Fiction Scribe

Author Peter Bowerman, Mr. Well Fed Writer, is joining us for three days here on Fiction Scribe. He’ll be talking about his writing, his book, and self-publishing today. Today is his last day here, so be sure to stop by and say hello.

While “self-publishing� has had a bad name, I’m living proof that there’s a new definition out there, one with rising profits as well as rising industry respect. And as it gets progressively harder to land a deal with a conventional publisher, more and more of those writers and aspiring writers with books inside them are starting to (cautiously) glance in this direction.

Not sure which publishing path to take? As I see it, if you’re writing non-fiction, non-fiction how-to (my genre), or even niche fiction (i.e., romance, mystery, horror, sci-fi, etc) to a certain extent, the only reason NOT to self-publish is you simply don’t have the money and/or the time to devote to your self-publishing adventure.

If you don’t have the money, but DO have the time, then conventional publishing will at least provide you with the funding, but remember: the marketing support you get from a publisher will typically be jaw-droppingly negligible. Most of it still falls to you. If you’re okay with the reality of busting your tail for “pocket-change� royalties, go for it (no, I’m not biased towards self-publishing…

If you have neither time nor money, then consider POD (print-on-demand). But be realistic. POD makes sense mainly for those who simply want to be able to call themselves “authors� and make their book available to friends and family. Forget about making much money as a POD author – in the overwhelming bulk of cases, it just ain’t gonna happen. True fact: The average POD author sells 100-150 books, and guess who’s buying two-thirds of them? The author!

General rule of thumb in publishing? Your potential return is directly proportional to the level of your investment – both in money and time. True for a lot of things, I suppose.

Some advice? Make excellence your motto. Sounds cliché (“yeah, yeah, I know that…�) but creating a book that stands out in the marketplace and indeed delivers the potential of a full-time living requires excellence on many levels: excellence in the quality of your manuscript (i.e., write a damn good book; shoot for, at the very least, conventional wisdom that says it’s “one of the best books in the genre�); in the production quality of the book itself; in the quality of the marketing materials you create; in the comprehensiveness and quality of your book web site; in your customer service; in the effort you bring to talks, speeches, and book signings, etc.

Let me tell you this: there are few feelings to compare with creating a really good book, making it the best it can be, bringing it to market and creating a full-time (or even part-time) income stream from it. That’s big stuff. I wish that for you.