Self-Publishing
Published on Nov 18, 2015
Discussion of why we chose self-publishing and our journey so far
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Self-Publishing
Bob Hoyt MD and Ann Yoshihashi MD
Credit goes to my wife for actually researching self publishing and determining that we could do this. After six editions, we are still married!
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Presentation Goals
- Discuss recent trends in self-publishing
- Discuss our self-publishing journey, with lessons learned
- Discuss the pros and cons of self-publishing
We will try to be as objective as possible about the self publishing industry
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Why did we choose self-publishing?
- Health Informatics is a rapidly changing field, requiring frequent updates and rapid publication
- We wanted more control + flexibility
- We wanted to keep costs down for students
- We wanted overseas readers
I have to say that over time we became more and not less convinced that self publishing was by far our best choice
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Commercial Publishers
- They handle formatting and marketing
- They own the intellectual property
- It takes several years to publish
- They take 80 - 90% of profits
- Inflexible situation
Commercial publishers do an excellent job of producing a professional product but many people are unaware of the serious limitations. You are locked in with a commercial publisher, whereas if you self publish you are in complete control
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"The author is responsible and in control of entire process including, in the case of a book, the design of the cover and interior, formats, price, distribution, marketing and public relations. The authors can do it all themselves or outsource all or part of the process to companies that offer these services"
Wikipedia
Definition from Wikipedia says it all
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You can self-publish anything
Self-publishing is not limited to print books; e-books, brochures, instructor manuals, etc. can be self-published
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In the past...
Self-publishers had to spend a lot of money creating a book and purchasing a large order for distribution, plus a warehouse for storage
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However after 2008...
More books were self-published than commercially published, due to several factors
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Self-Publishing Success Factors
- New Print-on-Demand option
- Ubiquitous e-books and readers (Kindles, iPads, etc.)
- Online book stores such as Amazon that sell and market self-published books
Like so much related to technological advances, self publishing hit their "tipping point" roughly 10 years ago
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Print on demand
- A book is printed only after purchase. Made possible with digital printing
- Companies such as Lulu.com, CreateSpace, iUniverse and Smashwords allow single books to be published quickly, professionally and economically
No longer a cottage industry with very few customers
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E-Books
- Multiple formats exist: EPUB, .mobi, PDF, .azw, etc.
- E-books account for 27% of adult book sales
- Pew research 2014: 28% of Americans read e-books and 46% own a reader
Wise to offer an eBook choice of some type
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PDF Format
- PDF format is stable, includes hyperlinks and table of content (TOC)
- But, PDF is not distributable on Amazon and not re-flowable, like e-books
Re-flowable simply means the content automatically expands to fill the screen regardless of size
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Lulu.com
- Print books: hard copy or paperback. Books sold on their site and distribution to retailers. E-books: EPUB or PDF
- Cost to publish our book $18. Depends on page size and number of pages
- Time to print and ship: 10 days
- Authors receive: 90% of e-book net revenues; 80% for print books (40% through other retailers)
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CreateSpace.com
- Owned by Amazon: worldwide distribution
- Professional services available
- Formatting tools are included
- Accepts PDF or MS Word input
- Author gets about 50% of net revenue
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SmashWords.com
- Creates e-books only
- Accepts MS Word docs
- Free tools for creation, marketing and distribution
- 250,000 books listed
- Authors get about 85% of proceeds
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Kindle.Amazon.com
- Interesting alternative because most e-book readers have Kindle app
- Worldwide distribution through Amazon
- Author gets about 35%
- Intended for fictional works with few images and tables
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iUniverse.com
- Not a DIY site
- Cost to publish $899 - $4299, but includes everything
- Time to print: 60 - 90 days
- Author gets 25% of retail price; 50% for e-books
RedShelf.com
- E-book vendor that hosts books online with annotation tools
- Readers can buy lifetime access to a book or rent for 3, 4, 6 and 12 months
- Cost savings for students
The rental option is currently being tested at Rutgers University so it is too soon to see how well this option will be received
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What else do you need?
- ISBN ($125/one, $250 for ten). Free when you use LuLu
- Distribution channel e.g Lulu.com and Amazon.com
- Develop marketing and pricing strategy
- Endorsement by organization
Obviously, you also need excellent authors and co-authors
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What else do you need?
- Newsletter (e.g. MailChimp) for marketing to target audience
- You may need to set up a business entity
- Create a web site to market, sell and provide downloads
- You need an ecosystem for your book, to include social media (Facebook, Twitter
We set up a sole proprietorship which was very simple, not requiring a lawyer. We are able to deduct many book-related expenses and expenses as a "consultant"
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What else do you need?
- If you write science articles consider bibliography software, such as Endnotes, Zotero, Mendeley (Windows) or Sente (Mac)
- Consider representing your university and your book at trade shows
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www.informaticseducation.org
- About Us Tab: about the editors, newsletter, grants and FAQs
- Textbook Tab: about the sixth edition, table of contents, authors and USA/overseas universities using the textbook
The next few slides will review our web site content. This should give viewers an idea as to how a web site can support a textbook, in so many ways
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www.informaticseducation.org
- Purchase Tab: e-book, print, individual chapters, Kindle, rental and site licenses
- Instructor Tab: register to download Kindle version, PDF, Instructor's manual and Slides. Also free sample chapter download
A sample chapter download is a good idea to entice readers
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www.informaticseducation.org
- Resource Center Tab: extensive bibliography available for each chapter and updated every six months
- Blog Tab: Blog and informatics news via RSS feeds
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Resources
- Read books on the topic, e.g. How to Self-Publish Your Book by Carla King, $3.99 on Kindle
- Also, vendors such as Lulu provide a lot of educational content on their web site
Always start with the "how to" information on the publisher's web site before going elsewhere
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International?
- Include international content
- Make your web site multilingual (Systran-free)
- Make your textbook multilingual. Have overseas university translate content. Translation software?
This will not pertain to every author but keep in mind that many foreign academicians speak English so be sure you do everything possible to support an international audience
Challenges
- MS Word is not ideal for a several hundred page book; difficult to tame images and tables. You may need different software (next slide)
- Proofreading is onerous
- You may need software to create an index
In the six weeks prior to publication, essentiall all of our efforts are directed to editing, formatting challenges and proofreading
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Desktop Publishing Software
- Scribus: free for Windows, Mac and Linux. Steep learning curve
- Lucid Press: low cost, web based with multiple features. Free for faculty/students
- Scrivener: 45$ for Windows and Mac. Export to EPUB and .mobi
Mac Pages is working out better than Microsoft Word for a new chapter I am working on. If I had it to do over again, I would probably format in Lucid Press, in order to lock down images
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Desktop Publishing Software
- MS Publisher: comes with new Office suites; steep learning curve
- Apple: more stable platform for images, etc.
- Adobe InDesign: robust but expensive ($20 - 50/month)
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Our Experience
- We have used Lulu.com since 2006 and have been extremely satisfied
- Early criticism of our self-publishing turned into widespread praise
- We launched a Kindle version in June 2014 and rental version in May 2015
We have no regrets and we plan to continue to live on the cutting edge of self-publishing
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Book Sales
2015 sales are for April and not June so we anticipate about 5K copies sold by the end of June.
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Paperback format is by far the most popular but PDFs and Kindle versions are growing. We were not successful with the Apple Publisher software version
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Slide was generated using IBM Watson Analytics, which is now free for faculty and students
Even if you sell books on your web site, you should have a distribution channel, such as Amazon. More copies will be sold, but at lower profit
Units sold per distribution channel
Distribution channel has been very important for our book sales
Our experience
- Lulu.com is a stable and reliable company
- If you don't charge the reader, they only charge a low price to publish
- We donate (almost) all profits towards informatics grants
We have been about to donate a six figure amount to our university and now will do the same for informatics programs
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Self-Publishing Pros
- Higher profit to authors
- Faster publication: more current
- More affordable for students
- Easier to communicate with readers
- Easy to produce e-book and Kindle
- Easier to correct errors and re-publish
- More flexible
Mor work but more rewards
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Self-Publishing Cons
- Author responsible for formatting, cover design, pricing and marketing
- Author may need to purchase ISBN, formatting help and additional software
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Conclusions
- We would recommend self-publishing a print and an e-book
- You usually need a PDF for a print book, so start with that and then consider an EPUB or .mobi e-book
- Our journey was published on Jan 28, 2015 in Publisher's Weekly
I look foward to hearing from you
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Questions
Contact me at rehoyt@gmail.com
Presentation@https://www.haikudeck.com/self-publishing-education-presentation-dKUViM28Q6
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