Monday, April 2, 2012

Step 3 - Which elements of the publishing experience are important to you?

The process for publishing any book involves many steps and costs considerations. The art quilt catalog that we'll talk about can be done inexpensively. We'll cover potential costs in a different post, but here let's review the major elements to consider when selecting a print-on-demand vendor. You'll have to decide which elements are most important to you and how to approach each:
  • Who owns your manuscript?
  • Who owns the ISBN? ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is a unique identifier for the book. Look on the back cover of any book - the ISBN is above the bar code. It is essential to have an ISBN for online or traditional bookstores to sell your catalog.
  • Who secures (and pays for) any permissions, such as permissions to publish a photo?
  • Who edits the manuscript?
  • Who designs the interior book layout?
  • Who creates the book cover?
  • Who prints the physical book?
  • Who distributes the book or makes it available for potential book sellers? It is not enough to have printed copies of your quilt catalog. You need it available for bookstores and others to buy it. How does the print-on-demand service you are considering make the printed book available? Who is it available to: just their website? to major online sites? to physical bookstores? to libraries? just in the US or also Canada, UK, Japan and other countries?
  • Who markets the book?
Don’t be discouraged – anyone who has ever published has to touch each of these steps! You should read the Terms and Conditions for any print-on-demand company you are interested in.
As a self-published author, I have found it critical to have my work on Amazon.com to reach the widest potential audience. Additionally, most folks have a credit card of file with the major online bookstores, so it convenient to purchase there. So, if the print-on-demand company does not make my book available to Amazon and other online bookstores, then they are off my list.
What are the important elements for you? Take a moment to post your comment. Enjoy!

7 comments:

Sarah Gibbs said...

I want to own my manuscript and the rights to all the photos, especially, since the quilts in the photos are mine also. I don't mind an editor to help me get the point across to my readers.
I've read the terms for CreateSpace and Amazon and all seem reasonable.

Thanks for the thought provoking questions.

Kyra said...

Sarah,

Thanks for your comment. It is so important to read any agreements to make sure you know.

Patricia said...

Probably ownership (including the ISBN and photo's of my quilts); who markets---appear to be important elements. Of course as I become more knowledgeable about the process, that might change.

Patricia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyra said...

Patricia - Thanks for your note! Hope that you'll find the blog useful.

Karoda said...

I like the ebook option that lulu has but it is not available for kindle...the iPad and Nook thus far.

Kyra said...

I've used Lulu before and had good experiences.

For ebook conversion, I've purchased services of converters using eLance.com and am able to have the actual file that I then upload to Amazon.