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Imagine living in a barren land through which a single, mighty
river flows. What is your source of water -- of life? The river, of
course. Where else could you possibly go? You might survive independent
of the river, but not without enormous effort and much luck.
I’ve just metaphorically described the nature of publishing as it
has been for the last several hundred years. A handful of powerhouse
publishing firms controlled your hopes of becoming a published author.
You drank from their water or probably died in the desert.
Now, imagine a place with hundreds of smaller rivers and
thousands of tributary streams, wells and channels covering the entire
land. No matter where you go, a refreshing source of water is never far.
That, my friend, is the nature of publishing today. I won’t tell
you how to get your manuscript picked up by a major publishing house,
because that paradigm is fossilizing. Instead, let’s focus on the new
model – the new opportunities for becoming a published author.
Metamorphosis
in Publishing
You and I are living in a world of rapid and accelerating change.
One of those channels of change is the business of becoming a published
author. The publishing goliaths in our country are old, old companies,
stunned by the overnight metamorphosis of their beloved industry. Many
are choking in the dust of it all, dying of adherence to antiquated
processes and centuries-old technologies.
This is good news for the rest of us. Anyone who desires to see
his or her name on the cover of a book needs only to discover the wealth
of emerging publishing opportunities, and then tap into one of them.
Let’s take a peek at the major paradigm shifts
transforming the means of becoming recognized as a published author.
Niche
Publishers Springing up
Getting published today is not the same as
getting published yesterday. The publishing industry has morphed from a
few dozen powerhouse publishers -- about the only way to get published in the past -- to just a handful of the
megaliths and yet countless
small, specialty publication businesses.
What this means to you is boundless opportunities for targeting
niche publishers hungry for new material for their readers. Perhaps you
have an excellent, informative manuscript on the topic of microdrills (extremely tiny drills used in
manufacturing machinery). Do you think the readers at
Random House or Bantam will understand your subject matter, or care?
What if you submit your manuscript to a publisher specializing in the
machinery industry, such as http://www.industrialpress.com/
Industrial Press, Inc. or Professional Publications, Inc. http://www.ppi2pass.com/ instead? Obviously,
you have much better odds of capturing their attention. They know your
subject and need new material.
New
Channels Emerging
Yes,
there are now thousands of specialty publishers, many of which may target
the topic you hope to write about. Just as significant, however: there are also dozens of new channels -- new
ways to get your book in front of a potential buyer or reader. Here are
some of the most promising:
Specialty
stores
One of the emerging publishers of the new millennium is the
specialty store. If you have written a book that serves a specific interest,
this is good news for you, for two reasons.
1.
Like the niche publishing houses, a specialty store is much more
likely to read and consider publishing your manuscript.
2.
Get your book on the shelves of a specialty store, and your book
may enjoy a prominent placement indefinitely. This is a big change from
the standard channel of old: the large, general-purpose bookstore. The
overwhelming volume of new books hitting the standard channels, like
Borders, Walden’s and Barnes & Noble, forces a continual shelf-clearing of the old to make room for the new.
Unless your book makes it to the top of the best-seller list AND is marketed strongly, your book will rarely last more
than three months! However, at a specialty store, it could
be displayed for years, right in front of your perfect target
market.
While having your book on the shelves of a small retail store may
not seem as glamorous as being in a major bookstore, you may sell more
books at these lesser known stores. For example,
let’s say you’re a cross-country bicycling expert and you write a book on
the subject. Who do you think is your best audience for such a book – the
typical shopper at Barnes & Noble, or the typical shopper at a
bicycle store? Either by yourself or with the help of your specialty book
publisher, you can target such topic-specific retail outlets and get much
more for your efforts.
Some specialty store examples:
— Sports Stores
A great outlet for getting your book accepted on
running, camping, hang gliding, surfing, etc.
— Hobby specific stores
Good
for quilting, woodworking, model railroading, candle making, and similar
topics.
— Industry-specific stores
Opportunities
abound! And they could be in your backyard, not just in New York City, Chicago or other traditional
publishing centers. Right here in Kansas City, there are more than a
dozen book publishers, including a Christian publishing house, another
specializing in books about engines, one specializing in books about
quilting and another one publishing books about the Midwest. By targeting
such specialist
publishers, you will increase your odds of success in getting attention.
It is much easier to capture the interest of an industry-specific or
topic-specific publisher than a general publisher, particularly with
nonfiction material.
— Career specific
There are book distributors that market to
people in specific careers. These distributors are often book publishers
as well, either handling your printing and binding, or acting as distributors
to self-publishing sources. Do you have something to write about which may benefit
someone in a Human Resource position? Management? Sales or Marketing?
Legal? Real Estate? Health? Alternative medicine? There’s an audience --
and a publisher -- for your book.
Virtual Stores,
Virtual Publishers
Who needs bricks and mortar to build a store? The Worldwide Web has grown
in the last five years into a legitimate shopping alternative. As a
result, thousands of online publishers and online specialty stores have
arisen, each one offering a new means of getting your book published.
Because of the power of online search engines, the Web is often the first
choice readers make when looking for titles or topics that are not
mainstream. For each book subject, there is likely an online store or
business specializing in it.
Self-Publishing
Outlets Emerging
Self-publishing has come of
age. It may not be new (Zig Zigler, John Grisham, Ken Blanchard and
Spencer Johnson are among many now-famous authors who started out by
self-publishing). However, new technologies have simplified the process
and smashed costs 1,000 percent and more.
Emerging distribution
channels, such as the Internet, have created opportunities for the
self-publisher. Let’s look at a few.
·
New formats, such as CD-ROM “books” and digital downloads
to your PC or to your PDA, have opened new channels of distribution. A person who may not flip
through books at home may buy a digital version of your book and download
it to the Palm Pilot to read when traveling.
·
You can
sell your book direct from your own Web site. You can do this as simply
as creating a simple order form they can mail or fax to you.
·
If you
create a digital, downloadable version of your book, and if you have an
online “store” feature, so one can order direct from your Web site with a
credit card, then you can sell your book online, and with almost zero
distribution fees, instantaneously.
·
You can
sell your digital book from other Web sites. An entire industry has
sprung up to support this interest. These online distribution companies
already have a built-in customer base, simplifying your promotional
efforts and reducing those costs.
Opportunities such as these are springing up
everywhere, making it easier for you to be successful as your own
publisher.
Improving
Technology Reduces Cost and Accelerates the Publishing Cycle
Phenomenal changes in publishing have occurred over
the last 600 years, with most occurring in the last 50 years. At a
glance, the big changes in those first 500 years:
·
The invention of the printing press by
Johann Gutenberg in the 15th century made handwritten book publishing
obsolete. Not much changed until …
·
The invention of a typewriter for the
masses in the late 1800s was the next huge step, which greatly reduced
the time needed to create a book manuscript.
The next dramatic
revolution in authoring and publishing processes has occurred in just the
last 20 years with the PC, more dramatically in the last eight years with
World Wide Web.
·
The
personal PC with powerful word processing programs significantly
quickened the processes for both author and publisher, shortening the
manuscript-to-bound-book cycle.
·
Ever-improving
word processing applications permit collaborative writing and have given
birth to powerful proofreading tools, built-in grammar and spell checkers
and scores of time-saving software support
tools.
·
Combine
these groundbreaking changes in software with the technologies that have
permitted instantaneous global communications between writers, writer
support services, printers and publishers, and you become part of the
publishing Revolution.
Here's a real world
example. We recently worked with a writer in New York City, providing pre-publishing and self-publishing
support services. For that assignment:
·
The
WriteWorks account liaison was in Pennsylvania.
·
The copyeditor
we assigned to the project was in Kansas City.
·
The proofreader
was in the Northeast
·
The typesetting
specialist in the Midwest
·
The
bookbinder/printer was in the southwestern U.S.
The manuscript passed
electronically from person to person, with all manuscript changes easily
tracked by the software program. Our apologies to the U.S. Postal
Service, but not one piece of ground mail ever changed hands, until the
finished book shipped. All communications happened by e-mail, phone and
the Web, in real time.
From
Long Runs to Short Runs
When Zig Zigler talks
about the financial challenges of his initial foray into self-publishing,
he chuckles about how the bookbinding and printing cost him $25,000 for
his first batch -- nearly all of which paid for the very first book when
it rolled off the press. That’s the way it has always
been: expensive to get that first book designed and printed, then
increasingly cheaper the more books you have printed. It wasn’t a scam -- it was just the nature of the beast: the cost
of creating vs. duplicating. Consequently, publishers usually printed a
minimum of several thousand copies of the book.
Using traditional
printing press technologies, you can still pay a fortune for a short run
of books. But new photocopy-style presses lessen the cost of a short run
-- say, 200 to 300 books -- to less than $3.50 per book. With your
relatively affordable short run of book copies, you can go out and prove
the market-worthiness of the book, or use the book as a persuasive tool
when looking for a publisher. Then,
you can finally put the traditional printing presses to good use: mass
production.
What Are You
Waiting for?
Are you motivated
yet? Are you ready to get published? In case you
need more impetus, we can give it to you. In the next issue, we will look
at those doubts that may squelch your dreams. We’ll show you how to meet
any excuses planting seeds of doubt in your mind and route them with good
news and action steps to clear the path to authorship.
If you didn’t read
the last issue, where we provided four killer reasons any business owner
or corporate ladder climber should want to be a published author, you can
read
those four persuasive reasons by clicking here.
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Need
Help with Your Book?
WriteWorks is in the
business of helping would-be authors succeed in turning ideas into
professionally finished, published books. We've done it for others and we
can do it for you. We offer a range of author support services, including
story and concept consultation, book structure support, writing, editing,
proofreading, typesetting, book design, bookbinding printing, and book
distribution research.
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