JUNE MEETING RECAP

Chris Espinosa shared his experience in becoming a self-published author. For a while, he traveled the country with a rabbit. He and Buns visited schools and libraries prompting Buns Travels Across America, a chronicle of Buns' adventures written by David Love. Due to his niece going into the 3rd grade and comments made by several teachers and librarians, he saw a need for a book about Texas. Since Buns' author was not interested in doing such a book, Chris decided to take on the project himself and with the help of a robotic dog, he wrote Rocket Megabyte's Texas Adventure. Wanting to keep total control of his product, he decided to self-publish.

The information below is geared towards children's books but most of it can work any genre.

There are pros and cons to self-publishing. The pro is "you're in charge of everything." You control the cover art, the illustrations, and the content. The con is "you're in charge of everything." Not only do you control all the aforementioned, but you're also responsible for all the funds need to produce the book and all the marketing. Chris came up with a list of the 4 components of self-publishing.

Four Components of Self-Publishing

1. Illustrations
2. Pre-Press
3. Printing

Illustrations - When choosing an illustrator, find one who shares your vision and draws what's in your mind. Not all artists can draw everything. Find one who fits you. How many drawings do you need? Some authors have one per page and some have one every 4 pages. It depends on the book and the need to show action. Artwork used in most books is usually owned by the artist and just loaned to the author; however, some artists will allow the author to buy the artwork outright. The going rate for an illustrator is a $3000 to $4000 advance and a royalty rate of 10% of the profits.

Pre-Press – This is laying out the book and getting it ready to take to the printers. This can be done using any desktop publishing software, but it is recommend that you not use Microsoft Publisher due to formatting problems. Always make sure that what software you use is compatible with the printer you've chosen. The normal page count for a children's book is 28-36 pages (in multiples of 4 since you have front and back and the pages fold in half.) You will need an ISBN for tracking and registration purposes. Some printers will have them to sell to their customers; otherwise, you can go to http://isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp to purchase your own. I looked at the site and the smallest number you can purchase is ten which can run about $500 if you're purchasing bar codes and a SAN listing for distributors. The going rate for a layout is $2500 - $3000.

Printing – When choosing a printer, make sure they know the print industry. Foreign printers are cheaper than US printers. Chris used a Chinese printer and a speaker we had in 2003, Rondi Hillstrom Davis, used a printer in Hong Kong (Asia Pacific). The quality is good and the cost is much more reasonable when you're paying for it yourself. How many books should you order the first time? 3000. It's cheaper but then you have to have a place to store 3000 books.

Marketing – This is the last and probably the most time consuming. You can write a great book and the finished product look fantastic but unless people know about it, you're not going to sell very many copies. A lot of factors affect marketing strategies. The main one is the economic climate of the country. Some ways of reaching the public are: the Texas Author Website (http://www.texasauthors.com/), festivals, fairs, and school appearances. When going to speak to a group of children, have a definite program. Since attention spans tend to be short, have something the children can participate in instead of just reading to them from your book.

You can find Rocket and his pals at http://www.rocketvilletexas.com/ .

Yet business and personal fulfillment are only two of the reasons why you should perpetuate your education. In addition, knowledge gives you a long-term perspective, keeping your attention focused on growth. It gives you the flexibility to adapt to newer techniques, the balance necessary for optimal growth, and the edge you need to compete successfully.

Study and embrace change by educating yourself in several key areas. The first is to learn about people, including your customers and employees. Next, you must become expert on the publishing industry and its changing technology. And finally, you should understand your business and the ways in which you can make it more profitable.

People

As an independent publisher, you might think you are in the book business. But this is a misunderstanding because you are in the people business. Without people to help you produce, distribute, promote and buy your books you have no business. Seek to learn as much as you can about all the people involved in helping to make you successful.

Customers. Marketing is a customer-oriented philosophy that should be implemented throughout your organization. It is a set of company beliefs, focused on and communicated to groups of people sharing similar needs. And it is the process of finding out where your customers are, what they need, and how you can help them obtain it.

Your customers exist at every level of the distribution network, and you must uncover their different buying patterns and hot buttons if you are to serve them properly. For example, people at distributors, wholesalers and retail outlets each have different reasons for purchasing your books. You might think the profit motive is common to all of them, but this is not so. Librarians are not looking to make a profit off their patrons, nor are they seeking to expand their market share. Librarians want to help their patrons meet their needs for information, and you will succeed in the library market to the extent that you can demonstrate your ability to assist the librarians.

It is less expensive and more profitable to increase the amount of a sales transaction with an existing customer than it is to find and develop new customers. A customer-based philosophy toward your distribution partners will help you increase your business with them, so build relationships with your distributors and retailers. If you learn how to make them feel unique and make their buying experiences with you as pleasant as possible, your revenues will increase.

Your ultimate readers are your customers. But if you think about them only in terms of demographic and geographic descriptions, you might find your marketing efforts directed to segments of college-educated males and females, ages 34 - 59, living in the northeast. However, this thinking denies the fact that you are dealing with human beings, people with individual motives, emotions, needs and wants. Learn about your readers and what leads them to seek the information offered in your product line. Learn what they think is important, and convince them that your titles offer this satisfaction.

Employees. Successful marketing is not a simply a slogan that is repeated in your promotional campaigns. It is a concept that permeates your organization. Your customer-based philosophy is communicated in the way your employees answer the telephone, treat your customers or conduct themselves at trade shows. This means you have to find and train people to implement your business doctrine. Ask them why they work for you and what you can do to make them more productive and happy. Research ways to motivate them and learn how you can make optimal use of their skills.

People are not your most important assets -- the right people are your most important asset. Find out what makes a good employee for your company and hire only the best people. Find, motivate and keep people who share your company's core values.

Technology

The publishing industry has witnessed significant change and all signs indicate that this trend will continue. Most significantly, the advent of the Internet and online bookstores has changed the book-buying habits of millions of people. Testimony to this is the fact that the Internet first opened to commercial activity in 1991 and by 1996 more than one-third of publishers had Web sites. Mary Westheimer, CEO of BookZone, said her company recently conducted a study that revealed 78.7 percent of all publishers have Web sites. They are using their sites for promotion, for book sales, for international exposure, and for selling products and services.

However, merely creating a Web site does not guarantee its success. The Internet's short history has demonstrated four indicators of successful Web sites: content, speed, change and the ability to personalize information. Make your Web site people-friendly -- interactive and devoid of graphics that require several minutes to download. Use it to respond to the needs of people in your target markets by hosting forums and chat rooms. Publish pertinent articles and show links to other relevant sites. Maintain it regularly, changing the information as necessary.

Publishers' brief experience of using Web sites to market books has demonstrated the validity of the Rule of Thirds: successful online marketers spend one-third of their Internet budget on site development, one-third on promoting the site, and one-third on site maintenance.

There is much more to discover about technology and how it can help your business grow. Learn ways to utilize the benefits of search engines, mail lists, newsgroups, eZines, eBooks and linking campaigns. Discover how you can use strategic alliances and Web-site advertising to maximize your sales. Are you familiar with DSLs, cable modems and bots? If not, master these and other ways you can use changing technology to increase your revenue, reduce your development cycles, lower your costs, build your audiences and streamline your business operations.

Your Business

Whether you think you are in the bookselling business, the marketing business, the service business or the people business, you are still in business. That requires you to understand the mechanics of what you are doing and where you are going. Continue your education in these areas and you will be able to more effectively run your publishing firm:

Planning. Many independent publishers believe that the rapid pace of change has outdated the need for planning, but this thinking can be devastating to the success of their businesses. A good business plan defines your objective, which sets your direction, focuses your energy and resources, and establishes the foundation for future growth. Planning provides the benchmark for you to understand how your business is changing and the compass to determine the direction in which it is going.

Learn to plan your work and to work your plan. Then, as you see your opportunities changing, be flexible enough to develop new strategies that will optimize your response to them.

Direction. Determine what is best for your business. When asked what their fair market share should be, many independent publishers respond, "100 percent." However, maximum share may not be your best objective because the cost of achieving and maintaining market dominance may be prohibitive. Seeking 100 percent of a market can be costly in terms of time, money and attitude.

Instead, seek the optimum share for your business, considering your circumstances and resources. This strategy weighs the incremental cost of obtaining new business against the incremental value of that business. Once you reach your optimum share, every sale above that point will cost you more than it is worth to obtain. By pursuing your optimum share, you need only enough exposure to reach a critical mass, the point at which your titles "get legs," or take on lives of their own.

Competition. Learn as much as you can about your competition, but not for the sake of obliterating them. Instead, look for ways in which you can work with them. Think about how you can create a strategic alliance with one or more of them, each taking advantage of the others' strengths to stimulate more business for all.

Functions. As the president of your firm, you should have a working knowledge of the business functions that keep your business operating. These include administration, marketing, accounting, finance, law and production. It is not necessary to be an expert in each, but you should have a working knowledge of them. If you know about operations, pricing, distribution, copyrights, accounting ratios and how to read financial statements, you can create new strategies more effectively and see warning signals more quickly.

Future. Will your growth come from new technologies? If so, which ones? Will you expand through product diversity, business acquisitions, partnering, joint ventures or something else? Constantly be on the lookout for ways to effectively direct your future.

Sources of Information

Much of your quest for new information can be accomplished while you are performing the day-to-day activities of your business. For example, you can continue your education by attending seminars and trade shows. Use these opportunities for networking among your colleagues and for researching information on the latest trends. You can perform primary research through focus groups or surveys. Or, improve your understanding of people by joining associations and online list. Groups such as PMA and SPAN have excellent newsletters with which you can educate yourself about all aspects of independent publishing. Learn more about the publishing industry by subscribing to magazines such as Publishers Weekly, Independent Publisher and Book Marketing Update. And, of course, BookZonePro offers a variety of online information and news for those in the publishing industry.

There is an adage that has meaning for independent publishers: If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got. If you are content with what you have accomplished and feel that the changing publishing industry will have no impact on your future, than it is not necessary to continue your education. But if you want your business to thrive, you must continue seeking new information and ways to make change work for you.

Brian Jud is a book-marketing consultant and host of the book-marketing seminars jointly hosted with Publishers Weekly, Writer's Digest, and PMA, and featuring presentations by John Kremer, Dan Poynter, Mary Westheimer and Jan Nathan. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; fax (860) 276-2453; imarketbooks@aol.com; http://www.strongbooks.com.