I had a conversation recently with an author who had some questions about the publishing process. There are, of course, many things to discuss with an author about this, depending upon their current knowledge. The topic of “publishing” is enormous, so to provide a cogent response that the author will hopefully find helpful requires a bit of probing on my part. The conversation often begins with the author saying, “I am brand new at this, so I really don’t know much about it.” I then generally reply with the question, “Well, what research have you done so far? What do you know?”
They then share what tidbits of information they’ve heard or read about how the business of publishing “works.” They’ll say things like, “I know there is ‘self-publishing,’ but I decided I don’t want that,” or something like, “I know that I need an editor,” or, “I know how to get my book on Amazon, but how does marketing a book happen?” Generally speaking, the questions run the gamut, and I often end up delivering a full hour’s worth of information, covering everything from copyright law to required photograph resolutions for printing, to publicity campaigns for authors and how we determine the retail prices for books. As I said—it’s an enormous topic!
At some point, we get down to the question that most authors want to ask: How much does it cost?
This is an interesting question. The author is correct in understanding that it does cost something to publish a book. But I don’t think that’s what they are really asking. I think their real question is, “Do I have to pay you to get my book published?”
I go ahead and answer the question—the real one—in the best way I can with, “It depends.” If an author has a sizeable following, like a well-know celebrity, sports star, politician, or previously published author, it may cost them little or nothing up front for us (or any publisher for that matter), to sign them and publish their book. This is because we—or another publisher—know we will recoup the costs incurred in the publishing process on the backend, by way of massive numbers of books sold. In other words, our agreement is based upon profit sharing because we are quite certain there will be significant monies earned from the number of books sold.
But it’s a different story for unknown authors. The book market is a huge, highly competitive, place, and after more than sixteen years in the publishing business, having worked with hundreds of authors with book sales in the thousands, I still cannot tell you which books will sell well, and which ones won’t.
And from where I sit, what does it tell me—or any publisher—about an author’s belief level in their own book project, if they expect me to invest in it, yet they aren’t willing to?
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Ultimately, the conversation I had with that author included the question: “How much does it cost?”
I went on to explain and then ask her, “It depends. Do you have a large following?” She replied, “No. I’m an unknown author and I’m not a celebrity.”
I then asked about the characteristics of her project, needing to know those along with what goals she hoped to achieve by having her book published. And after having that information, I was able to give her an estimate as to what it would cost in order for us to publish and market her book.
She seemed insulted by my information, replying curtly, “I was told in my writer’s class that ‘money flows to the author.’”
I told her that she had it partially correct, but may have missed the rest of the teacher’s lesson: “Money flows to the author… if the author’s books sell.”
