THE VARIOUS PUBLISHING OPTIONS

There are a lot of writers here at Gather.  Some of these writers have moved up to the next level in their writing career and have been published.

 I thought it appropriate, to book writers of every level and calibur, to explain, through experiences of my own, and those horror stories I've heard about, in respect to the various publishing options available to writers and explain the pros and cons of them.

 Not every writer has advanced to the level to where their work is ready to be published, but to those who are there now, or will be soon, I'm sure you'd like to know what publishing options are out there, in the real world, and what are the positives and negatives of each type.

 Unless I am mistaken, and I've been known to be wrong on more than one occasion, there are four different types of publishing options available to the "Newbie" or more plainly put, the newer book writer.

1) Traditional Paperback or hardcover publishers

2) P.O.D. (Print on Demand) publishers.

3) Subsidy publishers

4) Vanity Presses 

1) TRADITIONAL PUBLISHERS 

The traditional paperback or hardcover publishers are, without a doubt, the best way to have your work put out there for the public to see, BUT even  they have their own drawbacks

Traditional publishers work in a variety of ways.  Depending on the record of their authors, you can either get an advance and royalties on each sale, or, for the newer unknown author you might even have to settle for royalties alone at first.  There are reasons that go along with their decisions to one way or the other. 

An author who's got an established following (such as Stephen king for an example) just needs to mention to his publisher that he's writing a new novel and a 6 figure advance is not uncommon, then the royalties up and above that.  The publisher knows they'll make their money back with this author so they can risk that advance.

 An unknown author (I'll use myself for an example) if I find a publisher who likes my material enough to risk their money publishing it, I'll be lucky to settle for just royalties on my first published book.

You may sit back and ask, is that legal?  Ask yourself this question:  If it was your money you were risking, wouldn't you be leary until the author has proved him/herself.  Yes it's all perfectly legal.  Where it's their hard earned money they are shelling out, they have every right to protect their investment, or protecting it as much as is humanly possible.

What an author has to go through, to find an interested publisher, is almost unfathomable.  The best way is to find an agent.  Finding a legitimate one is even harder, because there are enough unscrupulous ones out there.  Once you've managed to find a legitimate agent which, with any kind of luck at all, could have taken the author a minimum of six months to find one, then - if you don't need any additional editing to your finished work, they start the long drawn out process of submitting your finished work to publishers.

Though we'd love to believe that our work is the only work on the market, the truth of the matter is that our manuscript is only one of tens of thousands of manuscripts that are being submitted each and every week, if not day, so unless you've got the best of the best, or something so unique that it grabs the attention of a publisher right off, you're manuscript will fall the way of so many manuscripts before you; in their wastebasket, unless you've given them a self-adressed envelope to have them return it to you, in which case you should receive a rejection letter along with it.

So, for all intensive purposes, the pros of a traditional publisher - 1) you're published 2) if you're lucky you'll get an advance 3) you'll get royalties on every book sold. 4) Your books will be on book shelves across the country.

The cons of a traditional publisher - 1) It takes forever to get one.  2) You might be better off getting an agent first. 

P.O.D. Publishers (PRINT ON DEMAND)

In this area I have some personal expertise, as I've published 6 times through Lulu.com which is one of the best POD publishers in the USA today.

POD is exactly what it says.  They don't print the book until there's an order for it.  This way the publisher doesn't have to worry about losing any money.  The book costs $X.XX dollars - you add on the royalty you feel your work deserves and when there's an order for the book they'll print it.  In most cases the book is printed within a couple of days and can be to the buyer within seven working days from the order.

The PROS of a POD Publisher.  1) When your manuscript is ready you can upload it onto the site and you can have the book ready to be printed within an hour.  2) No need to hunt down finicky publishers who'll make you wait weeks, only to give you a rejection in the end, for whatever reason.  3) No need for an agent, so you get to keep all the royalties from every sale.

The CONS of a POD Publisher - 1) If your manuscript is not edited properly, and there are grammatical errors in your manuscript, every error will come out on the finished product.  What you upload is what prints in the book.  2) ALL of the marketing is on YOUR shoulders unless you want to use one of their marketing plans, and they cost money, money most new writers don't have.  3) The chances of having your book on bookshelves across the USA are few and far between.  Most bookstores don't want POD books for reason number 1 - A lot of POD books have been printed without proper editing and the end result is (excuse my expression here) junk

SUBSIDY PUBLISHERS

Though I've checked into a few of these, I've never indulged in their use, so whatever information I give you is from horror stories I've heard from some authors who have.

Subsidy means that you have to pay.  You have to help sibsidize the publisher with their costs to print X number of copies of your manuscript.. That don't sound too awful bad, but when you are talking 10,000 copies, or even 5,000 copies, and you're helping to defray say half of the costs of that many books, now it's a different story. 

I'm amazed these types of companies stay in business.

The PROS to a subsidy publisher.  1) Your manuscript will be edited.  2)  Your book, once published, will get a fair share of marketing from the publisher.  Why not you're paying for it?

THe CONS to a subsidy publisher.  1) You are paying to have your book published, even though  it's not the full amount, it could be up to as much as 50% of what it costs to publish the book.

VANITY PRESSES

The word here is VANITY.  The vanity of the author.  Much like its counterpart, the subsidy publisher, the vanity presses charge you to print your book.  How much - I have no idea.  I've never checked into a vanity press.  I've never talked to an author who's used one.  I can only imagine that the pros and cons are very similar to, or worse than, those of a subsidy publisher.

It should be noted, now that I've pretty much explained the different options you have to getting published, there's one thing that remains constant with any of the above.

The author has to help in getting sales if they expect to see any royalty payments.  That means that no matter what option you use to publish your book, you'll still need to go out and do book signings and other methods to help sell your books.  The more books you sell the larger your royalty check when they come in.  Your work as an author doesn't end with finding a publisher.

I am alrerady planning my itinerary once my book is published in June.  That will include book signings, fairs, libraries, etc.  The more you can get your name out there, and your book's name, the more sales.  The more sales, the larger your royalty check.

 I hope I've given you all an insight into the publishing options that are available to you, the author.  I hope you have success in finding just the right publisher for your personal needs.