They say failure can help turn your losing experience into a successful endeavor. That’s becoming evident from the publishing enterprise, which so far has been a total flop. On the surface, what I learned from that is not to try to sell anything unless you have some very strong marketing skills and are willing to spend uncountable hours using them. However, something far more positive is coming out of it.
For the past two or three months, I’ve had more work than I can handle. People are lined up at the door trying to get me to edit their golden words or advise on publishing them. And one of my clients has hired me to help him self-publish a memoir that he intends not for the public but for family and friends.
Yesterday I mocked up three draft covers for his book. One of them turned out looking pretty darned nice. Another would be even better if the quality of the image were better — it has a couple of flaws, one of which probably resulted from dirt on the lens and the other of which appears to be a data issue. We’re using his images, taken with a variety of cameras over 40 years. I dare not post them here, since they are his images and since he has no intention of making this book available to the general public. Too bad…it’s an entertaining narrative.
As I reflected at Plain & Simple press, there are any number of good reasons to use print-on-demand or e-book technology other than trying to trying to publish a best-seller. In fact, trying to publish the Great American Novel is the worst of all possible reasons.
Well. No. Probably trying to get rich selling smut on Amazon and B&N is worse. 😀
One of several things I learned a-sailing the Amazon (and falling off the edge of the earth) is how to create a nice-looking paperback through print-on-demand technology. As we scribble, I now have the skills and tools take a book all the way from manuscript to print. And that process can be modestly lucrative.
Three projects like the one I’m working on now would recover all the losses I’ve enjoyed in the book publishing enterprise.
I’ve also learned of a Mac app that allows you to create really attractive .mobi, ePub, and iBook e-books fairly simply. I may try this on the client’s MS just to see what happens. If it can handle images (not an easy trick), then I would be able to offer e-book formatting of fairly complex documents, too. This would further enlarge the opportunities to make a profit helping other people publish their projects.
I would never advise a client to spend a lot of money self-publishing what he or she imagines is the Great American Novel. But if the person has a good reason to create a book-length document for a business, for a nonprofit organization, for patients or customers, or for family and friends, self-publishing can be an economical and relatively easy way to fulfill certain specific needs. And if you’re just a hobbyist — and you know you’re a hobbyist — writing a book because you get a kick out of writing and would like to see your results in print is surely no more expensive than skiing or four-wheeling. As long as you understand what you’re doing and don’t imagine you’re going to get rich (or, probably, make a profit), I’ll even help you publish your novel.
Does this experience generalize?
Evidently so; otherwise we wouldn’t have those chestnuts to the effect that you have to fail before you can succeed.
In learning how to lose money, you learn how not to lose money. With any luck at all, you may learn how to make money. This is an underlying principle of all the “personal finance advice that can fit on a notecard“: if you get into debt, you can learn not to get into debt; if a bank screws you, you can learn to use a credit union; if you’re not earning enough, you can learn ways to earn more.
Some errors, of course, are not so easily rectified: fail to save enough for retirement and you won’t have a second chance. Text your way up the wrong way of a freeway off-ramp and your next success will be a Darwin Award.
But most of the time you do have a chance to learn something — and profit from it.
What “failure” have you turned into a success, dear reader?
What a cool “niche market”….. I can see this being in demand…Not so long ago a very generous gentleman from my wife’s church “self-published” a book based on his life. This gentleman sold the books for $25 with all the proceeds going to a charity/foundation he had set up to provide college scholarships for the church’s youth. We purchased one of the books and it is an amazing account of his life….the successes and the failures. Had he not written the book, few would have known of this very humble gentleman’s accomplishments. Will give a word of caution….some relatives were upset of the account of some of the events. And to this day, some of the Family doesn’t speak…..
Exactly. There are some contexts in which self-publishing makes sense. Writing and publishing something as a charitable work is one of them.
Matter of fact, I ran across an outfit here in town that produces PoD books and then offers them to churches, nonprofits, and even relevant companies as fund-raisers; she puts their logo on the front cover. Apparently sometimes they commission her to do a book for them, and sometimes she has something in hand that she takes to their marketing people and offers them as a cooperative deal in which she would get a small split of the take.
For example, the 30 Pounds/4 Months cookbook could be sold through spas and health clubs as something to supplement their business operation; or a person could write an inspirational book and sell it through churches or various self-help groups. The idea is to find a market OTHER than Amazon or the moribund brick-and-mortar bookstores.
I went broke during a protracted divorce and wrote about it for MSN Money. Having no money turned into a full-time job writing about how to get along in life when you have no money.
You’ve got quite a story, really. Have you ever thought of writing up that saga as a book?
At some point, maybe, if I ever finish the behemoth I’m working on now….
@ Donna: LOL! What can be more fun than biting off more than we can chew, eh? 😀
Sorry the smut didn’t work out. Probably hard to really make money in that market given how much is out there and readily available.
Yes. I think that’s exactly the issue: everybody else has got the same idea. And also, indeed an enormous amount of “erotica” is posted online for free.
Too bad. The things are easy (and weirdly, kinda fun) to write and inexpensive to farm out. But paying someone to write them by way of increasing the volume of “publications”…just doesn’t pay. Heh.