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  3. Self-Publishing [A]To a writer, self-publishing is an incredibly powerful and alluring concept. On the simplest level, it’s an i

Self-Publishing [A]To a writer, self-publishing is an incredibly powerful and alluring concept. On the simplest level, it’s an i

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问题                             Self-Publishing
[A]To a writer, self-publishing is an incredibly powerful and alluring concept. On the simplest level, it’s an intriguing solution to an age old problem: How do you get your words to a wide audience(ideally, while earning some money along the way)? On a more artistic level, it is a unique extension of the creative process. Beyond putting words on the page, the self-publisher actually controls every aspect of authoring—he or she creates the physical book and actively brings it to an audience. It’s a uniquely harmonious and satisfying melding of art and business.
Beginning the book
[B]In most cases, the first step in self-publishing is developing an idea for your book. You can self-publish almost anything you want, but if you want to make a profit, it helps to consider your book not just as a piece of art but also as a sellable product. What audience is interested in the subject and how do you get their attention?
[C]Everybody has an opinion on what sells, and we won’t get into that too much here—it’s part of the individual creative process that self-publishers go through. The important point is that as a self-publisher, you have to consider sales just as a large publisher would. Step one is arriving at an approach to the book that will make it valuable to an audience. Among other things, that means seeing what similar books are out there, and seeing how they’ve sold(checking Amazon rankings is a good place to start).
[D]Money isn’t everything, of course. Few books are going to be blockbusters(一鸣惊人者), and many self-publishers aren’t that concerned with making money at all. But even setting profit aside, it is essential that you have a business plan based on what you reasonably believe you can sell. To put it another way, there’s no point in printing 10,000 books if books like yours typically take three years to sell 1,000 copies.
What sort of book?
[E]You certainly don’t need to know exactly how many pages your book is going to be before you even get started writing. But if you have a target, and you know what type of book you’re creating, you can plan your budget accordingly. The broad decision first: Do you want a hardback book or a trade paperback book? Hardback books are significantly more expensive to print, and because of the higher cover price, may sell less than a paperback book. But, for some books—a mammoth(巨大的)textbook, say—hardback books are really the only way to go.
[F]After you’ve made this decision, you can decide how many pages you’ll want. Think about the scope of what you have to say and look at the page count in books with similar content. But also think about what you want the book to feel like. Simply pick out a book that is about the same size and format of what you have in mind.
[G]When you find a good model to shoot for, count the number of words per page. Multiply that by the number of pages. Then subtract words for any " odd pages"—the first and last pages of each chapter(these aren’t usually filled), any blank numbered pages and any pages at the beginning and end of the book. This will give you a rough word count for the book. If you calculate how many words are on a page in your word processing program(or paper if you use a typewriter or if you write longhand), you can give yourself a target page count.
[H]Why does this matter? For one thing, you need to think about the psychology of a book-buyer. If you’re looking to create a gift book paperback, you don’t want a massive 500-page volume, because it may feel too much like a reference encyclopedia(百科全书). Its intended audience has more of a casual interest, so it should have a lighter feel. But if you’re putting together a how-to guide, a 100-page book isn’t going to seem like a good deal to your potential customer. They’ll pick the thicker book on the shelf next to yours, because it seems more substantial.
[I]Price also plays a role here. More pages cost more, and certain multiples of pages are cheaper than others. Printing presses print a set number of pages in one pass—typically 32 pages, front and back. This means it’s substantially cheaper to print a 320 page book than a 321 page book. This isn’t something you have to figure out right away, but it should be a factor when you are laying out the finished book.
Creating content
[J]Once you nail down what kind of book you want to end up with, you can get busy writing. The obvious way to go about this is to shut the door to the world, write whatever you want and worry about editing down the line. Show your friends and family when you want to, but otherwise, do it however you like. You don’t have a publisher to worry about, so you can really write however you want to.
[K]To many self-publishers, this doesn’t work very well—it’s too unstructured, and they get lost without somebody to bounce ideas off of. One solution is to hire a freelance(自由职业者)developmental editor. A developmental editor serves the same basic function as the editor you would work with at a publishing house—you can show them drafts and outlines, and they can make edits to improve the book. The difference of course is that what you say is the last word, rather than the other way around. Ideally, the main thing they bring is expertise in book publishing—a developmental editor should be somebody who knows how to build a good book.
[L]The price of a developmental editor goes in your total budget for the book. Depending on how you work, it may save you enough of your own time to make it a worthwhile expense.
Selling
[M]When you finally reach your publish date, you have one basic job: Get people to buy your book. For individual book-buyers, this is pretty simple. They pay the cover price, you record the transaction and you ship or give them the books. But individual book-buyers are the smallest piece of your customer base. Your major customers include independent bookstores, wholesalers who fill orders from many bookstores(They only buy what they need or expect they will need.), distributors who buy books to actively resell them to bookstores, exclusive distributors, who will handle everything involved in the selling of your book, in exchange for the exclusive right to distribute, and online booksellers.
[N]Two new factors enter the mix with these customers—discounts and returns. To ensure a profit, booksellers always buy books well below the cover price, and most reserve the option to return books they cannot sell. If the books are undamaged, you must refund the buyers’ money. You’ll need a terms-and-conditions sheet that outlines, in detail, how you’ll operate your business—what kind of discounts you offer, how you handle returns, how you handle billing, etc. Your terms and conditions are up to you, but you’ll have to treat particular types of buyers a certain way in order to do business.
[O]Selling is an ongoing process that can last for years. When you run through your first shipment, and there’s still demand, you go to the printer for your next shipment. If your book really catches on, you may be able to land a good deal with a larger publisher who can push your sales to a higher level. Over the years, many successful authors have used this road to get on a publisher’s radar.
[P]The sweet spot of writing is generally at the beginning of the process—when you’re sitting at a keyboard putting your ideas into words. In contrast, the sweet spot to publishing generally comes after all the work is done—when you’ve recouped(弥补)your initial costs, and every book sold is money in your pocket. This is a self-publisher’s ultimate reward.
Self-publishing becomes an interesting idea partly because it get authors’ thoughts to a wide audience.
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