Editorial
(Excerpted
from Book
Biz,
Vol. XVIII, No. 3)
TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT? WHY YOU CAN’T!
The easy way would be to “upload” your material to any one of those ubiquitous
websites that promise – erroneously – to make you a Self-Publisher. Their
program downloads your files and flows them, sight unseen,into a pre-set book
pattern that makes everything fit within those parameters, ending up with a
book virtually untouched by human hands.
And a book that you don’t even own.
What?!? How can that be? You wrote the
manuscript and paid them todevelop it into a book, right?
Right, but they put your book’s ISBN registration in their
name, so they effectively own your book. That means you’re not Self-Publishing.
The way to correct that is to use a production service
– like PPC Books, but any one you can find that will guarantee to
register the ISBN in your name. (And the only one offering to do that
free is PPC
Books.) Regardless, the
answer is to insure that ISBN is registered in your name, so all revenue from
sales goes to you. Anytime you’re offered “royalties” (also known on the Net as
chump-change) you know you don’t own your book; whoever’s doing the
offering does.
As we’ve long stressed, you own your Copyright, which those trying to register
your ISBN in their name will invariably resort to as a copout, when
questioned. But 99.9% of, say, Simon & Schuster authors own their
Copyright, while they surely don’t own their books – because the ISBN isn’t in
their name. It’s legit with publishers like that who pay advances and real
royalties – but website “publishers” aren’t even a distant cousin to those.
PPC Books Now Offers A
As noted in the last Book
Biz newsletter, PPC Books
was chosen by R.R. Bowker, the sole U.S.
provider, as one of a limited number of publishing facilities to introduce
their new Single-Book ISBN (International Standard Book Number). It’s designed
for authors who are Self-Publishing just one book, rather than the
10-title version that everyone was previously forced to use, and it’s
considerably less costly.
In today’s market, just
about every book except a family album gets scanned at some point-of-sale in a
store. An ISBN, therefore, is realistically no longer a choice, so this new
development is very much welcomed.
Realizing
that the additional cost of an ISBN has deterred far too many authors from Self-Publishing,
PPC
Books has arranged to provide a
Single-Book ISBN & Bar Code free of charge for every book we
produce.
Is any Internet publishing
company doing this? Not exactly, to put it mildly.
You may have encountered
Internet ads for ISBNs ranging from $15 to $50, sold – illegally, in fact – by
companies who simply use their own stock of ISBNs, registering your book in
their name. So whatever you pay for it is wasted money. Even more commonly,
it’s assumed that a company offering Self-Publishing services on the
Internet will include an ISBN; most will, but at a high price – the
ownership of your book, which they also register in their corporate names,
using their own ISBNs. That’s quite likely the biggest scam in publishing
today.
PPC Books’ offer of a Single-Book ISBN & Bar Code at no cost to you
includes registering that ISBN in your name, so you retain full
ownership of your book and receive all revenue from it, just as we’ve been
doing all these years. Only now you save well over $100.
The 10-title ISBN is still
available – at a considerable discount. And the Single-Book version doesn’t
preclude doing another book; it can be repeated as many times as you like – and
the same offer applies: free with book production.
This should be your
only chance for a free ISBN & Bar Code, registered in your
name, so if that cost has held you back, take advantage of this great deal
to make your entry into Self-Publishing feasible. Go for it!
(Excerpted from Book Biz,
Vol. XIII, No. 4)
OK, You’ve Finished Your
Book — Now What?
In today’s publishing climate, here are your options:
• Mainstream Publishing Route
• SELF-PUBLISHING
• Internet Vanity Publishing
• Print-On-Demand
Want to know the difference? Read on…
Mainstream
Alas, unless
you’re a celebrity with an exposé or you are incredibly well connected,
mainstream publishing is virtually out -- at least until you have a track
record.
SELF-PUBLISHING
Self-Publishing
is absolutely the best way to get that track record -- the one that’s followed
by the big publishers, who then offer contracts for books that show even
geographical promise (e.g.: If you can attract serious attention with sales and
publicity in your local area, the field reps will be watching.)* But to truly
Self-Publish -- and retain the critical rights to your book (otherwise you
can’t sell it, obviously), use a service like PPC Books, where
everything you need to produce your book is available (click here to see a sample) -- including the ISBN in your
name -- but you only pay for what you use…and own your book outright.
That’s a must!
*(Think that doesn’t happen? Think again: Jamise L. Dames
managed to sell 30,000 copies of her Self-Published Mamma’s Baby, Daddy’s
Maybe, found an agent at BookExpo in L.A., and Atria Books, a division of
Simon & Schuster, recently won an auction for her book with a six-figure
bid!)
Internet Vanity
If you publish
through a Net Vanity outfit, forget any future: They own your book, because
they invariably register the ISBN in their name. Yes, you’ll be assured that
you own the Copyright, but so do 99.9% of all authors, including those with
Random House and the like -- but they have little or no control over the
production or marketing of the book, because that ISBN directs the flow of
revenue. It may sound like a Random House-like publisher-author relationship,
but with a Net Vanity “publisher” that’s absolutely not the case: the former is
a storied company investing in your book; the latter is an online wannabe, with
little or no investment or promotion, looking to enrich its own stockholders
with sales of your book -- primarily to you! That’s right, their
well-documented biggest margin of profit is on sales to the author at inflated
prices; that’s the very hook they have used to attract investors.
The only
remaining option is really so limited that it hardly applies. If you want just
a few copies for friends and relatives, P-O-D will serve that purpose -- but
expect to receive only what you submit, as you’ll get no edit, design or
formatting help there. Obviously, if you’re looking to market your book and
sell in any volume, this is a prohibitive route -- because of the
cost-per-book, too. That forces you to price the book too high to effectively
sell it, so why bother?
For over 30 years we've produced quality books, newsletters and
magazines for authors, as well as corporate clients. We help authors do the
most viable thing in today's virtually closed mainstream book publishing
market: Self Publish. By providing professional, sensitive editing,
formatting, design & typesetting, proofreading, and quality printing &
binding - complete book production services - we let you concentrate on the
most important element - writing your book. (Please see our What We Provide feature section for further details; in
the case of camera - ready books, you simply choose whichever of these services
you need.) This attractive, economically Self Published book -
indistinguishable from bestsellers produced by commercial book publishers - is
then shipped to you (at no additional cost), ready for bookstore
distribution or private use.
But that's possible only because this is not Internet
vanity publishing - where the book's ISBN is registered in the vanity
publishing company name so that you have virtually no control over the
publishing process or, even more importantly, the revenue from sales of your
book. Indeed, with that method you can't even market your own book. Please see
our Why NOT Choose Internet Vanity Publishing?
feature section (including why not Print-On-Demand).
Since marketing is vital to you, we not only make it economically
practical for you to sell books and make a decent profit (because that critical
ISBN is registered in your name), we offer assistance in that area too,
including valuable distribution contacts - plus immediate, direct sales in our
Internet bookshop devoted to Small and Self Publishers' books (where you
make a normal 60% on each sale). As you may realize, mainstream publishers are
not only finding bestsellers in Self Published books (like The
Celestine Prophecy and Rich Dad, Poor Dad), but actually using Small
and Self Publishers as testing grounds for niche product: You establish
a market for your book, then they'll offer a contract. A professionally
- produced book, then, is a potentially hot commodity.
Don't let that dream die! Complete and submit the Quick Quote form and see how easily that
dream might become a reality! Most quotes will be e-mailed to you within 48
hours, and a copy of our Free Guidelines to Self
Publishing (also known as Desktop Publishing), FAQ sheet and Book
Biz newsletter will be snail-mailed to you with a quote confirmation and
agreement for you to execute when you're ready to start your book's production.
Individual attention is our specialty, so we do look forward to working closely
with you on your book. And if you have any questions about completing this
form, please don't hesitate to call
BOOK BIZ
Vol. XVII
No. 2
There’s Still No Free Lunch!
Recently an author advised that he was considering our publishing services, but a friend told him about the newest Net Vanity flavor-of-the-month – which was “free”… or so he thought. We checked it out and, sure enough, it was the same ol’, same ol’: yes, they’ll dump the contents of your disk into their hopper free, then wysiwyg – what-you-see-is-what-you-get – prints out. And the resulting copies cost you big-time – the way they all make the bulk of their money: selling individual copies to authors at outrageous prices. Then they’ll offer “royalties” on bookstores sales – because, of course, they’ve registered your book in their ISBN name and own it. That’s the only way anybody can offer “royalties” – if they own the book. And that’s some kind of “free”!
Despite the rather obvious tactics these Net “publishers” use, they do a good job of glossing over that ISBN ownership by assuring authors that they (the authors) own the copyright – which virtually all authors do, but that doesn’t control the revenue. Even when what’s really happening is explained to them, many authors have trouble understanding the differences – and consequences. So here’s a handy comparison:
What WE do:
What THEY do:
That comparison, incidentally, isn’t limited to PPC Books. It should hold with any true Self-Publishing production provider. The key is the ISBN: Net Vanity and POD companies invariably register it in their name. Don’t be suckered into giving your precious book away that freely – which may be the only kind of “free” involved here!
BOOK BIZ
Vol. XVI
No. 4
The Great Print-on-Demand & Net-Vanity Scam:
Garbage In – Garbage Out!
Back
in the early 80’s, when computers were first appearing on desktops, a
particularly apt aphorism was created in answer to mysteriously mangled text
that all-too-often appeared on the monitor screen and/or printout: “Garbage in – garbage out!”
In
other words, simple text entry wasn’t good enough, since that invariably
required further attention, like editing, possibly re-writing, and
proofreading. The same thing, in spades, is true in book production – especially
since there’s so much more involved.
That
applies all too well to the slam-bam approach to “publishing” that’s so popular
on the Net today. Real, professionally-produced books don’t fly out of
typewriters – or computers – onto marketable pages. They require editing,
design & formatting, typesetting, proofreading, original cover art and,
yes, even tender loving care. Not being run through cookie-cutter hoppers that
just set them up for printing, with all their warts and blemishes still
exposed.
An offer to take
whatever’s on your disk and print it fast and cheap will
obviously result
in a cheaply produced book, in every way.
A
miniscule number of writers may be adept at preparing their work for print, but
most need help after they’ve completed the main job of writing. As simple a
task as setting proper margins depends on a variety of specifications,
including trim size, page count and binding. And items like drop caps, folio
& header placement, leading & kerning, insets, graphic frames and more
require professional expertise to assure an end product that’s
indistinguishable from mainstream bestsellers.
An
offer to take whatever’s on your disk and print it fast and cheap will
obviously result in a cheaply produced book, in every way. But that doesn’t
mean the production necessarily has to be slow or costly, either. It just means
that professional quality books, similar to the ones mainstream publishers
spend years and big bucks producing, can’t be done overnight at ridiculously
cheap cost. But they can be
done reasonably fast and at reasonable cost. After all the time and effort
you’ve put into composing your book, you don’t want to risk that investment
with a shoddy product. The irony there is also that a seemingly cheap deal
will, in fact, become more costly per-book when you need enough copies for
marketing.
And,
of course, you can’t effectively market the book if the “publisher” isn’t you –
because the ISBN is registered to that Net “publisher,” not to you. Only when
the ISBN is registered in your name are you truly Self-Publishing – and controlling that
all-important revenue.
Everybody
loves a bargain, but nobody wants to end up with a book that clearly looks like
it was a bargain product – especially when you try to market it as quality.
That’s why “SUCKER” T-shirts are made. Don’t set yourself up for one. Consider
your book for the investment it is, and treat it accordingly.