Rangers in Combat has an online press kit located at:

http://www.bookflash.com/press_kit/lock/rangers/

The Internet domain www.rangersincombat.com takes you directly to the book's online press kit. Now you can tell journalists: "Go to www.rangersincombat.com to view my press kit."

It's that simple!

The Future of Print-On-Demand

2008-02-25T11:47:00.004-07:00

What does the future hold for independent authors? How about access to the same unlimited shelf space—the kind of space that online booksellers like Amazon currently make available to all—only inside physical "bricks-and-mortar" bookstores, instead?

The day hasn't arrived yet, but all signs point to this happening over the next several years. How will this be achieved?

Basically, by installing print-on-demand printers inside bookstores. Then, if a customer wants a book that a store hasn't got in stock—presto! they'll just print out a copy for you.

Currently, print-on-demand printers take up a lot of space (think "the whole room") but engineers are hard at work "miniaturizing" the machines for retail space.

That means that one day in the relatively near future, any book ever published will be available to any bookstore visitor instantly—or at least, in the time it takes to drink a cappuccino while they're waiting for it to be printed.

The ramifications of this are enormous for independent authors and small presses competing with big publishing houses for retail space.

For more on these ramifications, check out the article at the following link by clicking here.

Book Marketing & Social Networking

2008-02-18T14:36:00.009-07:00

One of the latest Internet trends we've been following closely at Wheatmark is the use of social networking sites to market books.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and numerous others have been touted everywhere as The Next Big Thing for selling books.

The problem, in my opinion, is that nobody's ever figured out how to generate sales on these sites—not even the companies themselves (Facebook, which is currently valued at something like 15 billion dollars [according to a segment on 60 Minutes a couple of weeks ago] has never made much in the way of revenue, and every time they try, their audience revolts).

This phenomenon (social networking sites not delivering sales) reminds me a little of attending a writer's conference last year. Many independent authors purchase booths at writer's conferences and try to sell their books to conference attendees.

The problem with this approach is that pretty much all the attendees of the conference are other writers—each who's selling his/her own book and/or attending seminars about how to write and/or market books.

So if I were trying to sell a book about how to market books, a conference would be a great place to have a booth. However, if I were selling a book about tulips, a writer's conference would not be the best place for me to go. I'd be better off at a garden show, probably.

Of course, I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong. Have you been successful using social networking sites to market a book? Please leave us a comment below telling us about your experience.

To read about the latest self-publishing service/social networking partnership in the industry, click here.

Bookstore Chain Goes "Long Tail"

2008-02-15T10:25:00.009-07:00

Borders has announced that it's bringing the "Long Tail" of publishing into its stores, the first being a reworked 28,000-square-foot outlet in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The article notes that the new store concept centers around a "Digital Center" that will "enable customers to download books, burn CDs, self-publish their own books and research their family background."

I received a press release that gave me a little more insight into what the "self-publishing" part refers to: Borders has partnered with Lulu.com to provide kiosks in their stores for self-publishing.

I couldn't figure out exactly what that means, but I'm guessing that customers can upload files to Lulu's site, then order copies of the book to be picked up at the store at a later date.

I'll keep an eye out for further details, but it certain seems that—if nothing else—independent authors are going to play a major role in 21st century bookstores.

A final note: I wonder how this move will affect Borders' relationship with its customer-authors? Barnes and Noble had a terrible problem regarding the customer service involved with this kind of relationship when it was a part-owner of iUniverse, another self-publishing service (customers kept asking when their books would be carried on B & N bookstore shelves; the answer almost always disappointed them).

The problems were so severe, apparently, that they eventually led to B & N severing its relationship with iUniverse altogether last year.

I guess Borders—a bookseller whose financial problems have been well-reported over the last few years (in large part because they completely missed the boat on online bookselling)—has decided that the possible rewards are worth the risks.

To read the full article, click here.

People Everywhere Shopping Online, Buying Books

2008-02-15T09:31:00.004-07:00

Wondering just how big the market for book sales on the Web is?

A just-released Nielsen Global Online Survey reports that more than 85% of the world's online population has used the Internet to make a purchase. That's a 40% increase in just the past two years.

What are all these people buying?

You guessed it—books. According to the survey:

1. 55% of German shoppers said they had purchased books online in the previous month

2. 45% of shoppers in the U. K. had bought books online

3. 38% of American shoppers had bought books.

Worldwide, more people shop for books online than for any other product or service: a whopping 41% of people had purchased books via the internet in the last three months.

To read the Center for Media Research's report, peel your eyes away from Amazon for a few minutes and click here!

A New Era in Book Publishing

2008-02-13T20:24:00.002-07:00

As president of the Arizona Book Publishing Association, www.azbookpub.com, for the last two and a half years, and as head of the self-publishing firm Wheatmark, www.wheatmark.com, for the last eight years, I’ve talked to hundreds of publishers and authors, and read countless articles and studies on the publishing industry. This experience has made it clear to me that a significant transition is taking place in the book publishing industry. The era of the major publisher and the bestseller is ending, and the era of the independent publisher and the micro market is beginning.

Major publishers’ titles account for an ever decreasing portion of overall book sales in the United States, while independent publishers’ titles and self-published titles account for an ever increasing portion. Similarly, bestsellers constitute an ever smaller portion of the total publishing pie, while books selling in the few thousands or hundreds account for an ever larger portion.

This shift is the result of the advent of two major new technologies: the Internet and inexpensive digital short-run printing.

The Internet contributes to this change by allowing for infinite virtual shelf space for books online. Major publishers’ business models are built around the assumption that there is a limited amount of shelf space in bookstores. Major publishers compete vigorously with one another for this finite shelf space. In their worldview the publisher that gets its books placed in the bookstores wins, the publisher that doesn’t loses. This has, over the years, resulted in publishers making major financial concessions to bookstores and bookstore chains, including low list prices, huge discounts, 100% returnability, and high prices for premium in-store placements. The result: bookstores and bookstore chains have become the least lucrative place for publishers to sell books. Happily, thanks to the Internet, independent publishers and self-publishing authors are no longer limited to the shelves of brick-and-mortar bookstores. Even self-publishing authors with only one title can sell directly to readers. Major online bookstores like Amazon.com can carry every title that every brick-and-mortar bookstore carries plus every title any publisher or self-publishing service publishes.

Inexpensive digital short run printing technology contributes to the change in the publishing landscape by allowing publishers to publish more titles, and by allowing more authors to self-publish. Major publishers’ business models are built around the assumption that all print runs need to be fair-sized and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Major publishers, therefore, eschew books appealing to small or micro markets for fear that they will be stuck with unsold inventory. Thanks to digital short run printing technology, publishers can now afford to publish more titles in shorter incremental runs without this risk, and more authors can afford to self-publish.

Independent publishers and self-publishing authors can profitably publish books that appeal to micro markets however small or geographically dispersed. And they’re doing it – the number of books published has skyrocketed in recent years. And, there is evidence that book buyers are changing their buying habits as a result of having a broader range of choices. The number of weeks the average bestselling novel remains on the bestseller list has declined precipitously in recent years. Just as big hits are becoming less frequent and less “big” in the film, television, and music industries, so bestsellers are taking up an ever dwindling portion of the total book publishing pie. Bad news for the major publishers. Good news for the little guy.

Where the Publishing Industry Is Heading: A Testimonial

2007-08-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

We do not generally post author testimonials on this book publishing blog, but this one from J Douglas Bottorff, author of many books, provides key insights into the future of the publishing industry. Here is the testimonial in its entirety:

I just received the author’s copies of my first novel, The Whisper of Pialigos, and I am extremely pleased with the quality of the final product. More than that, I couldn’t be happier with the service that Wheatmark provides. From submission to print, the company performed beautifully, flawlessly, and expediently, fulfilling everything they promise.

Working with [my editor] was a special treat. Throughout the process, she went above and beyond her call of duty to ensure that we ended up with a truly professional product. The people that have seen this book so far comment favorably on its eye appeal and layout, two extremely important aspects that are the product of [my editor's] professional eye. She was patient, always kind and gracious and it was a real pleasure working with her. Having been published twice before (nonfiction), I thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of being included in the publishing process.

With a 98% rejection rate in the field of traditional publishing, self-publishing now makes total sense. Several years of impersonal rejection slips from agents and publishers made me weary of what began to feel like an assault on my integrity as a writer. My resistance to self-publishing was based largely on what I considered a credibility issue. However, with a mounting stack of rejection letters, it became obvious that the only thing less credible than an unpublished writer of fiction was the manuscript that lay unread and unexposed inside my computer. Wheatmark has allowed me to bring my project out into the light of publication, to make it instantly available to virtually every person who owns a computer, and to answer the question, “What’s your book about?” by handing the person a real copy.

Having a book in hand has made it possible to be featured in a local newspaper, set up book signings, and submit the book as the center of discussion in a local book club, all within a week of the book’s availability. I am convinced that if I continued to pursue the path of traditional publication, I would never be able to enjoy the benefits of these simple pleasures. Anyone considering self-publication should do their homework on where the publishing industry is heading. You will find that Wheatmark, with all the included services they offer, is an excellent choice for birthing your writing dream.

J Douglas Bottorff

Taking Vanity out of Publishing

2007-07-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

pub·lish v. pub·lished, pub·lish·ing, pub·lish·es
v. tr.
1. To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale.
2. To bring to the public attention; announce. (Source: American Heritage Dictionary)

The word publishing means to make something public. Though generally it refers to printed materials such as books, articles, and magazines, the definition also includes information online.

A book can be published (i.e., made public) either through the author’s initiative and funding, or through the initiative and funding of a publishing house or other outside investor.

It’s important to note that the term publishing does not imply how a work is made public. Thus, a book made public by its author is just as published as a book made public by a traditional book publisher, small press, or any other means.

The difference between the two is simply who initiated and invested capital in the publication of the work: the author or someone else. The end result should be the same: a published book.

Vanity Publishing

“Vanity publishing” is a term frequently used to describe authors who invest their own money to publish their books.

True, some authors hire a publishing service out of “vanity.” Who wouldn’t want to see their work in print?

However, many writers also choose to publish their own work because

they believe in it
they prefer to be in charge of their book’s brand

But let’s look at another aspect of vanity in publishing.

Why do most writers seek out a traditional publisher first? For many it is a quest for validation. They believe that a publishing contract “validates” their work as being worthy of the marketplace.

For this sense of validation (dare we say, vanity?) some are even willing to forego the rights to their book.

Whether an author invests in the publishing of his or her book or a major corporation pays for it, the book can still be a publishing success. Vanity does not have to be a part of publishing, no matter who foots the bill.

But does it follow that self-published books are of less value than commercially published ones?

Perhaps it’s useful to consider an analogy. For the sake of argument, let’s use higher education: when people go to college, some receive scholarships or other forms of financial aid, and others don’t.

So—if you paid your way through school and didn’t receive a scholarship, does that mean that you’re not educated … you’re actually “vanity-educated?”

We’ll leave you to consider that question on your own!

Should You Get an Editorial Analysis?

2007-06-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

How do you ensure the success of your book in the marketplace? It’s a tricky question—one to which there’s no single, definitive answer.

There’s no guarantee that a specific book will resonate with an audience. After all, even best-selling writers release books that flop from time to time. And these are books with major advertising budgets!

There is one guarantee, however: books that have been edited almost always sell better.

Do you know how strong your book is from an editorial standpoint? This is an important question because errors affect the reader’s experience when they read your book.

We’ve all picked up a book, magazine, or newspaper and enjoyed it … until we stumbled across a misspelled word, an improper shift in tense, or a misplaced modifier.

These kinds of mistakes affect readers in two ways:

1) They pull readers’ focus away from the argument/story.
2) They make readers question the expertise/professionalism of the writer.

Either of these could lead to a writer’s worst fear: readers putting your book down permanently!

If you don’t know how strong your book is from an editorial standpoint, why not get an expert analysis?

When you get an editorial analysis of your manuscript (for the sake of this example, with Wheatmark), a senior-level book editor reads your work with an eye to your book’s strengths and weaknesses.

The editor will give you a five-to-ten page summary of how your book reads, recommend the degree to which your manuscript should be edited (Wheatmark, for example, has four different levels of editing), and edit sample pages for you to review.

(One important note: what the editor will not tell you is whether your book deserves to be published. You took all this time and effort to write your book, after all—the odds are very high that there’s someone out there who’ll want to read it!)

In my capacity as a publishing consultant at Wheatmark, I encourage every single writer who publishes with us to get an editorial analysis. I hope you can see why.

So if you’ve got a manuscript that you’re thinking about publishing, what are you waiting for?

Get started with an editorial analysis today!

Look and Search Inside a Book Online (Inside Search)

2007-06-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

Have you ever found a book online about your favorite subject, but didn’t buy it right then because you weren’t sure what was inside? You may have gotten in the car and driven to the nearest bookstore to check it out before you made your decision … and bought it online later for less.

What about the book you’ve written? Can your audience look inside it online to help them make up their minds about it? How many more people do you think would buy your book if they could look inside and make a decision to buy on the spot?

You can now have your readers browse the inside of your book. Amazon and Google have started scanning the interiors of books so that their search engines would be able to retrieve and organize information from inside printed books as well. A few days ago Microsoft launched a similar program called Live Search Books. (Wheatmark is among Microsoft’s first book publishing partners.) Here are examples of a book published by Wheatmark shown by these three vendors.

Amazon.com - click on the book's cover to see inside
Google Book Search
Live Search Books

As you can see, people can look inside and browse the book before they decide to buy it. Don’t worry, the content is secure, you can neither download it nor read all of the pages online.

The ability to look inside your book, however, is only a small part of the overall benefit of the inside search concept. Sure, it helps for readers to peek inside your book once they've found it, but what about the part of your audience that has not yet found your book? How will they find it?

Enter the real beauty of inside search. Let me explain.

Take the book mentioned above, Arizona Laws 101, as an example. You are searching for books online for information about, say, DUI laws in the state of Arizona. If all that’s available to the search engine is the title of this book, it will not show up at all in these search results, since you were not searching for the phrase in the title. But if the search engine is able to search within the book, it will see that it has a whole chapter on DUI laws in Arizona. Therefore, the book will show up in your search results.

Try it yourself: Go to books.live.com and search for the phrase “driving under the influence in Arizona.” The book will be prominently placed in the search results, and it will even show you what pages contain the words you searched for.

Is your book full of keywords and phrases that people are searching for online? Would you like to reach readers who search online for topics that your book addresses? You should definitely make your book searchable inside.

Why Self-Publish?

2007-05-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

When I first talk with them about publishing their books, many writers ask me the same question: “Why should I self-publish my book?”

Why, they ask me, should I assume the ultimate responsibility for the content, marketing, and cost of production of my book – particularly since I’ve already invested a year (or two, or three, or ten!) writing it?

There’s one simple reason I advise almost all writers (and yes, that includes writers who have so-called mainstream or traditional publishing deals) to publish their own books:

Control.

When you sell the rights to your work to a mainstream publishing house, you give up control over your book.

You lose control over three major factors:

1. Time. Your book will be put on a production schedule and released at your publishing house’s discretion. Guess what? That means we may not see your masterpiece until 2010.

2. Marketing & Publicity. It’s a harsh truth, but one every writer would do well to keep in mind: marketing people don’t always understand the product they’re marketing. Never forget: no one understands your book and your book’s audience as well as you do – no one.

3. Profits. The vast majority of writers with mainstream publishing deals earn a royalty of about $1 a book. By contrast, it’s not unusual for writers who self-publish to earn five, ten, or even twenty times that.

Of course, the theory is that the traditional publishing house will print thousands and thousands of copies of your book, then invest thousands and thousands of dollars in marketing and publicity.

So what you lose on a per-book basis you’ll make up in volume, right?

Sadly, probably not. The mainstream house will release your book and give it a few months to succeed. If it doesn’t sell well? The books get returned, and that’s the end of it.

But don’t despair. In the last few years, incredible advances in technology have allowed writers to become their own publishers.

So if you’ve got a manuscript or two lying in a drawer somewhere, now’s the time to pull them out.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to publish your book, so what are you waiting for?

Publish your book today!