World Domination Summit: Book Publishing 101

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to get your book published? As a college English major during the pre-internet days, there weren’t many publishing options. Nowadays there are plenty of choices. Is one necessarily better than the other? I’ve heard conflicting stories. That traditional publishing is better because it’s more credible. Or that self-publishing is better because traditional publishers take a huge cut leaving not much for the authors. Then I hear about hybrid choices where you can get the best of both worlds and beyond.

At the World Domination Summit event which I attended in Portland, OR (see my recap here), I had the opportunity to learn about book publishing from industry veterans Jane Friedman and Dave Fugate. Jane Friedman has more over 15 years of experience in book and magazine publishing and has spoken at events around the world. She teaches at the University of Virginia. David Fugate founder of LaunchBooks, a literary agency that helps authors successfully navigate the book proposal process to secure a book deal. He’s represented New York Times bestselling author Andy Weir (The Martian) and Chris Guillebeau (The Happiness of Pursuit).

For the purposes of this post we’ll focus more on the basics of traditional and digital self-publishing.

Traditional Publishing
In traditional publishing, you need to have a solid plan, similar to the ones pitched on Shark Tank. You want to make the best case for yourself as possible which you can do this via the book proposal.

What is a book proposal in publishing?
At the most basic level, a book proposal is like a business plan for your book. If you plan to write a non-fiction book through a traditional publisher, you’ll need to write a synopsis as to why your idea matters enough to be published. (For fiction, you submit a query letter and optional first chapter of finished manuscript.) Jane discusses the nuts and bolts for writing one here.

Commit, don’t speculate when you write your proposal. In the proposal, which can run between 50-100 pages, you’ll want to present your idea in the best light as possible. Basically, don’t be the guy or gal that says “We’ll see where this relationship goes…” Be the person that gets the ring, puts the ring on the finger and commits. So commit to your story idea in full detail.

Don’t say you will get all the pre-marketing stuff done (like get X number of followers on social media or X number of subscribers to your email newsletter.) This should already have been done. Your proven record will speak for itself, whether in the number of products you’ve sold, the platform you’ve built and the audience you’ve developed (particularly ones who are ready to buy).

Show proof of concept with comps. You’ll need to look at previously published books similar to what you intend to publish like comps in real estate. List 4-5 related books with one paragraph about each book state how your book is unique compared to them. Avoid comparing to bestsellers, use second or third tier books for comparison.

The big publishers require an agent. The big New York publishers include Penguin Random House (merged as of this writing), Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster. They’re profit driven and do require an agent. You can research agents (and if needed editors) at Publishers Marketplace. Smaller presses may not require an agent.

Start big, don’t build up. Dave mentions that if you have five great ideas, lead with the strongest one. Don’t try to “build” up because the results of the success of the first traditionally published book will determine how much of an advance you get in any future books you get published. If you’re a big seller you get MORE leeway. Tim Ferriss is a good example. His 4-Hour Work Week was a hit, and he was able to write whatever he wanted afterwards (4-Hour Chef and 4-Hour Body).

Follow Tim Ferriss’s formula and publish the best book you can.

On that note, Dave suggest trying traditional publishing first; huge penalty for failing in self-publishing first. If you self-publish first, fail to sell, then try to go the traditional route, most traditional publishers won’t accept it. By failing in self-publishing, you’ve already tested the market. So start big.

Other tips:
•    In traditional publishing, you get an advance. In traditional digital you get no advance.
•    If you’re pitching a non-fiction book, publishers will look closely at your platform (both online and offline), but for fiction books, not so much.
•    Don’t count on an author tour. It’s not an efficient way to promote and sell your book. You can do more to promote your book from your home computer (with a platform, social media, etc).

Self-Publishing
Digital publishing is a more flexible publishing option and is reiterative in nature. If your book doesn’t sell, you can rebrand it (change the book category, change the book cover). You don’t have that option in traditional publishing, you’ll have to wait years to print out the second edition.

Who is self-publishing ideal for?
Self-publishing is ideal for for entrepreneurial, business-driven personalities. Here you are the boss of the book publishing process. You can reach your readers without help of a major publisher. Your reader isn’t a typical bookstore buyer. You have frequent opportunities to sell to a niche market and know your audience better than a publisher.

Services
There are many self-publishers out there, Amazon Kindle being the biggest one. The process is relatively simple in that you upload a file that converts to Kindle’s format and could sell right away. If you don’t want to figure out the platform, there are many self-publishing services that can help you out too to give you support. Other places you could publish include Smashwords, Kobo and Nook. CreateSpace offers services for both digital and print.

There are also crowded funded services like InkShares where you pitch your idea and have the opportunity to publish based on positive feedback. There are female-only presses like She Writes Press.

Take note, many of these services are startups and may be here today, but gone tomorrow. Click here for more details and insight on digital publishing.

Hopefully these tips will help get you started in your publishing journey. To sum it up, if you choose the traditional publishing path, put your proposal in the best light possible and make it easy for an editor to say “yes” to your idea. If you choose the digital self-publishing path, you have a lot of options to choose from, you just have to pick the best solution for you.