Mark Long of the TSTC Publishing’s Book Business Blog has written a very detailed article about my POD Diary. He calls it “the absolutely epic saga—equally fascinating and heartwrenching—of Shannon Yarbrough self publishing his novel Stealing Wishes through an online POD publisher.” Wow! What a compliment!
While I’m certainly flattered and appreciate Mark taking the time to read the diary and write such a nice article about it, I was taken aback by the following comment: “Without a doubt, you have to admire both Yarbrough’s persistence and good nature. On the other hand, in many ways his story is a perfect example of working hard as opposed to efficiently.”
If you read the POD Diary, deep into the heart of it you’ll find me spending lots of time on getting the book cover just right and ordering review copies to edit the book in hand. Mark believes I could have worked more “efficiently” by sourcing the work out to third parties. If I had access to vast amounts of cash up front to fund this project, I probably would have paid someone to create the book cover, edit the book, and design a book trailer. Or maybe I would have taken advantage of all of the other extra services Lulu offers at a hefty fee. But as I point out in my reply to Mark, working efficiently doesn’t just mean saving time. It also means being economical. Here’s part of my reply…
The word “efficiently” is defined as performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least amount of time and effort. It is also defined as being satisfactory and economical to use. So, self-publishing basically comes down to time vs. economics based on these definitions. I admit…I did spend a lot of time on this project. I’m still spending time on it now 4 months after publication of this book. Self-publishing has been a learning experience and maybe I did waste time by editing the book my-self or designing the cover my-self. But I saved money by doing it…yes…my-self. I consider that economical at best. And so, that is efficient enough for me.
In comparing this project to the amount of money I spent on self-publishing my first book vs. the results in sales, I intentionally wanted to keep my expenses low. For readers, the diary points out lots of good options for doing just this. I bought a ton of nice marketing materials through VistaPrint at very low prices. Some of my materials were free from Cafepress. My largest investment was the BookCoverPro program, but I made back my cost and made a profit from it after offering my services to other Lulu’ers who were seeking affordable help with their book covers. It doesn’t get more efficient than that!
Of course, my book still has flaws. There are things I’d go back and change immediately. Maybe some of the glitches could have been prevented had I hired professional help, but would it increase sales of the book? Probably no more than the number of copies and downloads I’ve sold to date.
I’ve listened to lots of self-published authors who have contacted me since the conception of this review blog, and their biggest disappointment in choosing to use POD is a lack of sales. Outside of a handful of friends and family members, no stranger ever buys their book. And so, they give up. They don’t have time or money (or hope) to invest in marketing their book to a larger audience. They think that having their book in Lulu’s bookstore is enough, but we all know it isn’t.
I’m not a bestselling author, but I have embraced the notion that even one reader is a true gem. Sure, I’d love to sell my books by the thousands and climb the best selling charts. That’s something I still dream about. But for now, I’ll take that handful of readers who have bought or downloaded one of my books and given me a review on Amazon. I’ll take that best friend who went to his local bookstore and ordered a copy. I’ll take the free copies I gave to my own mother and sister as keepsakes. A lack of sales and bestselling numbers doesn’t break my heart. After all, the worst thing that could ever happen to a book is for no one to ever read it.
And so, with that said, that’s the reason I created this blog in the first place: to give Lulu authors one single moment to shine, to know that someone took the time to read their book, to have a chance in the spotlight and to get some praise and some feedback. Because when it’s all said and done, that’s the best feeling in the world for an author. And at a 46 cent profit per copy of my own book, at the end of the day my own reader’s praise is all I have to show for it. It’s all I need right now. And that’s efficient enough for me.
The POD Diary is one person’s experience. I’m not a pro at this. I admit my mistakes. Sure, there are things I could have done better. If I was perfect at it, I’d be running my own self-publishing company rather than writing about self-publishing my own book. SELF is a big part of the equation, and if any other author reads my diary and can take away from it hints, tips, or things to avoid which overall makes their self-publishing (there’s that word again) journey a better experience for them, then the diary has served it’s purpose.
You can read Mark’s full article and my reply here.
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