Create Then Market

When an author writes a book, he/she has three basic options to get it published. The first is the traditional way of submitting it to a publisher. Today this usually means finding an agent who will “shop” your book to various publishers and try to sell it to one of them. Not many authors are able to submit their book directly to a publisher. The publishers allow the agents to sift and filter through the books submitted to them. The agents only approach the publishers on behalf of the best books they have received and read. One of the factors in the publisher’s decision to buy a book is how large is the author’s “platform”. How many people know about the author and would want to buy a book she/he has written? When a publisher buys a book, the author receives an advance on expected royalties from the book’s sale. The agent usually gets at least 15% of the advance.

The second option for an author is a “vanity press”. This is a publisher who will print any book submitted to them, whether good or bad. The author pays the publisher several thousand dollars and the publisher prints several hundred copies of the book. The publisher may send all the copies of the book to the author who then tries to sell them. In that case the author has a chance of recouping the money paid to the publisher. Or the publisher may sell the books from their own website and warehouse. In that case the author receives a royalty of one or two dollars a book sold.

A modern variation on the “vanity press” is print-on-demand. The author still has to pay at least a thousand dollars for “set-up” and other fees. The author has to buy his/her own book at a discount price to resell. The print-on-demand publisher receives orders for the book. About once a month the publisher prints as many copies of the book as they have orders. The author gets about one dollar royalty.

The third option is the one I have chosen for LOST AND FOUND. It used to be called self-publishing, today it is called “indie” publishing. I set up my own publishing company, Mtnpride Books. The first book published by Mtnpride Books was TROY WYE PRITT IN HIS OWN WORDS. About 300 copies of that book were sold. I obtain a Library of Congress number for each title Mtnpride Books publishes. I have to buy an ISBN number and a bar code for each title. I had to obtain an EIN number from the IRS, a business license from the city and county, and a sales tax certificate from the state. At the present time I have an order with a printer for 225 copies of LOST AND FOUND. When I sell most of those, I will order more. I would rather be writing than marketing, but this is the option I chose.