The best time to start putting this together is around the time that you’re nearing the end of editing process, optimally between 3 and 6 months prior to sending the book off to print. A few of the reasons for this:

1. The obvious — you must put your best foot forward. No room for noticeable content changes, grammatical errors or even typos. Past experience has taught me that changes will continue happening right up to the night before the book goes off to print. Again, you’ll want plenty of time to make sure the excerpts from your book are perfect.
2. it’s much easier to pull excerpts from the book to include in the kit. Few things are more annoying than sending out a bunch of Press Kits only to realize that the excerpts you chose would’ve been much better had you waited.
3. when it comes to obtaining book reviews it can take up to three months to get a response. NOTE: Don’t be discouraged if it takes that long to get a ‘No Thank You’ letter — it happens. You’ll want to use blurbs from the reviews for inclusion on the Book Sheet (Synopsis), Sell Sheet and/or Press Release.

When it comes to impressing book reviewers, interviewers and even movie producers, the way to do it (without spending thousands of dollars) is through a world-class press kit. Crisp, clean design without outrageous use of a ton of fonts or sloppy graphics. There’s no way to stress how much neatness counts because this kit is essentially all your countless days of passionate writing wrapped up in a sleek, sexy package. A simple yet effective rule of thumb to work by is this: if any part of your package doesn’t look like a page out of a major newspaper or magazine that’s a sign it should be reworded, redone, or completely omitted.

Your press kit should include the following sheets:

• Press Release: a one page article that explains who you are, what the book is about, and important information about the book’s publication. NOTE: if there are any relevant ties between your book and current events this should be the focal point of your article. The more newsworthy your article, the greater the chance it will get picked up for media distribution — including interviews. This sheet is best printed yourself because it’s subject to change.
• Book Sheet (Synopsis): a one page summary of your book. If it’s fiction it should include the plot and major themes. The key here is to sell the book with an engaging synopsis yet using as little “fluff” as possible. Most writers tend to be oblivious to the fact that the people receiving their press kit see hundreds of them in a week. They catch onto fluff as if it was a baby in need of a diaper change. The more fluff there is, the less they’ll take you (and your book) seriously.
• Author Biography: a one page life history. This should be an engaging summary of who you are; mostly interesting highlights of your life accomplishments with a splash of professional and academic achievements (e.g. — you backpacked across Germany, studied tribal tattoo art from Maori elders in New Zealand, parented three kids and wrote the book while also attending law school, and etc). This should particularly include those experiences you’ve had that make you an expert on your topic. This sheet is best printed yourself because it should be considered a ‘living document’, subject to change as you gain new accolades.
• Promo Photo: This is a bit of a toss-up because ultimately it’s a call best made based on the type of book you’ve written. With some schools of thought, a promo photo of the author isn’t necessary. Still, some publishers will include the promo photo as a 3.5″x2.5″ (or smaller) on the Sell Sheet. Others will say it is imperative, particularly if the author’s image can further perpetuate an appeal that is already part of the book (e.g. – a Playboy playmate writes a tell-all book about her life as a Bunny). If you decide to include a promo photo in your press kit, I would highly recommend paying a professional photographer to take these shots; be sure to get full-size digital copies of the images at 300dpi or higher. You’ll want to get the 8″x10″ so you can resize copies of the file for use of the Sell Sheet, Bio and even a poster (see the Image Processing section for the software necessary to resize images).
• Sell Sheet: a flyer that includes all the important information about your book; title, cover image, publication date, page count, ISBN, retail price, a paragraph book summary, a paragraph (summary) from the Author Biography, and blurbs from at least one or two reviews. If possible, this should be full-color, professionally printed on 100lb Text-Gloss paper.
• Endorsement Sheet: This sheet is definitely optional, mostly because it is only worth making if you’ve got more than four or five “celebrity” endorsements. By celebrity I mean any person whose name has a level of brand awareness to it that lends credibility to the subject of your book. For example, if you’ve written a book about 80s Rock and you manage to get a blurb from a Road Manager that once worked for Motley Crüe, this would definitly be a good celeb endorsement whereas Jimmy, the “80s-Rock-Guru at your local record store” wouldn’t quite be celeb enough. On that same note, someone like a Bret Michaels or Neal Pert would be fantastic. Overall, celeb endorsements are tough to get but if you’re lucky enough to get some, run with them like your life depends on it.

Production Budget:

Here’s the point where things get interesting — production. The software and design part of putting together the Press Kit is where everything can either come together nicely or get hairy real quick.

• Software: This is by far the trickiest part of putting together your Press Kit. These disciplines can be divided into Content Processing, Image Processing, Illustration and Desktop Publishing. All four of disciplines are worthy of their own textbooks, not to mention that each software package has its own learning curve. Each can be handled in one of two main ways — do it yourself or hire a professional. Both would have been potentially costly. This is because you’d either be buying all the software and learning to do it yourself or simply paying for the professional’s labor and letting them do the bulk of the work. Aside from software piracy, the main thing that changed this playing field was the advent of Free Open Source Software (FOSS).

For those of you that don’t know, FOSS packages are generally functional clones of some Commercial software equivalent except developed and supported by “meritocratic teams of individual developers, associations of companies, businesses that provide value-add support and services, non-profit foundations, and research and academic institutions. It is increasingly seen as the global standard and lowest-risk choice for operating systems to applications, helping individuals and organizations reduce costs, increase deployment, improve standards compliance, enhance security, and avoid vendor lock-in, which means long-term software investment protection”. In plain English, FOSS came about as a result of groups of people that got together to create their own versions of commercial software, often because they were fed up with paying outrageous licensing fees, some of which even require annual payments throughout the entire time that package is used. I’ve included this information because the output of these packages is just as good as their commercial counterparts — and although the learning curves tend to be about the same, using the FOSS versions of the commercial packages can save you literally thousands of dollars in software purchases. Regardless of what packages you choose, these are the tools you’ll need to put together a professional-quality press kit.


* NOTE — All price ranges shown are dependent on which software version you purchase and the source.


Content Processing — Microsoft Office (Commercial, from $200 to $800 USD*) or Microsoft Works (Commercial, between $20 and $130 USD*). OpenOffice (Free, download from http://www.openoffice.org ). It’s hard to find any mildly computer literate person who isn’t familiar with what Microsoft Office is, or at least used one of it’s software packages. OpenOffice is a clone of Microsoft Office that is distributed for free. For those writers that aren’t too computer savvy, one of these software packages is what you’ll need to write and edit all the content for your press kit. I had considered omitting this ‘Content Processing’ paragraph until I went to the P.O. Box earlier and pulled out a special pickup slip. After presenting it to the clerk she came back with a manuscript-sized box that contained a handwritten manuscript spread out over two 180-page spiral notebooks. Some writers either prefer to live like the Uni-Bomber or they truly have no idea what tools to use. If this applies to you, don’t bother reading any further — hire a professional.


The next three sections are included just for the sake of continuity, mostly because those who don’t know the basics of graphic design can take a look at what software is involved and make a judgement call as to whether or not to hire a professional. Those who have some experience with digital photo touch-up or graphic design will already know these programs well and will be fluent in what they need to use. For those who lack practical experience, it should be noted that each area also has dual learning curves involved. The first learning curve involves the discipline itself (e.g. – Image Processing requires a basic working knowledge of manipulating graphics). The second learning curve involves the software package you decide to use (e.g. – Although Photoshop and GIMP are functionally similar, gaining mastery over one package will only make it mildly easier to learn the other).

Image Processing — Adobe Photoshop (Commercial, from $160 to $700 USD*). GIMP (Free, download from http://www.gimp.org ). For handling raster images (e.g. – photos, scans, etc.). You’ll need this for resizing book covers, photos, and other related images so they’ll fit well within any of the press kit’s sheets.


Illustration — Adobe Illustrator (Commercial, from $100 to $700 USD*). Inkscape (Free, download from http://www.inkscape.org). For handling vector images (e.g. – scalable line art logos, etc.). If you’re not sure whether or not any of your artwork is vector, you might want to read my other article discussing the difference between raster and vector images.


Desktop Publishing — Adobe InDesign (Commercial, from $200 to $900 USD*). Corel Draw (Commercial, $xxx USD*). Scribus (Free, download from http://www.scribus.net). Somewhere in between those choices (functionally and price-wise) is Microsoft Publisher (which comes with most versions Microsoft Office).

• Commercial Printing: Using online printing services like www.uprinting.com, for an 8.5”x11” slick, 2-sided full color, expect to spend between $160 and $260 for 500 pieces (depending on shipping).
• Home Printing: For the most part this refers to any off-the-shelf printer that prints in color and is a Inkjet, Deskjet, LaserJet, or better. I personally prefer the All-in-One printers, also referred to as the Printer-Scanner-Copiers. Prices start at about $200 dollars USD retail. My general rule of thumb is that if you own a color printer made after 2003 you shouldn’t run into any problems with making quality prints for the press kit.
• Paper: HammerMill 32lb (between $12 and $20 USD for a 500-sheet ream). For photographs, consider HP Premium Plus Photo Paper, Matte, 8 1/2″ x 11″, 11.5 Mil, 90 Brightness, Pack Of 25 Sheets for about $18.00 dollars USD retail. You can probably find something comparable online for a better price. The reasons for this photo paper instead of others are:
• Matte finish reduces reflection, making your photos easy on the eyes — no light “bounce” to detract from the detail and color quality.
• 11.5-mil thickness rivals professional photo stock. Extra-thick paper is designed to accommodate greater ink coverage and stand up to the frequent handling. The weight of the paper will give your photos a professional feel, too.
• Special back coating keeps prints from sticking.
• The acid-free paper won’t yellow or disintegrate over time.
• Labeled Folders (optional): Avery duo-tank folders — roughly $8.75 for 25 folders retail but as low as $117 per 100 wholesale (not including shipping). Labels (or a generic brand knockoff) 5164 — 3.5″ x 4″ Self-Adhesive Laser Mailing Labels. One pack goes a long way with 600 labels (6 to a sheet). Label maker software ranges from free to about $30, depending.

There should be two versions of your press kit. Both should be PDFs:
;

1. A web/email-friendly version between 72dpi and 96dpi, less than 5 megs in total file size, RGB (full-color video) ,
2. and a print-only version — between 150dpi and 300dpi or higher, CMYK (4-color print).

Miscellaneous Tips:

You should create the printed version first because it will have the largest combined file sizes and it’s for printed mailing. Next you create the email-friendly electronic version for emailing to the media. Use the printed materials for the top book reviewers, newspapers, websites, or other promising media, while sendng electronic versions to those sources lower on the list. The other alternative is that you can email out the electronic version if you don’t have money to spend printing and mailing press kits. My advice is to do both as your budget allows.

When it comes to printing out hard copies of the entire kit, I’d only recommend doing so if you’ve got the design skills to make it look professional. Be forwarned that if you decide to use your home printer to print any sheets other than the Author Bio and Press Release, you’ll definitely want to make sure your layout, print quality and paper are top-notch. Doing it yourself might save you some money in the short term but if the average person can tell you printed it all yourself, the reviewers will too. Anything the looks amateur runs the risk of being disregarded as inferior — costing you credibility which will cost you reviews, media coverage and ultimately book sales.

On a last note, at the risk of sounding like a blatant commercial plug I have to say this: You can find many designers, book coaches and book-oriented publicity firms to create some (or all) of the components of your press kit; often saving you time and usually being worth the money. If you’ve got the skills (or the drive to teach yourself) and are willing to do the leg work of contacting media sources yourself, developing your own press kit is the way to go, too. Whichever route you take to make it happen, just remember that attempting a book publicity campaign without any kind of a press kit is almost a sure-fire way to condemn your book to failure.

Good luck on the quest… hope this helps.

– Max Nomad

####

The following tips come from a combination of my experiences with successful book release parties, miserable failures, horror stories I’ve heard from other publishers and authors, and general Event Planning 101 I’ve learned from an “Event Planning for Dummies” book as well as talking with real event planners.

THE TOP THREE LESSONS I’VE LEARNED:

1. Don’t just do a book signing or a release party. Do an event, or at least some semblance of an event.
2. Don’t Skimp or get Chintzy with an event. Don’t go overboard with it either. Figure out your entire budget for the location, the catering, added atmosphere (e.g. – possible entertainment, a professional photographer) and the other incidentals (e.g. – cash boxes, guest book, pens, promo souvenirs, etc). For a first-time author, I would recommend against spending over 15% of the book’s production budget OR $1500 dollars USD, whichever is higher. The reason is simple: that money could be better spent on long-term marketing and promotion. At the risk of disregarding how special the book release party is, one has to keep in mind that ultimately it is meant to serve as the kickoff for your book’s entire marketing and promotional campaign.
3. Ultimately, you want everyone that attends the event to feel important (read exclusive) for being there as well as enjoy themselves.

And now for some more tips, almost typed in at random as they come to me.

THE VENUE:

• There are many types of venues to choose for your release event — and rarely should they be your typical bookstore. I found that reserving a small sports-oriented restaurant with a bar (250-300 person occupancy) worked well. The farther out you reserve it in advance, the better the chances you get the date you want. Also, work it in so that the establishment is also catering the event (I know that seems obvious but I’ve already heard of a couple of situations where the writer tried to reserve a restaurant and bring in someone ELSE to cater). Expect to spend no less than $500 dollars on this aspect alone. In my opinion, it’s well worth it. Aside from putting your best foot forward and taking into account that there’s no telling what members of the local press or potential book buyers will be present, there is a tiny overlooked item that often plays a major factor — the cell phone. When people are at a good party with good food and good drink and they’re stimulated and it seems to be an open affair, they are prone to call their friends and invite them out. You want everyone that comes to this event to feel important as well as enjoy themselves, which will not only result in more book sales right there but the impression will carry on indefinitely.
• The reason I recommend a sports-oriented restaurant-bar is because they generally have plenty of televisions throughout the place. Maybe reserve one television at the bar to actually show sports (or whatever) but use all the other televisions to show any kind of video that will help enhance the ambiance that goes along with the theme of the author’s book. A multimedia slideshow works perfect for this, something that showcases photos of the author, scenes and subjects in the book, and maybe product shots of the book itself. Again, it all depends on the author’s book, prospective readers, etc. Be creative with it — as long as it FITS.
• There are several reasons I recommend against bookstores for your release event. The average independent bookstore isn’t attached to any kind of restaurant or cafe. This means that your food options will be limited, regardless of your catering budget — bookstore managers don’t want food or drink stains on their floors or their merchandise. Bookstores don’t have wait staff that are trained to constantly clean as they go along, meaning more work for the staff and your volunteers. The typical bookstores also aren’t equipped with any kind of decent audio/video systems. Most first-time authors that decide to release their books by doing a simple book signing in a bookstore quickly come to learn that it will be the longest, most desolate-feeling couple of hours of their lives. I’ve seen it happen and it was about as enjoyable as being stranded on the side of the highway in a broken down car.

PEOPLE (THE ONES ASSISTING THE AUTHOR):

• You’ll want to have at least 2-3 people on hand to help you. Preferably one person should have experience counting out money fast (e.g. – someone who has worked in a restaurant, accounting, etc). The other person should be ready to act as a runner to take money from the cash box when it gets full and move it in the back. If invitation-only policy is strictly enforced, the third person should be at the door (or with whoever is working the door).
• If available, secure 2-3 people to “take pictures and video”. If one of them is a seasoned (or professional) photographer, that’s great — you’ll primarily depend on this person to take all your best shots. The other person should be roaming around taking candid photos throughout the event. If a camcorder is available, a third person should be using it, both for candid shots and also to record the author’s speech when it is time to do an actual reading or just talk about the book and thank everyone for coming out. My preferences would be that both cameras and the camcorder *all* be digital. No offense to film lovers but in this case it will cost much more to capture alot less, not including the cost of getting the rolls developed. Based on the average storage card capacity of most cameras these days, going strictly digital with 2 cameras and 1 camcorder will give you anywhere between 500 and 1000+ photos and anywhere between 2 and 9+ hours of video footage. You want to document this event as much as possible and between the digital photos and footage, a promotional video can be edited together using any modern PC or Mac with rudimentary video editing software (the stuff used to put together home movies).

SHOWCASING OTHER TALENT:

• If there is a fit (and the key word is IF), consider inviting another artist, photographer or musician to be present at the event. If it’s a visual artist/photographer/whatever, have that person bring in some of their work and set it up gallery-style. Aside from adding flavor to the event, the co-promotion has many possibilities, including splitting the cost of any promo printing. If this other person is selling copies of their own work, let them handle their own money and keep the cash completely separate.

HANDLING THE BOOKS AND THE MONEY:

• Have a couple of people present to help with selling the books (refer to “PEOPLE” section above).
• With the exception of the books set out on the table for immediate sale, all other copies should still be in boxes and several of the boxes should be stowed under the table(s) where the author and the person handling the cash drawer are sitting. Cover the table(s) with tablecloths. Someone should be at this table at all times while books are being sold.
• Get two (2) locking cash boxes, the simple Officemax variety should do well. Also, get a stack of some latenight deposit bags from your bank (if you’ve got a business account with them they’ll gladly give you a bunch of them to get started).
• Get the restaurant manager to start you off with some change. $100 in change is a nice round amount to start off with because it can easily be subtracted when it’s time to cash out.
• Have a big-button calculator on-hand along with pencils, pens and a notepad, mainly needed for the money counts. You also might consider buying one of those money detection markers to keep in the box. Officemax sells one for about $14 dollars. Granted, it may seem like overkill but if you anticipate the possibility of people paying with $50 or $100 dollar bills (which happens often if the book retails for over $20 dollars and they’re buying multiple copies), the cost of the marker spent would be a cheap in comparison to the hassle of getting beat by a fake bill AND the losing the books.
• Write up a cheat sheet that shows the cost of up to 10 or 15 copies of the book and stick it on the underside of the cashbox lid so the person handling the money can see it when accepting money. This way, although the calculator will be available, whoever is handling the drawer can easily calculate exact change at a glance, thus keeping the line moving.
• Every time your cash box begins to overflow and there’s the need to clear out some money, take one of the night deposit bags, count off all but $100 in change (and do so several times to be sure its accurate) and put the money in the deposit bag. Have whoever did the count to write the amount and their initials on a slip of paper (written in ink), put it inside the deposit bag (where it is visible through the plastic) then seal the deposit bag and let one of your helpers take it into the back and put it in the other cash box, preferably somewhere in the manager’s office.
• If your event is going to run late into the night and book sales have cleared at least a few thousand dollars, ask the restaurant’s manager about making arrangements to store your cash boxes in the safe overnight so you can pick them up the next day. Sometimes better safe than sorry, especially if the author and everyone involved with selling the books has started drinking to celebrate.

STUFF RELATED TO THE AUTHOR:

• What seems to work best is to position the author’s table(s) within eyesight of the entrance, somewhere in the middle between the front door and the other seating area closest to the bar. Consider positioning the catered food somewhere either across from the author or further into the establishment yet still visible from the front door. Do NOT position the food any closer to the front door than the author is. Since every place is different, it’s strictly a judgment call. From where the author is sitting, the person handling the cash drawer should be on his/her side closest to the entrance. The idea is for people to come in and see activity, get in line (if there is one) leading toward the author’s table, buy one or more copies of the book, then sit down at the end of the table with the author as s/he signs the copies and chats for a few minutes, get up, go fix themselves a plate, then sit down and eat. Sooner or later, people will also buy a few drinks from the bar. After a few plates and a few drinks, people begin to mingle which, believe it or not, will also help book sales during the course of the event.
• Have author and publisher business cards available on the part of the table where people are paying for their copies. Consider also having promo giveaways or bookmarks that match the books, too.
• Have a guest book available for people to sign.
• If this event is going to last at least 4-5 hours, have the author bring a complete change of clothes along with a small bag of basic toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc). Not only does this cover the author in case something gets spilled on him/her, s/he can also go and freshen up as needed. Always better to be prepared than for John-Doe-Author having to explain a hundred times how got a Merlot or meatball stain on his shirt or the garlic-and-Chardonnay on Jane-Doe-Author’s breath is kickin’ like Bruce Lee’s Chinese Connection.

MUSIC:

• This really depends on the type of crowd expected to show. Sometimes it’s best to hire a general-purpose deejay or a deejay specializing in music that fits the environment in the book (e.g. – if the novel is set Harlem in the early 70s, a deejay that specialized in old pre-Disco Soul & R&B music would be great). Other times it might be best to go with a live group, like a jazz trio playing lightly in the background. And still, other times you might be able to get away with having someone put together a mix-CD of several hours of music.
• If I had to handle the music and wanted to save money, I would install Winamp (http://www.winamp.com) on a laptop and load up about 10 hours of music that fits the crowd (average music CD holds about 1 hour of music). I’d then have it play songs at random using the cross fade feature so the next song starts to slowly fade in as the current song fades out. I’d make arrangements with the venue manager to go in a few days prior to the event to plug it into their sound system and test it out.

There are probably a ton of tips that I’ve completely overlooked with this list but hopefully this will help give you perspective on the kinds of things to think about.

Hope those help… good luck with the event.

– Max Nomad

My reaction was somewhere between sympathetic and stoic. Even on the fringe of the publishing  industry where small publishers like BGP exist, annual rejection letters can easily outnumber good manuscripts 100-to-1.  When we chatted about it via Instant Messenger, some of her frustrations came out as if by being a publisher I was somehow in cahoots with the publishing house that rejected her. The following is a rough transcript of my side of the conversation that I whipped up into a short essay meant to provide some insight into what rejection letters can mean.

With all sincerity, I feel your pain but I can’t bring myself to offer an apology about a rejection letter. If I did, it would be fake. Rejections are part of the game and half the time they have nothing to do with the quality of your manuscript or whether or not you have talent. This is especially true when it comes to the big publishing houses because they don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts anyway and generally the only way to get to them is through certain literary agencies they deal with. Even still, because these publishing houses often have dozens of editors across multiple imprints, if they even suspect that another editor within their conglomerate has a title in production similar to your manuscript you’re going to get rejected. And sometimes you might get rejected just because it’s Tuesday.

Aside from all the obvious advice about constantly striving to make sure your package (query letter, synopsis/sample chapters, and manuscript) is tight, you might want to focus your energies on landing a literary agent. The reputable agencies will only agree to represent you if they think they can sell the title to a publisher and if they’re really on their game they might be able to have several publishers bidding against each other to buy the rights to your book. They won’t get paid until the book is sold, usually for 15% commission.

The only thing that rejection letters mean is that someone doesn’t “get it” — whether the publisher doesn’t understand what you’ve got to sell or you don’t understand what the publisher needs — and it’s different in every scenario.

Hope that helps… Good luck on the quest.

– Max Nomad

Starting your own publishing company these days isn’t a costly endeavor. It’s publishing and marketing the books that will hurt your bank account.

If you’re looking for investors, my advice is not to waste your time. Venture Capital companies have no interest in funding startup publishers, the typical Angel Investor (a private individual with money) usually expects rate of return on their investment (15-20% ownership equity in the company PLUS 15-20% interest on their investment), and trying to raise the funds from Friends/Family/Fools is often a bad way to go because it may take you YEARS and quite a few costly mistakes before you even begin to see any real profit from your publishing startup.

If you’re looking for grants to apply for, a couple of great places to start are http://www.grants.gov/ and http://www.federalgrantswire.com/. The thing to keep in mind is that none of these sources will just give you a grant. It’s more than just filling out a form, too. In most cases you’ll basically need to have a business plan (complete with financials) and a rudimentary marketing plan. On top of that you’ll need to write up documents specific to the submission requirements of each grant source. It’s a good idea to have your plans done anyway because if you want any kind of assistance from your local branch of the Small Business Administration they won’t even take you seriously until they’ve reviewed and approved your Business Plan and financials. On top of that, the other issue you’ll be faced with is that it is possible to spend weeks doing research and getting your plans tight only to find that some of those magical sources of state/federal funding have either long since dried up or put on hold indefinitely.

Case in point: During summer of 2008 I attempted to go down the yellow-brick road with the SBA to get some funding for a separate business venture I became involved with. All paths lead to a very nice woman whose Yoda-like knowledge of business funding programs enabled her to finish my sentences in regards to any programs I was interested in applying for. She would tell me that the source had become defunct or put on hold due to the war in Iraq. Judging by the gravel in her voice that alluded to a daily diet of Scotch and cigarettes, I knew better than to sit around waiting for those sources to change status anytime soon.

I’ll gladly share more about my experiences starting up my publishing company (including some really big success news I’ve been keeping under wraps) but it almost sounds like you need to put the concept of publishing aside for a minute. The question you really have to ask yourself is “Am I really ready to start and manage a business?”

> I’m putting my head up over the
> trench and risking being shot down again. We all prepare Business
> Plans which we spend a lot of time and money on.
> …snip…
> The original loan applicant can be
> turned away but the plans (or a copy) stay in the files. They are a
> valuable asset to the right person and that person is the one who
> will pay a handsome kickback for the information. This could be your
> book marketing plan and details of its unique plot and characters.
> Maybe even a complete manuscript.

First and foremost, I don’t know international law, I’m definitely not a lawyer, and you should seek legal counsel in your area for specifics. With all those disclaimers out of the way, here in the U.S. there are several ways to protect yourself from something like this although this kind of theft is pretty uncommon with banks.

1. A Non-Disclosure Non-Circumvention Agreement (NDNCA). For anyone that is unfamiliar with this, a Non-Disclosure basically a document between two or more parties that is used to give the owner/preparer legal recourse if the other party doesn’t keep what is seen or read confidential. The Non-Circumvention addition keeps the same party from “going around you” to use this information.
2. Although the NDNCA is usually presented as a separate document it is also possible to tie it directly into your Business Plan. At the advice of a Corporate Attorney that had retired from AT&T, we added a “Restricted Use” page right after the Title Page where we placed all the Non-Disclosure/Non-Circumvention verbiage. We then placed a disclaimer in the footer of every page basically stating that all content on that page was subject to what was set down in the Restricted Use page.

As far as banks stealing business ideas from the average Loan Applicant, I won’t say it can’t happen — but it’s a long shot. For starters, and this is going to sound pretty warped, but banks here in the U.S. generally won’t loan a small business money UNLESS IT DOESN’T NEED IT.

Yes, you read that right. According to a friend of a friend, a Loan Officer who took pity on me once upon a time, explained it best:

• The average small business loan applicant might prepare a Business Plan that is decent (or even above average) but, more often than not, their Financial spreadsheets fall woefully short.
• Thinking that a smaller loan is better to ask for, the average applicant will request an amount of money for a startup that would get it classified as “undercapitalized” which, from a bank’s standpoint means two things: (1) the venture stands a better chance of failure and (2) they won’t make any money off the interest. This is why many of your larger banks have shyed away from doing micro-loans.
• Many loan applicants are coming to the bank with a business that has no financial track-record. As a result, in order to be considered for the loan the business owner would have to have adequate personal assets to put up as collateral. A house. Cars. Boats. First born children.

As far as bank managers stealing business concepts, the reality is that most business plans are just high-level descriptions of what’s going to happen and how, who is going to be involved, and some early growth milestones toward profitability. They don’t tell HOW to make a product or how to adequately manage a service’s day-to-day operations. They might discuss trends in an industry but they don’t show how to spot and navigate the business through them. Simply put, just because you give an Astronomer a set of plans that doesn’t mean s/he can become a successful Astronaut.

And last but not least, to tie it into the Publishing Game, according to that associate I mentioned earlier, many lending institutions (at least here in the U.S.) tend to have very little regard for Small Publishers. Every book is a gamble. Profit these days is just a numbers game. Because we don’t need to have our own printing presses or distribution vehicles to be successful, our liquid assets are a joke — basically some used office furniture, computers, software, books, archives of digital media, unsold inventory, and maybe a website. If the average small publisher goes out of business there’s nothing for a bank to use to recoup for losses. In many cases there isn’t even enough worth selling to pay for someone to take the remaining assets to auction.

Just some more food for thought…

–  Max Nomad

What I’m about to say may sound pessimistic but it’s coming from a combination of personal experience, observation, and input from some very pragmatic veterans of the industry. Back in 2001, as my first book production project I self-published “Midnight Sketches”, a collection of poems and short stories. I don’t consider myself a poet so it was more a combination of a labor of love and a perfect way to see if I could master the technical/design aspects of book production. Since then, here are a few things I learned:

• These days, poetry tends to be something alot of people like to write but not alot of people like to buy. As a result, outside of the academic presses that usually only publish the works of Literature professors and Poets Laureate there aren’t too many publishers that will take on poetry as book projects.
• If I were you, I would seriously consider starting off by self-publishing your collection — only if you’re willing to dedicate the time (months, sometimes over a year) to learning how to properly produce the book, invest the money into it as a labor of love, AND you are willing to constantly do poetry readings where you’ll sell copies in the back of the room. Might even want to consider putting together an audio CD version of the book, too. If you decide to self-publish, there are plenty of articles in this Guerrilla Publishing section here that can help you get started — take the time to read them all.
• Unless you’re a Maya Angelou, a Diane DiPrima or a Jim Carrol, without the constant poetry readings to sell your books (and maybe even some touring), there’s a good chance your sales won’t go reach beyond friends and family and the occasional Christmas influx. The return of investment is often slow at best, hence the reason many publishers outside of those rare Lawrence Ferlinghetti types won’t take that chance on publishing unknown poets, if any poetry at all.
• There’s a huge difference between “regular” poets (sometimes called “Book Poets”) and Spoken Word poets. Spoken Word poets are basically the revival of Beat Poetry mixed with a strong Hip Hop influence and often lyrical in nature. For some reason these two art forms often don’t mix well to say the least. Spoken Word poets often don’t study classical poets (or disregard it entirely) and Book Poets (especially those in academia) often don’t respect Spoken Word works as having much literary merit. I mention this because you really need to know your market and which way your poetry tends to lean so you’ll know how and where to promote it. A lack of understanding the difference between the two WILL make for some awkward appearances and poetry readings — and it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN. If your style is more like Yeats and the crowd is expecting Sonja Sanchez, don’t expect a standing ovation…
• If your sales pass the 5000 units mark, then you might consider shopping around for either an agent that represents poets (rare) or begin that quest for a publisher again. If you pass the 10,000 units mark, some of those few poetry publishers will probably reach out to you before you contact them. Either way, that’s ALOTTA READINGS…

Hope that helps shed a little light on what to expect. Good luck on the quest…
]]> http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/a-word-about-poetry-observations-on-publishing-poetry-books/feed/ 0 http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/pod-and-you-or-how-to-tell-the-difference-between-print-on-demand-vs-publish-on-demand-without-checking-for-an-adams-apple/ http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/pod-and-you-or-how-to-tell-the-difference-between-print-on-demand-vs-publish-on-demand-without-checking-for-an-adams-apple/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:07:57 +0000 Max Nomad http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/?p=52 > I’m interested in hearing any response to this question. I’m looking
> into publishing for myself…going through the research phase for the
> best solution. My question to you: have you looked at multiple
> quotes to compare prices? The price quote below seems really
> expensive for 120 pages (especially since their only using 60 pages
> since it is double-sided). For those of you who have went through
> this process, please give feedback. My head is spinning right now
> because I’m looking into self-publishing…getting everything all
> twisted up since their is so much information out their. Are POD
> services the right way to go? You’re not really self-publishing
> since the POD owns the ISBN and not you!

FYI, there’s a common misconception between POD printers (Print On Demand, the technology) and a POD publishers. Self-publishing through a POD publisher you are essentially publishing using their resources and ISBN number but you’re paying for it. It’s essentially a cousin of subsidy or vanity publishing.

POD printers refer to print houses that utilize POD technology to produce books and offer other services to customers ranging from self-publishers to larger independent publishing houses. Many don’t offer any support as far as ISBN numbers, editorial, or graphic design support — all they want is your finished layout in electronic format, how many you want printed, and your payment for those copies. Once you’ve gotten your book set up with a POD printer, basically you’re always just a phone call away from getting another batch printed and shipped, whether it’s sent directly to you, distributor/wholesaler or a bookseller, usually ranging from between 1 and 1000 copies at a pop. If you’re looking at self-publishing and really want control over your destiny, this is the way to go. Set up your own company, get your own block of 10 ISBN numbers from Bowkers (I think they only sell them in minimums of 10-blocks now), and read up on all the do’s and don’ts of the endeavor. A book you definitely want to read before embarking on this trip is “The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book, 14th Edition” (by Dan Poynter, Para Publishing, ISBN #1568600887). If you’re serious about self-publishing, don’t bother checking it out of a library; the book itself is a must-have. You’ll end up reading and rereading it till the pages begin to curl.

Even though some might disagree with this, but when it comes to looking at self-publishing as a means to get your book in print, approach the entire project as a labor of love versus a strictly money-making venture. Unless you’re someone who is actively touring and can sell your books in the back of the room (e.g. – poet, self-help/motivational speaker, subject expert, etc), you’ll find that the toughest part of the equation is distribution. Although larger distributors like Ingram have special programs set up for small publishers, they still shy away from the one-shot self-publishers because, well, most self-publishers only have one book to sell and many haven’t put their book through the rigorous editorial and quality controls that established publishers tend to. With that in mind, that might contribute to the collection of horror stories that are circulating around. Producing a marketable book (cover design, layout, proofreading/substantive editing, printing) can easily cost a few thousand dollars minimum, not including miscellaneous fees, marketing, promo and shipping expenses. Most people that make the self-publishing trek eventually run into the Distribution Problem; effectively it’s the main Barrier to Entry into the Publishing Game that keeps larger publishing houses and POD publishers (e.g. – Xlibris, etc) in business. Once encountered, the self-publisher will find him/herself at an interesting crossroads where they end up doing one of a few things:

1. Selling copies while doing speaking engagements or readings with varying degrees of success (depends on the subject, the author, newsworthiness, quality of content, etc),
2. Occasionally selling copies online or by word of mouth, sometimes giving them away to friends and family as gifts,
3. Decide to grow a small publishing company (starting out as a side business) by building up enough of a catalog of works by other authors (including themselves), and using this as a means of leveraging their way into some good distribution deals,
4. Luck into a deal to sell the book to a larger publisher after having made the proof of concept work,

- or -

5. They get impatient or completely turned off by the whole publishing idea and walk away from it pissed, never looking back.

I started as #2 and ended up steadfast in slot #3. Again, as a labor of love, the expense just to reach those crossroads isn’t that bad. You love what you do, what you’ve written about, and by taking that self-publishing journey you’ve probably learned alot of things along the way about yourself, the craft, and God knows what else. Now, embarking on self-publishing as a task to serve a strictly as a money-making business venture, it’s a different story.

The Publishing industry isn’t exactly barnstorming CNBC with stories of high yield profits, especially these days with all the shifts between old and new technologies and business practices. Larger publishing houses are running on shoestring budgets to get maximum profits, wholesalers are still getting their books at a fraction of the cost from the publishers, and once technologies such as digital ink and e-paper become stable enough for widespread use in the marketplace, the publishing industry is going to undergo other sweeping transformations as rapid as those that hit the music industry after the invention of MP3s and the iPOD. Hope that helps. Whatever is going to happen over the next 10-20 years, it’s going to be interesting. Enjoy the ride.

Good luck with it.

– Max

The short answer is “No”. The math doesn’t add up.

Here’s some math to uphold the regular self-publishing side. To backup the profitability claims of an author’s title produced by Lulu, Xlibris, PublisherAmerica, or any similar Author Mill or modified Vanity press I welcome and encourage anyone else with spreadsheets to post their numbers.

To start, let’s say we’ve got a basic Title P&L for a 5.5″x8.5″ 144-page, 4-color on 10pt C1S (color cover w/ bleeds), 50# paper (b&w, no bleeds), perfect bound trade paperback that will retail for $12.95. Going through a POD printer like Lightning Source or Bookmobile, we’re going to say that for a print run of 500 units they’ll cost $3.00 per unit (which is high for a book of this type). With $2900 invested ($1300 in book production (which is low), $1500 in printing, and $100 for freight), selling all 500 copies would bring in $6,475 dollars — $3,575 after the COGS is taken out.

Granted, after some provisions and G&A is taken out, there’s only $1,198 left (about 19% to contribute to profit). This means you’ve already got the money to flip for the next print run of 500. The $1,198 you can either pocket or turn around and flip right back into some aspect of the next print run. Since we’re going to assume that there’s no need to recreate anything for the next 500 unit print run I didn’t bother to make up another chart. If you subtract the cost of production and do the rest of the math you’ll see that at the end of selling the next 500 copies you’ll net a 39% profit of $2,498.

Short of any major changes to the book materials, the printer, and other expenses (marketing/advertising, G&A, etc), this is a rough approximate of what a self-publisher could expect to earn on the title with each 500 unit print run.

NOTE: It is in the COGS (production) expenses that can be amortized over time to allow for growth without affecting how much can be invested in the next print run. For the sake of this example, I’m figuring that the production cost will be completely covered with this print run.

*** Both charts focus solely on direct to consumer sales and do not include other sources of income from Trade and Commercial Accounts. For the self-publisher, there are also line items that could have easily been removed but I left them in, mostly to show how these numbers can handle all sorts of expenses and still come out profitable.

Now, the following numbers are on the premise that things have grown to a point where it’s time to jump from POD to offset printing press. Same book, higher print run (10,000 units), lower cost per unit. I’m using $1.50 as a rough average; the only way I could include a set price would be to get quotes from several offset book printers.

Admittedly for this illustration I didn’t bother to recalculate some things like marketing expenses, freight, warehousing and one-time offset setup costs, but there’s still enough data here to more than present the case for self-publishing versus using one of the vanities.

About $16,400 invested into production to roughly yield a 74% profit of $95,960.

NOTE: It is in the COGS (production) expenses that can be amortized over time to allow for growth without affecting how much can be invested in the next print run. For the sake of this example, I left in the production cost (figuring that the layout would have to undergo some modifications for offset printing). I also left it in so the production cost will be completely covered with this print run and unnecessary in following print runs…

Figuring in freight and/or warehousing costs (which weren’t accurately reflected in the spreadsheet), we’re still looking at somewhere between 60-75% profit for a self-publisher / small-publisher, huh?

Like I said from jump regarding my comments about Lulu and the Vanities — it wasn’t my opinion. The Math speaks for itself.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Class is dismissed.

How does a self-publisher reduce their chances of making those mistakes? Research. Expect to spend at least between $75 and $250 dollars on books to learn the basics. Buy these books and keep them in your library because you’re going to need to review them over and over again from manuscript preparation all the way to the marketplace. If you’re not willing to invest this money into preliminary research, do yourself a favor and forget about self-publishing altogether. Professional quality books just don’t happen by themselves — they come about through production experience, whether your own experience or someone else’s. Buying the following books are the cheapest way to get that experience:

• The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (this is a MUST have for anyone that’s serious about writing, editing and/or publishing). Costs about $60 dollars. The CMoS contains almost everything you could conceivably need to know about editing, the manuscript preparation process, and how to format every inch of a standard book.
• The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book by Dan Poynter (or some other book on the basics of self-publishing; there are several on the market and there’s no harm in reading more than one).

There are other books you’ll need but these will get you started. After reading the self-publishing stuff you’ll get a better fix on the process and know whether or not it’s truly for you. If after reading those you decide that you still want to pursue publishing your own book, here’s a real rough ballpark of how much you can expect to spend on production:

• Editing: up to $4.00 per page (there are different types of editors and some kinds of books will require more than one editor). Many freelance editors will charge you a flat rate that works out to be roughly $1 or $2 dollars a page. Typically I budget for at least $500 or $600 dollars (including manuscript printing and shipping).
• Cover Design: usually no less than $500 and no more than $3000 for a professional design with custom graphics and photographs and the rights to all of the above.
• Interior Design: around $2.00 per page (more for graphic-heavy pages), can be packaged with the cover design depending on the deal you work out with the graphic designer.
• ISBN numbers: Around $270 dollars. These come in a minimum block of 10. Buying them will also get you into the Bowker’s “Books in Print” database. No ISBN number means your book is not officially published, so don’t even think about skipping this step. Check with R.R. Bowker, the exclusive U.S. ISBN and SAN Agency for current prices.
• Bar code: Around $10 dollars, sometimes free depending on who you know. The bar code will contain the ISBN number and often the price, too. Most bookstores won’t even consider stocking your product without a bar code.
• BISAC Subject Heading: This category designation is usually on the top left of the back of the book or near the price. The official source is the Book Industry Study Group’s “BISAC Subject Heading Package”, sold for $25 dollars from their website. I’ve seen the complete listing online for free so the price is debatable, but you want to have your book’s category noted on the back cover so bookstore clerks know how to stock your title. I’ve had independent bookstore owners tell me if they receive book submission packages that don’t have a BISAC code on the back cover they won’t even open the book.

NOTE: These solely relate to production costs and does NOT cover the costs associated with printing or shipping.

So, all in all, to self-publish a professional-quality 224-page novel if you budget for $6000 you’ll probably cover your initial production costs. If you cut a deal with an experienced graphic designer you can easily cut that cost in half, meaning that the $6000 will also cover printing the first few hundred or so. The beauty is, once it’s paid off, it is paid off, and for every print run after that your major overhead is the cost of printing.

And before all the Author Mill and Lulu champions chime in to recommend those services, by self-publishing this way you have a much greater chance of having your title noticed by a major literary agency and possibly picked up by a major publisher. I know this from personal experience since one of the titles I recently published and packaged, NEXT STOP by Ivan Sanchez, was picked up by Levine Greenberg Literary Agency and recently sold to Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Bohemian Griot Publishing LLC and Ivan Sanchez also made the deal happen WITHOUT selling Touchstone the film/TV rights or the audio book rights, both of which they have joint ownership with in two other production companies. So, yeah, trust me when I say if you’re going to self-publish, this is the way to go.

Hope that helps put things into perspective.

As always, best of luck on your path.

– Max