All too frequently the question of how to publish a book deteriorates to whether or not an author should use self-publishing companies (publishing services providers) or go it completely alone. I, personally, believe that, all things being equal, the simpler of the two is to use a high-quality, price competitive self publishing company.

We review a tremendous number of self publishing companies on a very regular basis and maintain a large database of each and their publishing services. Many self publishing companies all seem to focus efforts on NOT disclosing fully those things that an aspiring author needs to know. I know I can often step onto my soapbox and wax far too philosophical on the wonders of self publishing, but I really feel that accumulating all the available data will help authors make better publishing decisions. Every once in a while it means we have to re-evaluate the services and pricing we provide - but this is a good thing, creating a better product for our customers and making the publishing market that much more competitive. Sometimes - thankfully rarely - I’ve also found that I can get too attached to an idea or favored program and really avoid gathering data that renders the program obsolete. I've found one of our marketing programs that doesn't get the response I thought it would...

How to publish a book & Choosing a self publishing services provider

Now, I know I make mistakes, but like a parent (forgive the analogy... so many of you are much more wise than I am, but this fits...) I get really annoyed when some of my self publisher brethren ask us how to publish a book, then don't act on our advice. For example - so many publishers talk about their up front publishing package costs and how inexpensive they are in relation to everyone else in the market. They've allowed their author whose written a book using their sweat and tears to now bring it to light in the market for a very reasonable fee. However, they've also condemned the book the sit stagnant on the virtual bookshelf. Why, you may ask? Because to reduce their up front publishing costs, they've had to significantly raise the costs they charge for printing books. The number one factor impacting whether or not you will sell books - even beyond the quality of your writing or your topic - is the price you have to charge your readers! The more you pay for book printing from your publisher, the higher your retail price is pushed - often far beyond where someone will be willing to purchase it (except of course for Mom and Aunt Martha... ) Now, I know I'll get a ton of email about how such-and-such a company offers specials and more no-charge books in their package, but ultimately - what you pay (or are charged or assessed) for the printing of your book is directly related to how successful you will be in the market.

How to pulish a book & Choosing a market for your book

Another interesting author item is when we try and discuss target markets for their book and who the publisher should focus book marketing efforts upon. Quite often an author will tell us their book is for everyone - every reader needs this book, but all for a different reason. But - a book, once produced, is a static product. You must target a specific audience and pursue them relentlessly. "But what about the sales I'll lose from the other segments?" is the next question we get. Successful book sales are a long pursuit that requires consistent and persistent effort - and has quite a bit to do with the pursuit of targeted audiences and very little to do with reaching out to 'everyone'. My suggestion for audience targeting is to focus on a very specific segment, capture the interest of that segment and to describe the book as concisely as possible while paying attention to natural syntax and the needs of your potential readers. Get your content out on the internet on a web page - a suggestion for content is to put half or more of your book online, in chapters or shorter sections as titling allows.

How to pulish a book & Sales expectations and best selling books

Many an author dreams of conquering the world of publishing without bothering to learn many of the intricacies of how to publish a book. I see authors quite often falling within two camps - some start off very conservative, with realistic expectations and desires, while the other camp dashes in with the wild pursuit of book sales in the tens of thousands of units. These authors head into the market chasing the bestseller lists, with the thought that 'my book can sell just like X.'

Chasing a best-seller list is an exercise in futility - in only the rarest of cases do books make the best-seller lists without spending tens of thousands of dollars in marketing and placement fees (often more like hundreds of thousands...) Don't put yourself in this position - it's frustrating and unlikely to create any meaningful success. There are many many more opportunities for which you don't have to spend big money or fight already massively successful projects. There are still millions of ideas that haven't been explored or presented to the market. Publish a new title on a topic you believe will sell a couple to few thousand a year (a, believe it or not, very reasonable number.) Unfortunately, it's not reasonable to believe you will sell tens of thousands a year.

How to pulish a book & Guerilla Book Marketing

Last, but not least, we've found authors are not as willing as they need to be to spend time marketing their own book. All too often they want to throw money at the problem rather than time and effort. We've addressed this is our articles before, self publishers who are willing to spend more money than time on marketing techniques. This just doesn't make sense, since self publishers are almost always short on cash and more than likely to be publishing a first book to make some money. You can hire someone like Dog Ear to perform 'technical marketing' programs, but you ultimately are the number one advocate and marketer for your book. Miles and I spend a lot of time speaking with authors about book marketing and their book marketing plan ideas. And, all too often, the marketing plan is unfocused and aimed at 'everyone' so that they can sell a million books in a hurry. I'm sorry, but you need to focus and target - if you can't identify a specific reader and why they might buy your book, don't do it.

How to pulish a book & Publishing Services provider vs. Starting a Publishing Company

So lets go back to the original question about how to publish a book - using a self publisher or starting your own publishing imprint or publishing company. Most authors in both the 'traditional' and self publishing markets never receive a call back from a publisher. I've an interesting statistic that shows that you are slightly more likely to be successful when self publishing a book than you are when deciding to pursue the traditional book publisher market. Now, honestly, both avenues present slim chances for overwhelming success - but only in self publishing do you have the chance to control your own destiny.

If you publish with a traditional company, your book will carry the logo of that book publisher or publishing imprint, and with it bear all the prestige that comes with that publisher. However, have you thought about how a book publisher promotes its book? About how many of the books published each year actually are promoted as a premier or best-seller? Did you know that nearly 70% of the books published by traditional publishers were returned in 2004? It makes you wonder of pursuing a traditional book publisher is the correct course of action.

We've still not identified the detailed difference between being self publisher and using a self publisher to publish a book. The biggest difference is who performs each publishing tasks. I use the example of building a house - most of us hire a contractor to build our houses. There are the occasional few (like my father) who build their houses themselves or act as the general contractor. But it's not the norm. A self publishing company should merely act as your general contractor for the building of your book. For most authors, who may publish one, two or even three books, it is much more advantageous to use a self publishing company than to go through the processes themselves. If you envision creating your own publishing company, you cannot realistically use large traditional trade publishers as model. If you choose to pursue self publishing on your own, you'll be doing all the tasks that publishing companies and a self publishing company have staff members to do...

Publishing a book doesn't have to be hard - it will have it's moments of challenge and frustration, I assure you, but it should in the end have been fun and rewarding.

Why use Dog Ear Publishing?

If you are like so many authors and writers, having your manuscript published is a dream come true. Dog Ear Publishing provides an answer to the question "How to publish my book?" Dog Ear Publishing provides writers a simple, quick and economical way of getting published - even if this is your first book getting published, we'll make it easy. Dog Ear Publishing's cutting edge publishing technologies completely eliminate the need for printing books in huge quantities and our unmatched processes provide our authors the fastest time-to-market of any full service self publisher. We are the only company that truly gives authors complete control over when and how their manuscripts are getting published.

And - we make your books affordable enough that you can actually sell them and make a profit. That is VERY different that most of the competition in the self publishing market.