Publishing 101

For many, the publishing world is daunting. The bestseller lists are dominated with titles by high-profile authors from large publishers. Consider this: 90.5% of the titles on the Publisher's Weekly bestseller list for hardcover books came from eight of the top publishers. Titles from those same eight publishers also made up 85.3% of the bestselling paperback titles (information taken from "Bestsellers '08," January 12, 2009, issue of Publisher's Weekly).

Nonetheless, publishing as a small- to mid-sized publisher, or even as a self-publisher, can be very rewarding. Independent publishing has a much larger market share and is respected much more than it has been in the past. Independent publishers can now compete with top publishers through national wholesaling, Internet sales, specialty sales, and every other market in which books are sold.

With realistic expectations, numerous publishers are pleased with the sales of their books and with the messages they are getting out to the world via their publications.

The publisher's role is to make decisions about what to publish, how to publish titles they select (print run, cover, price, etc.), and how to sell/market those titles. They must filter and select books they feel would be profitable for their company and the author. And they will do whatever they can to improve the chances that consumers will buy their title.

HOW TO PUBLISH
Publishers should be selective. They should only choose to take on titles they believe will be profitable and will have a market for the book. The publisher should do market research to make a game plan for their publishing project. Some questions to ask:

Now the publisher needs to look at the following:

BookMasters can support you in each stop of this process.

Package includes deciding on the cover, price, layout, binding, print run, and more. The packaging of the book hinges on several factors: consumer expectation, use of the book, funds for the project, and the preferences of the author/publisher.

Again, the publisher will have to engage in market research. Find similar titles in the marketplace (and there is always something similar). If all similar subject books with similar bindings and page counts are priced between $12.95 and $16.95, and you want to price your book at $39.95, you may be making a poor decision. The best place to start is to determine where your book would be shelved in a bookstore. Then look at the books that are there. These are the types of books that the buyer decided were worth the real estate space on the shelf.

The publisher is also responsible for getting the ISBN, hiring a layout designer, hiring a book cover artist, hiring a copyeditor, and managing and paying the printing costs. The BookMasters Group offers these services through our Digital Services and our Manufacturing Services, though it is not mandatory to use these in order to use our distribution services.

HOW TO SELL

By using BookMasters as your distributor, you have already taken a vital step in the selling process. Distribution makes the book available to the marketplace. Publishers are then responsible for generating demand to get consumers to the stores to buy books. In other words, we get the books to the marketplace, and the publisher gets them to consumers.

The first step to selling is to have a good product. Then the publisher must have publicity, reviews, and marketing.

The publisher must schedule events and pay for the expenses that go along with such planning or hire a publicist. AtlasBooks/BookMasters Distribution Services has an in-house team that can help with these services as well. See also Marketing 101, Publicity 101, and Book Signings 101.

An important key to your publicity/review/marketing campaign is to keep BookMasters in the loop with your efforts. The first step is to submit a comprehensive plan when submitting title information. This will be used as ammunition for a buy when the title is presented to buyers and will be summarized in the catalog.

As additional and specific events come up, it is best to use the online marketing update form. Keeping us aware of your activity allows us to make sure that there is enough stock in the right place at the right time. This emphasizes the importance of alerting us about your activity before it occurs. Old news is almost as good as no news in terms of getting bookstores to stock up. For past events, if demand increases from the event, the buyer will have already responded. If demand has not increased from these events, then they won't buy more now.