Are There Surprises?

By Christina M. Schumacher

The answer to this question is yes. If you have never self-published, are not a part of a self-publishing forum and don't know anyone who has self-published, then there are a few things you need to know. These are particulars that took me by surprise when I published for the first time.

Every self-publishing company, as a part of your publishing package, places you on such sites as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc. It's a part of the excitement of publishing to be put on these sites as they are huge and constantly visited.

However, what you aren't told is that you make very little money from sales of your books from these sites. Here's the scoop.

Let's say the price I chose for my book is $12.95. Since this is the price that I give the publishing company, this is what I assume it will be priced at no matter where it goes. Imagine my surprise when I go onto Amazon and see my book priced at $16.00. How is that possible?

The fact is, these companies can price your books at whatever they please, but you will still only receive royalties on the original book pricing of $12.95. Doesn't seem quite right, does it? Actually, it makes me pretty angry. I paid, in my publishing package, for the right to be on these sites, yet my books are pretty much lost amongst the thousands upon thousands of books there. Unless someone is specifically looking for my book, they may never find it. These companies don't feature any particular book on their homepage unless it's a huge seller, so other than allowing my book there (which I paid for), what do they do for me? Why do they have the right to charge more for my work and not share in the profits?

If you've priced your book at $12.95 and you've sold five copies according to your publisher's stats, the total sales comes to $64.75. When your royalty check comes, you will see a check for approximately $15.00 if the books were purchased from your publisher's site. If the books were purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, your check will be approximately $6.25. Who received the other $58.50 from your book sales?

Part of that money goes to printing your book. Shipping is paid for by the purchaser in most cases, so the company is not out any money that way. The other portion, plus the extra if Amazon or Barnes & Noble have jacked up the price of your book, goes to them. Anyway, you do the math. Pretty ridiculous, but it's the price we all seem willing to pay to get our books out there.

Keep this in mind when you know a royalty check is coming. It'll keep you from being astounded at what your book is bringing financially to others. Consider, too, purchasing your own books for the discount offered by the publisher. You don't lose money this way. Although most self-publishing companies have a ridiculously low percentage in discount for purchasing your own books, you still can at least make back more of your money by buying and selling your own books than you can from the publisher's site or from those larger companies mentioned above.

Another aspect that you are not told about is that many self-publishing companies charge you yearly to keep your book available. I must admit to being thoroughly naive in this area and was quite amazed when, with no warning, I received a notice in the mail that I had to pay MORE money to my publishing company to keep my book in print. Their offer was $35 for one year, $50.00 for two years, and $65.00 for three years. Electronic books are extra. Doesn't seem like a lot, but after spending nearly $3,000 on the first book, I couldn't believe I had to pay more!

Of course, they know you will pay as you really have no choice if you want to keep your book available, but it would have been nice to have some warning beforehand - before I chose to publish with that company.

Consider e-books. We all know this is the information age and you might think e-books are a big part of book sales. In five years and three books, I have sold only four e-books. So, when asked to renew, I chose to say no to renewing the e-books and just renewed the print books.

If your publishing package includes an e-book, then by all means, do it. If the company charges extra for e-book production, don't bother.

If you do have an e-book produced as part of your publishing package, keep an eye on your royalty statements to see actually how many e-books you've sold. This will allow you to make an informed decision on whether to keep offering your book in e-book format when your yearly fee is required.

While your book is in the publishing process, make sure you fully understand the error margin that the company has given you. In other words, the number of errors you can make corrections to at no extra charge. When you are sent your proof (the copy of your book before actual publication) to review, make sure, if there are errors, that the errors were actually made by you. If not, FIGHT IT!

As an example, in the publishing process of my third book, I received my proof and was thoroughly shocked over what I saw! It looked nothing like the manuscript I had sent them! Whoever had worked with my manuscript from the disk I had sent them had removed all the paragraphs I had worked so hard to place. The book ran with no paragraphs at all. Obviously, from my standpoint, this was unacceptable and looked very unprofessional so I refused giving my okay to move on with the final publishing.

Shortly after my refusal, I received an email stating if I would not accept the proof, I would have to pay another $200 to correct it. Production would be halted until I paid the $200.

The mistake had not been my mistake. Someone, in doing their process had screwed up, but they wanted me to pay for their time to fix it. I explained that all they had to do was check my original disk to see that the error wasn't mine and I was adamant that I should not be required to pay to fix it.

After three weeks of trying to work the issue out, I went above the heads of the production department. I called one of the higher ups, explained the situation and, within a day, processing began again. I had a proper proof within a week that I did give my okay to and the book went into full production.

Basic lesson learned here was to stand up for myself. Don't pay for errors that are not yours!

Cover design can be difficult as well. If you have a specific cover in mind, you would be better off to find someone to design it to your specifications. Give yourself the chance to have changes made without extra charge. Make sure you check with the publishing company to see what programs they accept for cover design, though, and how the cover is to be submitted to them.

If you give the publishing company cover ideas, you are at their mercy when they design the cover. If what they produce is not acceptable to you, you'll have to pay extra money for them to redo it.

I gave explicit design instructions for all three of my books and will do the same for the fourth. The first and third books have awesome covers, but you can tell that the second book was a cut and paste job and I have never been happy with it. I could not afford to change the cover so have had to live with it.

What it comes down to is the pride of the person working on your cover. If they take pride in designing a cover that shows off their artistic and creative ability, you'll absolutely love what they've done. Their knowledge in the cover creating program is essential as well, but you have no idea who you will get in this area. Designing your cover to the best of your ability, even if you draw it out on paper for them, is a very good idea.

In a previous article, I spoke a bit about marketing packages, but want to cover a few things here as well. Let me emphasize again that, in my experience, all you need to publish is the basic package and Ingram.

For my first book I bought many extras. One of these was a media press release sent out to 500 different newspapers and radio stations. The other was business cards, postcards and bookmarks.

When I received my copy of the press release and the list of the 500 places they had supposedly sent it off to, the list was marked as to whom they had actually been able to get a hold of and who they hadn't. Approximately 200 within the list had not been reached. The fact is, for the money I paid, I should have fought this, but being a first timer, I was just happy to have my book out there.

The second extra with the business cards, postcards and bookmarks was also a waste. Not because they are not useful, but because within six months, they were not any good anymore. The company that I had published with had put their logo and contact information on these cards as promotion along with my information. Not a problem. The problem came when the company suddenly decided to change their name, their website, etc. The cards, because of this, were suddenly obsolete. No one could reach their website from the information on the cards I had paid so much for.

Was I ticked? You bet I was, but I did not pursue it as I had already determined that I had wasted my money on these items that I could have easily made myself and changed myself if necessary.

You may discover a few other surprises along the way in your self-publishing experience. However, if you take the time to ask questions, really review the information about the publishing company and read the fine print of the contract agreement, many of these problems can be resolved before you put your manuscript in their hands. It really is worth the time.