Every Tuesday on BlogTalkRadio I host Use Your Words, a 30 minute show where I give you speaking tips!
After asking on my Facebook page about the types of things you all wanted to hear about, I discovered that “writing a book” was right there on the top of the list. So I decided to tackle that in yesterday’s show. Listen in here.
A few thoughts from the show, in no particular order:
1. It’s very hard to get a book published today by a traditional publisher.
They’re looking for a great, compelling idea with a readily available and identifiable market. In other words, they don’t want lots of new books on “how to get closer to God”, which is basically what most of us who speak want to write. They want something very specific, that addresses a problem.
Unfortunately, if we write books for a specific niche, they’re hard to sell if we speak to general audiences. So traditional publishers aren’t likely going to help us much.
2. Self-Publishing is very expensive.
I say more about self-publishing in this post, but keep in mind that you’re looking at roughly $5000. That’s a lot of money. You can expect to sell books to about 10% of your audience, roughly, so if you speak to 300 women a month, and you publish 1000 books, you will likely sell them in three years. If you can guarantee that you can do that, self-publishing may be worth doing. If you can’t, then you should think about waiting.
3. Writing a Book Takes Time You Could Spend Elsewhere
Writing a book will take you at least six months to do well. In that six months, you could have been, instead, building up your web presence and your online community, which in turn would make it easier to sell that book (or to attract a traditional publisher). You could have been researching other speaking opportunities, or even writing magazine articles.
I’m not saying it’s not a good idea; only look at what should come first. Personally, I would concentrate on building a big online presence first, and then writing the book when you have a natural audience to sell it to. I talk more about my perspective in the radio show, so listen in!
In the meantime, if you need things to sell as you speak, a better route is to find something cheaper to produce. I have a great teleseminar that teaches you how to Create Information Products to sell, and helps you brainstorm what will work for you.
And this summer, I’ll be doing a webinar on how to get a book published, if you’re serious and you do want to pursue this. I’ll give you all the ins and outs, and teach you how to have the best reception from publishers. You don’t want to miss it, so sign up for my speaking information here!
Really appreciate this informative post! I’m definitely going to check out your “Create Information Products to Sell”! I’ve had several speaking engagements where this would have been so helpful to offer! Thanks, Sheila!
Actually, I have to disagree with the note that self-publishing has to cost around 5K. I’ve independently self-published (meaning I did not use a “self-publishing” company), I have a quality product and did not spend that much. Using one of those companies can be an option though for some situations.
It is also not necessary any more to print a garage full of books to get a good price per copy. Print on Demand (where you print/order as few as one copy is pretty affordable and accessible.
I’m in the US, but the resource I use is worldwide. Costs may vary some, but I don’t think it would be double or triple what I paid.
Will someone spend a thousand/two thousand to independently publish. Potentially, but having a book is also not necessarily about selling copies to break even. It can also be about the doors that open when you can put “author” next to your name when someone else can’t when people are choosing who to hire for example.
There is a lot that goes into getting a book into the world, no doubt. I also agree, it is absolutely a smart strategy to work to build an audience first or at least at the same time you’re writing.
Ditto what Cheryl just said. I just independently self-published my book and had the following expenses:
ISBNs (multiple to allow for print and e-versions and future editions) $250
Cover design $300
Amazon Advantage program fee (annual $30)
Because of my design experience I was able to do all the interior book layout myself so that probably saved me a $200.
I used an independent printer and the books cost me about $3.50 each to print. I ordered 300 in the first batch which I went through in the first month. (Having a niche – adoption – and being well connected to that audience has helped. An interview on The Dave Ramsey show did too 🙂
(Probably 50-60 copies were given away for PR so that equals another $175 “cost”.)
I sell the book on my own web site and make a pretty good profit margin. Using Amazon’s Advantage program I also sell from their site (it sells by and ships by Amazon). The profit margin is not nearly as high but it’s good visibility and I hit #1 on the adoption best-seller list.
I can continue to order the books in batches of a few hundred at a time without affecting the per book cost.
It takes a little more legwork to do it this way but definitely worth the cost savings.
That’s wonderful, Julie! You should write a post for me on how you did it and then you can guest post.
So let me do the math here:
You spent roughly $600 fixed costs. Then $3.50 a book, which would be $3,500 for 1000 books (which is what I was figuring for that $5000 figure) plus $600, which is $4,100. So that’s about 1000 less. But the most important part that makes it cheaper is that you didn’t have to order them all at once. That makes a huge difference.
(And I don’t include the $175 as a cost, because you would have had that same promotional “cost” if you had gone with a regular self-publisher as well, so that doesn’t count).
It’s really the fact that you can order fewer than 1,000 that’s important.
I just happened to get back here and see your reply. I’d love to write a guest post for you. It may be a couple weeks before I get to it as I’m prepping for a speaking conference and it’s general summer mayhem around here 🙂