Where does that leave you? You’re probably a little like me. I’m barely an author. I’ve had my novel soundly rejected by several agents. I’ve had a few short stories published in admittedly obscure places. I have a modest blog and about a hundred Twitter followers. I’m fairly certain 60 of them are Ukrainian spambots. The others are my brother’s various, web-based alter-egos.

So what about ebooks?

You know…those things you can buy and read on a Kindle or Nook or iPad. The royalties are pretty good…authors get 70% for each sale from the Kindle store (as long as you price your book between $2.99 and $9.99). Maybe you think it’s time to explore the Nook Store or Smashwords. Maybe you want to experiment a little.

But is the timing right? What about the stigma of self-publishing?  You do know self-published works are of inferior quality, right? After all, books from the big publishing houses go through several rounds of edits. If you were to put one of your books up for sale, you’d be the only de facto editor. The possibility remains that you’ll misspell a word or fail to see some giant logic gaffe that kills the entire story.

Fortunately, that stigma is disappearing. Self-publishing is now a viable career path, although it’s not going to print money. Consider becoming a forward-thinking author/entrepreneur unshackled by the bonds of major publishing houses. After all, no one ever gets to read something perpetually stuck on your hard drive.

If you have any inkling of diving into the choppy self-publishing waters, heed the following advice.

Get beta readers. These are people of varied expertise whose insights would prove invaluable in refining you work. You’ll need some adept at grammar, others attuned to plot structure, some good at both, and a few unafraid to rip the work the shreds propose hundreds of potential improvements.

Even better, get an editor. The biggest downside to self-publishing, in my opinion, is the lack of editorial oversight. Writers fall in love with their own stories and can’t see their flaws. If you’re REALLY going to do it, let a freelance editor go at it. Sure, you have to pay for the editor’s time, but it will be worth it in the end because you’ll have a finished, polished product that can stack up against any professional work.

Don’t rush it. Last year, I got a full manuscript request from an agent. Obviously, I was very excited. I ended up rushing a book edit in hopes of giving my book a quick coat of polish. Instead, I mangled my manuscript by making the kinds of mistakes you’d find in a seventh-grade term paper. As you can imagine, the agent rejected my book. After re-reading my efforts to “improve” the work, I can see why. Take your time. Otherwise, you’ll scare off your readers—whether they’re agents or customers.

Just so you know, they do judge a book by its cover. In electronic publishing, the book cover really matters. Readers see a thumbnail on Amazon, the Nook Store, or Smashwords, and you have just seconds to make an impression. A great book burdened with a terrible cover will wallow in obscurity. Unless you’re a Photoshop god, hire a cover designer.

You’re now the marketing strategist. Just throwing your book up on Amazon won’t instantly sell a thousand copies. Heck, it probably won’t even sell five. You need to find fans and target them on blogs, Twitter, message boards, etc. You have to sell the book because no one else will do it for you. (That’s also true for most professionally published authors, by the way).

Learn more. How can you understand the impact of the Kindle/Nook/iPad/Sony Reader/Insert Ebook Reader Here if you’ve never held one? What’s different about ebooks from regular books other than the whole “electronic” thing? What works and what doesn’t? How do you format them? How do you price them? You must invest some time—and maybe some money—to really understand what these devices can do.

You’ve gotta stand out. According to one estimate, three million books were published in the United States in 2010.  That’s 8,200 books per day.  The ebook “revolution” now means even more people can publish their work. This crowds the marketplace, dilutes quality, and makes it harder for the cream to rise to the top. It’s very easy to get lost in the shuffle. This is where all that self-marketing comes into play. The cover, the kickass pitch/synopsis, author blurbs, blog tours, giveaways, a unique hook, etc.

And you need to step back. Electronic publishing is exciting. Don’t let the excitement get the best of you. Like you, I want to do things now, not later. Later sucks; later is stupid. But later can also be smart. Maybe now isn’t the time to get into electronic publishing; maybe your work isn’t quite there yet. That’s fine. Just make sure you learn about the current market and put yourself in a position for success.

Matt Adams is a TV news producer whose short stories have appeared in A Thousand Faces, Wily Writers for Speculative Fiction, and anthologies from Library of the Living Dead Press. He lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife and man-eating frog. You can check out more of his work at http://mattadamsauthor.blogspot.com or follow him on Twitter @statomatty.

Aside from being a horror writer, Bob has a funny side having written contest-winning short and feature film scripts. His comedy LOVE STUPID, an independent movie, will wrap by Summer 2010. Bob also writes the “Indie Creator” column for Invest Comics.

In our recent interview, here’s what Bob had to say…

SN: What are some effective and cheap ways to promote an independently published comic book?

HESKE:  The cheapest and easiest way is to set up a free Partners account at MyEbook.com and create an e-preview book. My 4 e-previews for my Cold Blooded Chillers issues 1,2, and 3 and Bone Chiller anthology have had over 500,000 hits in 9 months.

Another way is to comb through the bulletins at comicspace.com and read all the ones with “Read my interview/review with XYZ website” — then contact those websites directly to see if they would be interested in reading YOUR book or doing an interview (sometimes you’ll strike gold and get both!).

SN:  Which promotional media, if any, have you found disappointing? 

HESKE:  I’ve found that the production quality is fantastic for printing comic books at Ka-Blam (IndyPlanet.com) and Comixpress; however, working with these guys for promotional purposes is slow to non-existent. Sure, they have a website, but your book gets lost in the mix. Also, I’ve been disappointed with ProjectWonderful for banner ads — they’ve generated some hits but this hasn’t translated into sales.

SN:  Do you do convention panels? If so, what sort of advice would you recommend for a first-time panelist? 

HESKE: I will be a first-time panelist myself on a horror writers panel at Rock & Shock Horror convention in Worcester, MA on Saturday, October 17th. So I could use a little advice myself!

SN: What sort of people would you say are best-qualified to self-publish or start their own publishing house successfully? Who would you recommend steering away from it? 

HESKE:  Someone who is organized and passionate. You need the organization to get from Point A (concept) to Point Z (publish/market/distribute); and you need the passion because, frankly, you’ll be losing money until you build a fan base of 1,000 buyers. Be prepared to spend $2,500 to $3,000 to self publish a comic book or $5,000 to $10,000 to self publish a trade paperback. And plan to spend a good 6-9 months to see your book in print (4-6 for a floppy).

One final quality – being adaptive. My current anthology (2012: FINAL PRAYER) was heading with a full head of steam until my pre-flight designer went AWOL for over a month. Since she went incommunicado, I had to swiftly change gears — recreate covers and find new designers to create ads, fine-tune files, etc. Once I had all this wrapped up (it took another 3 weeks), naturally I heard from the “Lost” pre-flight designer who claimed she’d lost her purse in Mexico and had been detained. Mucho apologies muy tarde. The moral of the story: Always have a backup plan or BE ADAPTIVE and ready to change/move on a dime.

SN: How much startup capital do you think someone would need to start self-publishing a single series?

HESKE:  Skimp, beg, borrow and save no less than $10,000 – but $15,000 is a safer bet. And don’t expect to earn it back in sales. More likely you will “earn some of it back” as a tax write-off.

SN: In terms of proportions of sales, where do you sell your books? 

HESKE: I’m a creator and marketer, but not a distributor. Nor do I want to be in the game of taking orders and shipping out comics. So I tend to out-source this via a number of channels:

1. Online retailers like Amazon, Borders and Barnes & Noble
2. Indie distributors like Haven, Ka-Blam (IndyPlanet) and if I get lucky, Diamond (but not likely since my books are b&w)
3. Comic-centric sales sites like HeavyInk
4. Other offbeat publishers such as Last Gasp Publishing

I also “do digital” and make PDF downloads available at DriveThruComics.com.

Finally, I do a fair amount of local author events and comic cons.

Here’s the rough breakdown of sales:
- 50% sold at author events, “free comic book” day, and comic cons
- 40% from web distributors (Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Haven, HeavyInk, Ka-Blam, Last Gasp)
- 10% from digital (DriveThruComics)

SN: Which aspects of the business of the comic books industry are most important for writers? 

HESKE:  Two words: creative freedom.

SN: Approximately how many copies do you have to sell to break even? 

HESKE:  Too many. I’d guess 1,000 to 1,500 trade paperback sales will help me break even per book. 10,000 sales would net a pretty good profit. Right now, I am just trying to build a “true fan base” and create a positive brand identity. Once THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST becomes a movie, I’m sure I’ll get there fairly quick — but that is probably 2011 so I have to tread water and fight the current … or drown in the interim. Slowly but surely I am beginning to move upstream against the heavy current of indie comic creators fighting for fan dollars. But it’s a lot of work. A LOT of work…

SN: In a sentence, why should people buy your book rather than the next horror book on the shelf? 

HESKE: My COLD BLOODED CHILLERS and BONE CHILLER book fill an underserved sector of the over-saturated horror market — tales that focus on “man as the monster.” These are what I’ve coined as “suburban horror”. Critics have agreed that I have a knack for cutting to the bone and finding the dark underbelly of society in my stories. My writing is very unsettling, but very entertaining if you like to be taken out of your comfort zone.

And if that doesn’t flip your burger, consider these three points: 1) My work has won literary awards, 2) garnered strong critical reviews, and 3) been optioned for film. More than one critic has written that my books may become collectibles — so buy early and buy often!

(Sorry, that was waaay more than a sentence. Damn!)

SN:  Within horror, there are quite a few types (teen slashers vs. zombies vs. creature features, for example) and styles (like the gruesome masochism of Saw vs. the relatively quiet suspense of Hitchcock). Where does your work fall? What led you down that path rather than another?

HESKE:  I write on two levels. THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST is a hard-core vampire tale with lots of blood, action and suspense. None of that soft-core teenage romance crap that drove TWILIGHT sales. Dragos (my protagonist) would take Edward’s lunch money and rip out his heart for dinner. Fangoria wrote that it could be “The next ’30 Days of Night.’”

COLD BLOODED CHILLERS is dark and disturbing. Think “The Twilight Zone” … but episodes too dark to be put on television (at least back in 1959 when The Twilight Zone first appeared; today with shows like “Dexter” on the air, maybe). Let me put it another way — even my wife’s family and my family (except for a really cool older brother, Ed) won’t buy my books. My wife tells me that the artwork and stories are great, but too “over the edge” for their taste. (Wimps!) 

SN: Describe your ideal reader.

HESKE:  Someone who hangs around an accident to get a peek at the bloody body.

SN:  What was working with so many artists like?

HESKE:  Awesome. Every once in a while you deal with a slacker or an artist who doesn’t live up to their portfolio on a particular story. But all in all, the level of talent I’ve “discovered” on sites such as comicspace or have been referred to by other indie comic publishers is flat out phenomenal. As an example, Insomnia Publications sent me about half a dozen creators who submitted (and were accepted) into my 2012 End Times anthology. The book ended up with contributors from the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and South Africa. Since the 2012 phenomena is truly a global event, it was critical to get a creative global perspective — and I was able to capture that by “reaching out” to other comic publishers.

There is so much talent out there. It is my pleasure to work with artists from around the world. And I thank the Internet every day for giving me this flexibility and freedom.

SN: You’ve probably read a lot of comic books. What are some of the common mistakes you’ve seen? What are some of the characteristics of bad comic books? (Either horror specifically or just in general). How did you avoid those?

HESKE: Embarrassingly enough, I am relatively new to comic books. In my youth I collected sports cards. I only became fascinated with comics when I began converting a treatment for a film into comic format (THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST). Still, in the past two years I have done my fair share of reading. The errors in bad comics are similar to the errors in bad screenplays — mostly related to poor story structure, two-dimensional characters, or predictable endings. Another tragic flaw is when creators get too cute and leave the reader (or the vast majority of readers) confused about what the story is really about.

SN: At 140 pages, writing BONE CHILLER must have taken a lot of time and energy. How did you stave off writer’s block? 

HESKE: Sadly, I have a limitless reserve for being dark, disturbing and morose.

SN: How important is it for writers to be readers? Why or why not?

HESKE:  Extremely important. When you read, you learn. You see different ways of doing things and presenting information – or unfolding a story – to a reader. Writing comics is like being a good poker player: don’t show your hand too early. Keep ‘em guessing and on the edge of their seats.

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to do a writer’s interview, please let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com.

SN: You promoted your book at Comic-Con and the LA Times Festival of Books.  How much did it cost?  Do you have any advice for authors looking to promote their work at such gatherings?

MH:  At the LA Times Festival of Books, a group of many authors pitched in to pay for a booth where we could all hang out and promote our books together. I won’t mention the name of this group, because my experience with them was not good. It turned out that the group’s organizers were overcharging the authors and keeping the profit. So what I paid wasn’t necessarily an accurate number, but it was in the area of $150-$200. An large group of friendly authors could probably do it cheaper.

I have not worked with the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (glaws.org), but I know they do similar group buy-ins for authors at festivals and conventions. They’re worth a look for L.A.-area writers who want to do an event like this.

As for Comic-Con, that’s kind of a funny story. We promoted there for free, because we did it totally illegally.

A table in the Comic-Con dealers room is prohibitively expensive for most self-published writers, so in 2005 we launched a guerrilla promotion effort there for The Oblivion Society. We hired two models from Craigslist (who were crazy enough to work for Comic-Con admission and a free lunch), fitted them with homemade bat wings, and then hit the convention floor. Several friends were handing out postcards as we photographed convention goers with the girls (which could then be viewed on the website, driving traffic there). All of this is, of course, totally against the rules, so we had to stay one step ahead of the security guards all day long. One member of our party even got caught and thrown out of the convention center.

Today, four years later, I’d imagine Comic-Con security is better trained for this sort of thing, so you probably don’t want to try this stunt again… at Comic-Con. There are plenty of similar events where you might still mount a very successful guerrilla promotion effort. Just don’t get caught!

SN: If an author is considering POD, how much would you recommend budgeting for start-up costs like cover-art and editing? If he plans to seriously push his book, how much would you recommend allocating for promotional expenses?

MH: If you are POD publishing with Lulu (which I recommend), there are no start-up costs to speak of. You’ll need to buy a $100 distribution package, but that’s all Lulu will ask you for before they’ll put you on Amazon.

As far as editing and artwork go, I was very lucky to have good friends who specialize in those fields. Editing isn’t cheap. Editor extraordinaire Will DeRooy (willderooy.com) gave me a discount on his formidable skills, and even then, it was still around $800 for a book the length of The Oblivion Society.

Every piece of artwork I’ve ever needed has come from my best friend, Michael Greenholt (michaelgreenholt.com). His art style meshes very well with my writing style, and we’ve enjoyed a great synergy with our projects.

If you’re looking for cover art, I wouldn’t be shy about finding artists you like online and asking them if they would be interested in doing a commission for you. If you’re willing to give some promotional concessions (for example, Mike Greenholt’s name and website has been on everything upon which his ObSoc art has been reprinted), you might be able to get a discount. Especially if the artist likes your book.

Promotion will be your most expensive budgetary concern, by far. The cost of just the L.A. Times Festival of Books and Comic-Con alone (postcards, magnets, books, travel, etc.) was over $1,000.

The most cost-effective promotions I’ve done for The Oblivion Society are small science-fiction conventions. My friend and fellow author, Christopher Andrews (christopherandrews.com), have gone in together on the cost of a table at several conventions, which usually ends up only costing us about $150 each. Of course, if you can get yourself invited to speak at a convention, they might even give you a signing table for free.

SN: I first came into contact with your work when I saw the trailer for The Oblivion Society. Do you have any advice for authors that want to do book trailers? How much would you recommend budgeting for one?

MH: I think the book trailer is a great way to promote your book, especially if your book feels cinematic in tone. The only downside is that some people (mostly non-readers) will get excited about your book, and then disappointed when they find out it’s not a movie (or in my case, a cartoon).

My book trailer was put together by the folks at Permuted Press using paintings and sketches of the characters that Mike has done for me over the years. I can’t honestly say how much it would cost to make one, as this all happened pretty much outside of my hands.

SN: When you started self-publishing, were there any unexpected setbacks? How did you get around them?

MH: The biggest setback I hit was promotion. Promoting a book is hard, hard work. It’s harder than you imagine it will be. Also, to put it another way, it’s hard.

I don’t have an outgoing personality or a big ego. It’s the hardest thing in the world for me to walk up to a complete stranger and tell him or her how great my book is, but that’s exactly what you have to do. Over and over again.

When I first started, I had this delusion that if the book was good enough, it would speak for itself, and I could stay holed up in my cave and write the next one. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Constant and vigilant promotion is necessary if you want your book to get noticed.

I know people have said it before, but I’ll say it again: In a lot of ways, promoting your book is harder than writing it.

The way to get around this (short of drinking the serum that turns you from Julius Kelp into Buddy Love) is to hire someone else to do your promotion for you. Of course, this gets really expensive really fast, so it’s worth taking a stab at doing it yourself first. Heck, you might even make a new friend.

SN: How important do you think business skills are to the success of a POD author? (Let’s assume that the POD author in question defines success by how many copies he sells).

MH: Business skills are very important, especially if you’re working by yourself. You need to be able to work out a budget for your book and its promotion, and you need to be able to stick to it. You need to be able to keep track of what promotion is being done, who is getting copies for review, and what, if any, effect it is having. You need to keep track of how many books are being sold and make sure that all of your royalties are accounted for. There’s a lot of very non-writerly work to be done.

Business skills also include networking, and without networking with other authors, publishers, and the like, you are dead. It doesn’t matter how great your book is. Sad but true.

SN: In your FAQ, you say that “stores assume that if you’re publishing yourself, that means you suck.” Do you think that readers have the same preconception? If so, how would you recommend overcoming their doubts?

MH: I think everyone has their own level of book snobbery. People who read a lot of a certain genre tend to get voracious and read everything that they can in that genre, regardless of where it comes from. Those people are willing to chew through the terrible books in order to find the gems, and they do. In my experience, these are the people who will be your most vocal proponents (and critics).

Really mainstream readers probably won’t read a POD-published book unless somebody (be it Oprah or their best friend) tells them to. Even then, they still might not. These are the people who only read Harry Potter and Dan Brown, so breaking into their shell is a real battle
for anyone, POD published or not.

There is a book called POD People: Beating the Print-on-Demand Stigma by Jeremy Robinson that is supposed to be full of great information on this topic. I haven’t read it, though. That guy is a POD author, so his book probably sucks…

SN: Why did you decide to self-publish?

To be perfectly honest, it was mostly out of shyness. As I mentioned before, I’m not a great networker or mingler. I’m not a social butterfly and I’m not a salesman, especially when what I’m selling is me.

So after I had finished my book and it was ready to be published, I had two choices: try to sell myself to an agent, who would then help me sell myself to a publisher, and then try to sell myself to the public, or just publish the book myself, cut out two levels of exhausting social interaction, and go straight to awkwardly charming the public.

SN: How did you get the idea to write a comedic story about a nuclear apocalypse?

The truth is, I didn’t. Much like the nuclear war in The Oblivion Society, it was an accident.

In the beginning, the story was meant to be a screwball sci-fi comedy where, in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war, three skateboard punks inadvertently become the rulers of Earth. They then sell it off to a race of aliens looking for “a fixer upper” planet.

As I wrote the first draft, the arrival of the aliens kept getting pushed deeper and deeper into the book as I realized that it wasn’t as interesting as the story of the skate punks.

Eventually I admitted to myself what story I was really writing and started again, getting rid of all of the alien elements. And the skateboard elements, for that matter. I don’t know anything about skateboards.

SN: After you completed the first draft of your final chapter, how long did you spend editing and rewriting before you decided that it was ready to publish?

It was still a month or two. Even though I try to work with a fairly rigid outline, ideas come along as you’re writing that are too good to ignore just because they don’t fit in. My process is to write the whole novel, putting in stuff that doesn’t make sense as I go, and then when I hit the end, go back and rewrite the beginning until it does make sense. I completely threw away the first two chapters and wrote them again after I knew how the book ended.

SN: How long had you been selling The Oblivion Society before Permuted Press contacted you about the paperback rights? Around how many copies had you sold?

It was about a year and a half between the releases of the first (POD) and second (Permuted Press) editions. I think I sold somewhere around 300 copies in that time. That doesn’t sound like much, but I wasn’t even getting reviews at that time. Pretty much every copy sold was through direct one-on-one promotion with real people. Like I said, it’s exhausting.

SN: When Permuted Press published ObSoc, did they do any editing beforehand?

Actually, quite the opposite. Permuted Press liked the book and wanted to reprint it as-is. I was the one who had to talk them into letting me revise it for the second edition. After a year of reader feedback, I had formed a pretty good picture of what needed fixing, and I fixed it.

We also gave it some great new cover art, as the old cover art never conveyed the message it was supposed to. (Vivian was supposed to look mildly annoyed at the mushroom cloud, like she was saying, “I am NOT cleaning that up.” But it always read that she was sobbing, which
isn’t all that funny.

[Editor's Note:  When we reviewed the book trailer for Oblivion Society, one of the things we noted was that "the only clear emotional image in the trailer is her sobbing on the cover as mushroom clouds loom in the background"

SN: If you were writing and self-publishing The Oblivion Society all over again, what (if anything) would you have done differently?

I would have published it as a straight POD book and not meddled with "self publishing." Most people don't know that there is a difference, but with POD, books are produced one at a time as they are ordered, and with self-publishing, a "small" quantity of books is printed all at one time.

I say "small" with quotes, because the smallest quantity a non-POD printer is going to want to deal with is probably around 500. That ends up being a big up-front cost and a lot of space in your garage that you have to slowly reclaim through signings and personal appearances. Even then, many of the people you'll meet at those events will have their own POD published copies that they bought on the Internet.

One of the stipulations of the Permuted Press contract for the second edition was that the first edition had to be retired from stores. To this day, I still have about 150 first editions in my garage that I don't know what to do with. If only schools were more open to the idea of taking donations of books featuring the F word and blow job jokes...
[end]

I’d like to thank Holliequ, Tom, R.B., and Whovian for their help on this interview. Thanks, guys!

1. The average POD title sells a frightfully low amount of copies. The average POD title sells 100-200 copies.  That is not enough to live on.  That is not enough to convince a publisher that there is a market for your work.  That is probably not even enough to break even on your expenses (publishing fees, cover-art, editing, etc).

2. It is astronomically unlikely that your POD book will become even a modest success. In 2007, only 4% of Xlibris’s titles sold more than 1000 copies.  Hardly any Lulu titles crack 500.

3. Bookstores hate dealing with POD titles. Given that brick-and-mortar bookstores account for about 90% of all new book sales, that will seriously limit your potential for sales.

4. POD titles are substantially more expensive than professionally-published titles. Professional books are printed in bulk, which reduces the per-unit printing costs dramatically.  As a result, a professional paperback usually sells for around $15.  POD paperbacks tend to sell for $25+.  Ick.

5. POD books are often printed poorly. If someone pays $25 for a paperback, he will expect something better than the professional novels he could have bought for $15.  If your book is bound like a pamphlet, your customers will be angry.

6. Most professionals and advance readers won’t even touch a POD book. You’ll have to publicize your book in some other way.

7. Royalties are usually lower than they appear. Read the fine print of your contract.  Most POD publishers base your royalty on the net price, not the retail price.  They won’t pay royalties on the (large) portion of the retail price that goes to cover their costs.  Unfortunately, POD publishers are notoriously inefficient and spend a lot of money printing each book.  That’s why you have to sell for more than $15, remember?

When you ask for funds, I’d recommend including these three elements in your budget.

1. Artistic labor.  Having 24 pages inked and colored will probably cost you somewhere between $1200-2400.
2. Printing costs.
3. Marketing and promotions.  How are you going to sell your book?  How much will you allot for promotions?  What is your promotions strategy?  (Bear in mind that Xeric funds cannot be spent on convention costs or website design, but they can be used on advertising).

Please keep in mind the following:

• Xeric grants rarely go above $5000.
• Xeric grants can be used to produce or distribute your work.  Printing, color separation, photocopying, solicitation, shipping, advertising, and securing an ISBN or domain name are acceptable.  Xeric funds cannot be used on website design,  living expenses, art supplies, convention costs, T-shirts, postcards, phone bills or posters.
• Customers are not going to come to you and you probably have no name recognition.  Explain how Xeric’s funds will help you reach them.

1. You are an unusually savvy writer and businessman. Namely, you have to write and edit your own work, and then market and sell it.

2. You can afford to subsidize your self-publishing, either because you have substantial savings or because you have a full-time salary. Self-publishing is usually more of a hobby than a career. The average self-published book sells fewer than two hundred copies.

3. You have an audience. Having a professional publisher is one way that you can establish your credibility to potential readers.  Unfortunately, a self-published author has to rely on his own name and marketing efforts. Do you have an audience? If not, I’d recommend getting your writing out there. Some options include starting a blog or writing for a newspaper or magazine.

4. You can provide everything for yourself that a professional publisher would have provided. For example, take your book cover. You can do it yourself, if you’re a professional artist. You can have a friend do it, if you know a professional artist. Otherwise, be prepared to cough up hundreds of dollars on a freelancer. Unfortunately, professional-grade talent is expensive.

• COVER DESIGN: $250-500.
• EDITING: $600 for basic proofreading and $3000 for a “book doctor” or freelance editor. Beware: many purported “book doctors” are useless. If you plan to hire a book editor, make sure you get a sample before you put any money down.
• BOOK PRINTING FEES: Even if you want to do print-on-demand, make sure you know how much your self-publisher costs in startup fees. For example, BookSurge charges $300 even before the first copy is sold.
• MARKETING/PROMOTIONS: Hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars.  I’d recommend looking into low-cost advertising such as Google Adwords, but you’ll probably sell most of your books in person (especially at conferences and author events) rather than over the Internet.  Attending conferences will probably cost admission and there may be incidental hotel stays, gas/plane expenses, a booth fee, a missed day of work, etc.

5. You have some good reason to predict that your work is likely to sell thousands of copies.

• GOOD: “I’ve been published before, and my books sold well.” This suggests that your writing is good enough to sell and that you have an audience that’s ready to buy your work.
• OKAY: “I have an audience. Plenty of people read my blog!” Let’s say that you can convince a typical percentage of your blog-readers (1-3%) to buy your book. Unless you have hundreds of thousands of blog-readers, that’s probably not enough to matter.
• BAD: “All of my friends and family tell me my book is great. Of course it’ll sell!”  This is mistaken for several reasons. First, everybody’s friends and family love their books.  Talk to strangers because your prospective readers are strangers that can be frank with you without letting feelings get in the way.  Second, your writing is only part of the equation. Even if you had the best book in the world, you’d still need marketing and business acumen to successfully self-publish.
• DELUSIONAL: “My book is awesome. Of course it’ll sell.” If your book were really that good, why not get it professionally published?  (See #7).

5a.  You’re writing for friends and family rather than strangers/profit. For example, if you’re writing a family history or a biography of your parents, it absolutely doesn’t matter that it’ll probably have fewer than 100 readers.  If money is a non-factor for you, self-publishing absolutely makes sense. You only need to sell thousands of copies if you want to break even or turn a profit.

6. It will really help if you know something about selling books. For example, have you worked in the publishing industry?  Or for a bookstore?  Do you have experience selling things besides books?  Do you know people you can ask for advice in this area?

7. You have a good reason not to get professionally published. For example, perhaps you’ve already been published a few times and want to try an unusual story this time around. That might work. On the other hand, if you’re staying away from professional publishers because your work isn’t good enough to get published or because publishers “don’t get my work,” you’re setting yourself up for disaster. If publishers don’t get your work, why do you think readers will?

Cover Design

If you want to sell a book, you will need a strong cover.  Customers judge books by their covers.  Let me share my own artistic horror story.  About a year ago, I tried experimenting with header-art at the top of this website.  Some of it was quite bad, but I’d like to mention the most amateurish one.

During the two weeks we had this header up, we bounced 90% of our viewers.  Within a few seconds of coming into our website, 90% of our prospective readers decided that our writing was not worth reading for free. They never even glanced at our writing:  the art was just that poor.  Self-publishers face an even greater obstacle.  Your book will not only have to look professional enough to make people want to read it, but it has look professional enough to make people want to pay to read it.   Your book has to look like it’s worth paying for.

Unless you are a professional artist or photographer, you will need to pay a professional to do your cover.  That will cost at least $250, and probably closer to $500.  Go Publish Yourself recommends allotting $500-$1500 for cover design.  That’s probably too high, but let’s be clear that this is a major investment.

Editing

Self-published authors generally lack credibility because many readers presume that they’re only self-publishing because they’re not good enough to get published professionally.  (Hopefully that’s not true for you; if it is, please do not try self-publishing because it will end disastrously for you).  Readers expect a level of professionalism that most self-published authors are not prepared to provide on their own.  For example, typos and other mechanical mistakes are like a flashing neon sign that says “this book is not worth your money.”  Unless you have a perfect grasp of spelling, grammar and punctuation, realistically you need to hire a freelance editor.

That typically costs between 1-5 cents per word, 1 cent per word for simple proofreading* and around 5 cents per word for book-doctoring.  For a 60,000 word novel, that’s $600-$3000*.  (I highly recommend against hiring a book-doctor, by the way.   I can explain this in more detail if you’d like, but the short version is that there’s just not enough money to go around).

*If you’re interested in proofreading, please let me know. I’m a freelance proofreader and I charge $.075 per word, which is 25% cheaper than Go Publish Yourself suggests. If you’d like to discuss particulars, please e-mail me at superheronation[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment somewhere on this site.

1. Publishers provide editorial oversight. Editors have accumulated years of experience figuring out what readers want and how to provide it. If you are new to publishing, that experience is an invaluable asset.

2. Publishers provide promotional and logistical support. Successful self-publishers have to do it all on their own. Unless you have the skills, time and willingness to promote your book full-time, it’s not going to sell. If you’re interested in writing as a full-time career, having the support of a professional publisher to organize events like book signings will help you attract an audience and develop a reputation.

3. You’re probably throwing away your money. Self-publishing (even with print-on-demand) is a risky venture that will require you to gamble hundreds or thousands of dollars and hours on a book that will probably not sell many copies. In contrast, publishing a first novel professionally will earn you an advance of typically around $5000, plus royalties if it sells particularly well.

4. SELF-PUBLISHING IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR QUALITY. The absolute worst reason to self-publish is because you don’t think your manuscript is good enough to sell to a professional publisher. Yes, the manuscript submission process is harrowing and usually involves a lot of rejection. But forcing your manuscript through that selection process will make your work better and more marketable. Frankly, if your manuscript isn’t good enough to sell to even a small professional publisher, it’s not good enough to sell to customers. Don’t waste your time and money printing a novel that you won’t be able to sell.

What do you think?