SELF-PUBLISHING FOR PROFIT Now that you’ve mastered the shorter forms of writing, perhaps you’re ready to write a book-length work of fiction or non-fiction. If you’ve developed strong writing skills over the course of your writing for profit career, you will likely be able to master the discipline necessary to write a longer work. The problems are more likely to lie with getting the book published. It is often easier to write a book today than to see it finally get published. Writers often see multiple numbers of rejection when submitting to book publishers. Some persist and do well like Richard Bach who survived more than fifteen rejections before getting "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" published. Many others simply give up. There are other options, however. Getting a book published by a large New York firm is probably the least likely way to break into book publishing. Many of these houses are owned by large corporations today whose interest lies primarily with pub-lishing blockbusters, book that can sell 50-100,000 copies in hard cover. Since few books by established authors do this, the beginner’s chance in this market has virtually disappeared. In addition, you need an agent in order to approach a large publisher like Random House or Doubleday. If you try to submit directly, your manuscript will likely lay unread. Some may even give you the courtesy of mailing it back. Still others will send you a postcard essentially saying, "Thanks, but no thanks". The editorial director of the popular magazine, "Publisher’s Weekly", believes that self-publishing is the best alternative for new writers to get a book out there for others to see. If an author is convinced of the quality of his or her book, and is receiving dozens or rejection letters, this editor suggests publishing the book yourself. Com-paratively simple equip-ment, he says, can be used to turn out a reasonable facsimile of a finished book. This establishes a writer as serious about one’s work and can lead to publishers looking at the author’s future manuscripts more closely. It always looks good to say you’ve been published, even if it is self-published. Some self-publishing books have gone on to bigger and better things. "Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations," a standard reference work now was originally self-published by the author as was the writer’s bible, "The Elements of Style". They sold well, publishers noticed them and bought the rights to publish it in greater quantity. If you decide to go ahead with self-publishing you book, you will have to be prepared to make an investment. It isn’t cheap to publish, but you can save on costs by doing as much work ahead of the printer as possible. First, desk-top publishing software can often let you type set you own book yourself. Or, if not, you should try and type your book on a computer and furnish a typesetter with a disk. It will make it much easier, quicker and less expensive for the typesetter to actually lay the book out in its eventual published format. Next, work with a graphic artist to design the cover. A photograph of you as author will likely suffice for the back cover copy. Print your book in soft cover. It’s cheaper to print and thus you can keep your book priced lower for resale. This could improve the volume of your actual sales. The most popular book size is 5 ½ by 8 ½ inches. Depending on typeset size, there are usually 350-400 words per page. It is easy to fit this book on your shelf, in a briefcase, or an overnight bag for airplane reading, thus making it a good size to market. Many original soft cover paperbacks are in this standard size.
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