For over 27 years, Al has helped thousands of book publishers to market their books. His keen insights into the changing world of book publishing will be invaluable to you on your journey to becoming a published author.

Enjoy this rare interview between Al and John Harricharan!

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From the moment they have their finished, edited and formatted copy of the book to the time they receive their hard copies, their wait would have been reduced to somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks. That’s the power of today’s printing technology.

And it’s getting better each day. I predict that within a decade, an author would be able to go from completed, formatted manuscript to printed book in a few days. In some cases such as the Espresso Machine being promoted by Lightning Source, that is already happening.

Print on Demand Publishing – Formatting

To use this method, you have to have your book formatted in a particular way. There are many services that can do this at a relatively small cost. Or you can do it yourself if you have the right software and know-how.

You can format your work in Microsoft Word and go from there into a PDF file using Adobe Acrobat software. Actually, new versions of Microsoft Word make it possible for you to go directly to PDF format without having to purchase additional software.

I do not suggest becoming a technophile unless you already are one and you enjoy that. It would be simpler, by far, to use an outside service, which can easily be found online.

Now, just to repeat what I’ve said, you convert (or let someone else convert) your word processing document of your manuscript into a PDF file. After you have your PDF file, you need to get a cover for your book. Many services are available to make a cover.

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With Print On Demand, commonly known as POD, you can order as few copies or as many as you want. We’ll take a look at a price comparison of POD vs. Offset Printing.

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We’ll explain the advantages and disadvantages of ebooks, how to convert your manuscript into an ebook and have it available for sale on a website in a very short time.

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If you think ebooks aren’t respectable, don’t sell, or that they won’t earn any money, you’d be wrong.

Here we’ll examine some Internet examples of super successful authors who regularly create and sell ebooks with incredible results.

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Usually Not The Best Option

The first thing you need to know about book publishing houses is that *MOST* of the time, they are NOT the best option to pursue if you’re a first-time author.

Of course, there are always exceptions but generally unless you’ve hit upon an extremely “sexy” topic where the book publishing houses can see they can quickly make a profit, your chances of striking a favorable publishing deal are extremely small.

That said, I realize that many of my readers will go on and try to get published by a major publishing house in spite of what I say , so let’s explore this topic a bit further.

Differences Among Book Publishing Houses

Book publishing houses are all different. There are publishers that work in certain genres, of course. Beyond that, each publishing house has its own procedures and processes.

Some publishing houses only work with agents, for example. Other publishing houses don’t require you to have an agent. Some publishing houses accept unsolicited manuscript submissions, while others don’t.

In that same vein, book publishing houses each have different submission guidelines. You need to consider those guidelines very specifically.

You need to be able to follow their submission instructions right down to the letter. The vast majority of rejections at many book publishing houses have nothing to do with the content of the book but rather with problems in the submission process.

What Motivates A Book Publishing House?

You also need to realize that book publishing houses are in business to make money. If one of them wants to publish your book, it’s because they believe there is a market for that book, and a market that they can tap into.

They’re not doing it because they believe your book to be the best story out there, or for any altruistic or artistic reason. They believe that, once they’ve paid you and paid to produce, distribute and promote your book that they’ll still make some money.

Being told “no” by a publisher doesn’t mean “your book sucks”. It just means that the publisher doesn’t see a profit in that book.

Book publishing houses don’t always make money on a book. In fact, around 60% of books fail to make back the advance for the publisher. Even fewer books, around 10% break even. About 2% of books make a good deal of profit for the publisher, and it is those top few books that keep book publishing houses in business.

What this means for you is that your advance is, in many cases, the only profit you’re likely to see from your book, so you’d better be sure you’re comfortable with that amount.

Finally, you need to recognize that just about every good book gets rejected at least a few times before it’s published. Even if every book publishing house tells you “no,” remember that working with a traditional book publishing house is only one of many ways to get your book published.

There are several reasons to self-publish books, rather than utilize the traditional publishing model of going through a large publisher:

• You will retain control of your work. Most contracts you might sign with a big publisher will take virtually ALL of your rights as an author. That means movie rights, foreign language distribution rights, and much more. Self-publishing allows you to retain all of these valuable rights and ensure that you will be able to decide how your work is distributed.
• Publishing your own book means that you don’t have to deal with the immense amount of time and frustration involved in sending your book to agents and publishers. You will be able to publish on your timeline, rather than that of some businessperson sitting behind a desk at a publishing house.
• You will not have to submit your work to the rampant rejection experienced using the major publishing houses. Having said that, you also need to recognize that EVERY author will benefit from having an editor, and from input from experts in the field. In addition, you aren’t going to hone your craft if you can’t learn to take constructive criticism.
• Using a large publisher usually means a small advance, if any, on the front end, and a small percentage royalty on the back end once your book starts selling. Often, the first royalty check will not be paid to the author for as much as two years after the publishing contract is signed. Publishing your own book, on the other hand, allows you to enjoy a much larger percentage of the sales made by your book, and ensures that you can be paid much sooner.
• When authors self-publish books, and then learn how to effectively promote them, they will have MUCH greater leverage in negotiating with major publishers later on. In other words, once you have proven that you book will sell, publishing houses will be much more willing to negotiate deals that lean more in the authors favor than they would otherwise.

Today, there are so many wonderful avenues to publish your own book that it is the #1 way that I recommend a new author get started.

To be sure, there can be pitfalls along the way with self-publishing, but your chances of long-term success as a published author are MUCH greater if you opt to take this route and go about it the right way.

Understanding the process of how to get your book published, however, is the first step in getting your book to go from your hard drive or your typewritten manuscript into the hands of a publisher who wants to publish it.

Here are the general steps you need to take in order to get your book published:

Write the book.

Technically, you don’t need to churn out an entire book before you start the process. However, you do need to have a few sample chapters as well as a thoroughly detailed literary outline before you go any further. Actually finishing your book before you try to pitch it to agents and publishers is optional.

Figure out where to send it.

Some writers prefer to work through an agent, while some prefer to go directly to publishers. Some publishers will only work with agents, while other publishers will accept unsolicited submissions. Which way you go has a lot to do with personal preference, your genre and how comfortable you are with selling yourself. Regardless, you need to create a list of potential customers. Whether it’s publishing houses, agents or a combination of both, try to have a plan of attack that involves at least a dozen or so prospects.

Build a proposal.

The job of a book proposal is to get your foot in the door. Your book proposal is what you use to get a publisher’s attention. It acts as an outline of your idea for a book. IT should include a summary of the book, including a plot synopsis or topical synopsis (depending on whether your book is fiction or non-fiction). Your proposal should also include information about your target market, in terms of age, socio-economic strata and even educational level. It should also look at the competition, and identify what sets your book apart from others in the genre.

Get rejected.

Sure, sometimes a writer will get lucky. They’ll send in a proposal to a big publishing house that will instantly recognize the writer’s talent, and offer a generous advance.

The rest of us, however, live in the real world. We know that even the best books get rejected, usually many times, before they ever see a printing press. Rejection is part of the process, and can in some cases even be used to help improve your book and hone your craft.

Get published.

Eventually, someone will buy your book and want to publish it or they won’t. If you’ve tried everyone and no one is biting, you can still consider self-publishing or even electronic publishing. There’s no reason that you can’t share your book, in one form or another, with an audience.