I'VE DONE EVERYTHING YOU SAID TO DO, and nothing happened. Agents turned me down, publishers took a loooong time to say "No,", I have no more leads. What now?
SELF-PUBLISHING is poopooed by many in the business — they call it "vanity publishing." Of course, if it caught on, they'd be out of business. Yet these days people are finding many ways to get around the New York publishing bottleneck. James Dickey did. Walt Whitman did. If you really want control over your book, then do it yourself.
YOU'RE AN AUTHOR NOW, but are you ready to be a businessperson, a marketeer, a self-promoter, an accountant, a warehouser — a >publisher?
FIRST, ANSWER THIS QUESTION: Is this the only book you will write? Or are you already eager to get on to the next writing project? If you answer the latter, then, by all means, stake out your field and go for it. I suspect that if you continue on that path, you will eventually find like-minded people who are also frustrated authors — and you'll be there first with something to offer: an audience.
NO ONE STARTS OUT to be a publisher. I didn't, yet it just seemed to fit. You may find yourself thinking in the longer term — what will people need ten, twenty years from now? How can I best serve their interests? Now you're thinking like a publisher! Welcome to the group.
BANDANNA BOOKS handles book production for university professors and departments (the "publish or perish" profession). And for poets, whose audience is strictly local. And for autobiographies, which may go mainly to family members. And, perhaps, you.
BOOK PACKAGING covers everything from manuscript to delivered books — typography, text design, graphics, print brokering. You will see two sets of proofs before a MS is sent off to a printer. Book packaging is a separate operation from the Book Doctor editorial services; it includes neither editing nor marketing.
A PUBLISHER IS simply the person or organization putting up the money for a book to be printed and distributed. The First Amendment of the Constitution lays out the principle of freedom of the press. No license is required, no government censor oversees your work. You're a publisher if you say so.
TO GET A QUICK ESTIMATE on how much the production of your book will cost, email us with this information, or write us at this address:
YOU SHOULD DO YOUR OWN MARKETING. You are best equipped to know who will be interested in your book far better than BBooks. That's your audience. The same principle of free press applies to advertising and promotion — you can do anything the big publishers do, and more. However, you should be aware of several options that protect your intellectual rights and make your book accessible.
TO SECURE A COPYRIGHT, apply to the U.S. Copyright Office. The fee is $45 for paper and, this summer 2008 only, a beta version online filing is available for $35. You can do this even after the book is printed. Also important: be sure to include the standard copyright claim on your copyright page (on the back side of the title page, where all legal information should be located. The copyright is important to establish your priority to any pirating, or copying of your work without your permission. Most countries are signatories to the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention.
BOOKSTORES AND LIBRARIES USE AN ISBN NUMBER to locate an exact title and publisher. This now costs $275 for ten numbers, or $995 for a hundred numbers. If you ever plan to do a second book, I recommend that you get your own ISBN numbers.
A LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NUMBER or LCCN is available for U.S. publishers; it "pre-catalogs" your title for libraries that use the LC numbering system rather than the Dewey Decimal System.
BOOKS IN PRINT from Bowker is the standard reference for all titles in print. Use Bowkerlink to give them information before your book is printed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY is the pre-eminent review magazine for the book industry. You might consider others, depending on the subject of your book. New York Review of Books, perhaps, or Quilt Magazine, whichever may be appropriate.
A FEW LIBRARY MAGAZINES such as Library Journal, Booklist, and Choice review books for libraries to consider ordering.
Bandanna Books • Santa Barbara
Copyright © 2008 Bandanna Books
Sasha "Birdie" Newborn asks all the right questions and then puts the moxie into place. She makes a book classic. I have been more than satisfied and recommend her highly. Ms. Newborn is a publishing professional. All of her books…come out clean. Her trademark is care, her gift sensitivity.
—Patrick Mackay
Copyright © 2008 Bandanna Books