An Author's Enigma – The Trauma of Publishing a Novel – Part 2

(This is the second of four excerpts from Jonathan R. Husband’s short story of his publishing experience as a first-time indie author.  It was written for the benefit of other BAIPA authors.  In BAIPA, he is known as John Cammidge. — Linda Jay, BAIPA blog editor)

The moment you reach out into the self-publishing world you seem to encounter conflicting stories, a multitude of firms to choose from, author packages that vary in services and price, and sales jargon that leave you bewildered over what type of firm you are talking with.

Ultimately my decision was based on what I wanted (I needed help – what I think is called “one-on-one author support”). I wanted a fee that I could afford, even if the book was not successful, and I wanted as much freedom of choice as possible (book cover design, interior design, pricing, and retained copyright). My share of royalties was also important. Authors can choose true self publishing but this can be complex and requires energy, time commitment, and a good understanding of publishing technology.  I wanted something in between true self-publishing and traditional publishing.
My early contacts were with AuthorHouse and iUniverse. I later discovered both firms are owned by Author Solutions but seem to compete with each other. One of these firms told me that its sister firm was mainly focused on children’s books, color, and photography, and it therefore was better suited to managing my needs. I also encountered the term “vanity press.” The term was offered to me as derogatory and was attached to firms that others counseled against using. I still have difficulty assigning this term to individual firms; one definition I have seen is that these are the firms that help you print and sell to friends. The audience for my book went well beyond “my friends.” There seems to be a new generation of terms entering the publishing business. You may encounter Partnership Publishing, Hybrid Publishing, and Co-Publishing. How these differ from some of the Print on Demand so-called “vanity publishers” remains unclear to me.

Jonathan R. Husband

Anyway, I broadened my review to include a number of other firms such as BookBaby, SmashWords (e-books only I believe), CreateSpace, Lightning Source, IngramSpark, and Lulu.com. Again I looked carefully at costs, services offered, flexibility, royalties, and distribution channels. Ultimately I chose Lulu.com.

I confess that my choice was influenced by two friends who had both used Lulu.com for true self publishing and were highly satisfied with their experiences. Lulu also gained my vote because it provides print copy as well as e-books and distributes through Ingram and other retail outlets as well as on-line. While I have been very satisfied with Lulu.com for the reasons given below, I must stress that each author is likely to have different needs and priorities. Once an author understands these the author should choose the publisher who is right for them.

Whichever firm is chosen, project management is essential. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the book is published in the way you want and in a timely fashion. I found that my frequent follow-up questions were answered quickly by Lulu.com and it would show flexibility or explain its position when challenged.

The other important factor for the author at this stage is the financial consideration. The Publisher should not be held accountable for the financial success of the book. The author needs to adopt a business approach for investing in the launch of the book. The author also has to accept responsibility for the sale of the book, making people aware of its availability and how to access it. If you purchase a self publishing package you need to determine if the cost is fair for the services offered. Traditional publishing places financial responsibility on the Agent who only recovers this advance through sales. For that reason it is understandable that Agents do not want to advocate books whose financial returns are unlikely to “earn out” the upfront advance paid to the author. Today, there is an alternative approach to publishing; it uses a different business model. While it should operate ethically and probably improve its present standards of disclosure, we should be thankful that there is an alternative way to get our books into print.
And now to my experiences with Lulu.com.

First, I chose the Blitz Publishing Services Package. This selection required me to pay the publication costs up front. It is the high end/most expensive version but provides broad-based help with marketing and website development, as well as preparation for publishing, production, and global reach distribution. Knowing how and where the book would be sold was crucial to my selection of the most appropriate non-traditional publisher.

I do not recall signing any services agreement. However one exists and its wording implies that by paying Lulu its services fee, you effectively have signed the contract. No discount on the price of services was offered – unlike at some other firms – but on querying the price I was given a 5% discount as well as a free press release!!

A detailed guide was provided to help me prepare my manuscript for submission. At all stages I had access to a named human being. The submission allowed me to include my suggestions/requests with regard to cover design, internal page layout including type face, font size, quality of paper and book dimensions, images for internal use (grayscale only), novel synopses, endorsements, dedications, key words for search purposes, and the content of the copyright page. Lulu obtained the ISBN numbers for the three versions of the book, and also provided the BISAC code.

No “book return” service was offered and I was told that with Print-on-Demand this was not important. The front cover included a farmhouse photo I had taken and the back cover included a World War II Nazi image that was in the possession of the Imperial War Museum, England. For the farmhouse, my sister visited the owner and obtained permission to use the photo. It was important for me to have control over what the book would look like. For the World War II picture I contacted the Museum and purchased a license to use the image. The process of assembling the book in readiness for production began at the start of November and concluded at its end. However, the assembly process included an Editorial Assessment. The result was a recommended final “line edit” to ensure consistent grammar, punctuation and American spelling. Given my concern for book quality I invested in this second round of editing.