It’s one thing to decide you’ll self-publish your new book. It’s
quite another to take all the steps necessary to become a publisher. Here’s the
point you must understand: publishing a book starts long before the book is
written. Publishing is a business, not an afterthought. So establishing a
business was my first step. A business needs a definition and a name. I started with the name,
something I could use as a publishing imprint on my books. I didn’t want
anything that would identify me too closely—not my name or a street address,
nothing too cutesy, but something that would lend itself to a neat little logo.
After coming up with several ideas, only to discover by way of a Google search
that the name was already being used, I looked around the room where I was
sitting and realized that all four of my cats were there keeping me company. My
first thought was, “This is like living in a cat house.” Then, realizing the
unfortunate connotations of that word, I switched to German, coming up with
Katzenhaus Books and a simple black cat silhouette as a logo. Next I asked myself what I wanted this business to do. The answer
was fairly straightforward. Katzenhaus Books would produce, publish, promote,
and sell one or more books of original historical fiction. It would remain
flexible enough to expand into other book types. Perhaps eventually it would be able
to offer similar services or advice to other writers who were seeking
independent publishing choices. Any business needs capital and a financial plan. During my academic
career, I had relied on research grants to support the writing process, a
publishing contract to pay production costs, and a publisher to bear the
burdens of advertising and distribution. All I had to do was write. Now, all
those expenses came back to me. I started my financial analysis by comparing
several years of our living expenses against our income to discover how much
discretionary income I had to play with. After deciding how much I could afford
to risk on this venture, I did some research on self- publishing companies to
estimate the total cost of a typical book. What I discovered was a wide range
of offers, depending on how much help I was going to need. UPDATE: To get an idea of what the various publishing services cost, check out this chart from Bibliocrunch. You'll see that they can easily run into thousands of dollars, but in terms of the resulting quality of your book, the investment can be extremely important. The next step involved an honest examination of my own knowledge
and abilities. I had easy access to most of the research materials I would be
using, so I would not need to do a whole lot of initial travel. I’m a
professional historian, a pretty good writer, and an experienced copy editor.
Writing was not going to be a problem. Advertising and distribution remained
question marks, but I had some experience in doing book signings and conference
presentations. I was also an experienced webmaster. When it comes to book
design, on the other hand, I’m pretty much out of my element. While I might
have an idea or two about how I wanted a particular book to look, I was going
to need someone to do the actual cover and interior layout. It appeared that I
could afford to pay for some contracted design services and handle production
costs out of the nest egg I had identified. Then I worked on establishing a book
price that would make it possible to re-coup my expenditures. My private resolve was to
produce the book I was eager to write within the next two years. Then I needed
to sell enough copies first to restore the savings account and then to accumulate
enough of a cushion to finance any future book. I gave myself an estimated
eighteen months to two years to accomplish that. If, at the end of four years,
I had not made a profit, I would retire from the publishing business and take up
knitting or crossword puzzles. That left only two more things to be taken care of. The first was easy. On my next federal income tax form, I simply declared myself a "Sole Proprietor" business. The form does no require "proof" of any kind beyond a few simple questions about the year you started the business, its name and category, and contact information. That's it. You've become a business owner. Next I checked with my county clerk's office to see if I needed a business license. I'm not offering legal advice, here, because your state may have different laws. I learned that I did not need a business license in Tennessee so long as I did not have sales that amounted to more than $3000.00. The amount does not not include royalties, because you do not owe a sales tax on books that someone else sells. I did pay a $15.00 fee to register my business, but that was the extent of my responsibility. Creating a business is really easy. Don't fail to do so. Portions of the above blog have been taken from my book, "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese: How to Avoid the Traps of Self-Publishing," available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks, and Smashwords.com. |