Self-Publishers Must Run Their Business Like A Business
I saw a topic the other day on Reddit about some guy’s view on self-published books. It contained a lot of misconceptions and I’ve been working through those in a few articles. I’ll link them in the list below, but here are the topics I’m covering:
- Self-published books have poor covers or no covers
- They contain no editing or poor editing
- Price competition – self-published books should be cheap
- Self-published books should have no reviews and self-published authors pay for fake reviews
- I don’t know the last point? Sneaky self-published authors masquerade as a publishing company or something?
I’m talking about the last point today.
Now, the guy I pictured above was a little vague on this. I presume he took issue with the idea that some wily self-published authors had the goal to suggest that they were a publishing company as opposed to just an author! Shock! Horror!
Of course, if you choose to publish a book then you are, in fact, a publisher.
But let’s go beyond that here… not only are you a publisher, but you need to act like one.
What Is A Publishing Company?
Let’s put this in simple terms. A publisher is a company or person who assumes the risk of the publishing process.
When you’re an author and you sign a contract with a publishing company, they basically say, “Hey… we’ll take care of turning this manuscript into a book and then selling it.”
That’s all a publisher does.
Sure, it involves many steps – editing, production, marketing and the like, but at its base concept, when you sign a publishing contract you’re selling your intellectual property in exchange for the publisher taking on the burden of turning it into a profit.
Ergo, when you decide to self-publish a book (or anything) you’re taking on the risk and responsibility of going from manuscript to finished product.
Ergo, if you are a self-published author, you are also a publisher.
Welcome to the club.
You’re A Publisher Now, Act Like It
In this series so far, I’ve mentioned that traditional publishing is a bad idea. Behind that thought is this single argument: to your publisher, you are a supplier. You are an item on a spreadsheet. You’re also a supplier of an asset (your book) which translates into numbers on that spreadsheet.
Your publisher’s moral duty is to make sure those numbers are green ones and not red ones. Their job is to make that the case.
Outside of that, your publisher doesn’t care about your future as a supplier or your work.
As a self-publisher, you can turn the tables. You care about the success of your work (and the numbers on your spreadsheet) more than any publisher will do.
Unfortunately, if you’re going to be a publisher, you have to adopt the above mentality.
To some extent, your creative output will always be a thing of beauty to you. It’ll be something you love, cherish and otherwise feel emotional about.
But as a publisher, you need to think of each piece of work as an asset that’ll put those numbers in your spreadsheet.
How To Be A Professional Publisher From The Outset
Some articles on “how to be a publisher” will no doubt tell you to do boring business stuff that’s completely unnecessary. Stuff like:
- Register a LTD Company
- Get some business cards
- Go cuddle up to weird people at champagne parties
- Clear out your overdraft and ask your family to borrow money
- Get some lawyer to write a million contracts
In reality, none of that is necessary. Remember, to be a professional publisher, you need to do a handful of things, all of which amount to “release books” and “sell books.”
These steps are basically limited to:
- Write a good book
- Create a good cover
- Create a good blurb
- Upload your book to the various platforms
- Release your book
- Sell your book
Now, those steps are pretty extensive. That’s why it’s so crazy that people who want to be publishers and authors spend so much time not doing the above. In fact, I’d guess that what’s holding most would-be publishers back is the following – all of which need to be addressed:
- Fear
- Poor planning
- Poor time management
- Lack of knowledge on how to do the other things above
- Not working quickly enough
- Not producing enough content
If you can address those issues, then you’ll succeed at being a professional publisher.
Final Thoughts On This Mini-Series
This series has established a couple of things:
- There are no “magical ingredients” involved in publishing
- The fundamentals of being a publisher are attainable by anyone
You can become an expert at creating book covers or writing great blurbs. But you can also do a reasonable job of all of the things I’ve written about in the series, and you’ll find success.
Essentially, publishing comes down to this: Can you create a book and sell it?
If the answer is yes, then you can be a publisher.
Forget all the complex stuff. It’s useless until you’ve started anyway. Create your books and then worry about the other problems.
Once you get there, the tasks are never insurmountable. Look at what’s worked for everyone else, and copy those methods with your own spin suited for your own products.
That’s all there is to it!