We’ve plowed ahead on our book project. We have three quarters of the copy written and all the images are edited down now. The past few weeks we’ve begun the laborious task of reaching out to publishers. One has offered to have us on their label, but we must pay the entire cost for printing AND we will receive only 25% of the cover price, which means we would lose $2 on every book sold. Huh? I’m not a math major, but something just doesn’t make sense here.
Our book has both copy and color photos, which makes it considerably more expensive and complicated to design and print. That said, thousands of such books make it to retail one way or another every year, so we’ll find a way.
I’ve already learned a lot in this process and suspect somewhere there MUST be a book that outlines all these steps (hmm, or maybe that’s my next project). That said, everyone has a unique project, with various goals in mind: Some people want to just make money from the book; some want to get work from the publishing of the book; others hope to parlay the book into other properties. Ideally, we’d like to have all three, but decidedly, our goal is the second.
Both Elisa and I are professionals (she an architect, me a writer/photographer) that want new, creative projects to sprout from this effort. The exploration of these subjects – their journeys, complete with mistakes, lessons and achievements have been reminders that we too are in the midst of writing our history.
Each publisher wants materials submitted in a different way. Some only accept 300 kb messages, others want double spaced, detailed proposals. Some want completed manuscripts and others want to be able to edit and tear it apart and therefore suggest we only show a few chapters. They make you jump through hoops to get to the submission guidelines, and then they follow up your submission with a note saying it may take them several months to reply. This is not for faint hearted.
I had a consultation with a book publishing guru today. He basically told me that new authors make NO money. Even on second and sometimes third books — expect no real financial rewards. Then why are there so many books published every day? When I mentioned self publishing in China, he strongly suggested Print on Demand or POD, as insiders call it, instead. It commits you to fewer copies and costs less out of the gates, which seems more doable. It does, however, increase your per unit cost by several dollars.
We’re pushing ahead with finishing the copy. It’s becoming clear that nothing can really happen until it’s done. We’re brainstorming various ways to market the book, which they refer to as building our platform.The more ways we can devise to peddle our book, the better off we will be as even with a publisher on board, very little marketing will happen on our behalf.
I went for a walk today with a friend who has worked in the publishing industry for years, first as an editor and now as a writer. She said the retail book business is broken. It’s structured as a consignment, where things that don’t sell all get returned. The mark ups they charge and the inexact nature of how they market the books that don’t have huge names attached, makes it somewhat a crapshoot for new authors.
That said, I’m choosing to see this process as a journey. It’s become a maze, complete with a multitude of barriers to entry to overcome. Our book has a title: Success by Design: Revealing Profiles of California Architects. And slowly it’s taking shape.
Stay tuned….
