Heidi Allen Digital Strategy

Lulu has partnered with Intrepid Media to provide a one-stop-shop for authors who want to self publish.  To put this in context Lulu has over 1.1 million recently published titles, more than 8,000 new titles added each week and 2 million site visitors each month.

Intrepid Media is a site for writers of very description to discuss and critique each others work (think editorial process provided by Publishers in other words).

What was missing in many of the self-publishing models were ways for the authors to promote their work once published, unless they were on a teaching circuit, or the media picked up the book and talked about it.
Now authors who want to self publish get feedback on their work while writing, their book is published in print and electronic form, promoted via social networks, and sold on Amazon, Barnes & Noble amongst others.  There are no up-front-costs.

How is this different from traditional publishing houses? First your book gets published.  Many books don’t see the light of day because to submit your book idea in the first place is no small task (think find an Agent, get to the right Publisher, proposals reviews, changes to your content to fit in with other books on their list) – in other words months before you can even go ahead even if the book is accepted.

Editorial and creative control remains with the author, along with the copyright and ability to chose the price.  The book is not handed over to become part of a Publisher’s book list, there are no tortuous submission protocols, deadlines to keep to, no royalty negotiations, and no contracts with penalty clauses if you don’t deliver.  Instead authors pay a 20% if the book is bought (and nothing if it is not), straight forward, simple. What Lulu and Intrepid Media provide is the ‘how to’ without taking any ownership away from the author.

Lulu’s publishing steps

A clever author can also market his book to a wide international audience using social media without expending too much time or energy.  Iggy Pintado’s book ‘Connection Generation’ – self published, was promoted with a nice ‘personliased’ email to his LinkedIn connections (over 7000) – I was one, I didn’t mind as I’d opted into his network and was interested to see what he was doing.  Iggy’s Facebook page has 1000 friends,  twitter nearly 5,000 followers and…. you get the picture.

Why pay a publishing house (by way of giving up a significant part of your royalties) to use more traditional (I want to write tired) ways of promoting your book. Follow that up with being able to upload your book on Amazon’s Kindle and really, who does need Publishers any more?

Whereas a few years ago self-publishing may have been viewed as a less credible form of publishing it is now much more accepted as an alternate route, especially with the rise of companies facilitating self-publishing (see Mashables 6 ways to publish your own book)

The points made in a video interview with authors Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi are true in my experience

If you already have a large audience who follow you and like your work then self-publish

Why would you want to give most of your royalties away to a Publisher who will be reaching the same audience that you can reach.

Previously Publishing Houses facilitated the publishing process – instructing typesetters and printers and also carried the costs of  book production, printing, warehousing, and shipping.

Today, the publishing process is much easier – whether publishing on the web or in book form and costs are no longer prohibitive. Where good Publishers can come into their own is in distribution with automated systems for alerting their international offices when new books come out which are then listed in local promotional material.

I have seen many instances of successful self-publishing with authors who are experts and have a large audience – but they really are viewed as experts, giving presentations at conferences, being quoted in the press, leading journals, giving radio interviews etc.

On the flip side the media may be more likely to give you attention if you have published with a mainstream Publisher as they will assume that a process of review and quality control has been undertaken – and Publishers are still valued here although how long this will last as a ‘measuring stick’ remains to be seen as products and information are being reviewed more openly on the web.