Self Publishing 101: Book Sales

I received an email today from a new self publisher, asking just when he could expect his first book sale. Well, that's a great question, but there is no standard answer. I will say this again and again... you have to get the word out. With over a billion websites out there, and nearly that many people trying to sell something, you have to a) have great product, and b) find a way for people to hear about that product.

The first mistake everyone makes is building a website, or opening an e-store, or joining a site that sells stuff, and then just sitting back and waiting for the people to trickle in and buy stuff. Hey, that could happen... but once Mom has bought your book, and your sister, and favorite Aunt, well, things will start to slow down.

Here's the first bit of knowledge to share... once you start a website, it takes time for your keywords and images to get into the search engines, so it will be weeks before people start to find you. Until then, only people you actually give the web address to will find you. Unless you pay big bucks to Google, you can expect to wait a few months for an audience to build up.

Bit o'knowledge #2: Yo haev to have fresh content to get those people coming back. Trust me on this one... when I take a break from cartooning to do freelance stuff, my audience finds something else to do.

If you are writing a book, then you may want to post teasers once in a while, or offer a free download of your first chapter. An Artist may want to create a series of work, promising more for visitors to come back to.

Still, the biggest thing, even today, is getting word out somewhere OFF the web. Web advertising is so intense right now, it is easy to ignore 99% of it, and that bit you can't ignore is usually so repulsive that you may even get off the web for a day or two. :0)

Scott Adams became big when he started adding his web address to his cartoons... in the newspapers. All the big cartoonists, writers, movie makers.. everyone has websites, but those sites are suplimentary to their main product. They offer something additional, and ways to buy, of course.

It is possible to grow your business being web only, but I'm sure that strictly web businesses still advertise and make appearances in the real world. They have to.

So... my advice? Advertise, blog, or go to conventions... anything and everything to get the word out. And yes, it will cost money, and lots of it, but that's what it takes to run any business. And most of that is tax deductible!

Just promise me one thing. Don't SPAM people, or throw your advertising in our faces. That's a great way to lose business forever.

More about Permission Advertising later.

Have a great one... JOHN :0)

PS the above cartoon has nothing to do with selling books... or does it? That's a new comic strip from Knight and Day. You can read more about them in their first two books available at www.HappyGlyphs.com or at my Lulu store. :0)

Injustice!!

Hello,

I'm kind of upset about this, and want to share. If you're reading this, then chances are you already have our flagship book, Take me Away From All This!! It's a great book, and still our best seller, but the problem is that I'm not the one selling the book, or getting the meager profits!!

Some of you may remember the excitement of the book being published some time back by a company called PageFree Publishing. At the time, I was grateful to the company, but as time went on, I outgrew my need for them, and began self-pubishing my books. And to be honest, I didn't feel like I was getting honest royalty reports from them, and had seen others complaining about the company. I sent them a cease and desist notice some time back, which they acknowledged receiving.

As time passed, though, I kept seeing the book being offered for sale at ebay and at many online bookstores, and I emailed PageFree to stop selling the book. The problem is, they are a Print on Demand company, and so allow online booksellers the opportunity to list books that they do not actually have in inventory, and then print the books and ship them when ordered. Recently, I have seen more and more online sellers offering MY book, and I have actually heard from several people who say they bought the book, and I know for a fact that they didn't buy it from me.

I, and happyGlyphs Comics, are selling a new, improved and updated version, for a similar price as the old one. Cheaper, actually, since I charge less shipping, and the quality is actually better, as I've been told by a comic book shop owner. Lulu.com is the only other authorized seller of the book.



I ask, and urge, you to please let me know if you have bought the version in the last few years that says PageFree Publishing on it. If you are an online books seller, and you are receiving the book from PageFree, then you are an unwilling accomplace to a crime. I am being robbed. Probably not a lot of money, but every sale is important to me, for many reasons, and there is of course the sense of justice. PageFree has no right, and has had no right, to sell my book.

And for those of you looking to self publish, I urge extreme caution in dealing with any print on demand company that charges you to print your book. You cannot trust that you will be treated fairly or get accurate royalty statements. Maybe some are honest, but try to get references before working with anyone you don't know.... a good recommendation for any business transaction, I suppose.

I try to trust people first, and judge later by their actions... and unfortunately I get screwed for that. It's a shame that dishonesty is part of the business world, but what can you do?

I can, and will, pursue legal action if this goes on. I can also give the warning out to those who want to self publish, and I can also ask you all NOT to support thieves.

Take Me Away From All This!! is a great book. I want you to read it, and have a copy of your own to treasure always. But please... help support a starving artist instead of an (alleged) crook.

Thanks! JOHN :0)

PS Wanna know a secret? Besides having a bunch of new cartoons, and better quality, the second Edition of the book has an altered cover. There is a third stripe on the sock falling out of the laundry basket!! Shh... don't tell anyone! :0)

Self Publishing 101: Cost of Goods Sold

A lot of you are interested in the price of Self Publishing, mainly because you know deep inside that it ain't gonna be cheap, but you still want to weigh the pros and cons of the issue before deciding.

Printing costs are still going up, and it is getting harder and harder to self publish, AND there may be a cost to self publishing that you haven't realised. Worse, if you don't know about this, you could be heading for BIG trouble.

I will break this into two parts, and tell you which part you need.

First, why self publishing? If you want a copy of a book for yourself, or to give to friends, then part one is for you. If you are in business for yourself, or want to be, you had better read both parts, especially part two.

PART ONE: Cost of Self Publishing

I've covered the cost of publishing before here, so read that post as well. That really goes indepth into the why's and how much of printing, and choosing a printer.

The thing is, printing is expensive. Looking at comics, the big comic book companies are considering moving the price of a color comic book up to $4.00. A Print on demand color comic might have a base price of $8.00! Add a little for yourself, and honestly, who's gonna pay more than $8 for a comic book? Now, a graphic novel will be a little cheaper in comparison, but there is a lot more work involved in creating a graphic novel. You can save money with black and white books, or using cheaper paper, but you get what you pay for, and sometimes black and white is not an option.

To really save money, you need to print lots of copies of a book. If you go by a traditional printer, you have no choice but to buy at least 100 copies of a book... usually more. Print on demand is nice because you print how many copies that you need, but that can be very expensive on a per book basis. The base price of a book is fixed, so to make a profit, the base price plus your profit and costs must be competively priced to similar books out there. You just cannot do that with print on demand or vanity press publishing.

Actually, some print on demand places offer discounts for bulk orders, so you can save a little bit of money by purchasing a lot of books and then selling them yourself. This leads to the problem I bring up in Part Two.


PART TWO:

Something you in business will have to consider is Cost of Goods Sold, or COGS. What does this mean to a Self Publisher? Pay attention.

You dish out a lot of money to have 100 copies of your book published, and you put it up for sale, and wait for the customers to roll in. Honestly, even if you have a lot of fans clamoring for your work, only a small percentage of real fans are going to buy one of your books. So you sell 10 or 20 books if you're lucky, and have 80 books left over.

Guess what? You cannot deduct the price of those books as a tax deduction. (Speaking for USA residents only, that is.) Please do not make the mistake of thinking that buying books is a business expense, because you cannot deduct the price of printing a book until you actually sell it. This goes for most if not all goods sold, which is why you see so many big sales at the end of the year.

Because I self publish, I cannot offer deep discounts on my books, because I already sell them as low as I can. I want the books out there right now, rather than going for profit. Every time I create a new book I purchase the book in bulk for sale through my site. Because of this, I have close to a thousand dollars worth of inventory in the studio after 6 years of self-publishing. And each year I can only deduct the cost of the books that I have sold that year, not when I bought them.

Figuring out COGS is available on Schedule C of your annual 1040 tax form, and can be quite confusing at first. Simply speaking, a business MUST keep a physical inventory of their items for sale, as well as the cost of producing those items.

To figure your COGS for the year, you need the value of your inventory at the beginning of the year added to the cost of new items for sale, and subtract from that the final value of inventory at the end of the year.

Simply put: Costs of Goods Sold = Goods Available for Sale - Inventory at end of Year.


Conclusion:

The cost of self publishing can be higher than you think. You need to buy lots of books to sell competitively, but if you don't sell those books, that expense can weigh on you for some time.

Keep in mind that I am not a paid tax advisor, but COGS is something that you need to understand if you want to be in business for yourself.

Cheers, JOHN :0)