Teresa’s Book Review: So You Want to Publish a Book? by Anne Trubek
So You Want to Publish a Book? by Anne Trubek
This is a charming little book, but quite short. Ms. Trubek does stick to the point so there are few wasted words. Still, it could have been longer. Easily. Definitely. Certainly. There is so much to say about the publishing business, especially for people who are new to the concept. This is a very short book on a huge subject. An introduction, really, instead of a comprehensive tome that would be so much more useful to anyone actually wanting to learn how to publish books.
I suppose newbies learning how to publish will, after learning what they can from Ms. Trubek, learn the rest of the business via the school of hard knocks. That’s a very cruel school with a high failure rate leading straight to both bankruptcy and divorce court if you don’t pay attention to the feedback you receive.
Let’s learn about the publishing business and see if it’s right for your new business venture.
There are two kinds of publishers today. (We don’t include vanity presses who are out to cheat you.) Traditional publishers come in a variety of sizes, from microscopic and publishing less than ten books a year to giants like Hachette who publish hundreds if not thousands of titles each year. Traditional publishers accept manuscripts from writers, convert the manuscripts into books, and then sell the books. At no point does a traditional publisher charge the writer. They pay the writer, maybe only the advance and maybe considerably more, but they do pay.
Indie writers publish only themselves and they do all the work. Indies are publishers, even if they don’t think of themselves that way.
A traditional publisher provides a lot of services for a writer. They edit the manuscript (with varying degrees of quality). They provide cover art (the writer may or may not get any say in the design). They print the books (a huge expense) and try to get the book into libraries and bookstores. They have marketing departments to help the sales process along.
A traditional writer’s job is writing the book, sometimes but not always finding an agent who will find a publisher (not every publisher requires agents), doing the rewrites, and then, after the book is published, working to get their book in front of as many readers as possible.
Publishers do want to sell books; that’s how they stay in business. Nonetheless, publishers expect their stable of writers to go out there and sell their babies to an uncaring public. Traditional writers cannot hide in their garret and let other people do the hard work of selling. Maybe they used to be able to do that, long, long, long, long, long ago but these days, they can’t.
Indie writers have to provide for themselves every service a publisher provides. They have to get editing, arrange for covers, produce the book in varying formats, and when the book is ready, go out and sell their baby to an uncaring public. All these services cost money, money that comes right out of your writing bottom line. Or, you spend oodles of time learning to do them yourself, instead of writing the next book.
If you, Writer, are not a well-organized businessperson, then a publisher is vital. On the other hand, if you are a well-organized businessperson, a publisher may not be so vital. This is especially true since if you take all the risks, you get all the money. The amount of money you earn will vary wildly. Most indie writers make coffee money. A few indie writers make “beach house in Kauai” money.
While it is unlikely, earning “beach house in Kauai” money is still more likely than hitting big in the lottery. Someday, if I work hard, learn how to do proper advertising, and get very lucky, I may get to Kauai.
It’s fairly obvious why some people want to become writers. We all have stories to tell. But why do some people want to become publishers and take on risk and spend lots of money to allow other people to tell their stories?
Because they discover there is a certain satisfaction to be had (along with the money) in helping writers reach their audience. Tell their stories. Inform, educate, entertain; all the things that storytellers have done since we first started telling stories around the fire in front of the cave.
It’s a lot of work being an indie writer and having to be your own publisher. Publishers take on that burden so writers can write. Good publishers — and not every publisher is good — pay a decent royalty rate to their authors, make sure their authors understand the contract they just signed, explain why a tiny advance and a decent royalty can be better career-wise than a larger advance and tiny royalties. A good publisher does not leave his stable of writers in the dark.
Let me repeat. Not every publisher is good.
If you as a traditional writer would like to have some standards by which to judge a publishing house, reading So You Want to Publish a Book? will explain a lot of the background behind the mysterious and often nonsensical choices a publishing house makes. They aren’t nonsensical when the price of paper is considered. Nor are they nonsensical when the publisher is looking at what the market actually is willing to pay for, as opposed to the book the author wants to write; the book that will have three paying customers not including the author’s relatives.
Ms. Trubek’s book gives you valuable insight. You’ll use it when you hold your traditionally published book for the very first time and can judge if the publisher did a decent job with your baby. Or, if you should reread your contract carefully and then sign with a different publisher for your next book.
On the other hand, if you are an indie writer, reading So You Want to Publish a Book? will help you produce a book that stands next to traditionally published books without shame. Your book will look just as professional. It will fit into its category nicely along with the comps you used to develop it. Your cover won’t end up in one of those “worst book cover” contests. The first sentence of your reviews won’t be “oh my God but this writer needs an editor and a formatter stat!”
So You Want to Publish a Book? has another small group of readers.
Someone you know wrote a novel and is convinced they’ll be the next Stephen King. They can write competently, tell a darn good story, and you loved the book but for various reasons, they need someone to guide them in the business aspects. Traditional contracts are hard to come by these days so they turn to you: capable, organized, money to spare, and looking for a challenge since you’ve already conquered the Matterhorn.
Publishing companies have been built on less. If you’re thinking about publishing anyone’s book for any reason, you should start here. Learn where and how to spend the money needed to get books in hand before you start writing those checks.
So You Want to Publish a Book? pairs very nicely with another how-to-publish book I read recently. Joe Biel wrote A People’s Guide to Publishing: Build a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business from the Ground Up. His book is far more detailed than Ms. Trubek’s (over four hundred pages) but he has a different take on many subjects. You should read them both if you’re thinking about getting into the business.
So why didn’t I give this book that oh so valuable fifth star? It isn’t because Ms. Trubek, like many publishers, thinks of writers as talented, necessary but often annoying cattle who desperately need the skilled guidance of a publisher.
It’s because her book is too darn short! She could have gone into so much more detail about cash flow, running a small business when you don’t know how much money you’ll earn until a year after you shipped the books to the bookstores (the dreaded returns system), dealing with printers, and considering Print-On-Demand versus offset printing. And that’s just for starters! We haven’t even begun to discuss who’s going to do editing, layout, formatting, covers, indexing, proofreading, and how you’re going to pay them.
By the way, if you are indie, print-on-demand is your friend. With POD, you don’t need to order one thousand copies of your book from the printer. You only order what you need. It is far more expensive per book, but you also won’t fill your garage to the rafters with copies waiting to be sold.
The other point I want to make is that Ms. Trubek, despite being a savvy businesswoman, made a mistake in the back of the book. This is concerning.
She owns and operates Belt Publishing. They are a niche publisher, operating out of Cleveland, and they specialize in books discussing the rust belt in all its permutations. She has a line of books. She spends time in the text discussing how important it is to a small publisher like hers that readers like you order their books directly from her rather than through Amazon or even a friendly local independent bookstore. She makes a lot of money this way, money that when deposited in her bank account tends to stay there and not get refunded because of returns.
She tells you what a signature is and illustrates this concept with a note explaining So You Want to Publish a Book? has several blank pages at the end, bringing the total page count to 160.
Blank pages.
There are also blank pages dotted here and there throughout the book. Very elegant, all that white space. Ideal for making notes and I wrote on the blank pages in my copy. But those pages are blank. Empty. Remember, Ms. Trubek and Belt Publishing have BOOKS TO SELL!
She could have removed those blank pages from the body of the book, moved them to the end of the book, and PRINTED HER CATALOG there! She would have still used complete signatures and she would have gotten some advertising for other Belt Publishing titles. I’m positive that she’s got some evergreen titles that would have coordinated nicely with So You Want to Publish a Book? Or she could have shown off what’s new or what’s coming or printed a cross-section of her titles to demonstrate the range of Belt Publishing.
This catalog could lead to more direct sales to readers. It could also lead to writers looking at the catalog and thinking, ‘I should submit to Belt because my writing would be a good match for what they are interested in publishing’.
This is also a demonstration of how easy it is to miss something, even for professionals. Or maybe she wanted blank pages because she had run out of things to say. I find that hard to believe because there was plenty more she could have said. I do know that I put catalogs in the back of Peschel Press titles because you never know what will attract a reader. But those blank pages — when they could have been filled with useful tidbits about the publishing business or a catalog of Belt Publications titles — make me wonder what else Ms. Trubek didn’t address that will jump up and bite a new publisher.
It’s still a good book in a very underserved niche and if you’re interested in entering the publishing biz, spending $16.95 now can save you a heap of money later on.
If you want to follow Ms. Trubek’s adventures, here’s her website.
If you buy the book through the Amazon link above, we get a piece of the action. But if you want to help Belt Publishing, buy the print or ebook version directly from them. They make the most money this way and have a better chance of staying in business.
If you want to purchase A People’s Guide to Publishing: Build a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business from the Ground Up by Joe Biel as a companion to Ms. Trubek’s book, go directly to Microcosm Publishing for the same reason.
If you chose to purchase your copies from an indie bookstore, hurray. They get some money too.
Amazon is also available for both titles, but I’ll let you find them yourself. Remember, Belt Publishing (or Microcosm) won’t earn as much from the sale of an individual title because Amazon takes its cut. That’s how Amazon stays in business.