There are times when I question the decision I made to attempt self-publishing. But those times are very much the exception because this exciting and challenging mode of producing a book offers a major payoff in financial profit and the satisfaction of real accomplishment.

There is no question that preparing your book during the pre-publication stage demands a great deal of effort as you juggle the myriad tasks that confront you. There are ISBNs to order, barcodes, Library of Congress Cataloguing. You should file for a copyright. And all of this comes as you complete the final editing of the book, launch the search for reviews and endorsements and begin the early stages of promoting yourself and your work.

Help Is Available

Consultants are available to assist you in each of the many required activities or to take over and complete the entire process for you. But as you search the Internet for "Self-publishing Consultants," be wary of those that pose as consultants, but in actuality are Publishing on Demand (POD) companies. Those are two very different positions.

The consultant tackles only those portions of the process that you request and contract for. The POD house assumes the complete responsibility for production of your book. In return, it charges a substantial fee, and then sets the retail costs to supplement that fee rather substantially. Since the POD house controls the ISBN, as most do, it controls the entire financial picture of your book, leaving you with a very modest return if you want your book to be priced competitively. Nonetheless, this form of publishing can be a godsend to the neophyte who has never before tackled book production.

Conversely, when you self-publish, you run the business you have created in its entirety. In addition to the writing, production and promotion of your work, all financial decisions are yours to make. You are now a publisher, as well as a writer. You may decide to farm out a variety of tasks, but in the final analysis, you are the one supervising and responsible for the way each task is carried out.

You Can Tell a Book by Its Cover

Despite the old adage that says you can't, the appearance of your book will make an enormous difference in the rate of sale. Covers, another of your responsibilities, are key to sales. Although templates and other tools are available on the Web to help you design the cover yourself, I urge you to bypass them and hire a professional. Appearance is the last item you should skimp on.

Formatting the text within the book is almost equally important. Quality typesetting helps to assure the reader that the content, like the appearance, is professional. This task too deserves outsourcing to a pro.

Selecting the right printer for your needs is the third component of dressing up your book to attract readers. A poor print job can destroy both a good cover and an attractive interior. The quantity you plan to print will determine whether you need an offset press (more than 2,000 copies) or a digital printer for lesser quantities.

Be certain as you compare printers that the Request for Proposal (RFP) that you send out to those that interest you is identical in all aspect. If not, it will be impossible to compare them.

Reviews are, of course, an essential part of your promotional effort. If you are printing Advance Review Copies (ARCs) in an effort to capture reviews and blurbs early enough to include them in the final printing of the book, you may have to reach out for a separate printer. Your primary printer for the final run may not have the capability to produce runs as small as 50 to 100.

Making Your Book Available         

The final challenge is making your book available to interested readers. All the promotion in the world won't help if you don't make it easy for the public to purchase your precious work. There are two aspects to consider:

You will need a distributor or wholesaler to move your book into retail stores. Wholesalers basically warehouse and fulfill order both large and small. Distributors perform similar functions, but they also maintain a sales team that promotes your book to retailers. Both will dig deeply into your profits with the high fees they charge, but without their effort, you will never gain much ground in the retail world.

The second mode of moving books is called fulfillment. This operation occurs when single copies or very small orders are received. Frequently, readers are urged to order copies from your web site. You have the option of fulfilling that order and shipping it yourself or hiring a fulfillment house to do the job for you. In either case, fulfillment is far more profitable on a per-copy basis than is distribution or wholesaling.

This is just a very basic overview of the challenges and benefits of self-publishing. Future postings will similarly review tradition publishing and publishing on Demand. You can also study outstanding books on self-publishing like Dan Poynter's classic Self-publishing Manual or Peter Bowerman's Well-Fed Self-Publisher. Click on my web site www.retirement-writing.com/publishing to find more in depth articles on publishing.