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1993-01-31
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██████████████████████████████
█ THE SELF-PUBLISHING MANUAL █
██████████████████████████████
Many writers have taken advantage of the power of computers
to create electronic editions of their work. However, creating
an electronic book is only the first step in becoming a publish-
er, even of the self-publishing variety.
Okay, what's next? That is the question that self-
publishers have always had to ask themselves upon completing
their book. Fortunately, others have faced this question in the
past and have found answers. One of those was Dan Poynter, the
author of The Self-Publishing Manual. Years ago, Poynter wrote a
technical book on parachutes which was too specialized for main-
stream publishers, so he became a self-publisher. In the years
since then Poynter has written numerous books, many on publish-
ing, and he has distilled his experience into this how-to-do
manual.
Although The Self-Publishing Manual is directed at tradi-
tional on-paper publishing, much of the information it contains
is directly transferable to the new field of electronic publish-
ing. Poynter guides the reader through all of the steps required
to take a nebulous book idea through completion as a profitable
publication.
Poyntyer begins by discussing the advantages and disadvan-
tages of self-publishing and other (non-electronic) publishing
options. He then offers a general outline of the process of
putting together a book. For those of us who are doing electron-
ic publishing, these opening chapters are mostly of historical
interest. The do, however, represent the foundations upon which
we are building and should not be skipped.
The real meat in Poynter's book begins whit the third chap-
ter: Starting your own publishing company. He outlines the
basics of starting a business, including some legal hurdles that
must be jumped over: state and local licenses, sales taxes, and
other such matters. These discussions are brief and should be
viewed as stepping stones towards further investigations of these
matters, not as a complete guide.
Poynter's fourth chapter concerns printing a book on paper.
Again, this material is of historic concern. We all know that
paper publishing is obsolete technology. Next, he discusses
various activities related to publishing housekeeping chores:
International Standard Book Numbers, bar codes for books, Library
of Congress Catalog Card numbers, Copyrights, and various agen-
cies and companies that list published works.
One important item you will want to think about is the price
that you will set for your book. Poynter devoted a chapter to
the factors that effect book prices. Basically, he recommends
that books be priced at eight times the cost to produce the book.
Applying this to electronic books, the list price for a book on
one 360K disk would be $12.95 if packaged in the style used by
Serendipity Systems, or $28.00 for a long book on two 1.44MB
disks. (See the article on software packaging in FORUM, Vol. 8.)
Remember, the list price is not necessarily what you will receive
for each copy. Retailers will expect discounts of 40 to 60
percent or more. Software is often radically discounted. For
example, when catalogs list WordStar (list price $495.00) for
$99.00, this means that the publisher gets only ten or fifteen
percent of the list price. You probably won't be required to
offer such steep discounts, however. Serendipity Systems places
a list price of $6.00 on 360K books and offers wholesalers a
discount of forty-five percent on orders of twenty or more
copies. Direct mail order sales of most of our books are auto-
matically discounted for end users.
Book promotion is the next topic that Poynter tackles. News
releases, book reviewers, press kits, radio and television talk
show promotions and other techniques are covered.
How will your book get from publisher to reader? Distribu-
tion methods get their own chapter. Information on wholesalers,
distributors, book clubs, chain bookstores and other bookstores,
library purchases, and other methods of moving books to the
public are presented.
Chapters on fulfillment--filling customers orders, computers
for publishing (as they apply to on-paper publishing only), and
"coping with being a publisher" constitute the last three chap-
ters of this book. There is, however, an extensive appendix, and
some of the most valuable information in the book will be found
there. Dozens of books containing information on publishing will
be found in the resource section. It also lists professional
publishing associations, magazines and newsletters for writers,
book reviewers, book wholesalers, postal information, government
pamphlets and publications, chain bookstores, book clubs, and
other names and addresses.
If you are considering becoming a self-publisher of either
an electronic or an on-paper book, you will be well advised to
get a copy of The Self-Publisher's Manual. It is an excellent
overview of the general issues that apply to publishing using the
now out-of-date technology of paper, and it contains many ideas
that can be applied to electronic publishing. Individual copies
of this 416 page trade paperback book can be ordered from:
Para Publishing
P.O. Box 4232-199
Santa Barbara CA 93140-4232
for $19.95 plus $2.00 for shipping and $1.55 sales tax if shipped
to a California address.
PRESS the RIGHT ARROW (numeric keypad) for next file, or
PRESS INS key to return to the INDEX MENU.
To QUIT, return to the INDEX MENU, then enter 0 (zero).
End of file.