cityscape
books: tips for self-publishing authors
What’s the Difference Between Self-Publishing and Vanity Publishing?
Self-publishing is just what it says – you, the author, are the publisher; your name (or a business name you choose) is given as ‘Published by ...’. All the decisions, all the risks and costs and all the profits are yours. You may choose to contract out some of the services you need such as proofreading, typesetting, design, printing etc – but it’s your decision at every stage. Vanity publishers will charge a large sum of money to do all the production work giving you little choice in the matter. They claim to pay royalties on any sales made – but having had all your money up front there is little incentive for them to try to sell your book.
With the increasing use of computer technology many individuals and companies have set themselves up as vanity publishers but unfortunately and confusingly call themselves self-publishers. Some have limited technical skills and no appreciation of the art of typesetting or the business of book publishing.
A simple test – if the ‘Published by ...’ statement is not your name and/or you are being offered ‘royalties’ then it’s not self-publishing.
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What is an ISBN? Why do I need one?
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a number that uniquely identifies a book. As it suggests it is valid worldwide but must be obtained from the home country of the publisher. The ISBN is a 13-digit code (formerly 10 digits) comprising a publisher prefix (for a small publisher this is usually 11 of the 13 digits), 1 digit for the book starting at 0 for the publisher’s first title, and a check-digit. Please check with the UK ISBN Agency (see links at the bottom of this page) for the present costs for an initial allocation.
An ISBN is not essential if you are going to sell your book privately just to family and friends or to clients. But if you want bookshops – including Amazon – to be able to order your book then it must have an ISBN.
If you have a 10-book ISBN allocation and need to calculate the check digits then please feel free to use our ISBN check digit calculator.
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Printing Costs
Understandably one of the first questions of an author considering publishing for the first time is, ‘What will it cost to print my books?’ Unfortunately the answer is always, ‘It depends’. It depends on the size of the book, the number of pages, the quality and type of paper used, the number of copies printed, whether it is all black printing or full colour, the type of binding and several other factors besides.
To give a couple of examples to illustrate:
- 1,000 copies of a book in full colour, 64pp, Royal (234x156mm): £1,800
- print-on-demand black only text, full colour cover, 200pp, Royal: set-up £70 + per copy £2.80
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Enhancing your listing at amazon.co.uk
As the UK’s largest online book retailer you cannot afford to ignore Amazon. For details on enhancing your listing visit www.amazon.co.uk/publishers where you’ll find Amazon’s publisher guide, author guide and catalogue guide. You can also update title details at www.amazon.co.uk/add-content-books.
You might also wish to consider joining Amazon’s Advantage programme – see www.amazon.co.uk/advantage. It means giving Amazon a 60% commission/discount and not getting paid until after the books have been sold, but it can have some advantages.
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Copyright libraries
Whether or not your book has an ISBN you are required by law to send a copy of your book to the British Library (free of charge) and if requested a further five copies for the other copyright libraries. The address for the British Library is:
Legal Deposit OfficeThe British Library
Boston Spa, Wetherby
North Yorkshire LS23 7BY
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