A passionate advocate of constant learning and personal reinvention, Barbara, was keen to talk to Debbie Jenkins about what’s involved in becoming a successful author.

As Barbara’s main focus is on helping people get their dreams back and gaining the courage to make them come true, Debbie shares tips to help all those people who feel they “have a book in them” to write, get published and enjoy commercial success as an author.

Tune In & Catch Up Here…

An epiphany, a cakewalk, your ebook strategy and why you should use a compass. Peter Bowerman from the Wellfed Writer and the Wellfed Self-Publisher shares his method of self-publishing and becoming a well-fed writer with AuthorShock’s Debbie Jenkins.

Listen to the audio with visuals here…

In 1993, after a 15-year career in sales and marketing, Bowerman turned his sights to freelance commercial writing. With no industry experience, no previous paid writing experience and no writing background, he built a commercial freelancing business in Atlanta, Georgia from fantasy to full-time in less than four months.

His corporate client list has included The Coca-Cola Company, MCI, BellSouth, IBM, UPS, Holiday Inn, Cingular Wireless, DuPont, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, The Discovery Channel, Junior Achievement, Georgia-Pacific, The Cartoon Network, the CDC, The American Heart Association and many others.

He has published over 250 articles and editorials, leads seminars on writing and is a professional coach on both commercial freelancing business start-up and self-publishing.

Transcript from audio interview between Peter Bowerman and Debbie Jenkins of AuthorShock.com

Your books are brilliant, down to earth, sensible and funny. Do you think it’s important to “be yourself” when you write? Why?

If you’re boring and dull then being yourself isn’t beneficial. If you have a fun personality make sure it comes out. As a result of injecting personality the readability of my books is a strong suit. Lots of readers have mentioned it over the years – they say my books are good and memorable. Be engaging, have fun and let it come out in your writing. There’s a tendency for people to write in a stilted or wooden way. People say they feel like they’re sitting across from me having a coffee with when they read my books, they feel connected. People have called me up over the years with questions, they say they feel like they know me because of the books. If you’re not able to inject a personality then you should find a ghost writer to help you with your tone. Writing with personality makes the process more fun. Helps you connect with your readership – be quirky, fun, interesting! When people read my books they get an insight into my personality and beliefs – a broader perspective.

Your books focus on helping people become professional freelance writers and self-publishers. What do you think is the biggest stumbling block on the way to becoming a professional?

It took me just 4.5 months to get established as a writer. And this is for someone who started out with no writing background, training nor experience. Writing was paying all my bills in less than 4 months

1. Must realise, this isn’t a cakewalk, it’s hard work. It’s a little difficult and people need to understand that any business that can make you upto $250 dollars an hour isn’t gonna be easy. If it were everyone would be doing it! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The arena of freelance commercial (companies who pay you to write for them) writing is one of the most accessible and lucrative arenas. There’s more money from companies than from publications like magazines.
2. People sometimes get intimidated by the big name companies. Don’t put them on a pedestal, respect them,but don’t be afraid. If you’re smart and can think strategically it’s not hard to write and make a difference for big companies.
3. Don’t think you don’t have the personality for this business. If you’re a creative person you may think you need to be all salesy. And there is an adjustment needed, but it’s not that difficult. Commercial freelancing or self-publishing successfully it’s far more about a process than an aptitude or a personality. It’s about the things you have to do, not have to be.

What are the 3 most important things a professional writer needs to understand about the business?

• Understand the vastness of the field. Writing for businesses has 3 arenas:

1. B2C – what we see, adverts, brochures etc
2. B2B – huge arena, getting a message out to customers, marketing materials
3. Internal – communication with employees – newsletters, training material, reports etc…

• Understand WHY companies hire freelancers. For example: hiring companies don’t have to pay salary and benefits, they buy the skills they need when they need them, they get a fresh outside perspective without assumptions, and access to a wide range of talent.

• Budding commercial freelancers need to understand the mindset of the person hiring them – they are probably overworked, overextended, they don’t want to spend time looking for a writer. Fortune favours those who get themselves out there. Make sure you leverage past experience – even if you don’t have a wide writing experience, you may know the industry, the vernacular etc.

You offer additional ebooks when people buy your books from your website. Why?

Ebook strategy, in particular for Peter’s Self-Publishing books:

1. I incentivise people with a free ebook from my website so they buy from my site instead of other sources (makes me a higher margin)
2. I created companion ebooks that go along with the hardcopy – the print book is $20, a toolbook is $20 if they buy with the book or $30 if they buy separately, also there’s a timeline tool $8 if they buy with the book or $15 separately. Also I offer the ebook version of the main book. 2/3 of people will buy one/more or all of the ebooks. This ups the profit margin by about 20-25%.
3. If you are considering writing a How To book what can you add that people will be prepared to pay more for?
4. For the print book 5000 units cost $12000-$13000, I broke even after 45 days of releasing the book due to the e-book strategy.

What one thing do you wish you knew when you started out in publishing?

Self-publishing is a lot of work, I have been told my The Well Fed Self Publisher http://www.wellfedsp.com book is a great game plan to follow. Go step by step and build the book, go through the processes. It takes time and money, if you have no money then doing self-publishing the way I describe isn’t for you.

I had an epiphany recently and wrote an article – contact me for it if you want to read more, it’s called: The Number 1 Book Marketing Strategy Of All Is… TO WRITE A REALLY GOOD BOOK!

If you write a really good book (topical, relevant, detailed, real world, information, spells things out, fun and lighthearted to make it easily and enjoyable, that’s packaged well) – you will recruit an army of unofficial sales people who will be singing your praises. Your goal is to make your book better than it has to be to make your marketing so much easier. Lots of people write books that just aren’t that good. They struggle to pump up the promotion. A book that just isn’t that good won’t get word of mouth. Do everything in your power to write a good book – you have 100% control over that outcome.

What’s next for you?

I never plan things out nor set goals.

I recommend a book called: Goal Free Living – this is how I live my life. A chapter called “Use a compass not a map” sums it up – know the general direction, but not the exact route. Using a compass you look up – using a map you look down and miss things along the way. Everything unfolds organically, at the right time for me.

I’m also doing more teleseminars and group coaching. I revamped my website http://www.wellfedwriter.com/ have a look at the cartoon.

I discovered something cool – commercial writing/self-publishing – it gives me the lifestyle I desire. I wrote the books because I thinks other people would love this lifestyle too. Take a first step and see where it leads.

Contact & Free Downloads

• The Well Fed Self Publisher by Peter Bowerman: http://www.wellfedsp.com
• The Well Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman: http://www.wellfedwriter.com

Peter has generously offered 2 ebooks, which you can claim for free here.

• The Big Banquet – Loads of excellent articles from The Well Fed Epublisher – 169 page download
• SelfPublishing TimeLine – Checklist that Peter uses for his publishing method

After a successful career in the motor industry, Scott set up his own company and decided to fulfill his lifelong ambition to write a book. Using his knowledge and experience of the motor trade, he wrote “All Buyers Are Liars: Exposing The Closely Guarded Secrets of Elite Car Sales Professionals” to demonstrate the sales process used within the motor trade and advise other sales people and car buyers of a very successful sales structure.

Tell us about your book – what makes your book different from other books in the same genre?

My book, All Buyers Are Liars: Exposing The Closely Guarded Secrets of Elite Car Sales Professionals, is predominantly about the car sales industry in the UK, starting from as soon as the customer walks through the door to the completion of the sale. It digs into the internal politics of a franchise dealership. The lies that are given and taken from salespeople and customers. A general buyers guide! And of course hints and tips all through the book.

Who should read your book?

Anyone in the car business will benefit from reading the book, from learning about buying signals, customer behaviour, etc. Customers will also benefit by having the information they need to get the best deal.

Why did you write your book?

I wrote the book because after 10 years in the trade my frustration was that the customers didn’t understand the process they were being led through. The majority of people don’t realise that when they walk through the door there are certain steps the salespeople take to get them to buy a car. the customer has their own agenda. The customer doesn’t understand why the salespeople won’t do what they want. This is where confusion occurs. The salespeople get frustrated if they can’t go through the sales process.

What are the 3 key messages your book helps people understand?

1. Buyers can understand the sales process that’s used in the motor industry
2. Establish the lies between the customer and buyer!
3. A behind the scenes outlook on a franchise dealer. Reading the book will show you how dealership life is spent.

With hindsight, what one thing do you wish you knew when you started out writing your book?

I wish I’d been more disciplined in writing the book. It took me 5.5 months to write the book (40,000 words). I didn’t have a set amount of words per day. In the future I would be more disciplined and write a set figure per week to try and speed things up.

What was the most challenging part in going from book idea to getting published?

The most challenging part is the minefield as regards to publishers – after some initial research I found 3 main publishing models:

1. Self-publishing – downside – there’s a cost and there’s no judgement. I wanted to get it published on the basis that someone with experience would read my synopsis and agree it’s a good idea and acknowledge it was good enough to publish.
2. Co-publishing – where you get 5000 printed off and you share the cost of that print – damage limitation to the publishers.
3. Mainstream publishing – where they pay for the books, do the design, design a cover, do the editing and everything else. For them to judge it and agree it was good enough.

I decided to go for a mainstream publisher and chose Lean Marketing Press – they were quick to respond to all my concerns, their royalty scheme is fantastic. Now the book is out it’s proved right. More than happy!

What’s the best thing about being a published author?

The best thing is creating a work deemed to be of a certain standard and now it’s published I can leave that as a legacy. I’m extremely proud of that!

What’s next for you? Other books?

I’d like to write 1 book per year – I think that’s easily achievable.

Is there anything else you want to tell people?

I’ve also started a company called So Presentable – we’re a sales consultancy. We’ll gain and retain customers for our clients. From prospecting their existing database, creating a blog, sorting out email addresses, making the company more visual, improving their systems,doing presentations on powerpoint – if you need more get in touch at SoPresentable.co.uk.

Contact Scott

• http://allbuyersareliars.co.uk
• http://sopresentable.co.uk/

Buy Scott’s Book

• Buy the print book (UK)
• Buy the print book (International)

Through his direct “tell it like it is” approach, Matthew teaches CEOs, entrepreneurs, and high-achievers how to supercharge their business credentials, increase their stature, and leapfrog competitors using the independent publisher platform.

Your books are brilliant, direct and sensible. Do you think it’s important to “be yourself” when you write? Why?

I absolutely believe that every author should find “their writing voice”. One way to do that is to write as you might speak. Another way to do that is to allow your feelings and opinions to be known instead of being overly cautious and trying always to be politically correct. Being neutral is boring and doesn’t command respect or attention. Whether people agree with you or not, they want to know where you stand.

With the explosive growth of the Internet and published titles, it is extremely difficult to be “totally original”. The only thing we truly can call original is ourselves and the essence of who we are. Sharing that essence is absolutely necessary to earn credibility and respect especially if you are an unknown author.

Another important part of being yourself has to do with authenticity.  People are too smart and savvy today to listen to canned and highly-scripted messages.  In this age of political correctness, mistrust, and scripted messages, people are starving for authenticity.  They want “real information” from “real people”.

Your book focuses on helping people self-publish. What do you think is the biggest stumbling block on the way to becoming a self-published author?

It is very difficult for me to pin it down to on stumbling block so I am going to cheat the question and offer two big stumbling blocks.

1. The first one is sheer ignorance.  I don’t mean that in an insulting or derogatory way to people who have not yet learned to become educated about the truths and myths about today’s publishing.  I am more angered by the elitist attitudes and monopolistic tendencies of the traditional publishing industry.  The traditional publishing industry have and continue to generate propaganda that discourages people from entering into self-publishing or independent publishing.  The reason for that is the traditional publishing conglomerates are desperately trying to keep control of the industry from “upstarts” like you, me, and thousands of other independent publishers and self-publishers. They do not like the changes that will essentially put about 80% of them out of business within the next 10 years.
2. The other major stumbling block is they don’t focus on the “big picture”.  They focus so much on the mechanics of the “how do I self-publish”, they get lost and discouraged in the quagmire of technical information.  They think they have to have every technical skill to create a book when they really need to have a good, broad understanding of what needs to happen to get the end result you want. Let the experts be the experts. Unless they already have specific technical skills, self-published authors should simply focus on being a good project leader and manager and find good people to work with.

When I started out in publishing, I had very few of the technical or publishing skills I now have today.  However, what I had going for me was I had a clear objective on what I wanted to create at the end. I first educated myself on what the overall process was, broke it down into logical chunks I could digest, and then took each step as it came. As problems and challenges came up, I would solve or workaround the issues.

What are the 3 most important things a new author needs to understand about the business?

1. You have to be willing to take responsibility for your work and your message. It does not matter even if you hire a ghostwriter or editor to write and editor for you. Ultimately, you have to be clear on what your message is and what impact you want to have on your readers and, of course, what you want the work to do for you.
2. You have to be willing to be actively engaged in promoting yourself and your work. This can mean learning more about social media, publicity, media relations, speaking, internet marketing, TV, radio, and any number of other skills.  No one person can know all of this. But every author has to choose one or two venues they are attracted to and start there.  Even traditional publishers have moved into that model where they are pushing those responsibilities to the authors.
3. Every author needs to know that it is incredibly difficult to hit a home-run on the first attempt at publishing.  And yet so many beginning authors pour their entire soul, finances, energy, and self-worth into that first publishing project. That first publishing project, whatever it is, is only a warm-up for a much better publishing project down the road.  Love your first project passionately because it is your first one.  But just understand, your best works will likely be future ones as you get better.

You have lots of videos on your websites. Why?

Using videos is a relatively new part of my internet marketing.  However, the videos serve multiple purposes. First, I want the practice of being in front of a video camera. It can open doors to additional publicity such as traditional TV. Second, I can more directly reach, speak, and impact my audience in a way no written article or audio recording can.  Third, I view videos as the third leg of my media publishing triad.  That triad being: books/ebooks (text), audio publishing, and now videos which will lead to full-blown video courses, seminars, and the like.  Essentially, with the growing availability of high-speed broadband connections, video is becoming more important in so many ways.

What one thing do you wish you knew when you started out in publishing?

This is a great question and one that truly stumped me. I had to think about it for a few minutes.  Believe it or not, what I wish I knew has little to do with publishing than knowing myself better and where I wanted to go in life. The reason I say that is that publishing is simply an extension of myself. Publishing is a message and communication platform for me. Hence, the more clarity I have of myself and my goals, the more powerful my publishing efforts will be.  I love the publishing business (book, audio, video) and understand how powerful it can be in changing the world but also myself.  I should have phased into the publishing business quicker and sooner instead of treating it like a “part-time” business.

What’s next for you?

Another great question.  During these challenging economic times, I have had to make major adjustments in my business. However, going forward, I see myself pushing the envelope of what publishing is all about.  I will share and spread my media publishing triad model (book, audio, video).  I intend to live what I teach and write about.  I will likely find another niche that I want to pursue then build another publishing brand around it.  I view my life as an ongoing journey. As my interests and goals changes and evolves, you will see that reflected in my publishing projects.

Is there anything else you want to tell people?

I would tell people to Get Started and finish that first book, audio, or video project, then release it.  Too many people are stuck in the wishing, creation, and production process.  They take years when it only takes months to complete.  People have to get committed and move their projects to completion not get caught up in this perfectionist attitude that is so prevalent in the publishing industry.

There is no question that these early stages are important but you have to eventually move past that and not have projects be in gestation for so long. Every baby must eventually be birthed and be allowed to grow.  This is where the action, learning, and excitement happens.

Contact Details & Discounts

Matthew is generously offering all readers a 30% discount for direct orders. Just use the Coupon Code: wealthyauthor at checkout.

• Websites: http://www.ascendbeyond.com/ & http://turnkeypublisher.com/ & http://ceopublishinguniversity.com
• Book(s): TurnKey Publishing: How to Create a Profitable Self-Publishing Business Without Any Help From Publishers, Bookstores, or Literary Agents!
• The Turnkey Publisher’s Audio Publishing Handbook: How to Create & Self-Publish Profitable Audio Books & Audio Programs Without Any Help From Publishers or Recording Studios!

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers and readers. They offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device. At Smashwords, authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works. Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.

It’s free to publish and distribute with Smashwords. The “meat grinder” turns your Word document into the most popular e-reading formats, easily, quickly and efficiently. Smashwords distributes your ebooks to a wide variety of retailers, including Sony, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Mark Coker is the founder and driving force behind the phenomenal growth of Smashwords.com

You set up Smashwords.com in May 2008, and you just passed your 18th month of operation – how’s it going so far?

Things are going well across the key internal metrics I track of # of authors, # of publishers, # of books published, monthly sales, # of unique monthly visitors to Smashwords.com and the reach of our distribution network.  Yesterday we published our 5,000th title, representing a 100 percent increase in our title count in three months.  Also in the last three months, we’ve expanded the reach of our distribution network by adding major ebook retailers Amazon, Shortcovers, Sony and Barnes & Noble.

There isn’t a day that goes by when your business doesn’t come up – you’re on twitter, blogs, facebook, newsgroups – everyone loves you! Why do people feel so connected with you and Smashwords.com?

The response from readers, independent authors and small publishers and has been humbling.  Readers appreciate our large catalog of low cost, multi-format, DRM-free ebooks.  Authors and publishers appreciate that I created this business first and foremost to benefit them.  We make it easy for any author or publisher, anywhere in the world, to instantly publish a multi-format ebook, and we provide them access to a growing network of retail distribution partners so they can put their books in front of more readers.  The Smashwords business model is open and transparent.  Because we don’t charge any fees for our services, we don’t make money unless the author/publisher makes money.  We’re also brutally honest with our authors and publishers.  We’re upfront about the limitations with our Meatgrinder conversion system.  We’re constantly reminding our authors and publishers to keep their sales expectations low, because although we make it easy to publish and distribute your book, it’s up to you to get out there and market it.

The acclaim for Smashwords is by no means universal.  Many people still wrongly view self-publishing and independent publishing in a negative light.  Others view what we’re doing as a threat, or as an abomination of publishing.  Despite the great support we receive from the communities we serve, there are still a lot of people in the publishing industry who have absolutely no clue what we’re doing and where we’re headed.  For the non-believers, sometimes I feel like I’m running our business obscured by a cloak of transparency.

How important is having an ebook strategy (and getting ebooks distributed) for traditional print book authors?

Every author should develop and implement an ebook strategy today, not tomorrow. Ebooks are the fastest growing segment in an otherwise stagnant book publishing industry.  Ebooks level the playing field for all authors and publishers.  With print books, if you don’t have distribution into brick and mortar bookstores – if you’re not displayed on the shelves – your ability to reach readers is impeded.  With ebooks, we make it possible for any author or publisher to achieve universal digital shelf space at the largest online retailers.  So from an author/publisher perspective, ebooks are very liberating.  Authors and publishers, however, should not abandon print.  Although accurate market data is impossible to come by, it’s probably fair to say that 95 percent of all book sales today are still of print books.  Print is a format.  Ebooks are a format.  Publishers should do both.

What is Meatgrinder, and what are its strengths and limitations?

Meatgrinder is our automated ebook conversion engine.  It allows the author/publisher to upload a single source file as a Microsoft Word .doc or .RTF file and then Meatgrinder converts the book into multiple ebook formats so the book can be read on any e-reading device.  Because the process is completely automated, it’s super-critical the author/publisher upload a book formatted to the specifications in the Smashwords Style Guide.  It’s also important to understand we do reasonably well with straight form narrative (fiction, poetry, memoirs and other books that are mostly text), and we do less well with books that require complex layout.  For example, Meatgrinder doesn’t support tables or linked Tables of Contents and footnotes/endnotes.  In the next couple months we’ll start allowing some authors and publishers to bypass Meatgrinder and upload their own perfectly formatted files for certain formats such as PDF, EPUB and .MOBI.

When preparing their manuscript for chomping by your Meatgrinder, what are the 3 top things authors should be aware of?

The three top formatting tips:

1. Keep the formatting simple – Envision your book as essentially plain text with only minimal formatting, such as indents, bolds, italics and paragraph returns.
2. Forget (some) of what you know – Do not attempt to replicate the exact page layout of a print book in ebook form, otherwise you’ll give readers a poor experience.  With paper books, you control the page size and you control where each word appears on the page.  Ebooks are different.  Page numbers are irrelevant.  Ebooks are consumed on devices of varying screen sizes.  After customers purchase your book, you should expect them to modify the formatting (font style, font size, line spacing, font color, background color, etc.) to match their preferences.  By surrendering control of these aspects to the customer, you gain much more than you give up.
3. Design for simple reflowability so your book’s text can easily shape shift across various screen sizes and ebook formats.  If you try to introduce unnecessary complexity into your book (exotic fonts, multiple paragraph styles, unnecessary images), such complexity will harm the reading experience.

What’s the most important piece of marketing advice you can give authors using smashwords.com?

Your marketing should begin before you even start writing your book.  Spend at least an hour a day networking with readers and writers on message boards, forums and social networks.  Make friends, build relationships and add genuine value to the communities in which you participate.  As you build your network of relationships, unexpected marketing opportunities will unfold for you by the time you release your book.  Book marketing has always been about word of mouth.  Ask yourself, how will you reach your first 100 or 1000 readers, and how do you reach the right readers?  If your book truly resonates with your target audience, they will do your marketing for you.  I wrote a free ebook called The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide to help authors market their books.  Even if an author doesn’t work with Smashwords, the marketing tips are universally applicable to all authors, even print authors.

What one thing do you wish you knew when you started out in business?

I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 20 years.  When I first started, I wish I was more prepared to counter the power of inertia and naysayers.  When you start off in business, or you start writing a book, you must have confidence in your venture because there will always be people who tell you you can’t do it and you shouldn’t try.  There’s an old lyric from the Black Sabbath song, Heaven and Hell that has always stuck with me.  The song is about how all people have good and evil inside them.  The particular lyric I like, which I’m probably taking out of context, spoke to the power of believing in your own dream, and how you must protect your dreams.  It goes, “They say that life’s a carousel, spinning fast you’ve got to ride it well.  The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams…”  When I first launched Smashwords 18 months ago, I knew we’d meet with strong scepticism.  I knew, and I continue to know, that we’re doing the right thing.  As long as I can continue to provide good value to our authors, publishers, retail partners and readers, we will have a place in this industry for many years to come.

What’s next for you?

Today we publish 5,000 original ebooks from 2,300 independent authors and 80 small publishers.  We’re only getting started.  I believe in crazy dreams.  Long term, I want to add three zeros to each of those numbers.  Short term, we will work to earn and deserve the trust and confidence shown to us by our authors, publishers and retail partners.  We’ll work to expand the reach of our distribution network, grow sales, build new marketing tools for our authors and publishers, and improve formatting quality.

Is there anything else you want to tell people?

I invite every author and publisher reading this to come publish and distribute with Smashwords!

Contact Details & Free Stuff For Smashwords.com

• Download the free, Smashwords Book Marketing Guide – this is invaluable not just for ebook sales, but for general marketing advice.
• Download the free Smashwords Style Guide – you must read this before designing your books for ebook distribution.
• Have a look at some of our ebooks here: BookShaker Ebooks At Smashwords.com

The Old Risk & Reward Rules

Traditionally, the publishing pecking order went (and still goes in many cases) something like this…

The bookstore (via the wholesaler) is the main link to the customer (and therefore the money) for a geographically defined area and so the bookstore lays down the law to the publisher. Bookstore Law includes: crippling discounts (55% and up), stretched-out payment terms (90 days+), paying bribes to guarantee visibility (read this article from The Times if you don’t believe me http://su.pr/2Y14b3) the option to return in any condition/destroy/remainder any unsold books – for a full refund.

The publisher (sometimes in cahoots with the agent) is the main link to the bookstores and so they lay down the law to the authors. Publisher Law includes: not accepting  submissions unless through a recognised agent, paying pitiful royalties (typically 7-10% of whatever’s left once the bookstore has been paid – of which a percentage will have to go to their agent too), preventing the author from taking other book deals elsewhere, paying the author once per year – assuming they’ve made more money than they got paid as an advance.

The poor author (who, don’t forget, is the only one providing the raw talent) is at the bottom of the pile and lays down the law to nobody. This pecking order also translates into a pretty unfair divvying up of the risks and rewards.

The following charts illustrate a typical risk (based on effort, opportunity cost and financial exposure) – reward (based on retail price of book) split for the old publishing model…

It hardly seems fair that the stakeholder who risks the least should be rewarded the most but – when there was no internet, no social networks and no other way to reach your target market other than by getting your book on the bookshelves – they had a monopoly on the vital asset – customers and got paid accordingly.

The New Risk & Reward Rules

With the new rules in effect the pecking order looks quite different…

The bookstore (via the wholesaler) is one link to the customer (and therefore the money) along with international online bookstores (like Amazon and many smaller specialist stores), ebook retailers (using mobile technology and the internet), mail-order bookstores and Print On Demand book vending machines (such as The Espresso Book Machine).  Traditional bookstores can no longer lay down the law because they no longer have exclusive access to customers. This means crippling discounts (55% and up) are no longer tolerated, stretched-out payment terms (90 days+) are no longer acceptable, wasteful returns policies are no longer viable. Added to this, the highstreet bookstore (with shelves and carpets) has the highest overheads of all the retail channels.

The publisher is one link to the bookstores (via the wholesaler) but the author now has the option to cost-effectively self-publish (with distribution built-in). Old-style Publishers can no longer lay down their law because they no longer have exclusive access to the retail channel. This means agents are no longer tolerated by authors, the pitiful royalties look bad compared to what the author could make by going it alone, the author will expect more control over their content in the various formats enabled such as ebooks and audio.

The empowered author (who can finally see a way to be paid fairly for providing the raw talent) is now in a position to choose their own publishing route. This new level of choice for the author and the new routes available means the distribution of risk and reward is shifting to a much more balanced picture.

The following charts illustrate a typical risk (based on effort, opportunity cost and financial exposure) – reward (based on retail price of book) split for the Publishing 2.0 model…

The result is that publishers playing by the new rules and their authors can decide to tolerate traditional bookstores but they no longer have to give in to their demands.

Most traditional bookstores have had it their own way for too long and until they adjust their terms or shrink their overheads, something they’re still very much resisting, in light of the new rules, many of them will lose the new game and go the same way of the myriad record stores who were casualties of the same recent shake-up in the music industry.

There are only really 3 publishing models but lots of different names for vanity publishing…

1. Paid For Publishing aka “Vanity Publishing”: If you pay someone else to publish your book it could be called collaborative publishing, cooperative publishing, subsidy publishing or (most misleadingly of all) self publishing but it’s really just vanity publishing with a more acceptable title. Some big-sounding New York and London publishers are offering “deals” to new authors with a high cost attached. These “deals” are really nothing more than an attempt to cash in on their name and sell an overpriced vanity package.
2. Self Publishing: No matter what the vanity press says – it’s not self publishing unless you’re doing it all yourself. Obviously you may employ people to provide certain skills but you are still the publisher and the buck (or should that be book) stops with the author and only the author. This is further split into two main approaches:
   1. Print-On-Demand Self Publishing – Low Risk with Good Distribution Built In (providers include LightningSource, Lulu, CreateSpace and BookSurge)
   2. Print-Then-Sell Self Publishing – High Risk with No Distribution Built In (there’s no longer a good reason to publish this way unless you only plan to sell books direct)
3. Mainstream Publishing: These organisations pay you for your book. There’s a lot of competition from authors here so fewer and fewer publishers are offering big (or any) advances anymore and many still insist you apply via an agent. However – they won’t expect you to pay them a penny for your book and they will expect to be sending you royalties. Mainstream publishers really fall into 3 main categories:
   1. Big Publishing Houses – New York Publishers, London Publishers etc. – most aspiring authors dream of getting a huge advance from these companies. First timers should expect tiny royalties and dwindling advances.
   2. Independent Publishers – usually smaller publishers that only publish a few titles per year. These companies are often specialist in nature and can provide a good start for many authors. However, they’re still crippled by the old print-then-sell rules and aggressive terms from bookshops so don’t expect to earn a big royalty,
   3. Publishing 2.0 Publishers – again, usually smaller publishers that have embraced new technology for both production, distribution and sales. Good publishers embracing the new rules of the publishing game are able to pay much higher royalties because they no longer rely on bricks-and-mortar bookstores for their sales.

Here’s a quick matrix from Publishing Academy that plots some of the main differences…