Essay Online

Creating a printed book is a bit more complicated than creating a PDF eBook. More steps are involved, just by right of producing a tangible finished product that needs to be handled in the physical world (versus an electronic document that can be distributed by e-mail or online). The basic print publishing process for a print-on-demand publishing cycle for a book that will be sold online through the print-on-demand vendor’s website (and/or other online booksellers like Amazon) breaks down as follows:

1. Complete your manuscript

2. Develop your cover concept (and do a trial run of a cover)

3. Format your manuscript for printing (the final product is called a “galley”)

4. Complete your cover artwork (and proof it with trial runs of a cover)

5. Put your galley and artwork together

6. Create marketing collateral, press releases, etc.

7. Publish!

8. Receive hard copies of your book and send out review copies to press

9. Send out press releases and place advertising and line up interviews

10.Continue the marketing cycle to keep your book in the press

11. Track your sales and order more books for more publicity

I recommend printing out this list and using it as a project plan for your print publishing. And fill in the blanks in the process, where you know there are more steps involved in your own personal experience. Or follow the sample project plan immediately following this section. Having a checklist to follow can simplify what can be a complicated and sometimes confusing process.

Now, one thing you may notice, is that I have listed marketing after the actual publication of your book. I strongly recommend waiting till you have a finished, published book in hand, before you start sending out press releases and generating interest. I’ve had international press people contact me within 24 hours of sending out my press materials, but I had no hard copies in hand to send to them, so that pretty much derailed the opportunity I’d created for myself.

In the traditional publishing world, it’s customary to publicize a printed book at least three months in advance of publication. This gives the press time to review bound galleys and work your publicity into their own production schedules. Now, for traditional publishers who have full staffs and plenty of money and connections and the machinery for publishing, that’s fine. They can pretty much guarantee that a book will come out exactly the way they say it will, exactly when they way it will. But when you’re on your own, it’s a different story. Anything could happen along the way. You could experience delays with the printer. You could experience personal complications. You could find yourself stalled by artwork that didn’t come out the way you wanted… any number of things can go wrong, when you’re on your own.

So, it’s prudent to be a bit more conservative about marketing a book you’re working on. Even if you’re 100% absolutely positively unwaveringly convinced that your book will come out in three weeks, anything can happen in that time, that can hold you up or wreck your carefully laid plans. So, don’t make any promises you can’t keep to the press. It will only work against you.

All this might sound a little daunting, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably an independent type of person, so the inherent risks and dangers will trouble you a lot less than someone who’s never published before and is nervous entering uncharted waters. Certainly, going it alone as an independent print publisher can take a lot more preparation and organization, than operating solely in digital formats. But it’s also very satisfying, to have a book in hand that you can give to friends, families, reviewers, and others who say, “So, you’re a writer?”

And if you format your book well, your work can be indistinguishable from the work of other writers published by mainstream publishing houses. You can get your own ISBN, your own professional-looking cover, a great looking interior, and all the marketing collateral you could ask for… without spending a small fortune. All it takes is determination, the right information, some creative inventiveness, a keen eye for detail, and a willingness to keep going, no matter what.

With a little extra care, some advanced planning, and an eye for detail, you can turn your eBooks or white papers or other digital information products into printed books — and not drive yourself crazy in the process.

Why would anyone want to create a printed book, when then can create eBooks a lot more easily — and cheaply? Why would anyone want to get mired in the process of printing and shipping physical books that take time to deliver to customers, when they can deliver a digital information product immediately, with no additional production or shipping costs? What’s the point of having a tree-killing artifact of yesteryear in your creative portfolio?

Well, like it or not, a lot of people still prefer printed books to eBooks. They like — no, they love — the feel of a printed copy in their hands. It gives them a sense of well-being and solidity, to have a physical work they can carry with them and put on their bookshelves. They’re “old school” and they like it that way. Or, they just never warmed up to eBooks or digital media.

I had a conversation with an international television reporter about one of my books that was coming out soon — I didn’t yet have the printed version in my hands, but I had a PDF eBook I could send him. He said many times over that he hated to read eBooks, but that was all I had at the time, and so I sent it to him. It would have been a whole lot better if I could have sent him a printed copy, instead. Of course, I made do with what I had, but if only…

Now, there’s a very good reason some people like printed books better than eBooks — they can read them anywhere, anytime, without needing a computer to do it. For all the talk about “portable media,” these days, a book is really the ultimate in portable media! It fits in your hand, it doesn’t require batteries, and there are no complicated instructions to figure out! As advanced as our technology may be, there’s nothing like a book to truly “transport information” quickly and efficiently, across the bounds of time and space.

Ironic, isn’t it, that the ultimate medium for portable, instantaneous information sharing is just the thing that a lot of us thought was on its way out, with the advent of the internet!

Books are not “reserved” for the technologically gifted. They’re not available only to people with a computer and a broadband connection. They’re easy to use, easy to transport, and — unlike some of the cutting-edge entertainment technology available today — everybody understands what they’re all about.

When you publish a printed book, you level the playing field for potential customers, and you make it possible for a wider variety of people to access and enjoy your work.

Another reason to create a printed book, is for credibility. With a printed book in hand — especially one with an ISBN — you can approach magazines and newspapers and radio and television hosts and have something in hand to talk about with them. You can mail your book to reviewers and reporters, and you can hold up your creation for the camera, when it comes time to tell the audience what all the excitement is about. And when members of your audience go to their local bookstore to see if they carry your book (depending on what service you use to publish your book), they can put in a request for the book from the bookstore, and potentially help you get it stocked on the bookshelf stores. (Though you may already be convinced, like many other infopreneurs, that bookstores are not the place to sell books, still, it doesn’t hurt to see your book on the shelves of a brick-and-mortar store.)

Probably my favorite reason to publish in print, is how it can take your ideas to a whole new level and get you the kind of exposure once reserved only for the connected elite. Having a book in print has a way of instantly establishing you as an expert, in ways that producing (even getting rich from) digital information products can’t, in the “real world” offline. When people hear you’ve written a book, and they see that book in your hands, a connection kicks in, somewhere inside their heads, that says you must be pretty smart. Chances are, it’s true — you are! But the perception of others that you must be one smart cookie, since you’ve written this book, usually doesn’t get so far as to delve into the nature of your book, if it’s any “good,” or if your work is widely accepted and respected in academic or commercial circles.

Everyday folks have an innate respect for people who can write down enough coherent thought, and organize it completely enough, to produce a book. An awful lot of people never get that far. Some may think about it, but never do it. As a published author, as far as a lot of folks are concerned, you’re in a league of your own. And that’s a pretty good feeling!

I’ve gotten a bit of practice having that feeling. To my friends and family, I’m “just Kay” and that’s fine with me. All that fame business just kind of gets in the way, when it comes to my personal relationships. But to people who read the international press in the areas I publish in (technology and cross-cultural concerns), I have a somewhat different persona — I’m a published author who has caught the attention of folks from Asia and Europe with a controversial and rabble-rousing work that hit the presses in the fall of 2006. It’s pretty cool, to come across people from far away, who have read reviews of my books in magazines and newspapers I’ve never heard of. And I’ve got some pretty cool clippings of articles that mention me — and my book — exclusively, or in passing. That was all possible, because I published a printed book. It doesn’t matter that I have eBook versions of my works available for instant download. Most of the time, that’s not even on the radar of the mainstream international press. In fact, if anything, they kind of turn up their noses when I mention my eBook. But my printed version of that same book… well, that’s another story.

Publishing a printed book widens the reach of your ideas in ways that digital media can’t quite do. You open up your ideas to a whole different audience, and you get the chance to make even more of an impact with your concepts and your unique “take” on the world… taking a position of true thought leadership in a hurting world that’s sorely in need of fresh, new ideas. In fact, now is really the perfect time to be stepping out as a innovative new author in the print publishing world. The old formulas and the old ways of seeing the world and talking about it and conceptualizing it and relating to it, are pretty tired and worn out. We need fresh new ideas, brilliant new insights, and innovative ways of thinking about our world. You may have distilled everything you know and popped it into an eBook, but the print world offers you yet another medium (or “channel,” if you prefer marketing lingo) for your ideas.

My favorite reason of all for publishing a printed book, is the profound satisfaction that comes from holding a real, honest-to-goodness tangible book in your hands. I’ve been a book reader for over 30 years, and I’ve never lost my love for the sight of words on a printed page. All the better, when those words are mine! Some would call it vanity, but I call it doing my talents justice… and having something to show for all my work, all those live-long years of writing, writing, and writing some more, against all odds, hope against hope. I’m a very tactile person, when it comes to words, too, so I like to have something to hang onto. Digital is great — it’s my medium of choice, these days — but I can’t flip through the pages of a PDF quite the same way I can thumb through a book.

It really is an incredibly exciting time to be a writer and independent publisher! I’m so deeply grateful to have been born at this point in history, with my love of language and books — and the ability to put that love into manifest product. The possibilities really are endless… provided, of course, you know how to explore them. And that’s what this guide is about — getting you, an infopreneur or digital product creator, the tools and the skills and the orientation you need, to turn your digital content into print format, so you can reach a wider audience and more firmly establish yourself in your own niche of thought leadership.