| The sad news for the book publishing industry is | | | | the self published author to prosper. |
| that book store sales are down. One of the | | | | You see the problem with the big publishing |
| biggest book publishers have recently reported | | | | houses is that they have so many overheads |
| that their book store sales are down by a | | | | (stock, premises, staff, transport, etc) that they |
| whopping 10%! This is all scary news for | | | | need to make huge book sales to survive. So if |
| publishers and most of them have already started | | | | they publish a book they need to feel reasonably |
| evasive action against this down turn in sales. | | | | confident that they will sell tens of thousands of |
| Some publishing companies have already gone out | | | | copies. |
| of business while others have started cutting back | | | | Whereas the self published author will be happy |
| on the number of books they publish. And even | | | | with less sales. |
| others have stopped accepting new book | | | | If you want to look at it as dollars and cents |
| manuscripts altogether. But if you were | | | | consider this: |
| considering self publishing your own book, don't be | | | | If you self published a book and sold it through |
| disheartened because all this news of lower book | | | | online book stores, libraries, etc and you sold only |
| sales is great news for the self published author, | | | | 2,000 copies per year. To a publishing company |
| or anyone thinking about self publishing. | | | | that would be disastrous. But to the self published |
| You see most self published authors never see | | | | author who is earning around $10 or more per |
| their books available through book stores, unless | | | | book , it is good news, even with so few sales. |
| customers order it. Some self published authors | | | | And if you wrote several books and sold 2,000 |
| never expect to see their books sitting on book | | | | copies or more of each book every year, you'd |
| store shelves and have still become millionaire | | | | be earning in excess of $100,000 a year. And |
| authors. | | | | remember that selling 2,000 books a year is |
| The trend in book sales now is that more and | | | | actually very low sales, and you could easily sell |
| more people are buying their books online. Online | | | | twice that many. |
| book stores will happily list self published books on | | | | And the more books you write, the more book |
| their web sites because they don't need to stock | | | | you can sell. We all have favourite authors and will |
| them so if they don't make a sale then nothing is | | | | usually buy all the books they write. So if you |
| lost. | | | | could write and publish several books and build up |
| You see most self published books are sold by | | | | a loyal fan base, then the number of books you |
| POD (Print On Demand). This means that unless | | | | could sell is unlimited. |
| someone specifically orders a copy of your book | | | | But don't take my word for it. Self publishing a |
| - through a book store or an online store - your | | | | book costs very little and is easy to do. If you |
| book isn't printed. So self publishing through POD | | | | know the steps to publishing a book, know which |
| means that you don't have to keep a huge stock | | | | companies you can use to help you and know |
| of you books and they can be sold all over the | | | | how to market your book with minimal effort and |
| world automatically. | | | | outlay, then you could write book after book and |
| But how many book sales can you get using POD | | | | feel safe in the knowledge that every one of |
| publishing? Well, that obviously depends of the | | | | them will be published. |
| popularity of your book and how well it's | | | | So take advantage of the of the currently |
| marketed. | | | | publishing climate and start publishing all your own |
| And with all the big publishing companies struggling | | | | books. Can you imagine how great it would be to |
| to make sales now, you may wonder what hope | | | | work at home as a self published author and |
| there is for the self published author. And there | | | | wave goodbye to the 9-to-5 rat race forever? |
| answer is that there is more hope than ever for | | | | |