Newbie questions about self-pubbing.

Hello, good luck on your adventure.

Don't have too much direct advice to offer, but one person I find excellent for data, self pubbing experiences etc is David Gaughran

He seems to be on a break at the moment, but I suggest devouring his site. I've found some amazing articles that are very helpful. You won't find all your answers here, but I'm sure you will find some

Hope this helps, and good luck

Matthew (Turndog Millionaire)

My replies are in blue. Good luck!

Cliff Face said:

Okay, so I've tested the waters in this room before now, a few months back, and now I'm back.

I'm about 95% sure right now that self-publishing is the right move for my first book. I've had no success in finding existing publishers who want this book. I have maybe a couple leads I can still try, but by this point I'm beginning to realise that self-pubbing is probably the way to go.

So... I'll probably be loitering in this room for a while. Anyway, I had some questions that I couldn't readily find answers for.

1. I understand that KDP, Smashwords and Pubit are free to use. Do they charge a commission on sales though? I'm fine with that, but wanted to know.
Yes. They take a percentage. With KDP, if you price your e-book between $.99 cents and $2.98 or $10.00 or above, you will receive a 35% royalty. Titles priced between $2.99 and $9.99 have the option of a 70% royalty. IIRC Smashwords offers a 60% royalty. I do not remember the PubIt! royalty. You can check each of these sites individually for the exact percentages.
2. I understand that some places (Amazon I think) will sell your book at the lowest price it's available for anywhere on the Internet. (I read that last time I was in here, I think.) Ie. if you have a 1-day freebie giveaway on your blog, if Amazon knows about it, your book will be free on Amazon. Right?
Sometimes. This is at Amazon's discretion. I had a short story free for several weeks in hopes that Amazon would price-match. They never did. Before Select came into being, the price-matching was much more prevalent.
3. How do you work out what price to charge for your book? I'm pretty sure this is up to personal choice, but is there some way of knowing average sales for a first-time self-pubber, so that I can work out how much I should charge based on how much work went into the novel?
It is personal choice. Check out e-books in your genre and see what they are priced at. In general, my opinion is to price $2.99 or higher for a novel. Short stories: $.99 cents.
4. For that matter, is there an easy way of finding out average sales for a self-pubbed series? While the first book took a lot of effort, the second book has taken less (probably because I'm improving).
I have not seen any reliable sources for determining an average for sales.
5. I know an aspiring artist who draws manga when she's bored. She's starting to buy the proper ink pens for it, and last week expressed interest in trying to draw her own manga comic and getting it published. Now, if I wanted her to draw some cover art for me, how much is a fair amount to pay her? Is $50 too cheap? $100 too much? I have no idea. But I can't draw, and I've seen some of her pictures and they're really good, so if I do self-pub (95% sure) then I'd be a fool not to ask her if she wanted to do my cover for me.
This is subjective. In my opinion, $100 would be a minimum for an original cover image.
I think that's about all right now... I don't need help with formatting (yet - I'll cross that bridge when I come to it) and I'm not even going to think about promoting the book until I've started the formatting.

Thanks in advance, self-publishing gurus!

Sorry if I'm being presumptuous, but I have no idea where I'd find these answers if it weren't for you lot.

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My replies are in blue.

Cliff Face said:

Forgot to add 2 things.

1. I'm in Australia. Amazon's American, right? What does this mean for my taxes? (Yeah, I know, big question in a short sentence...) Will I need a US tax account thing?
There are other people who can help you with this one. My understanding is that you are mailed a paper check and there is a minimum ($100?) before they will issue a paper check. Then there is the issue of cashing/depositing the check, plus VAT tax. I live in the U.S. and don't know all the details. I'm sure someone else will come by and answer this question.
2. I didn't mention, but I'm thinking of self-e-pubbing only. I'm guessing someone was going to ask about that eventually, so there you go.
You were right. I was going to ask. If you are interested at some point, I recommend CreateSpace. It is free to set-up with the option of paying for a proof copy (I recommend this), which is less than $5 (plus shipping) and paying for expanded sales channels (this has worked well for me, but each person has to decide for themselves and their titles. The cost here is $25 per title).

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Cliff Face said:

Thanks merri.

There's a lot to take in with this stuff.

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There certainly is! After you've gone through the process a couple of times, it gets easier. Really.

I'm in the UK but as we both come from countries that have a tax treaty with the US, I expect it's much the same process for both!

Basically, you need to apply for an ITIN from the IRS, which I did by sending off a letter from Amazon saying 'Madame Guillotine sells books through us' plus my passport and a form to the US Embassy in London so you'll need to find out how to do that in Australia. They then sent my passport back and forwarded the forms on to the IRS, who then sent me my ITIN about three weeks later. After this, Amazon no longer withheld 40%? of my earnings and I got the whole amount.

I wasn't quick enough off the mark doing this so had to do a US tax return a couple of months ago to reclaim the money that had been withheld last year and then passed on to the IRS. This was pretty terrifying but I got a cheque with my refund about four weeks later so it was worth doing.

It all seems very scary and like a big old palaver but it's actually not all that bad and definitely worth doing! I'd start on the KDP pages as they have all the information about forms and whatnot on there!

Good luck with the book release!

Some things to add:

As you're Australian you probably won't be able to use Pubit. To do so you need an American credit card, tax info and address. You'll need to update B&N through Smashwords. There is also Apple and Kobo which allow uploads from the author but I know you need an ISBN of your own, at least for Apple, which you'd need to pay for first.

As you're Australian your only option is to receive a cheque in the mail. They'll send it 60 days after your account balance reaches $100. You need to remember that your total is less 30% so your account will need to be something like $145 before they'll pay out. You may be able to claim your tax back from the IRS by completing a process which I haven't yet bothered with, but you'll also need to pay tax in Australia (so keep detailed records) and fees to your bank etc.

This thread (although started by a UK author) might help on the tax thing.

Good morning, Cliff Face. There are quite a few self-published writers from around the globe who used Smashwords and Amazon. You might start with both the Kindle and Smashwords FAQs as these might have information for you regarding overseas payments. It is probably best to start with Smashwords since the owner distributes to most of the eBook retailers. Also, his Style Guide is more comprehensive than Amazon's. If you follow Mark Coker's guide, it will be much easier to format later for Amazon. Many of us list separately with Amazon's KDP and with Smashwords for Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, Apple, etc.

I know it must seem terribly overwhelming so just take it in small steps, initially, so that the process doesn't discourage you from the outset. Since you're Australian, you'll have a few more hoops than the rest of us but I know it can be done. Another good source for all kinds of articles is The Passive Voice. Since the owner of the site is an attorney, he may have some articles that will address some of your legal questions.

Cover art seems to run from $50 on up so only you and your friend can determine that. However, since she will be doing original art for you (and most likely having to format the file for you to use), you'll want to err on the side of generosity. Or, if she is just starting out herself and is willing to take a bit less upfront, you can give her credit when you list the book; both in the book itself (i.e., Cover art by---) as well as in the listing description. This way she may attract other authors for covers and you'll be helping each other out.

The questions you've asked lead me to believe you may be rushing things a bit and the possibility that you're on the young side. So these are a few things to think about.

1. Are you thinking about self-publishing just for fun/learning or is this a step into starting a career?

2. You mentioned that you were having no luck publishing your book through trade publishers. How many editors or agents did you submit it to? What did they say? Is there reason to believe from their responses that there's an audience for this book, but it's just not big enough for them to publish the book?

3. What's the tone of outside feedback on the book, from critique groups or beta readers--people who aren't friends or family?

You don't need to answer those here, just to yourself. Those are the really important questions that may have gone unasked, (or may not.)

If your answer to 1 is you're just out to learn and maybe sell a few books to friends and family the answers to the other questions don't matter so much but keep your expenses as close to zero as you can. Lots of people go into this and sell single digits of books, often at 99 cents. In that case you might be okay with your friend doing a Manga style cover, but I'd suggest offering a royalty split or something. Just let your friend know you have no idea how much you'll make, if anything, but you'll pay X% of each book sale until $x.xx is reached (if ever).

If instead, you want this to be the start of your writing "career" you need to consider #2 and #3 pretty seriously. You'll want as close to pro quality cover and editing as your budget allows and these things can be quite expensive if you don't have some sort of in. Going without them can impact your sales. Self-publishing a book that isn't of publishable quality can be a step backwards particularly if you've spent money on those things and further time and effort marketing it only to find out the book wasn't ready.

On the subject of Manga covers, I've seen a couple authors have trouble with them, the theory being that it pigeonholes your book as Manga, and many readers have zero interest in Manga or Manga-inspired fiction so they don't even look at the book. And readers who were interested in Manga in theory might look, but weren't interested in the non-Manga story even if it was well written. Who knows whether the theories were correct but sales were very low. One author in this position ended up scrapping that cover and starting over but I never noticed her report back about the results.

And lastly, assuming you answer those questions and are firm in your belief that self-pub is the next step, take your time. Start reading all the blogs and free books you can on the topic. Just concentrate on the process part--ignore the hype about how much money these people make. There's no rush in publishing--it's a multi-year game whichever way you go. Self-publishing isn't a shortcut. You've got a ton of stuff to learn and to do, and that comes at the expense of time spent writing. When you're still learning to write well, your effort is best spent there even if it means delayed gratification on the publishing side.

Turndog-Millionaire said:

one person I find excellent for data, self pubbing experiences etc is David Gaughran

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Much of the information Mr Gaughran provides in his book Let's Get Digital is flat-out incorrect, and the logic he employs is often flawed.

In the version I read, he didn't cite a single one of his sources so it's impossible to judge the validity of any of it.

About a year ago, his attention was drawn to some of that incorrect information in a discussion on AW. A couple of weeks ago I was asked about the book, so I looked at it again and he hadn't changed anything.

I'd tread very cautiously if I were considering any of the information he provides.

Cliff Face said:

Good to know, Old Hack.

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Mr. Gaughran's formatting is barely more than a text dump, and he's more often wrong than right.

Go look at the publishing FAQs about ebook production (James D Macdonald and the Smashwords guide are especially useful), and read merrihiatt's discussion of her experience.

Old Hack said:

I'd tread very cautiously if I were considering any of the information he provides.

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His material on the publishing environment at the beginning is suspect, a bit biased, and becoming quickly dated in some respects.

His information on process in the middle is worthwhile.

The essays by others that close out the book are mildly interesting but nothing special. You can get all the rah-rah you need from any number of blogs.

Since the PDF is free, that middle section is worth reading as an easily obtainable collection for someone just getting started (though it can all be found elsewhere too.)

J. Tanner said:

His material on the publishing environment at the beginning is suspect, a bit biased, and becoming quickly dated in some respects.

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A lot of it is flat-out wrong.

Cliff Face said:

I feel like such an asshat right now. I said I was 95% sure I was going to self-publish, but today I've been contemplating that other 5% by looking up potential publishers.

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Um, no. No no no NO. Only women are allowed to change their minds.

You have NOT wasted anyone's time. This is a forum for helping writers make these decisions. For every one like yourself who posts, there are many who just lurk but have similar concerns. The nice thing about this forum is that you'll receive information from writers who are trade published, self-published, or both. Some have had a great deal of success, some are just starting out. Don't hesitate to come back here if you have a question or, at the very least, PM someone for clarification on a point they have made.

If you are hesitant about a specific topic, you might also use the search function to pull up some of the older discussions. Don't take any advice at face-value, either, but approach it as you would any information - with a healthy dollop of salt. The more sources you use, the better chance you'll have of making the decision that is best for you. If you are teetering, why not submit to some agents/trade publishers while you are researching the self-publishing side of things. Remember, writing is not a sprint. It is a very long marathon and should be approached at a steady pace.