Joel Friedlander is a well established authority in the self-publishing world and the force behind The BookDesigner website. His old-school self-publishing efforts, before Print On Demand, led to his becoming a provider of customized self-publishing services—a book producer, to use his term. Much of his new book is culled from blog posts of the past years, with an emphasis on the why of self-publishing more than the how.

A Self-Publisher’s Companion is not a technical guide and leans more in the direction of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series than . . . For Dummies. Even so, it provides thorough coverage of what’s involved in self-publishing for an author, with an informative introduction followed by sections on Bookmaking, Social Media, E-Books, the self-publishing experience, and marketing. By avoiding technical specifics, this book should remain relevant in the volatile self-publishing world for a long time.

For one thing that will never change for an author is that understanding the rationale for choosing to self-publish is vital. Any author committing to this route, after relishing that initial surge of independent spirit, inevitably feels alone. He faces self-doubt and even fear when circumnavigating all the options and information available out there. Most sources of ‘advice’ are self-serving, more interested in the author’s money than his art. Early on, Joel makes a key observation only someone with his experience could grasp fully:

. . . the modern notion of self-publishing depends on the opposition of this type of book publishing to traditional publishing.

Many take the self-publishing route because of rejection from or disdain with traditional publishing. As such, the choice to self-publish is often a reaction, consciously or subconsciously, not an action. A Self-Publisher’s Companion, as its author did many years ago, works on the positive, more self-inspiring notion of choosing independence, not out of frustration, but initiative. It’s not an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ world, but a ‘me’ world.

That means the author willingly takes on the role of publisher—assuming responsibility for the production of his book, making business and publishing decisions accordingly, with full awareness and control of each stage, determining with self-honesty what he is capable of doing and affording himself. The road may lead him to realize he can do everything himself, or that he can benefit from a subsidy publisher, or that he’s better off involving a book producer like Joel Friedlander.

Part of the downsizing of the publishing industry has been the upsizing of the freelance marketplace.

This is only natural as is Friedlander’s persuasive soft-selling of the services he provides. But authors need to know what is possible and the availability of these services can get lost in the great promises of AuthorHouse, Createspace, and other self-publishing services companies, each of which carry financial or quality risks. In the end:

You need to produce a high-quality book to have a chance in the market.

A Self-Publisher’s Companion gives an author the information and confidence to make solid choices. It can help an author determine his desired degree of involvement in the publishing process. Even if that choice turns out to be no involvement and that he’s better off with traditional publishing. After all, that too is an independent decision.

With a Wordclay ISBN and Channel Distribution ($99 value), your book will be available to thousands of retailers worldwide, including Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. The addition of these two key ingredients provides the following critical opportunities:

• Reach millions of potential readers
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• Earn more royalties as your title sells

Wordclay’s online do-it-yourself publishing is always on the house – but that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. We have an eager staff of in-house designers, editors and book marketers available to help make your book a success. Just visit our services store for options.

We hope that you will take advantage of our anniversary offer to publish your work with us this month. Remember, simply contact us to preorder 10 copies of your title and claim your complimentary Wordclay ISBN and Distribution.

Get Two Complimentary Copies of Each Book You Publish This July

Celebrate your personal independence by sharing your story and letting your voice be heard through do-it-yourself publishing. Whether you publish your memoir, collection of poems or favorite recipes in a cookbook, each book you publish in July gets you two complimentary copies.

Designing and publishing your book is a rewarding experience, but one that takes commitment as well. At Wordclay, we understand the financial hurdles and time constraints emerging writers like you must endure.

However, with our no-cost DIY publishing wizard combined with this summer offer, we’ve taken the financial burden off your shoulders, so you can spend less while printing and promoting your book.

Now is the perfect time to finish publishing your work. In only a few short weeks, you can hold copies of your book in your own two hands and experience the satisfaction that comes from seeing your words print.

*”Publish” refers to the completion of the publishing process through Wordclay’s online publishing wizard. Shipping and handling not included in offer.

John Buckman

In February 2008, John  blogged about an experiment he was going to attempt with his author friend Ramsay Wood.  Ramsay is the author of a book called A Cat May Look at a King that is out of print.  He and John were going to self-publish the book and list copies on BookMooch to be given away to readers.  If moochers liked the book, they would  “tip” the author through PayPal. They would then list the book on BookMooch again to be passed on to another reader.  Or moochers can choose to keep the book and pay the full amount of the book’s cost.  Or, if you can’t afford it or don’t like the book, you simply list it on BookMooch again to be passed on to another reader.

Yesterday, John announced the launch of the Experiment in Generosity.  24 copies of the book were listed by John on BookMooch and have now all been mooched.  Ramsay’s book has also been added to 45 BookMooch wishlists, including my own.

Here are John’s goals for this project, as stated in his blog post from yesterday:

• Can authors make a little bit of money by giving away a bunch of books through BookMooch’s system? A lot of authors look somewhat dubiously on mooching, since they’re starving already, and so I’d like to see if there isn’t a way to help them.
• Is there decent money to be made for an author by intentionally encouraging their books to be passed from hand to hand? Currently, they only make money on the “first sale” and thus the publishing industry looks upon recycling/reuse as a loss of revenues, which pits them against ecological concerns.
• Is the “moochers social network” a way for an author to market a book? Instead of selling your soul to a publishing company, can the recommendations and networking that happen naturally on BookMooch cause a book to interest people, get them reading it and maybe even drum up some revenue for the author?
• I am particularly interested in self-publishing, as I run the music site Magnatune where musicians self-publish (thus retaining their rights) and make a little bit of money. Is there a similar model possible with books?

I love the idea of a self-published author being able to reap rewards beyond the first initial sale of a copy of their book, and I’m not just talking about the money they earn from readers who donate.  This is an excellent opportunity for authors to be able to grow their audience and fan base just from the actions of their readers alone.  In my eyes, it’s genius. Also, it adds value to the physical book itself.  Self-published books often carry an extremely high price tag and the author earns a very small royalty from each sale. Not only does this program make these books more affordable (and even free) to more readers, but the author has the chance to earn a higher royalty even if just one single reader tipped them half the list price of the book itself.  If three readers did this, the cost of the book is covered and the author has made money.  But hopefully it doesn’t stop there.  It’s like a chain letter for books that pays off for authors and readers!

John states, “The goal with all this is to have a short “How Authors can use BookMooch” how-to guide, so that this idea can be repeated over and over again, with increasing success.”  I for one will be looking forward to a chance to sign up!

If you aren’t a member already, check out BookMooch today.  If you have books to give away and would like to earn free books in return, sign up and join the humble and happy BookMooching community! And kudos to John and Ramsay for starting this amazing marketing opportunity for authors! I look forward to reading about and joining in its success!

Authors, publishers and content producers are unhappy with the current “gatekeeper” system used in the acquisition of literary material. It’s wasteful, inefficient, and error-prone. Plenty of quality manuscripts fall through the cracks, and plenty of poor ones are passed on to publishers, producers and consumers. In response, publishers and producers increasingly limit their acquisitions to seeming blockbusters and ‘sure things’ to reduce their risk, while consumers, informed and empowered by web 2.0, increasingly complain of a lack of variety and quality in books, films and other media.

Meanwhile, self-publishing is exploding into a true “indie author” movement. Occasionally a self-published book becomes so successful that it becomes newsworthy, at which point the rights are easily sold because the book is that rare thing publishers and content producers most desire: a proven quantity, the closest thing to a sure thing they will ever see. They would prefer to acquire the rights before a book breaks through, when it’s trending positively but not yet on competitors’ radar, but until now there was no way for them to identify such books. For their part, many (if not most) self-published authors have self-published specifically in order to prove themselves and their work worthy of mainstream attention—but their books are lost in the sea of the internet.

Into this void steps the Publetariat Vault, a new service for indie authors and acquisitions pros that eliminates the failings of the gatekeeper system, reduces risk in acquisitions and opens the door to a wider variety of books, all by capitalizing on the burgeoning indie author movement and leveraging the power of the web, author platform and new media. Says site founder and designer April L. Hamilton, “The Vault is a searchable database of indie, or self-published, books for which the author still owns all rights free and clear, and is interested in selling those rights. Instead of passively waiting around for a manuscript that suits their needs to come in from gatekeepers, and then risking huge quantities of time and money developing and releasing a product they can only *hope* will succeed, acquisitions pros who use the Vault can approach their task proactively and locate books that are *already* succeeding because the Vault provides all the usual catalog information, plus actual sales figures, author platform, publicity and reader review data.”

“Publishers and producers can search for indie books that meet their specific content needs, then click through to the detailed listings to see how those books are actually performing in the marketplace. This allows them to quickly and easily identify books on the road to becoming breakout hits. Also, since there’s no charge for them to search the Vault, there’s no downside for publishers and producers in giving it a try. A similar service already exists for spec screenplays, The Inktip Executive Index, and it’s been very successful for screenwriters and producers alike for years even though it exists right alongside a traditional gatekeeper acquisitions system in that industry.” When asked about the benefit to authors, Hamilton replied, “Instead of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars mailing out author copies for review, attending pitch fests and publisher conferences in an effort to get some mainstream attention for their books, indie authors can get a Vault listing for just $10 per 30 days—and the first 30 days are free, to provide a trial period. For the Vault’s grand opening we’re extending that free trial period to 90 days for the first 300 listings.”

“Indie authors who list their books in the Vault have the opportunity to get their books directly in front of the people who are actively searching for their type of book, without having to go through the usual gatekeeper treadmill or hope and pray their book becomes a surprise hit. While authors will still need to retain a literary agent or attorney to assist with negotiations if an offer comes through, since the Vault provides a listing service only, by the time they seek out that agent or attorney they’ll already have an offer in hand.”

The Vault is now open for authors to create listings and estimates it will open for searches next month. To allow authors to try the service for free as well, the Vault is offering its first 300 published listings 90 days free listing time. Visit the Publetariat Vault at http://vault.publetariat.com.

###

The Publetariat Vault is a searchable database of independent literary works for which the authors own all rights free and clear and are interested in selling those rights, with accompanying sales data and reader reviews to take the guesswork out of determining commercial potential in the mass market.

I liked the way the title rolled off my tongue.  It reminded me of Frankenstein. Its pale gold color, white letters, and raised laced scrim on the cover caught my attention.  For being a hardcover book, it’s 7 x 5 size also appealed to me.  The book felt good in my large hands.  After reading the inside flap, I went to a nearby computer terminal to see why the book was being returned.  It turned out it had been released in paperback in December 1999 and since no one had purchased the last hardcover copy, the home office flagged it to be returned for credit.  I read the first page of the book and decided to buy it despite the higher cost of hardcover copies.

Although I have depleted most of the books on my shelves overtime, selling them on Amazon, donating them to community centers, shipping them to readers on BookMooch, this one copy of Allan Stein has been with me ever since I bought it back in 2001.  Sadly, I have never read Allan Stein…until a few nights ago when I came across it on a shelf.  I debated if I should finally part with the book.  Instead, I sat down and decided to read it.  I’m glad I did because I’m enjoying Stadler’s writing very much.  But this article is not a review of Matthew Stadler.

Like many books I read, thanks to the internet I like to research the book, or what it’s about, or learn about the author themselves.  Googling Matthew Stadler led me to a Wikipedia page where I found the following text and quote:

In a 2008 lecture in Vitoria, Spain, Stadler described publication as “the creation of a public … There is no preexisting public,” he went on. “The public is created through deliberate, willful acts: the circulation of texts, discussions and gatherings in physical space, and the maintenance of a related digital commons. These construct a common space of conversation, a public space, which beckons a public into being. This is publication in its fullest sense.”

This paragraph sparked me to write this article, asking myself, and wanting to ask you the writer, why do we publish? First, here are some of Stadler’s thoughts from the same seminar in Spain, which you can listen to here if you wish.

“In English, publication includes the word ‘public’…publication is the creation of a public. Publication is a political strategy.  It is not an attempt to make beautiful objects.  It is not an attempt to make an accurate record that can be stored and archived…  There is no pre-existing public.  The public that we hear about, which we think about often to our own discouragement, is itself a fiction created by political actors to lend moral authority to their choices. I am interested in publication because I want to create a public. I live in a culture, in a country, that uses the fiction of a main stream public in many ways that I find discouraging, negative, and disempowering but I don’t believe the notion of and the experience of a public needs to be that way… It is imperative that we publish not only as a means to counter the influence of a hegemonic public, but also to reclaim the space in which we imagine ourselves and our collectivity. We feel lonely and powerless when we accept the myth of ‘the main stream public.’ When we accept that fiction we relinquish our ability to form our own collectivities and draw hope from them.”

For me, Stadler’s “public” can be translated as being a writer’s audience. And your audience can be made up of a handful of friends and family, or encompass thousands of people across the country.  Your success should not be measured by how many physical copies of a book you sell, but by how many people make up your audience, your public.  If readers outside your circle of friends and family members are attracted to what you’ve written, your audience grows.  You capture the attention of more and more readers, and the public you have created can thrive with one thing in common:  they have read your words.

It is quite possible that some of those readers will tell others about your book, other people that you do not know and have yet to reach out to.  A new public of readers soon grows outside your personal public, as more and more people pick up your book and read it and tell others.  It’s a chain reaction that depends completely upon two things: the power of your words to speak to the reader, and second, for those words to be powerful enough to make the reader speak to someone else about them.

Publishing itself is a very large public, and as Stadler stated, it’s political.  Think about it.  Go to Amazon.com’s home page and what do you see?  Who do you see?  Walk into any chain bookstore and take a look around.  What books, whose books, do you see up front and center?  Chances are it’s a Dan Brown, a JK Rowling, or a Stephenie Meyer.  It’s not the authors we’ve reviewed on this site.  It’s not the books we have published ourselves.  What gives those books a right to be there?  Politics. So, why do we publish?  Like Stadler said, it is our responsibility to publish to counter influence that public we know as the “traditional publishing industry.”

As self-published authors, we have already disassociated ourselves from the “main stream publishing public.”  And as long as somehow, we arrange and form a public of our own along the way, we are destined to succeed.  As self-published authors, we are already “saving the earth”  by not wasting trees to make paper for huge print runs of books that may or may not sell.  We are not eating up valuable sale space on chain bookstore shelves where our books must be checked monthly for proper shelving or possibly pulled off the shelf, packed,  and returned to a publisher for credit as I mentioned before.  Our books are not eating up warehouse space, destined to become a clearance book and resold to B&N buying groups for people perusing the bargain aisle and buying us for half price while sipping an expensive latte. We are not wasting ink, paper, or payroll.

And yet, self-published books are frowned upon because of their price, their nonreturnable status, and often their poor editing.   POD is practically a Star of David a writer may or may not wear proudly. It can be the most discouraging, most expensive, most time consuming project to ever eat up a writer’s time, in the end preventing them from devoting time to their real craft which led them down this path to begin with.  And yet, more and more writers are turning to self publishing each year, snubbing their noses back at that “elite” traditional main stream public.

Print on Demand publishing is, in fact, like many art forms and is not bound to traditional rules and formats deemed necessary by well paid editors, publicists, and traditional publishing models who are out to appease their public in a certain way whether through wizards, vampires, or religious thrillers, or whatever else everyone thinks they need to read because everyone else around them is reading it too.  A traditional author may sit down and tell the story they wanted to tell, but it may not end up being the story their readers finally purchase in the end.  The essence of their story is whittled away like pieces of wood at a carver’s knife or like film strips on a director’s cutting room floor.

Though a certain level of formatting and consistency is expected in POD, isn’t it interesting that blogs and how-to guides everywhere teach us how to make our book look like everyone else’s?  We try to fool the main stream market into thinking our book is one of theirs.  And yet, self-publishing is the perfect way for a writer to publish when he doesn’t want to follow the norm, he wants to be experimental, and he wants to stand out from the rest.  And yet, the traditional public ridicules him for doing that.

Even Stadler was disappointed with the narrow interests of the big time New York publishers that published his books and the main stream magazines and journals (like the New York Times) which he wrote for.  He decided to go his own way and he started his own journals to focus on the writing he wanted to bring to a public. He co-founded Clear Cut Press as a part of that movement.  Suddenly.org, another of Stadler’s projects, developed out of his Using Global Media workshop.  This workshop focused on what he calls “the ecology of publication” (that is, the combination of printed texts with public gatherings and an associated digital commons).

Stadler self-published an annotated reader for Suddenly.org, and guess who he used to do it?  Lulu.com!  It’s called Where We Live Now. Here’s a quote from that Wikipedia page that states the beauty of self-publishing quite nicely for you:

Suddenly distributes the book by programming public conversations in many cities around the world, so that rather than having a large reservoir of printed copies that must be stored until they are pushed out through market pipelines, suddenly cultivates conversations that then draw the books out one-by-one from the printer, like sponges drawing water.

So, why do we publish? For me, it stopped being about the money a long time ago.  Actually, it never was about the money.  I never set myself up for disappointment by thinking that my self-published book with Xlibris back in 2003 would put me on the New York Times Bestseller list.  I said from the very beginning if I could walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book on the shelf, I accomplished what I’d set out to do.  And I’ve done it twice now.

For me, it’s a review on Amazon from a complete stranger.  It’s an email from a reader in another state I’ve never met before.  It’s being befriended on MySpace or Facebook by someone telling me they enjoyed my work.  It’s a book review by another author who offers me a serious critique.  It’s someone asking me when my next book is coming out, or what am I writing now. It’s that feeling of elation when someone tells me, “I’m reading your book.”  You’re reading me?  You could be reading Harry Potter or Twilight or The Da Vinci Code or anything else that any of us has heard of or read before, but you are reading me!?  It’s quite simply talking about my book with someone who has read it and learning how it made them feel.  It’s having the chance to learn what emotions my words evoked.

It’s lying awake at night in bed and envisioning the scenes I’m going to write in the morning.  It’s breathing so much life into a character on the page they make me laugh out loud, or even cry.  So much that I can talk about them like they are a real person.  It’s stressing over the perfect title for the book or for just one chapter.  It’s visiting a place or seeing a painting or reading about some event and being inspired so much by it I make a mental note to put it in a story.  It’s sitting down and creating a chapter or an entire story about whatever inspired me.  It’s so much more than this, but by now, you get it.  At least, I hope you do.  And for you, a writer, you know what it is that makes you want to write, what it is that makes you want to publish.  You’ve already started making a mental list of them while reading this.

Of course, in this technological age self-publishing has broken off into two formats: paper and digital.  For the sake of this article, I won’t discuss digital publishing right now. I still like the feel of that hardbound book of paper and ink and cardboard in my hand, no matter if it was the last one on the shelf or a copy printed on demand just for me or for my own public.  I think Matthew Stadler does too.  He says the internet lacks literary closure.  Like browsers in a bookstore, our internet browsers show us thousands of words everyday and we can never read all of them.

But a book, a published book, is much different.   It requires focus.  It requires attention.  It has a beginning and… it has an end.  Even now, that blue “Publish” button taunts me from the margin of this site’s administrative dashboard, eager for me to press it and publish these words for you, my public, to see.  Dare I press it?  Dare I publish these words, these political views of my own, for you the visitor, the reader, the public, to read?  I think I will.

After all, why do we publish?

Notice the additional information for books in the square to the right. Even though in Step One of the creation process you were asked to enter a publisher or imprint name, if you are taking advantage of the free ISBN through CreateSpace, then CS will be listed as the publisher.

After finalizing, it appears to take 5 to 15 days for the book to become available at Amazon.  In speaking to a few authors, I’ve learned that can actually happen much quicker.  The page will load over time after about 5 business days with the Search Inside feature being the last function to load, taking the full 15 days to happen.

One of the unique tools CreateSpace offers is called Preview Gallery.  This is where you can upload a preview of your work for other CreateSpace members to read, rate, and review by answering a few questions about it.  The only thing that turned me off about looking at other previews in the Preview Gallery is that each preview contains a warning that says “For personal use only. Please use caution when downloading; files have not been scanned for malicious software.”

CreateSpace has a “Showcase” option where you can submit your own success story.  You can also read about other CreateSpace users whose products have been featured. I took a look at several of these, particularly those who have used CreateSpace to make DVDs, and found most of the write ups to be too hard of a sell.  Some even reminded me of those infomercials you see online for fad diets and exercise equipment.  They even read like a Billy Mays script for OxyClean or some other “act now and get a second one totally free” product.  Each shows a picture of the creator along with the product.

In searching through the Community Forums, I found several helpful topics.  I found the forums to be much more organized with Discussion Boards at the top for the different types of products you can create (Books have the most discussions), and the most recent posts can be found at the bottom.

The only thing I don’t like about CS so far has to be the lack of a bookstore.  Each of your projects comes with an “E-Store” link you can direct customers to, but there is no complete “bookstore” to shop at CreateSpace to view all of the products available.  There’s not even a search feature to help you locate other products while you are on the CS site. So it seems the only true selling outlet for your CS project is through Amazon, or at least it will lean toward being the more popular.

To close out my focus on Createspace, I promised we’d hear from a few other authors who have used CreateSpace for their own publishing ventures.  First, I checked in with Cheryl Anne Gardner, author of The Thin Wall.

Why did you choose CreateSpace?

I have my own imprint; I list my titles directly with Bowkers, and so I wanted a flexible low-cost printing and distribution solution. Amazon functions as my printer and my distributor, so the business model is efficient while still allowing for expansion.

What do you like best about CreateSpace?

•Free distribution with the number one online bookstore.
•Streamlined system designed for the advanced DIY Indie Publisher.
•Advanced Adobe distiller specs, allowing for cover files up to 40MB at 300dpi.
•Can use own ISBNs, but must list directly with Bowkers.
•The cost of proof copies is low, and the turn-around time from proof to listing is quite fast. The Createspace guidelines state 15 business days, but I found the product pages load in about 5, and while they may not be fully activated with the search inside feature, customers can purchase the product as soon as it goes online.
•Can offer promotional discount codes on purchases through the Createspace e-store.

What do you like least?

That distribution is limited to Amazon in the US. I would like to see Amazon UK and Canada added on as well.

What troubles (if any) did you experience during the publishing process?

I had one instance where the discounted author copies I ordered had a noticeable print defect. The odd page toner saturation was much darker than the even pages. I emailed the customer service center, and within 24 hours, I was asked to provide them with the barcode tracking number from each of the books so that they could identify the run. Subsequently, they sent me 6 new copies, which I received within 5 days. I didn’t have to return the damaged ones, either. This was the first incident I have had with defective books. I find Createspace’s print quality to be above par, with covers of higher quality than Lulu and even Lightning Source. Manufacturing errors occur and my situation was dealt with promptly and respectfully.

Would you recommend CreateSpace to someone who is considering self-publishing? If so, why?

I would only recommend them if the author has advanced knowledge in desktop publishing and has the software capability to distill their own PDF files. Your book is only as good as the writing and the files you upload. There are no help wizards.

I asked the same questions to RJ Keller, author of Waiting for Spring.

It all starts with sales reported to me from Lulu.com.  In order to keep the price of my book affordable, I opted for a lower royalty, just 67 cents per copy sold through a distribution channel outside of Lulu.  Here are the total copies sold through Lulu and the total money I made from each as of June 8, 2009.

Lulu:

23 copies sold through distribution channels – Amazon  (67 cents each x 23 = $15.41)

2 copies sold through UK distribution channels (67 cents each x 2 = $1.34)

3 Ebook downloads direct from Lulu ($4.00 each x 3 = $12.00)

1 print copy sold direct from Lulu ($3.86)

That’s a total of $32.61 earned direct from Lulu.com the first year.

Sad, isn’t it?  Not really.  Obviously, I sold more copies through Amazon than I did direct from Lulu. Perhaps I could have done more promotion.  Perhaps I could have directed more people to Lulu instead of Amazon to increase my earnings per copy.  However, the majority of readers are more likely to buy through a site they know and trust, such as B&N or Amazon, rather than buying direct from my Lulu bookstore.  Had I never once mentioned the book was available on Amazon, and had I only directed people to Lulu, maybe my earnings would be better…maybe not.

But don’t frown.  That’s just Lulu.  Let’s take a look at Kindle E-reader sales for the year.  For the sake of price changes, discounts, and the various number of copies sold per month, I’ll just show you how many copies sold each month and then give you the grand total of my earnings from Kindle alone.

Amazon Kindle:

June 2008: zero copies sold

July 2008: 2 copies sold

August 2008: 23 copies sold

September 2008: 25 copies sold

October 2008: 25 copies sold

November 2008: 29 copies sold

December 2008: 22 copies sold ( December/January show a decline in sales probably due to the holidays.)

January 2009: 17 copies sold

February 2009: 24 copies sold

March 2009: 73 copies sold (Release of Kindle 2)

April 2009: 33 copies sold

May 2009: 43 copies sold

June 2009: 7 copies sold as of June 8th

Grand total earned from all Kindle sales: $1044.80.  Not too shabby.

I invested in a total number of 30 author copies.  The majority of those copies were given away to friends and family or included in marketing kits.  I did sell five copies to coworkers and through the Amazon Marketplace at $10.00 each.

Total earned from direct author sales: $50.00

Last, we have sales through Smashwords.  A total of 23 copies have been downloaded since I published the book here back on February 18th, 2009.  However, I’d like to point out that I used Smashwords mainly as a marketing tool to help gain Amazon reviews.  Here, my book was offered for free in exchange for an Amazon review.  I only gained royalties from three sales totaling $5.81.  I have not yet been paid for these sales since Smashwords has a minimum requirement of $25.00 in earnings before they pay out.

This brings my total earnings across the board to a total of $1133.22.

That’s a far stretch from being able to afford my cost of living for one year.  Not really even enough for one month.  It is 3 car payments though; it’s even enough to pay my utility bill for 16 months.  As I reported in my last diary entry, almost all of this money was invested in marketing and review copies. But I have no debt as far as this project goes, which is more than some self-published authors can say.

Now, let’s take a quick look at reviews.

To date, I have 10 reviews on Amazon. Nine are from people I have never met face to face.  That’s important because reviews from friends and family are nice, but they are always going to be positive. The first review came from an Amazon Top 500 Reviewer who I sent a review copy to.  Three of the reviews were a result of my free Smashwords Ebook give away. And two of the reviews were cross posted from other review sites. My current Amazon rank is at 1.2 million, but has been as high as 101,000 although it fell fast. My current rank on the Kindle is 104,705.

My first review outside of Amazon came from Rainbow Reviews.  I was sorely disappointed in this review, not because it only gave me three stars, but because the quality of the review itself is horrible.  The reviewer just reposted my book blurb, then pointed out three paragraphs he liked and wrapped up the review with two sentences which pretty much anyone could have come up with just by reading a few pages.  Thankfully, this review was not cross posted to Amazon.

The second came from Floyd M. Orr at PODBRAM.    Floyd cross posted a version of the review to Amazon for me.  I have to admit its a nice critical and well rounded review, just as a review should be.

The last review I received outside of Amazon was from Cheryl Anne Gardner at PodPeep. Cheryl was the first to really point out a lot of my subliminal underlying tones of the book and to really embrace the humorous aspect of the story. Cheryl also cross posted the review to Amazon for me.

And this is where my year ends.  It’s certainly not where my story ends.  Like I said in my last post, this is a good place to end the diary even though my journey as an author is far from over.  I’m not going to recap my mistakes or what I’ve learned from this diary.  I’ll leave those things up to you to find out for yourself in all my previous posts. I have no philosophical words of wisdom to share with you. The diary speaks for itself. I’ll still be sharing news and thoughts about self-publishing in general from time to time on LLBR, but this is where the POD Diary comes to a close.

What’s next for me, you ask?  Well, I’ve often referred to myself as a literary medium.  There’s always another character or storyline in my head waiting to be born, usually several at a time actually.  I’ll still be promoting my book and seeking out reviews, and checking my Amazon rank every other day, and wait eagerly for more Kindle royalties, but it’s time to put my focus into something new.  Another story, another character is calling and I’ve ignored the messages long enough.

For the readers out there who took time to read my book, I thank you.  And for the writers out there who have followed my diary this past year for information or inspiration, I say to you what I say to every author I encounter who takes the self-publishing path:

Don’t give up!

The first time I submitted my work, I did receive a reply within 24 hours which advised me to remove the title and my name from the spine.  My project was only around 120 pages and they suggested the words on the spine might bleed over onto the front or back cover at printing.  They also told me the cover art might appear blurry because of its pixel count.  While I didn’t change the cover art, I did take their advice and removed the words from the spine.

After making these changes to my book and redoing Step 2 of the publication process, I was allowed to order a PROOF copy which is Step 3.  Here you enter you billing and shipping information and your credit card number.  The cost of my book was $4.02 and $6.00 shipping.  Yes, the shipping was more than the book, but a price check at Lulu for a 6 x 9, 123 page paperback book was $6.96 for the book and $5.85 for media mail shipping.  For the first copy of my book plus shipping, CreateSpace had already beat Lulu by almost $3.00.

After ordering my proof copy, I received an automated email that states the following: “Thank you for ordering a proof copy. This is to notify you your order has been received and is currently being processed. Your proof copy will ship to you within five days. If you are completely satisfied with your proof copy when you receive it and are ready to make your book available for sale, log in to your CreateSpace member account and click the edit icon corresponding to your book. Review your books information for accuracy and click Approve Proof to make your book available for sale. If you are not completely satisfied with your proof copy when you receive it, you may make any necessary changes to your files, upload them again and order another proof after those files have been reviewed.”

Notice the email says it will ship within 5 days.  Online at CreateSpace it also gave a very broad estimate for delivery which was about three weeks away. I ordered the proof at about 7am in the morning.  When I got home that afternoon from work, there was an email in my box saying my proof copy had already shipped.  That’s right!  My proof copy was printed, bound, packed and shipped the exact same day I ordered it.  The book arrived at my house four days later.

I was immediately impressed with the overall quality of the book and the way it was packaged for shipping. I’d also like to point out that CreateSpace adds a blank page to the back of the book with the word PROOF printed across it. There’s also a tiny bar code and number on this page in the bottom left corner.  I’ve learned from other authors that this bar code helps CreateSpace identify which system and printer your book came from in case you report problems with it later.

While “proofing my own proof,” I received a review copy of another CS book which was also around 123 pages but the size of the book was 5 x 8.  I was so impressed with the smaller size, I decided to change my own CS project to this smaller size.  This required a full revamp of both the cover and the body of the work, and a few minor changes to the format information online at CreateSpace.

I had a bit of trouble “unlocking” the ability to change the size of my book.  I emailed CS for assistance and got a reply back from them about two days later.  While waiting for the reply, I almost thought about deleting the project and just starting over, but I discovered in their community forums that this is not possible without their assistance.  So, authors who enjoy the immediacy of Lulu’s systems will require a bit more patience when it comes to creating with CreateSpace.

After making the necessary adjustments and uploading new files, I received the email again saying they’d check my files and alert me within48 hours if everything was okay.  I received the email the following day telling me my files were good and that I could now order a new proof of my work. At this time, I started reading information about something CS calls Pro Plan. I had noticed it when I ordered my first proof, but I did not look into it at that time.

Here’s how Pro Plan works. For a $39.00 fee per project (and $5 renewal fee each year after), CreateSpace will lower the cost of your author copies and also increase the royalty you earn per sale.  So, basically this is kind of  like buying  a warranty.  If you look at it in comparison to Lulu’s sales figures, it’s a pretty good deal for them.  A few years ago, Lulu reported the average sale run of a book was 1.5.  That meant that outside of one or two copies sold to the author, no more copies ever sold.  If at least 2 out of every 10 of these Lulu authors signed up for Pro Plan if Lulu offered such a thing, Lulu stands to be quite profitable if those authors’ books don’t ever sell. But that’s Lulu.  For CreateSpace authors who do take advantage of Pro Plan, it means big savings.  Here’s how…

After signing up for Pro Plan, my second proof cost me just $2.41 and $3.58 shipping.  That’s a total of $5.99,  a savings of $6.82 over the cost at Lulu.  The second proof copy was ordered on June 1st, and also shipped that same day.  It arrived today, June 5th.  I love the pocket book size and think it is definitely perfect for work under 200 pages.  It arrived in a thick bubblewrap envelope with no damage.  The glue used in the spine looked a little thick at the top and bottom, but it may have swelled due to the heat while in transit.

In Part 3, I’ll wrap up my discussion about creating with CreateSpace by exploring the final step 4 (Print Ready) step which is basically finalizing my project.  I’ll also take a look at the CreateSpace Community Forums, the Showcase, and the Preview Gallery.  We’ll also hear from some other Createspace authors and learn about their creations.

The first major disadvantage I discovered is that CreateSpace books are only available through the CreateSpace website and through Amazon.com, but the more I thought about this, the more I thought about it not being so bad.  After all, self-published books are often frowned upon in chain bookstores because of their big price, small discount, and non-returnable stipulation.  For an author who doesn’t mind eliminating the capability for bookstores to be able to order your books through wholesale, it’s not such a bad thing.  I’ve noticed this limitation also keeps pricing low, but we’ll talk more about pricing later.  For now, just know that it allows your books to be affordable enough to invest in enough of your own stock to sell to indie bookshops, at conventions, book fairs, signings, etc. on your own.

CreateSpace allows creative individuals to make their own DVDs, CDs, videos, audio downloads, and of course, paperback books.  For the sake of the blog and being an author, I’ll be discussing the book option. After creating a free account, an author follows four simple steps to publication. The first step is Title Setup.

Title Setup is where you enter all the basic information about your book: title, subtitle, volume number, description, and imprint name.  Here, you can also enter your own ISBN number if you already have one or you can choose to have CreateSpace assign one to you.  There is no additional fee for their ISBN. You also choose what category you want your book listed under; you are only allowed to choose one so pick carefully. Next, you choose a reading level which starts with preschool and goes up to college graduate student.  I would have liked to have seen at least a few more levels beyond the graduate student range such as adult male, adult female, parent, single parent, senior citizen, etc.  Otherwise, college graduate student becomes quite broad.

There’s also a section where you choose where your book might have been previously published.  Although this is probably there just to help CreateSpace capture where their customers are coming from, it’s interesting to note that there are only four choices to pick from: Not Previously Published, LSI, Lulu, and Other. Publication date, country, language, keywords, authors and contributors, and an author biography are the final steps in Title Setup.

Step 2 is File Review where you will upload your book’s cover and your manuscript, both of which have to be in PDF format.  You’ll also choose what size your book will be.   There are 13 sizes to choose from ranging from basic 6 x 9 to magazine size 8 x 10. Learn more about Trim Sizes on the Get Started page.   I’d also like to point out the information on the Trim Sizes & Artwork tab which thoroughly explains how to create your own cover file.  From minimum cover width and height, safe zones, cover bleeds, spine width and variance, and ISBN barcodes there is a lot of information on this one page which can be applied to any DIY Publishing model where you would be responsible for your own book’s cover (including Lulu).

So, authors needing a good reference on this should definitely bookmark this page even if you aren’t using CreateSpace.  It contains very valuable information! For those authors who might want some easy and free assistance with creating a book cover, CreateSpace offers that too. Just click on Create a Cover when you are on the Upload File page. Now, be warned there is a lot of free artwork available here, so someone else’s book having a similar cover to yours is bound to happen.

In Part 2 of this article, I’ll be discussing Step 3 of the publication process, pricing, CreateSpace’s Pro Plan, shipping, and more.