bookPrint Publishing vs Electronic Publishing

http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing_electronicpublishing.html

If you don't know what an ebook is, visit What Is An Ebook? at http://www.closetohome.org/about%20e-books.htm

If you're looking for info on that "perfect" ebook reader that'll make this whole epublishing revolution take off, there's a comprehensive article about it at Mad About Books at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/michaellarocca.

For some utterly fantastic information on whether or not you're a candidate for epublishing, visit Are You A Candidate For Epublishing? at http://www.ebooksrock.net/candidate.html

Perhaps "versus" isn't the best word choice, as they aren't against each other. The two are not mutually exclusive, and the same book can be published in both mediums. I will always try to publish everything I write in both mediums, because each attracts a different group of readers and I want all the readers I can get.

The purpose of this chart is to show why I recommend publishing your book electronically first and in traditional print (or print-on-demand) second. The chart doesn't apply to all epublishers, only the best of the bunch.
 

Print Publisher
Prefers established authors
Wants to publish something like
what it's published before
Experimentation risky;
safe bets preferred
Survives largely on loyalty
to authors
Unwilling to edit a new,
unproven author
High initial investment of money on
their part (printing costs, advertising)
Wants "professionally edited
manuscripts"
 
Tends to publish two years
after acceptance
Thousands (millions?) of readers
Electronic Publisher
Welcomes new authors
Welcomes the new and the different
 
Quality writing is the most
important criterion
Survives largely on loyalty
to publishers
Free editing for everything
they publish

High initial investment of editing time;
no initial monetary investment
Will turn your book into a
"professionally edited
manuscript"
Tends to publish six months
after acceptance
Hundreds (dozens?) of readers

Writing is a calling. Publishing is a business.

And let me briefly say that, if a so-called publisher in either medium wants you to pay for publication, where's his incentive to sell books? Did you ever see a book by Vantage Press in any bookstore or any library? Me either, but they're still in business, and they first asked me for US$5000 in 1983. (They didn't get it.) Their business model doesn't require them to sell any books.

Back to the subject at hand.

Traditional print publishers don't want to spend the time to edit a new author's manuscript. They're already buying advertising (though not enough) and physical inventory. Especially the latter. So instead of paying someone to edit it before you submit it, I recommend publishing electronically first.

What if, like me, you've written something it doesn't make any commercial sense for a traditional print publisher to accept?

In that case, before you travel down the POD (Print-On-Demand) trail, get some editing. POD publishers won't give it to you.

Some epublishers offer free editing, then release your book in both electronic and POD formats with no setup fees for the latter. They sell both at the same URL and let the reader pick one. If you're not going for traditional print, that's really the way to go.

To skip ahead to the promotional end of book selling, how do you sell books?

To answer that, ask yourself how you buy them.

If I tell you my first new car broke down every month, you probably wouldn't buy that brand. If I tell you I drove my second one, a 1991 Ford Festiva, for 150000 miles and never put it in the shop, you might consider getting one yourself. 45 mph, too.

That's how I buy my books. Friends recommend them. Trusted reviewers recommend them and give reasons. They're on the Booker Prize Short List.

In short, word of mouth. And if you're publishing crap, nobody's gonna recommend it.

The whole point of the free workshops is to make your writing the best you can. Once you've mined that resource for all its worth, working with an epublishing editor is the next step in the process.

I don't believe the "doom and gloom" scenario for epublishing that's circulating. Those who are gone, quite simply, either published an inferior product or spent so much on advertising that they couldn't pay the bills.

Epublishing is a business for slow and steady growth, not a get-rich-quick scheme. Those with good business models succeed. To the rest, I say "Good riddance!"


Feel free to drop me a line at laroccamichael@hotmail.com.

e-mail to laroccamichael@hotmail.com

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