Publishers Don’t Sell Books, Authors Do!

Many aspiring authors have been misinformed.  They have developed the notion that all they need to do is write a book and send the manuscript to as many publishers as they can.  Then one or more of those publishers will contact them about publishing their book.  The publisher will invest their money to take the book from manuscript stage to finished product, get every book store in the world to carry it, and will pay the author a substantial royalty on the thousands of books that are sold.

Unfortunately, this is not the reality.  Publishers rarely create sales for books.  Authors create the sales and publishers manage the fulfillment of orders for the book.  The average publisher receives more than 2,000 unsolicited manuscripts per year.  The majority of publishers do not even review the unsolicited manuscripts that are sent to them.  They simply return them to the sender with a letter stating, “We regret to inform you that our production schedule is full” or “We are not excepting unsolicited manuscripts at this time.” 

Publishers today are looking for authors with existing platforms of notoriety.  They know that if an author brings a platform to the table they can simply publish and print the book, set up distribution, and make a significant profit while paying the author a small portion of the revenue in the form of a royalty.  Authors also give up the rights of their book to the publisher.  The publishing house then has complete control over the work.  Our belief is that if the author brings notoriety to the table then the author should make the most money.

The traditional publisher is really no longer necessary.  There is now a book distribution system in place that doesn’t require the author to print any books to fulfill orders from the market place.  Using print-on-demand presses, a book distributor prints exactly the number of books required to fulfill orders from on and off-line bookstores and libraries.  The author is paid 100% of their profit from the sale of the book which is usually 3 to 5 times what a royalty from a traditional publisher would be.  The author must provide their book to the distributor in a digital format acceptable to the print-on-demand system. 

Many authors contract with a self-publishing service provider to have their manuscript properly prepared for the print-on-demand distribution system.  Today, there are companies that provide authors with turn-key publishing, printing, and distribution services for under $2,000.  The only thing required of an author is for them to hand over their manuscript and the company takes care of the rest.  The author maintains complete control of their work.  These turn-key packages often include cover design, typesetting, formatting, proofreading, ISBN and bar code assignment, copyright registration with the Library of Congress, set up of distribution in the United States and Europe, and one or more press releases.

Although there are a growing number of companies claiming to offer these services, the majority of them are brokering for actual providers of the service.  It is important to work with a company who has staff with actual experience with every aspect of the publishing process.  You will want to work with a company that provides free consultation and makes real people easily accessible to answer questions you might have. 

Whether you are an author with nationally syndicated radio and TV shows or a brand new yet to be discovered author, you should research your self-publishing options.  You are the one going to create the market for your book; you should maintain control and keep the lion share of the profits.  Traditional publishers are a soon to be extinct species.

Written by Todd Rutherford

VP of Sales and Marketing

www.victorygraphicsandmedia.com