I have detailed at length in both articles and books the many problems that I have found with the traditional book publishing model. Believe me, I learned all of this the hard way; costing me thousands of wasted hours and thousands of lost sales and revenues.
As I’ve said before, it’s unbelievable that suchan archaic and dysfunctional business model is still in operation! Here’s a quick overview of the more significant downsides of that often dysfunctional publishing model:
- You’ll have to give away half of your book’s value right up-front by being forced to discount the cover price by as much as 60% (Hard to believe isn’t it!).
- You’ll make very little money — as little as 3% of the cover price through a standard publisher, up to a maximum of 35% of cover price if you self-publish (So then, what’s the point?).
- You’ll have to wait a full 3 to 4 months to get paid for a book sale after it has been made (Really — I’m not kidding here!).
- You’ll be forced to issue 100% rebates to booksellers who return your books after many months, because they didn’t make an effort to sell them. (Almost beyond belief, isn’t it).
- You’ll have 25% or more of your income withheld from you (3 to 4 months after that income was earned) as a contingency to cover eventual returns. (So, they add insult to injury).
- You’ll get stuck in a long and drawn-out industry time-cycle of 18 to 24 months from the time your book is ready until the time it’s on store shelves. (That is, if you’re lucky enough to get accepted).
Trust me; I learned all of this the hard way. In fact, it was so difficult to believe that a business model could be so archaic and flawed that I even went back and tried it with a second book in the hope that I had somehow missed the benefits the first time around. Nope.
THERE HAD TO BE A BETTER WAY
After those disheartening experiences with traditional book publishing I decided to see if I could find a better way that would eliminate all or most of those downsides. Well, it took me almost three years of trial-and-error experimentation (not to mention a few thousand dollars) but I did manage to come up with a real, viable alternative to the old way. It’s called the Online Publishing Model.
And, based on my experience using the OPM for the past couple of years, I am truly convinced that it is the KEY to publishing success for small time authors and/or self publishers in the Internet age.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY: THE ONLINE PUBLISHING MODEL
The Online Publishing Model is a combination of online digital download delivery and print-on-demand (POD) paper book 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. Here’s how it works…
THREE MAIN ONLINE DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Using this model, once your book/ebook is written, there are a number of online channels through which you can distribute and sell your book/ebook, as follows:
- Dedicated Sales-Mini-Site
First and foremost, once your book/ebook is written you need to create what’s called a “mini-Website” (i.e. sales-mini-site) for the sole purpose of selling your product. Trust me, this is the only way to go. You MUST have a site dedicated to the sale of that one book/ebook. Search engines will send targeted traffic to your site and your site copy will make the sales online. - Digital Download Distributors
The second online channel for your book/ebook will be through digital fulfillment companies that distribute downloadable ebooks to the largest online bookstores such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and many others. These distribution companies are happy to put your ebook in front of thousands of traditional book buyers who normally wouldn’t see it. Listing your digital download ebook with one or more of these distributors is essential. - Print-On-Demand Distributors
These are distributors that use a relatively new technology called print-on-demand (or POD). You provide the company with a digital copy of your book, plus some cover art work in digital form, and they will set up your book so that single book orders can be printed and drop-shipped directly to the buyer. This allows you to provide a hard copy version (of your ebook) to those customers who insist on it, while you only pay the cost of printing a single copy. (No more printing 2,000+ copies up-front just to get a reasonable cost per copy!).
Other Distribution Channels
There are a few other distribution channels as well, such as small online ebook stores, but these are relatively minor, and to-date I just don’t think they’re worth the trouble.
BOTTOM LINE
Suffice it to say, there are at least three highly effective channels by which you can distribute and sell your book/ebook online through the Online Publishing Model.
If you can harness the three channels in the OPM, and get them working for you, I can guarantee that you’ll make more book/ebook sales and profits than you ever would under the traditional publishing model.
(C) Shaun Fawcett is the author of numerous how-to books on everyday practical writing help. He also writes about how to create and publish books and ebooks, including his popular book about how to implement and profit from the Online Publishing Model:
http://InstantBookWritingKit.com