Wednesday 16 July 2014

Talk on publishing

I gave the following talk on publishing, on July 4th meeting at The Dolphin: 

PUBLISHING IN 2014
What does the word ‘publishing’ actually mean? Basically, publishing is
the spreading of knowledge to the general public in one form or another. For
example the written word can be printed, music can be produced as sheet music, paintings
can be reproduced in giclée form. In other words publishing is original work in
a form accessible to the general public. And a publisher is a person or
organisation that produces this work in a form the general public can use.
Incidentally, something is ‘published’ as soon as it is generally available. So
beware, once you put it on Facebook it is published…
As writingbuddies is a group of writers, I’m going to concentrate on how
to go about publishing your own written
work. Perhaps you’ve written a book, you’ve had friends and family look at it,
and you think it’s pretty good. You can, of course, submit your work to an
agent - or directly to a trade publisher. But what if you don’t fancy sending
it out and waiting for weeks to see whether your work will be picked up? Or
perhaps you’ve already tried that route and it hasn’t been successful.
Well,  what about publishing your own
work? How do you go about getting it out to the public yourself?
There are several requirements for readying a book for publishing once
it’s been written: editing, designing, typesetting, creating a cover, getting
an ISBN number, formatting for an ebook and printing for a paper book.
A number of companies will do all that for you, for a fee. The following
site gives you an overview of a number of established companies, together with
some reviews to help you choose. There are many others, just do a Google search.






The cost varies, and you will have to check that out for whatever you
want to publish. I have seen one or two examples and, by and large, these
companies do a fairly good job, though I would not call it outstanding.
But suppose you want to do it all yourself? These are the steps you need
to go through:
1. Whatever method of printing you use, physical or ebook, each book has
to have an ISBN number – an international standard book number -  that is a number by which each publication is
recognised as unique. You can use any PRINTER you like, but you must always use
the same ISBN number for a particular edition of the book. SMALL changes can be
made, but for large changes you need a new ISBN number. These are not cheap,
and can be obtained from NIELSON:
http://www.isbn.nielsenbook.co.uk/.
You can also give your ebooks ISBN numbers, or allow whoever you use to
publish them to give you their number. I would counsel against this, because
then you are NOT the publisher, they are, so I think this is a bad idea. ISBN
numbers are quite expensive:

Service

Description

Gross
PriceIncluding VAT at 20% in £
 

ISBN Prefix
for 10 numbers

Publisher registration, allocation of ISBN prefix plus a list of
all 10 associated ISBNs. The list is issued by email or can be posted if
required, at no extra fee.

£132.00

ISBN Prefix
for 100 numbers

Publisher registration, allocation of ISBN prefix plus a list of
all 100 associated ISBNs. The list is issued by email or if required, can be
posted for an extra fee.

£318.00

ISBN Prefix
for 1,000 numbers

Publisher
registration, allocation of ISBN prefix plus a list of all 1,000 associated
ISBNs. The list is issued by email or if required, can be posted for an extra
fee.

£846.00

Fast-track
Processing

Processing
time (from receipt of legible, fully and correctly completed application form
with correct payment to issuing of ISBN prefix and numbers) is reduced from
10 working days to 3 working days.


£72.00

Printing
and Posting of ISBN Allocation

Additional
fee payable for allocations of 100 or 1,000 ISBNs when issued by post.

£36.00

Another legal requirement is to deposit ONE copy of your book with the
British Library; you may also be required to send copies of the book to FIVE
other libraries, but you do not legally have to send them unless requested to
do so. I have contacted Createspace and, since this is a US company, you are
technically published in the US if you use them exclusively. However, since
they are now distributed in the UK, it may be politic to send to the British
Library anyway.
In fact I have spoken to both Lightning Source and Createspace today; it
seems Createspace is now distributed through Lightning Source. I would suggest this
means that you definitely need to send a copy of the book to the British
Library.
You can use your own ISBN number for ebooks as well. Each one of the
ebook distributors will offer you their ISBN free – often called an ASBN – BUT
this means they are the publisher, not you.
2. Editing and copy editing
If you have literary friends you can ask them to go through your
manuscript and edit it, ie look at it from a stylistic and content point of
view. Most publishers no longer employ editors; once they’ve accepted a
manuscript they employ copy editors to make sure the ms meets reasonable
standards.
Copyediting is a crucial part of the publishing routine; don’t skip this
part. Word, or a similar word processing programme,  will go through some of that for you, but you
still have to check the ms for mistakes Word cannot check. Unless you – or
someone you know – knows how to do this professionally it would be wise to
submit your ms to a copy editor. He or she will ensure that the original text uses
correct spelling and grammar, that it is easy to read - and the text will also
be marked up for typesetting. Again, not a cheap option, but a new writer would
be wise to find a good copy editor.
3. Design
A book needs to be designed for easy reading. For a paper book this
means deciding on the size of the book, the colour and weight of the paper,
whether it is to be a paperback, how it is to be bound - a whole host of
decisions you will have to make. I have brought along a schedule of sizes used
by Lightning Source, since they are the POD printers in the UK and, as far as I
know, all the other companies use them.
For an ebook your choices are more limited, but they do exist. I’ve
brought along my Somerset Scenes; I
was able to set this so that each reproduced painting was on a separate page,
and I was able to place my text on the page the way I wanted it.
4. Typesetting
This means putting the book in a form which will present the pages in an
attractive and easily read way -  this
will involve the margins, the font, the font size, the spacing between the
lines, whether the book will be justified or not, how the chapter headings will
look, whether you want an indent for the first and following paragraphs –
again, a whole host of decisions you will need to make.
In order to typeset to a good standard you need a typesetting programme.
The point is that a WORD processing programme uses an adjusted form of monotype
– that is each letter has a fixed width, a left-over from typewriter days. In a
typesetting programme the typeface you use will have fonts (families of
letters, ie italic and bold and so on for each one, like Times New Roman or
Garabond) that use varying spaces for their letters. The difference in the look
of a page is quite astonishing and, if the person using the programme is a good
typesetter, you will immediately see a startling difference. One reason it is
so important is because then you can read
much more quickly and easily. Another is that the number of pages in a long
book is substantially reduced. Yet another is that you can ‘kern’ the letters –
a process which adjusts the spacing between the letters for even more control.
You  can use Word for a book which is primarily
text, and I would refer you to Aaron Shepard’s brilliant PERFECT PAGES. It
tells you how to typeset a Word file so that it looks quite professional. I can
only describe Aaron’s book as brilliant. I used his methods to typeset the
first novel I wanted to publish, and I have brought it for you to look at. I
understand he is now unpublishing Perfect Pages because he doesn’t think that
method is good enough in light of the outstanding typesetting programmes now
readily available.
The recommended typesetting programme is Adobe’s InDesign. It is very
expensive – several hundred pounds I believe - but there are now options to pay
for it monthly, and if you think you can finish typesetting within months you
can opt for that. It is a brilliant programme, it includes a reasonable number
of fonts, and you can also design your covers with it. The programme will also
format your typeset book into an ebook – a huge step forward. Somehow it even
manages to keep some of the more useful typesetting features.
However, typesetting is not so important for ebooks since the change
from the manuscript to the ebook is often dictated by the ebook publisher –
Amazon, Smashwords, various other ebook providers. This means you can use your
Word file and turn that into an ebook format. For simple text, ie a novel, you
can input a Word file directly into Amazon’s ebook platform quite successfully.
Just go to
https://kdp.Amazon.com and open an
account.
If Indesign is not an option for you, and you have a more complex ms, I
can recommend The Kinstant Formatter:
https://www.word2kindle.com. I don’t
know what it costs now, I bought it a long time ago. This does an excellent job
translating from Word into several ebook formats. I’m sure there are many other
programmes out there. Just go on Google and check.
Yet another option is to use Smashwords. Mark Coker, who set Smashwords
up and runs it, has published the Smashwords Style Guide which leads you
through the whole process. You take a Word file and prepare it for his system;
there it will be turned (put through the meatgrinder is how he puts it) into a
number of different ebook formats.
There is a slight problem selling on his platform and Amazon’s at the
same time, but only if you want to give your book away for free. It is
perfectly possible to publish on both platforms at the same time.
5. The cover
Cover design is crucial for both paper and ebooks – people do judge a
book by its cover. If you have designer skills you can make your own, using a
programme like Photoshop, InDesign or similar free ones. Or you can hire
someone to do this for you. An established designer will charge about £600 to
make a cover.
To hire a cover designer very reasonably you can go to www.fiverr.com. There you
can find a number of cover designers at incredible prices: $5 a shot! They will
not be in the top designer category, obviously, but if you persist you will
probably get a reasonable cover, better than something you’ve put together
yourself if you’ve never done it before.
The difference between paper and ebook covers is quite substantial. A
paper book will have a reasonably large cover as well as a spine and a back
cover, an ebook will be judged by the tiny rectangle you see on the Web. Both
are important, but you can see why you need to think very carefully about your
e-book cover.
6. Distribution
Createspace now distributes through Lightning Source in the UK. This has
some interesting and important consequences:
If you want to distribute via both Lightning Source AND Createspace,
publish through Lightning Source FIRST. If you start with Createspace you will
need to republish, with NEW ISBN numbers, through Lightning Source. I have not
looked into it, but I would guess this applies if you use any of the other POD
printers in the UK, so bear that in mind.
Ebooks are different again. There are several ebook distributors. You
can go to them directly – and Amazon is the first one that comes to mind – or
you can use Smashwords, where you will be distributed to all the current ebook
distributors.
7. Printing - POD – print on demand.
What if you want to publish a paper book? Many self-publishers choose
print on demand. This is a form of printing which can produce one copy of a
paper book at a time, using PDF files supplied by the publisher. This is particularly
useful when selling on Amazon or similar platforms because then a particular
book can have just one copy printed when required. It’s no longer necessary to
store books, at great expense, in warehouses.
You can choose your printer. The best-known POD printer for the
self-publisher is Createspace. If you
can get your content into a PDF of the right size, and make a cover, they will
print the book for you without charging for setting it up. (PDF = portable
document file)
You can use their online proofer, or you can order a copy for the cost
price of the book plus postage. Their postage charges, at present, are
calculated as from the US, and so are very high.
You can also use Lightning Source directly,
though this company doesn’t like to work with writers; in fact they ask you to
submit as a publishing company. You have to submit your typeset file as a high
quality PDF file. They charge a number of fees: these are, at present, £21 plus
VAT for the text PDF, and £21 plus VAT for the cover PDF. They provide an
excellent template for the cover, which is free.
You also have to pay for a printed proof copy, very expensive at £21
plus VAT and postage, though there is now an online proofer for black and white
books. However, it is difficult for a newcomer to publishing to judge an online
proof. Bear in mind that if you make a mistake, and it is hard not to do that
when you first start out, you have to pay the setting-up fee again when you
resubmit your file.
There are other costs. Apart from the printing you have to pay the cost
of carriage, and this is not cheap, though much cheaper than Createspace. There
is also an annual £7 per book, plus VAT, to keep the books on their selling
lists. So in all it is an expensive way to go. The upside is that LS are an
excellent printer. And they give you the option of choosing the discount you
give them – they advised me to go with 35%, which is really quite low. Aaron
Shepard says you can get away with 20%. You can read his really helpful blog
on:
http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/. Createspace
takes 40%.
There are many other companies you can use, like Lulu. They will be keen
to get your business.
POD printers can now print in colour at a reasonable price. You can now publish
both print and ebooks in colour, a huge advance. I have brought a POD colour
book to show you; I am very pleased with it. As you can see, it is a hardcover
book. It comes out well as an ebook on the ipad as well. I don’t have a colour
Kindle, but I am sure that works equally well.
OFFSET PRINTING.
Alternatively, if you want to publish a paper book, you can use an
offset printer you can readily find in your local area. There are many small
firms who will design, typeset and print your book for you, using offset
printing technology. They will print runs of, say, 50 to 1000 books, and the
cost is not prohibitive for relatively short books. Many poets choose this
method.
A word of warning. Small printers are NOT book designers or typesetters.
Their product will, quite often, look rather amateurish.
And they are not cheap for longer books: here are the figures for a 720
page book, on 80 gsm book wove paper, cover matt laminated, 240 gsm board, bulk
packed in shrink-wrapped packs to one UK address:
500 copies
£1871
1000 £3352
2000 £6513
run on: 100
£301

Additional
costs for storage and fulfilment - postage etc, and the cost of typesetting,
the cover and formatting for an ebook version is not included in this estimate.

So there you have it: self-publishing a paper book and/or ebook is now a
real possibility for everyone. That doesn’t mean it’s easy; there is a lot of
work to be done after the initial work of writing the book. However, once you
get the hang of it there is no real technical difficulty, and it is very
satisfying to write, illustrate, design and publish your own work. And, if
you’re good at selling or have a selling title, the financial rewards can also
be very satisfying. Instead of being offered the miserable 7.5% of the NET
price of the paper book – ie after all costs – you will be offered by
publishers, you keep all that is left after setting up costs and paying the
distributor. And, just to prove that it can also be financially rewarding, I’ve
brought along a book I typeset on a typewriter and had printed by a local
printer in 1984. This worked because it is a book of knitting patterns and
these, actually, are BETTER set in monotype. Just to show what can be achieved,
a new copy is now listed as £999 on Amazon, if you want to buy it!
In some ways e-book publishing is even easier. Here the trade publishers
will offer you between 25 and 35% of the cover price of the book, but since
there are no storage or fulfilment problems you can readily do it yourself.
But, of course, you have to do your own marketing.
I mentioned several ways of programming your book into ebook form. You
can learn to do it yourself, or you can pay someone to do it for you.
Publishing your own paper or ebook can work out very profitably for a
selling title, but you have to be prepared for a possibly substantial loss if you
use offset printing and the paper book doesn’t sell well. And setting up costs
have to be recouped whichever method you use.
Technology has made it possible for you to be your own publisher, but it
does mean acquiring a rather large number of skills – apart from the writing!
And initial costs can be surprisingly high if you do not have the skills to do
it all yourself.
Spelling, grammar, presentation, design, ISBN numbers, making a cover, choosing
a printer, translating to ebook, choosing your POD printer and, finally, selling.
Quite a challenging undertaking. However, all that is now well within
the capabilities of a determined writer. Good luck!






















Service

Description

Gross
PriceIncluding VAT at 20% in £
 

ISBN Prefix
for 10 numbers

Publisher registration, allocation of ISBN prefix plus a list of
all 10 associated ISBNs. The list is issued by email or can be posted if
required, at no extra fee.

£132.00

ISBN Prefix
for 100 numbers

Publisher registration, allocation of ISBN prefix plus a list of
all 100 associated ISBNs. The list is issued by email or if required, can be
posted for an extra fee.

£318.00

ISBN Prefix
for 1,000 numbers

Publisher
registration, allocation of ISBN prefix plus a list of all 1,000 associated
ISBNs. The list is issued by email or if required, can be posted for an extra
fee.

£846.00

Fast-track
Processing

Processing
time (from receipt of legible, fully and correctly completed application form
with correct payment to issuing of ISBN prefix and numbers) is reduced from
10 working days to 3 working days.


£72.00

Printing
and Posting of ISBN Allocation

Additional
fee payable for allocations of 100 or 1,000 ISBNs when issued by post.

£36.00


And they are not cheap for longer books: here are the figures for a 720
page book, on 80 gsm book wove paper, cover matt laminated, 240 gsm board, bulk
packed in shrink-wrapped packs to one UK address:
500 copies
£1871
1000 £3352
2000 £6513
run on: 100
£301

Additional
costs for storage and fulfilment - postage etc, and the cost of typesetting,
the cover and formatting for an ebook version is not included in this estimate.