by Patrika Vaughn

Created on: December 10, 2009

By getting to the point of having a publishable manuscript, you have already mastered the arts of writing and editing. If you have also sent out proposals or queries, ideally you have also learned how to do market research. All three of these skills are necessary whether you are attempting to sell your manuscript to a publisher or planning to publish it yourself. As a self publisher, however, you can make better use of your market research than would a mainstream publisher. Because you can give it the attention it deserves, there is a good chance that you will do a more efficient job of publicizing and distributing your book.

 Since even the big publishers figure they make money on only three out of ten of their new titles, you can see that it’s easy for a book to fail to make a profit. There are, however, specific thing you can do - or neglect to do - that are guaranteed to kill a book. The most important of these is to fail to consider all the steps necessary for your book’s success and to then fail to take those steps at the proper time and in the proper order.

 THE ELEMENTS OF SELF-PUBLISHING

The crucial elements you must pay attention to are:

1. Scheduling

2. Cover design (including spine and back cover)

3. Interior design

4. Pricing

5. Promotion (press releases, articles, interviews and features)

6. Marketing

7. Bar Codes

8. Dust jackets (on hardbound books)

9. Copyright

Since this is primarily a book on writing and not a manual on self-publishing, it is not possible to go into each of these in exhaustive detail. Your public library contains books that will fully explain each of the above elements of self-publishing, and you will find that many vendors, such as printers, are willing to show you the ropes. Let’s spend a little time talking about Promotion and Marketing. This does not have to be expensive since, if you know how, you can get a lot of free publicity for your book. In order to take advantage of this, you have to plan ahead.

SCHEDULING

Two to four months before publication:

Promotion should begin several months before publication with press releases, announcements to local stores, radio and TV stations, newspaper reviewers, etc. (See Self- Promotion). Pre-publication offers can be made before publication (see Self-Promotion), with ordering coupons. If you plan to offer an electronic version of your book, you may do that once the manuscript is completed and formatted. Electronic publishing and/or disk versions are

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