As many small-time authors and self-publishers have
discovered the hard way, the traditional book publishing
model is fraught with problems that conspire against an
individual author/publisher making a decent living from
their work.

The traditional model normally involves two basic choices:
1) use a commercial publisher, or 2) self-publish.

THE COMMERCIAL PUBLISHER ROUTE

This option involves the author submitting book proposals
or full manuscripts to commercial publishing houses in hope
of acceptance.

Once a manuscript is accepted by a publishing house (the
vast majority are not accepted) a contract is signed between
the author and the publishing house. This kicks-off a time-
consuming and often complex process involving printers,
shippers, wholesalers, distributors, marketers, and finally,
booksellers, all managed on the author's behalf by the
publishing house.

Typically, it takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months from the
time the author finishes a book manuscript, until the actual
book gets onto the bookshelves.

THE SELF-PUBLISHING ROUTE

The self-publishing option is one in which the author
eliminates some of the middlemen and manages the overall
publishing, distribution and marketing processes him/herself.

This option gives the author much more personal control of
the whole process and allows him/her to earn more money per
copy than through a commercial publisher. It also involves
a lot of work by the self-publisher who is responsible for
performing all of the functions and services that a
commercial publisher would normally look after.

This model is normally less time-consuming in terms of
elapsed time, since there is no manuscript submission and
approval process involved. On average, the self-publishing
process can save 6 to 12 months over the commercial
publisher model.

THE SHOCKING DOWNSIDES OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING

Based on my first-hand experience with the North American
book publishing and distribution industry, I have to say
that it is one of the most archaic and poorly run business
models that I have ever encountered. The entire industry
seems to be decades behind current-day business practices
of other industries.

Very few people know from the outset what they're getting
into when they choose to publish their book via the
traditional publishing route. They have no idea at the
beginning just how backward, outdated and dysfunctional
the entire conventional book publishing industry business
model really is.

Here's what the conventional book publishing industry
WILL NOT spell out to you before you sign-up...

Give Away Half Your Book's Value Up-Front

If your book's cover price is, say $30, you will be forced
to discount at least 40% to 60% right off the top when
selling your book to wholesalers and retailers. So, you'll
really be working from an actual price of somewhere
between $12 and $18 -- not the $30 you first thought.

Don't Count On Making Big Bucks

If you choose the commercial publisher option, the best you
can hope to receive for your book is a royalty somewhere
between 6% and 10% of the "net". The "net" is the amount
the publisher receives AFTER discounting to retailers.

Example; cover price = $30; discount to large retail
chain = $15 (i.e. 50%). Your cut would be somewhere
between $0.90 and $1.50 per sale. So, for selling 3,000
copies (a very good sales figure) you would receive a
grand total of somewhere between $2,700 and $4,500!

You'll Have To Write Lots Of Books

If you choose the self-publishing option your main
distributor will pay you somewhere around 45% of the
cover price of your book. Using our $30 cover price
example; that works out to $13.50 per sale that goes to
you under this scenario. Then you have to deduct your
costs which include: printing the book, overheads,
and marketing, publicity and advertising expenses.

Example: cover price = $30; distributor payment to you at
45% of cover = $13.50, before expenses. Deduct: printing
costs - $3.50; overheads - $1.00; marketing, advertising,
publicity - $1.00 = ($13.50-$5.50) = $8.00 per book sale.
So, for selling 3,000 copies you would make only $24,000.

And don't forget, this option involves your ongoing direct
personal time and effort involvement.

Wait Forever To Get Paid

Typically, you will have to wait between 90 days and 120
days after an actual book sale before you will receive your
payment for that sale. I still shake my head at this one.
How does the publishing industry get away with such an
archaic practice in the 21st Century?

In normal business the standard wait for payment is usually
30 days, sometimes as much as 60 days; but 90 to 120 days
to pay a poor struggling author? It's a crying shame that
they still manage to get away with it. This kind of payment
delay is the norm, whether you go through a commercial
publisher or if you're a self-publisher.

Issue 100% Refunds On Unsold Books

A trademark feature of the conventional book publishing
industry is the way in which it deals with "returns". In
almost all cases -- publishers, distributors, wholesalers
and retailers - they maintain the right to return unsold
books to you, the author, for a 100% refund, even many
months later!

Example: Say you sell 200 copies of your book to a
particular retail chain through your publisher (commercial
publisher model) or through your distributor (self-publisher
model). Then, let's say that after five months, various
stores in that retail chain find that 45 unsold copies of
your book are still on their shelves. The retailer would
simply send those books back to your publisher or
distributor for a 100% refund. That company would would
then routinely pay that retail chain a 100% refund for each
book returned and in-turn would deduct that total amount
from your account!

I'm not kidding folks, this is how it really works!

There is absolutely NO incentive for bookstores or
publishers/distributors to make any extra effort whatsoever
to move your book off their shelves since they know you
will provide a 100% rebate for all "returns" in any case.
Go figure?

Pay Them Extra Money... Just In Case

And just to add insult to injury, many publishers and
distributors will also withhold funds from your regular
royalty payments (20% or more) as insurance to cover the
costs of possible future returns.

So, not only do you get paid 90 to 120 days late, you will
NOT receive the full amount to which you are entitled, as
your publisher/distributor hedges against the possibility
of eventual returns of unsold and/or damaged books months
down the line.

Get Stuck In Someone Else's Time Cycle

Most commercial publishers operate on a time-frame of
18 to 24 months from approved/accepted manuscript until
the book is released for sale. If you are a self-publisher
you can whittle this down to maybe 3 to 6 months depending
on when your book is ready vis a vis your distributor's
catalog publication schedule.

If you time it perfectly, or just get lucky, there might
only be 6 to 8 weeks between your book being ready to
ship and it getting it onto store shelves.

BOTTOM LINE

In addition to the foregoing, there are other problems
with the traditional book publishing model which I won't
go into here. So, as you can see, from an author's point
of view it is a highly dysfunctional, badly flawed business
model that wouldn't survive in most industries.

In fact, the system is so stacked against the average
author I'm amazed that some people actually try to eke
out an ongoing living in that thankless industry. I guess
they feel they have no other choice, or they are hoping
against the odds that they will one day get lucky and pen
a mega best-seller.

So, if you are an aspiring author, and you're hoping to
make a modest living writing and publishing your own books
or ebooks -- the traditional book publishing and
distribution model is definitely NOT the way to go.

The good news is that over the past couple of years a new
publishing model has evolved that eliminates all of the
negative aspects of the traditional publishing model
and adds a number of additional benefits.

It's called the "Online Publishing Model".

It's a combination of online digital download delivery
and print-on-demand (POD) publishing that sidesteps most
of the pitfalls of the traditional book publishing model.

It offers small-time authors/publishers an excellent
alternative that will give them more control, and will
increase their sales and profits by using little known
online channels when publishing their books/ebooks.

For all the details on the Online Publishing Model you might want to check out my eBook on the subject at:

http://instantbookwritingkit.com

2005 by Shaun Fawcett

Shaun Fawcett, is webmaster of the popular writing help site WritingHelp-Central.com. He is also the author of several best selling "writing toolkit" eBooks. All of his eBooks and his internationally acclaimed f-r-e-e course, "Tips and Tricks For Writing Success" are available at his writing tools site: http://www.writinghelptools.com