We attended the book launch and a house filled book signing party for one of our clients a few weeks back. Margot Bloomstein shared her experience with self publishing, resulting in a definitive storytelling guide to understanding the power of Content. I call it storytelling because nearly everyone has come to realize that the best lessons transfer via good stories.
The Content Strategy book release party was hosted by iSite Design at the Back Bay Social Club. There were speakers, acknowledgements, loving comments from the crowd of family, friends and business supporters and partners. This was a truly wonderful moment. The book, through major book label Morgan Kaufmann is available on Amazon.
It’s timely and has anecdotal stories about putting quality work on line to help business get found by search engines while providing quality content to readers. While we had no connection to the production of the book, we have done printing and business cards and created tools for Margot for her various business engagements, the most notable one (meaning she said, “you heard about this place and know I’m speaking there?”) being as a speaker at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and long before most Bostonian’s heard of it. Our whole company wished her great success at the book signing and from the size of the crowd and the reviews, we expect that the book will be a great success. Congrats, Margot!
Publish my book – it’s a thought that tugs at the back of my mind. Why not me? And, what would I want to write about. Then again, more importantly, what would others want to read about? This thought of self publishing a book has stayed with me for a while now – so I started doing some research….
Do you have any idea how many people want to publish a book right now?
A USA Today survey noted that 82% of American adults are thinking about publishing a book. If you are one of this majority, then we’re happy to tell you it’s easier than you think, but also, the degree of “ease” depends on what you want for results.
Did you know that, on average, only 150 copies of any book are sold? With these kinds of odds, consider whether you can afford to seek out a publisher or if you are suited to self publishing.
Either way, If you want a bigger distribution, you’ll want a well planned out campaign, you’ll need a large following of readers or cheerleaders and you need a topic you know will be of interest to others.
Advantages of a publisher: printing and distribution are all taken care of. An editor or staff is available to help you finish, suggest edits, covers and look and feel.
Disadvantages: Unless you are a well known writer or a person with celebrity status, you may not be able to get a publisher very easily or you may be putting your money up front to get published.
Self publishing shifts responsibility to you, but you have so many more options these days. You might want to explore eBook publishing, short run print publishing or some combination. Here at Kendall PRess, we co-sponsor The Boston Internet Marketing Meetup, which is a self motivated group of individuals who meet regularly to explore online marketing and self publishing. A specific subgroup within BIMM is focused on Rapid eBook Publishing.
How do architects and students of design prepare that one-off publication for presentation. Many of them use our services as we can turnaround a single copy of a professionally finished book in just a couple of days, depending on the bindery process chosen.
Want one book? Consider the following binding options that Kendall PRess can provide on-demand:
Double Loop Wire Bound:
Classic metal with punch holes can accommodate heavy front and back covers with size and weight of your choosing.
Spiral Bound: Easy plastic spiral with punch gives a contemporary look with a quick result
Perfect Binding: This is the look of “paperback” books and can be done inexpensively and in just a couple of days and yes, we can print and bind just one copy if that is all you need.
Planning on medium or large quantities? Give your print partner enough time to get the work done and ready for distribution.
Two final considerations:
Distribution: Have you got a meeting or house event? This is one way to get your books out there. Amazon has a program to support online distribution but your ranking as an author will play a role in how much support or visibility you can expect.
When self publishing a book, you’ll want an ISBN: International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier that is necessary to get a book into bookstores and libraries.
Has this stimulated more questions? Give us a call. We’d be glad to discuss your various options. Also check out the resources on the Meetup website. And, stay tuned. My goal is to publish a book of my own this year!