What other publishers won’t tell you. Publishing is a business that you really have to love to be involved in. The spread of ideas and information is becoming cheaper and the love of books is lessening every year. At Lucid Books, we believe that the written word and publishing your book has the power to change people, that is why we are involved in this business. If we can help an author get their message out and change just ten people’s lives it can have a huge effect on our communities and our world.
The truth about publishing these days is hard for a lot of people to swallow, and harder still for many publishers to say. Here are some of the real facts about publishing books these days that are often hidden or quickly passed over.
Publishers can’t market your book effectively. You have to be involved for a book to succeed. The sheer volume of books published these days, over 1,000,000 a year dictate this, but it has been true for years. Advertising for books rarely works when done on a large scale basis. You must target your market effectively and be involved from day one for your book to succeed.
Don’t publish a book to get rich on royalties. It won’t happen, unfortunately. Publish a book to change people’s minds. Publish a book to change people’s lives. There is no better platform to build your credibility, your reach, and your business then by publishing a book, but you won’t make money on royalties unless you are John Grisham or Stephen King. Commit to sell the book yourself and use it to promote your other interests, and you are on the right track.
It is hard work to get permission first. The best time to start promoting your book is two years before its released. The best way to promote is to build a list of interested people and communicate with them weekly through a blog, newsletter, or other format. Your book can be a great tool to build a tribe when you understand these principles, and a tribe has much more value then a single bestseller these days. Read Seth Godin’s excellent marketing books, particularly Permission Marketing andTribes, for more on this.
You are not a perfect writer. You need an editor, a professional editor who will improve your work. Don’t publish your book with someone who does not require editing. It will not be a good book.
Give away your books for free. The money you make on any one book is not nearly as valuable as spreading the ideas in your book and growing your own platform. Having trouble gaining momentum? Start giving away your books to key people. Do you want to make the $5 on the book, or do you want your book to change lives?
Printing a book is not publishing a book. Just because you found a free service that lets you sell a book online, you are not published. A book publisher aids, promotes, distributes, markets, helps, edits, designs, and much more. A website where you upload your text is not a publisher.
Write a book, get it published professionally, and work hard to promote your idea before and after it comes out. Don’t expect to make a ton of money on book sales, but do expect to grow your reach, your platform, and your fan base. If you write multiple books and just follow these simple rules, you have a great chance to be a huge success. Check out our Partnership Publishing Guide to see how we have set up our company to encourage all of these things.
