Publishing a Book is Simple, Right?

• All it takes is one great idea for a book.
• Then you write the book.
• Then you print the book.
• Then comes the really easy part, distributing or selling the newly written book. People will just line up to buy it…won’t they?

The concept may seem simple enough. However, the reality is…it’s not that easy to put all those steps into practice.

Unfortunately, the truth is that it’s difficult, really difficult, to become a best-selling author. That’s why there are only a few truly successful authors in the entire world who are published traditionally.

Do Not Be Discouraged

Sure, your book may never be a best-seller. It may not even be printed on paper.

But do those things matter to you? After all, it is your creation to share with the world. We agree! If your goal is to write a book, that’s what matters; it matters a lot.

Bill Walker, the visionary behind Simplie Indie, believes that anyone who puts their heart into writing a book deserves to have it made available to their world. Large or small.

The Simplie Indie Mantra

We’ve got your back. That means that we support the goals you choose for yourself. Our commitment to you is to inspire you, and to encourage you to embrace your artistic freedom.

We will provide you with all the tools and the education you need to succeed as an author. Then, once you have your finished book, we’ll help you bring it to the world.

We believe that writing a book shouldn’t be controlled by what the traditional publishers think. It can and should be controlled by you.

Your Heart. Your Soul. Your Dream.

It’s Time To Get Started

Let’s look at the common ways to publish.

There are essentially three ways to become a published author today: traditional publishing, self-publishing (print-on-demand), and independent publishing.

Traditional Publishing

Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishing is the most familiar process. First you write a book. Then, you get a major publishing house to publish your book.

Sound easy?

To take advantage of traditional publishing, let’s go over what is a long, multiple-step process.

1. Come up with a fantastic idea for a book.
2. Explain how you are uniquely suited to write this book, and how you plan to market it. (Yes, you will have to market it yourself, unless you’re already hugely successful.) This is the first step required by the book proposal you will have to create.
3. Define your target market.
• How large is the market for your book?
• How much can you sell the book for?
• Is the target market large enough and the price of the book high enough to generate profit? This issue is very important. Traditional publishers only care about how much money they can make. I repeat, they are in it to make money. The days when large publishing houses existed to add great literature to our culture are over. (There are some small houses attempting to do this, but their financial strength is not good.) In fact, your book must have a perceived market large enough to be highly profitable to the publisher beyond costs, or they will not sign you to a contract.
4. Thoroughly research and evaluate your competition.
5. Write an outline and at least two sample chapters.
• If you can, complete the whole book.
• Have several copies printed up to send out to publishers and agents.
6. Now you’re done. Right?
• Not so fast. Now you need to find an agent to represent your work to a publisher.
• And not just any agent. You need one who is excited about your book and is willing to represent you. Again, will your book sell? Make lots of money?
7. You’re one of the lucky ones: you got an agent. Now you need to find a publisher. Now begins the negotiation process. And success means you sign a contract giving up most of the rights to your book!
8. If you have not done so, finish your book, and then complete the editing process with your publisher. This alone can take up to a year or more.
• You have to hope the marketing department and your editor like your title, your plot, and your characters. If they don’t, they’ll “suggest” changes.
• Don’t plan on making suggestions of your own for the book cover. It’s possible but unlikely that your ideas will be of interest to the publisher.

Great. You’ve gone through all the steps. You’ve done everything you were told to become published. Now comes the excruciating wait for your book to be published. Again, this could take a long time.

Let’s face it, the entire traditional publishing process can take an extremely long time. And realistically, you’re bound to face major obstacles along the way.

Traditional Publishing Pitfalls

To start with, there’s the classic Catch 22 scenario: many agents won't represent you unless you’ve been published. And most publishers won't publish you without an agent. This alone is an insurmountable obstacle for most aspiring authors.

However, if you succeed in getting both an agent and a publisher, you now have to deal with editors. Editors go through your book and make their changes. Sometimes extensive changes. And not always for the better. Remember: Editors get their paycheck from the publisher. Not you.

But congratulations, you’ve passed! You’re published!

Reality Check

If this is your first published book, you likely signed away your rights—you can’t sell the book in other formats (audio or ebook), or with another publisher, or in other languages. (If your publisher chooses, they’ll do these things for you, but it depends on your reputation, the subject of your book, etc.) In exchange, you received a small advance ($1,000-$2,500). Your royalty rate is most likely 8%-12%. But you won't receive a royalty check until your advance is paid back in full. After all, the publisher wants to recoup all its costs of publishing your book.

Now, if your book sells well, you may get it published a second time. However, if it does not sell well, you’re out of luck. You will not likely get a second chance. Your book has a very short time—three to six months—to make an impression on the world. The publisher is constantly coming out with new books for bookstores that have limited shelf space. Your book is likely to be swept away in the tide of the new books from your publisher, and you can’t do anything about it.

As a company, we understand that traditional publishing is a familiar choice. It is a goal for many writers. If this applies to you, Simplie Indie can and will help you reach that goal.

However, keep reading. You are about to understand how easy Independent publishing is. You can realize your dream of being published through a comparatively enjoyable, easy, and profitable process.

But first, let’s take a quick look at one of traditional publishing’s alternatives.

Self-Publishing (Print On Demand)

Self-Publishing (Print On Demand)

Print On Demand (POD) has solved a lot of the problems writers have faced with traditional publishing. It creates an inexpensive way for writers to self-publish.

Actually, POD is usually what people think of first when they think about self-publishing.

Here’s how it works:

• Choose a POD company. CAUTION: Please research carefully. A crucial issue is to retain your copyright.
• Upload your finished product, usually as a PDF.
• When customers want to buy your book, they place an order with the POD company.
• The POD company prints one copy of your book and ships it to your customer.

Wow! This seems like a great way to go, with very little risk to you. You do not front the cost of printing and storing hundreds or thousands copies of your book. Books are printed only when ordered. If your book is meant for just a few people, then this is a great way to go.

But if your goal is to make a living as an author, or to have more than a few copies of your book in people’s hands, or to get your books into bookstores (both online and brick-and-mortar) it is a very expensive and inefficient way to publish.

The Costs in POD

Books published via POD are significantly more expensive for consumers to purchase than traditionally published books. Here’s an example of how it works:

• The POD company sets an “author buy” price at, say, $12.00. They then set the minimum retail price at $17.00.
• When a customer purchases your book, you split the $5.00 profit with the POD company. You get $2.50 and they get $2.50. The $2.50 is more than you would get through traditional publishing, but much less than you would earn through independent publishing.

If you write novels, it will be difficult to sell your book for $17.00. If you write non-fiction you will have more customers willing to pay the higher price, but you’re earning much less per book than you need to (if you had independently published your book.)

Another issue with POD is perceived value. If you are not willing to invest in your book by taking the responsibility and risk of printing and marketing, it begs an important question: why would a traditional publisher want to take on the financial risk of publishing and promoting your book? The quick answer is, they don’t. They’ll pay for printing if they’re convinced you have a profitable book, but you must still do your own promotion and marketing, even with big publishers.

This brings us to the third way to publish.

Independent Publishing

Introducing independent, or “indie,” publishing.

If you’re writing a book, it’s extremely unlikely that you’re using pen and paper, or even a typewriter. Technology makes it possible for you to take over publishing functions that used to be inaccessible.

Now it’s not expensive to have hundreds of copies of your book delivered to your door for a reasonable price. You can also have your own “store,” offering your book to buyers anywhere in the world.

It’s amazing, and we don’t even think about it anymore.

With indie publishing, you still go through some of the steps of traditional publishing. But the process is much quicker:

• No time spent seeking an agent.
• No sending proposals to publishers.
• Most importantly, you retain control the entire way.

As an independent publisher, you control everything. You register yourself as a publisher with the ISBN Agency, R.R. Bowker. You can then purchase a block of ISBNs and bar codes for yourself. (ISBNs and bar codes allow your book to be handled by the brick-and-mortar bookstore system.)

You are responsible for everything – writing, editing, formatting, proofreading, indexing, cover design, printing, marketing, and distributing. It sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But it is also doable and a lot of fun.

There are many authors who have successfully published and marketed their own books. Now is the time for you to do the same, because we give you all the options.

Maybe you don’t want to deal with bar codes. Maybe you don’t want hundreds or thousands of books in your spare bedroom. Maybe you don’t want to get a merchant account to process credit cards before you ship all the orders. No problem: you can get exactly what you need, without paying for services you don’t want, from Simplie Indie.

In support of our indie authors, Simplie Indie will take care of all the details you aren’t interested in handling.

Don’t want to register yourself as a publisher? We can publish your book. You, as the author, are still responsible financially for your book. But you can contract with us to take care of all or some of the details for you.

• Pick and choose the things you want help with: editing, formatting, and proofreading.
• Cover design or other artwork.
• Printing, warehousing, shipping, and returns.
• Online presence: our store is a community of creative people like you.

We have plans that give you the help you want, no matter what stage of the creative process you’re in, and that fit the budget you have.

When your budget is impossibly tight, go virtual.

If you are working with an extremely limited budget, start by publishing an ebook. This is a very inexpensive way to test the market for your creation. With ebooks, there are no printing costs to you. Tell everyone you know to download your book. When you succeed at selling your ebook, or have more money later, then take your book to print.

If your goal is to have your book in print, Simplie Indie can assist you with preparing your manuscript for print.

• We'll arrange for your book to be printed and shipped to you. This is a more expensive process than an ebook, but compared to traditional publishing, it is still more affordable and potentially more lucrative.
• You will be able to sell your book for far less money than with POD. Even if your per-book earnings are identical to your POD earnings, say $2.50 a book, you will sell far more books marketing your book at $10.00 instead of $17.00.
• Your book will be competitively priced with other books in your genre and more people will be willing to buy a book from an unknown author.
• You control your retail and wholesale price.
• Depending on costs, you could increase your potential profit to $3, $4, or more per book. If you write non-fiction with a selling price of $14.95-$39.95, your profit can be $10-$30 or more per book.
• You own all the rights when you publish indie.
• You determine how and where to sell your book.

You should be getting the picture here: you call the shots for your book.

Our goal is to create a vital community of artists directly connected to their fans.

To accomplish this, we want people just like you to know you can become a published author. It may be your dream to publish your family history. Maybe you have created a short story or series of poems. Or maybe you dream big, and your goal is to become a best-selling author. Whatever your goal, we will work with you to achieve it.

Ready to independently publish your next book? Let's get started—submit your book here!