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The benefits of self-publishing: What are the chances for a new or unknown writer to break into print with a royalty publisher? Frankly, not good — in fact they’re getting worse. Most publishing companies are cutting back on the number of titles they print each year. It’s a simple matter of economics. A publisher is much less likely to take a chance, of investing a lot of money, in the hope that a book by an unknown will sell well and turn a profit. And after all, the lifeblood of royalty publishing is sales. Let’s look at the facts: There are over 50,0000 new books published each year, and that doesn’t include reprints, new editions, etc. How many of these do you thing were written by new writers? Overall, fewer than 5% were written by unknowns. In part, that’s because many publishers actually have a policy of not even looking at unsolicited manuscripts. They simply return them unopened. Others employ perhaps one person to look at what they call "the slush pile," the thousands of unsolicited manuscripts they receive each year. Certainly, some unknown writers get published by them, and some are highly successful. But for every best-seller by an unknown writer, dozens don’t even get off the ground. Most first books lose money or, at best, break even. And publishing, like any other business, is still a matter of dollars and cents. Other reasons include duplication. Many publishers won’t bring out two books on the same subject. Timeliness is another: your book might deal with a subject the publisher thinks will be out of date and therefore out of the public interest by the time the book is produced. And most important, if a publisher doesn’t think a book appeals to a large enough audience, no matter what (s)he thinks of the book itself, (s) he’s just not going to publish it. So what other options does an new writer have? Well, there’s vanity publishing, which as the name implies satisfies an author’s need to see his or her name in print. Rarely is such a book well enough publicized to come to the attention of book buyers, so most often the author ends up with a stack of unsold books. A better option is self-publishing. Some writers have done it with great success. Carl Sandburg’s first collection of poetry was actually manufactured by Sandburg himself. But it’s an enormous job. The average person has no idea how much time, knowledge and effort it requires. The packing, shipping, promotion, record keeping, billing, etc. are only a few of the problems. If the book is not correctly designed and does not contain the appropriately displayed bar code, ISBN, copyright, Library of Congress number, etc., it will not be carried by bookstores and will not sell to libraries. At Advocate House we take care of all the details for you. We will do a final edit to make sure your book is up to publishable standards. Our designers will make sure your book meets the requirements of wholesalers who supply bookstores and libraries. We handle all the mechanics of shipping, billing, record keeping, and we fill every single order that comes in through a website we create for your book. If you’d like specifics, ask for our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). If you are ready to begin the self-publishing process, see Critiques.
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