This Is It, My Final Blog On Self-Publishing

I started this blog as a self-publisher. There's no doubt about that. I didn't know what I didn't know.

As I write this final blog entry I can definitely say I'm not a self-publisher anymore, I'm an Independent Publisher.

People in the traditional book industry would dispute that because that's how they are. But I'm about to put my fourth book into bookstores. The largest book wholesaler in the world - Ingram - will sell these books to its customers.

The traditional book people could say that I'm the author or co-author of all four books. That's true. But in several book stores in the Northwest - including B & N and Borders - my books sit in the shelves right next to books from the big publishing houses.

I won't sell as many books, obviously. I won't be in business as long. But the independent publishers are slowly changing the publishing business. Depending on whose stats you believe, small independent publishers combined sell more books now than the traditional publishers.

The traditional book publishing business is breaking down. Improved technology will eventually force them to change or quit the business. The independent book publishers will only get stronger.

But the main message of my blog has been there's both a thin line and a large canyon between self-publishing and reaching the independent publishing stage. To jump that canyon to independent publisher many self-publishers need to get their act together.

Here's a checklist.

Do you take short cuts to save money in the production of your book?
Are you under capitalized?
Do you routinely reject criticism of your work?
Do you assume the market is there for your book?
Do you think you know everything you need to know to publish books successfully?
Do you believe your book is so good it's going to make you a lot of money?

If you say yes to any of these you're going to have a problem and I recommend you reconsider your options. Otherwise, good luck in your endeavors.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

Change Of Plans On Printing Book

Last time we chatted I was resigned to having our new children's picture book printed in China.

Never mind. The book designer put out a few bid requests and I'm taking one that came from that hot bed of U.S. printing - Minnesota. For 2,000 books they came in at about $500 more than China which was close enough for me to pull the trigger.

For that $500 I expect to get much, much better communication, a significantly quicker turnaround and no shipping/container ship issues. On the surface, that's well worth $500. Of course, who knows how it will all turn out.

I am also hoping that the experience gained in already publishing two children's books and a novel will make the process on this book go much smoother. Dream on. Anyway, the biggest hope of all is that the book will be the best book we've done because of everything else we've gone through.

A lot has been learned.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

I Had Hoped To Avoid Overseas Printing This Time

I printed our first two children's books in Korea. The end result was good. Excellent production values. But I didn't like the experience. Communication was sometimes difficult even though I worked with an in-country printing broker.

Still, I'd do it again if I had to.

But I didn't want to. Good communication makes life so much easier. It's worth a lot.

However, it's not worth $1,ooo per thousand books. We got several quotes from U.S. printers and unfortunately there's just too much disparity in cost. I'm sure the quality is fine but in the thin-margin children's book business that's just too much. So, we'll just put our helmets on and go with an overseas printer again. This time probably Hong Kong.

Many people in the small independent book business will say just go with digital printing. That way you don't have to print a lot of books. Everybody is doing it so save yourself some money in case you don't sell many books, etc.

Wise advice if only it were true. Talking to the wrong guy. Been there, done that. I swear I hear that quite often on the publishing lists. Maybe if you were galloping by on a horse and someone uncovered a digital book for a second and then covered it back up, you could think the quality is the same.

Not yet folks. Just not true. People want to save money so they do it. Maybe it's OK for a how-to book but it's the kiss of death if you're doing a children's picture book.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

The Three Most Important Things About Designing A Book - Cover, Cover, Cover

We've been working on the cover of the new book for what seems like weeks.

This will be my fourth book cover and each time it gets harder because I increasingly realize how crucial a successful cover is. I get nervous.

My angst boiled over in an email to the book designer. This is what she sent me to calm me down:

There are two levels on which to evaluate any cover design, objective and subjective. In the objective area, you need an eye-catching graphic and a title that can be easily read in small sizes online. The font should be appropriate and the type should be set skillfully. You have a great illustration, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Subjective considerations are an ever-moving target that cannot be hit, so there’s no such thing as a “perfect” cover. But I can’t imagine anyone not liking your illustrations (what kid doesn’t love a giraffe?), and that’s going to be the main draw. No matter what type font is chosen, some people will like it and others won’t. You’ve probably seen the covers that people “like” on the Yahoo forum. It makes me want to jump off a building. We’ll show you some options. :)

Did her message make sense. Yup. Did it make me feel less nervous. Nope.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Hopefully What I've Learned So Far Will Make A Difference On This New Children's Book

We're just starting production on our third children's picture book - "Song for a Giraffe.'' I think the culmination of putting together two previous children's books and releasing a novel should be a better book from end to end. Maybe we'll have our act together now.

The first two books have been pretty good. But there have been minor issues. With this one there shouldn't be any newbie mistakes. The whole package should turn out to easily be the best book all the way around.

Anyway I hope so.

The illustrations are excellent. We're having a professional format the book. We're taking extra care with the cover. Looking hard at a lot of the little things. The story is strong.

This will be our best shot. We also now have a track record with some people. How good it turns out will probably determine if we do any more.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

More Reasons Why Beginners Shouldn't Publish Books

As you know I'm on the record as saying, do your own book publishing if you're doing it for fun or a family project. Or just because you want do.

Don't do it because you're taking yourself seriously or you think you're a great writer or because you want to make money. Why? Because failure is waiting for you - with a big club - just around the corner.

There are a few highly qualified book pros that sometimes comment on the various publishing lists. A lot of beginners haunt these lists thinking they're the next big deal. I've got to know one of these experts via email. She's worked for a couple publishing houses and now is a consultant.

She swatted down some newbies on a list the other day. And I must admit these particular realities escaped me also when I was a newbie.

One of the reasons we beginners use to justify self-publishing is we know for sure if we make a book and get it out on the market there's no way a publishing house won't see it and buy it from us.

Here's what the expert says. You must sell 10,000 books minimum to get the interest of a publisher (I for one can tell you how hard it is to sell 500 books). And then only if the book has a gigantic market. Her summation: self-publishing probably hurts you more than helps you with a publisher.

Self-publishers are forever trying to cut financial corners so that they can get the book on the market. They're under-capitalized. They do something cheaply when they needed to do it professionally. A sure fire disaster waiting to happen.

Here's what the expert says. It costs $20,000 to launch the average (bookstore-ready) trade book (paperback). If you don't spend the money you're done before you started.

Good luck everyone.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Today's Very Annoying Development In My Little Book Publishing World

Last time I talked about showing our children's Book - "Birthday Snow'' - to book buyers in place like Barnes & Noble and Borders Express in the recent mini-book tour. And the good news was they liked it.

Unfortunately, I just got the bad news. The publicist was doing followup calls regarding the book tour and asked the buyers about "Birthday Snow.'' They said they'd buy it except it's listed in their data base as "Non-refundable.''

That's just not fair. In the book store business returns are an ugly reality. A lot of stores send books back that don't sell and the wholesaler subtracts that from any profits there might be. If a book store can't get rid of it if it doesn't sell they can't afford to buy it. That's the law in chain store book land and most everywhere else. A buyer or manager could get fired for it. So standard operating procedure in the book trade is all books going out from wholesalers are returnable no questions asked.

So why is "Birthday Snow" book listed as "Non-refundable.'' I don't have a clue. Partners/West, a wholesaler that handles our books, says it isn't them. They said it looks like it's a chain store corporate decision problem. They don't have a clue, either.

I emailed a distributor that handles our books. They sell to Ingram. Which is a very important channel for us. They haven't got back to me. So a chain bookstore wants to buy our children's picture book but they can't. Great.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

While On The Novel Book Tour I Tried To Get Feedback On Our Children's Books

One of our many crazy hopes about the new novel was it would be popular enough to get bookstore people to look at the children's books we had with us on tour stashed away in the computer case.

Turned out it was pretty easy to get bookstore people to critique them. In some places it was impossible because they were too busy just running the store or the people really weren't the right folks to bother with. And that Harry Potter thing was going on (By the way the Harry Potter press run for just the U.S. was 12 million printed. And that Grants Pass store I talked about earlier had a Harry Potter party that crammed 500 people into their little space.).

One of our books, "Birthday Snow,'' got consistently good reviews and three book buyers said they would give it a try. It's easier now because stores can buy "Birthday Snow'' from Ingram which I didn't realize was such a big thing. You say that to a book buyer and it's instant credibility.

Of course you make about a penny on the book going through Ingram but that's show business.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

What Worked, What Didn't, Part II

I often think of the world like this: Dentist visits are never as bad as I imagine they will be and little, no-problem procedures by surgeons are always way worse.

I don't know what that means exactly but here's how it relates to my recent book tour. I had lots of positive media (relatively speaking) and as a newbie I thought that meant a a lot of people would show up at the book signings. Of course that didn't happen.

We sent postcards to places like Barnes and Noble and Borders with a note saying we were doing X media in that area. Did it as an afterthought and assumed it would get lost in the mail. Wrong. From those postcards chain stores got the books in bookstores without hardly any prompting. Who knew.

One other thing. I did four In-Studio interviews (three TV and one radio). Each time the interviewer clutched a three-page question and answers sheet we sent prior to the interview. They worked off it at each break. One was even willing to say "on a Monday morning it's great you did our job for us.''

This is a must do.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

There Are Mixed Feelings About Book Signings

The Waldenbooks store manager said corporate really prefers that he not have book signings at his store. And as a unknown author I can tell you I'd rather not do them because I know there aren't going to be lines going out the door waiting for me to sign books.

So who likes them. Publicists like them. Any publicity is good publicity to them. They don't have to sit at the table trying to look inconspicuous (thank God for wireless networks). The marketing people at bookstores like them because they're on the same side of the fence as the publicists.

The bookstore manager wanted me to do a signing of the Crater Lake book because in the dead of summer he'll do anything to create some interest. I don't think that's a compliment.

I think some beginning authors get excited about doing a book signing because it makes them feel like - finally - someone is going to pay attention. But really book signings are all about getting a store manager to see your book, like the book and put it in his store for sale. Everything else is not as important. So by combining media and signings I got books into bookstores. Ultimately, that's all i can hope for. Then it's up to the book to make it happen.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

What I Learned On My First Book Tour

Actually I learned several things.

But the most staggering was just how big the Harry Potter book is. All the bookstore staffs were in a constant state of flux preparing for the release. (I was glad I got my books in the stores beforehand as maybe more people will see it now.)

Here's the scale of it. Grants Pass, Oregon, is a small town situated on I-5 above Medford. They have one bookstore - a nice independent place in a strip mall. They've PRESOLD 400 Harry Potter books. They expect to sell a thousand. With Fred Meyer and others in town the book store owner estimated that 4,000 books will be sold in the area - right away. In Grants Pass, Oregon.

It's the biggest thing to ever hit bookstores - Everywhere.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

Ok I Take That Back About Roseburg

Hello there.

Today I'm at The Book Barn in Bend. This place has grown quite a bit since last time I was here. And the "Beautiful'' people are here, too. It's the first place I got to see my book in the window of a Barnes and Noble as well as an independent book story. A small victory.

Ok I was whining about Roseburg the other day.

But just before I signed the remaining books and headed for I-5 a mom and her three kids stopped at the table. The mom pointed to her 14-year-old daughter and said she was trying to be a writer.

That was nice. Don't meet many 14-year-old writers. She told me the problems she was having with her writing. And I got to give her a pep talk and some tricks of the trade. And that it's always going to be hard but if she can get to the end of a play or book or whatever that she'd feel much better about it. Mom was happy.

I was happy.

And Roseburg no longer seemed to be a mistake on the book tour.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

Sitting At A Card Table In Roseburg, Oregon

My sister was saying how exciting it was to have a brother on a book tour.

Well she wasn't sitting here with me at a card table in a little mall in Roseburg, Oregon. Thankfully my spouse, Gail, is with me. And even more thankfully my laptop is able to hook into a local wireless network. Whew.

Suppose to be here for THREE HOURS. I don't mind Roseburg. I really like Southern Oregon. All the trees and rivers and stuff.

But it's agonizing to be on display and no one stopping by to talk about the book. I assumed this was how it would be. Dead of summer. Spread-out ranching and lumber towns. Who exactly is the target market?

This is why authors and book store owners don't like book signings. Unless it's a famous author, well, you know what I'm getting at.

Publicists and marketing managers like book signings. They don't have to sit at the card table and any bit of publicity is good to them.

I do have to grudgingly admit that the real value is the media coverage. Getting the book mentioned in the newspapers and radio, etc. Unfortunately, the book signings come with that. And I like meeting the book store folks. They all like books so much. That's refreshing. But, MAN, it's a serious price to pay.

While I was waiting to go to the signing I stopped at a used book store. I was asking the owner about his book business and he told me the best advice he got about the business. "Don't get emotionally attached to the books. It's a business.''

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

ps. Somebody just stopped by to talk about the book. Alas, they were elderly and the price point was too high for them.

When Something Shows Up In Print It's Always A Surprise To Someone

See my notes below this story that appeared in the Bend Bulletin last week - ML

Book an ode to Crater Lake
By Jim Witty / The Bulletin
Published: June 27. 2007 5:00AM PST

There’s something nefarious going on behind the scenes at Crater Lake National Park.
That’s the gist of Michael LaLumiere’s new novel, “Why is Crater Lake so Blue?” is scheduled for release Sunday.

It’s a novel, but author LaLumiere writes what he knows; he served as a summer maintenance worker at Crater Lake National Park for four years during the 1970s.

“Blue” features Sam Hunter, a student and seasonal worker under Park Service employ. By midsummer, Crater Lake is forced to close to visitors — the first time a national park has ever closed — because of an antiquated sewer system. Greed and secrecy come into play as managers hide and pass the buck.

It’s a complex story, but also an ode to Crater Lake.

“At about 5:30 the sun broke through and shot beams of light down onto the blue lake,” LaLumiere writes. “Crater Lake is seriously blue. I sat on the rock wall, wondering if I’d ever seen such a rich blue in nature. Shasta Lake, across the border in California, had some blue, but mostly it had the emerald green tint that all mountain lakes seem to have. I thought snowmelt caused that color, but Crater Lake obviously got its water from snowmelt. I could see green at the edges of an island close to the side of the lake where I sat. In the middle of the island was a volcanic cone. So the incredible blue must have to do with the extreme depth of the lake.”

LaLumiere is a graduate of the University of Oregon and was a newspaper editor for nearly 20 years. He’s now retired and lives in Arizona with his wife, Gail.

This is the second story that's appeared about the new novel "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?''
Some interesting things of note for all you self-publishers out there.

First of all, the story ran before any of the local stores had books. When the store manager at the local Barnes & Noble was asked today if he had sold any of the books he said, "No, not very many.'' The reason, he just got them in. People had been asking for them after the story ran but he didn't have them. GREAT!! Trying to get the book released, advertising in, newspapers writing about it, wholesaler distributing the book - ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It's very painful to actually get most of it done correctly except for the most important part - the customer can't buy the damn book.

Right this minute at Powells.com and Amazon.com the book is listed with the book cover photo. It looks great. Can you buy the book? NO! They both had a few, sold them, then it was back ordered. And what makes it worse is the websites don't say that. They make stuff up. Amazon says you can order the book and it takes 4 to 6 weeks to be delivered. BS!!! They'll have books Friday. Nobody knows why their computer insists on putting up that message when they're out of books but damn it!!! And Powells just leaves you an error message saying the book can't be found in their data base despite the listing on their website. They have 10 backordered with Ingram. More Great!!!

How about the excerpt they chose to run. My wife looked at me and said, "Why on Earth did they pick that passage with all the other descriptions that are much better?'' Well the answer is easy. They must have wanted me to look bad.

Turns out that excerpt is taken from the first edition ARC. There is a fact error in there where the origin of the Lake's water came from. A Park Service guy - very early on - corrected me and told me that very little of the lake's water comes from snow melt, blah, blah, etc. So I changed it as I wanted my descriptions to be accurate. So what excerpt did they run. Great!

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

OK, Here's Something I Would Have Never Expected

Hey there. So today is the day my novel - Why Is Crater Lake So Blue? - is officially released, although that really doesn't mean anything in this weird, small-publishing world.

Amazon has been selling copies and I know a couple bookstores in the Northwest have put some copies out. There's even one copy in the Burnside store of Powell's Books - the biggest independent book store in the world - in Portland, Oregon.

Wholesalers are really in charge (a loose term) of how your book is distributed - or not - to the resellers. For example, if you check out Border's website right now you'd find my book in the database but it wouldn't include the cover photo and would be calling it a paperback rather than what it is - a hardback. At B&N, no photo, wrong ISBN number, no description. At Powells, no image. That's so sad to an expectant author but in the long run it's just exasperation rather than a huge problem. I think.

And at Amazon this morning they say the book hasn't been released yet despite the fact that they sold books last week. What it means is they ran out of books and they don't know where to get new ones.

All this is due to something happening on the other side of the country. The NY wholesaler who distributes the book to the giant wholesaler - Ingram - doesn't have the final paperwork settled on. Thus all this database stuff is in disarray. At least that's what I think is happening.

I won't know for sure until I start calling people Monday morning. Sheesh. And then the book tour starts Saturday in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Can't wait to find out what will go wrong there.

So you want to write books?

Michael LaLumiere
http://www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com/

Being In The Book Business Cuts Down On Your Writing Time

The countdown stands at six days to the release of the "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?'' novel, although I think Amazon is selling the book now. And about 13 days to the start of the mini-book tour.

I was trying to remember the last time I'd written anything. After being amazed I could spit out 85,000 words in a relatively short time I now haven't written anything in quite a while. I find myself interested again in starting the process of a another novel. But I don't find it SO interesting that I'll do it without some confirmation from critics or the marketplace that it would be a meaningful endeavor.

I'm not into writing "for myself.'' The thing that interests me about writing a novel is writing it well enough for it to be considered credible, professional work that could appear in a bookstore. Anything short of that and I'm not much interested.

However, having said that I think a recent post on this blog is what writing should be about. The author said he was quite happy that his children's book was loved at his school. I think that's a success. If you can write and make the people around you happy that seems to be well worth the effort to me.

But back to my original point. it's very difficult to be in the book business and be a writer, too.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

The Countdown Begins - How Many Books To Take

Twelve days to the theoretical book release - "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?''

The first order of books shipped to the wholesalers Friday from way up in Minnesota. Wholesalers and distributors are loathe to list books for their customers unless they have the books on the premises. Thus I'm a little late with giving stores time to buy the book for my regional book tour the second week of July. You have to be so far ahead in this business just to be on time.

A ten-day book tour in Southern Oregon. Yikes! Let's skip the fact that I've never done a book tour or a book signing or actually been in public much, just the logistics are daunting. What kind of clothes do i need to pack. What sort of attire will be required for a TV interview spot in Bend, Oregon?

And how many books do i lug around with me for promotional purposes. My publicist says 6 to 8. But then I'm hoping to show our children's picture books to store managers when I'm up there. Will they even be interested? They'll probably just want to see if the Crater Lake book sells first.

I don't even want to think of the book signing nightmare scenario where nobody shows up. OMG.

If you'd pre-order a copy of the book on Amazon I might feel a little better. How about it?

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

But What About The Children's Books, Michael?

My goal in beginning this experiment was to publish children's books. Well I had to learn how to create a book first which took some time. But when I finally got the children's books printed I realized there was a giant hole in my strategy.

How in the heck do you market children's books?

Unfortunately, marketing children's books is a pound-the-pavement, reading-to-kids-in-school and stopping-at-stores-one-at-a-time sort of business. That's way down the list of my things I do best. And the ugly truth was I didn't want to do those things. And my partner wouldn't do them either.

Oops.

That's when I came up with the Crater Lake strategy. If I could make "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?'' a successful novel then it would be much easier to do some piggy-back type marketing of the children's books.

That's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it.

The good news is I've found marketing this novel much more in my skill set than the children's books. This strategy better work because we're finishing up the third children's book and it's good. but I need to get it into the marketplace to give it a chance.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

Getting Listed On Amazon.com

I mentioned to someone yesterday that they could pre-order the new novel at Amazon.com.

It made me think of way-back-when, (three years ago or so) when as a newbie I thought how big a deal it was to be listed there for a self-publisher. Turned out anyone could list a book on Amazon - all you had to do was open an Advantage account with them. They take 55 percent off the top and make you pay to ship to them. They're happy for you to try and sell a book on their site.

One of the big mistakes all beginning authors and self-publishers make is not understanding that the saying "If you build it they will come'' is absolutely untrue when it comes to most businesses.

In the music business performers are starting to successfully sell cd's on the Internet. I think that will continue to grow until the music business as it was, say, 10 years ago, will be totally dead.

That won't happen for books.

The marketing machine for celebrity and entertainment, etc., is 24-hour non-stop in magazines, the Internet, TV, whatever. All that marketing drives the customers right to the music specific websites. Those sites get the customers to buy there or sends them on to the performer's website to buy a download. Music performers are figuring out that they're giving the music companies a lot of money that they could keep if they just paid attention.

There is no such thing with books. As you all know the buzz for books in on a down trend.

And what that means is you're biggest task will be marketing. And it will have to be excellent marketing or your books will get awfully lonely there on Amazon.com.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

OK What Newbie Mistake Did I Make Today?

Believe me there is always some newbie mistake I'm agonizing over. Fortunately some aren't very big but add them up altogether and, well, it's agonizing.

So I get the proof of the new book in the mail from the printer. The printer happens to be in Minnesota. (Did you know Minnesota was a hot bed for printing companies? Who knew!) Anyway, I couldn't bear to be the only one looking at it so the book designer/formatter graciously looked at it, too. She says hardly anything can go wrong with a book these days because everyone uses a PDF format which doesn't break. "OK, but could you look at it?''

Anyway, despite my wanting to rewrite every chapter, we gave it the OK and I sent a signed piece of paper back to the printer. Well, turns out the printer needs all the pages back, too. Apparently they use the text they sent me as a guide in the printing shop. That takes a couple extra days which isn't much except every day counts in getting the book from the printer, to the fulfillment people, to the wholesaler, to the bookstores. And now I've cost us crucial time over a newbie mistake. And everything adds up.

Oh well. Another newbie mistake I'm becoming more aware of is that I under priced the children's books that we did last year. At the time I established the price of the book I didn't know much about distributors and wholesales and the enormous percentage they take. Thus the profit margin - if you can call it that - on those books is negligible.

Damn.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

The Good News and The Bad News

So I have a wholesaler handling the new novel - Partners/West based in Renton, WA. They liked the idea of my book because they're regional and are always looking for Northwest-related titles.

When you start talking or mailing to bookstores they'll want to know what wholesaler is handling your book. They don't want to hear that you're selling it direct. They can't handle that. They don't want to buy from every author that walks in the door. They want to buy from one place - no fuss, no muss. Who can blame them. I wouldn't want to go grocery shopping at 57 different grocery stores.

So it was a big hurdle to get over when Partners/West signed us up. They are well known in the Northwest and our initial target market is the Northwest so life is good.

But the big problem was the giant in the bookstore wholesale market is Ingram. They had turned the book down through a program with a publishing association. They didn't think it would sell enough for them. They didn't think it would make their minimum of $20,000 in sales for them. So see ya.

That was bad news because some book stores will only buy from Ingram. Plus they have the reach across the country where Partners/West doesn't. It was a big hole in our opportunity and a very good consultant I work with said you have to get in the Ingram database or you can't reach your stated goal.

For the record my goal is to get into the mainstream book marketplace and hold my own in the literary fiction category.

Turns out there are a couple niche distributors that have special deals with Ingram. They basically sell the small independent publisher created books to Ingram through their contract. So by signing up with this niche company I can get into the Ingram database.

The niche company accepted the book. That's the good news. The bad news is they charge heavily for getting you IN. If you don't know, the standard deal you get from a wholesaler/distributor is called a 55 percent discount. That means right off the top of the retail price of your book they take 55 percent. Now turns out these niche companies get to tack on another chuck of percentage.

Yikes. Not such a good deal. But big picture, it's the only way to reach the stated goal above.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

All That Doesn't Add Up To Success

I recently blogged about the success we had getting newspaper reviewers to take a look at our new novel "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?''

I should have also said that by no way do I think we now have it in the bag. Having reviewers ask for the book only means you checked off another needed step to have a chance at success. That's the tough thing about this publishing process. If you fail in any one of the many, many steps - book design, proof reading, publicity, pre pub reviews, etc. - it can all end up as one big fat zero. That's why there is so little success with novels.

At least with non-fiction you should have a very targeted market and that alone should give you a chance.

Today's worry. Will the books get to the wholesaler in time? It never stops.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

It's Crunch Time For The Book Release

With Memorial Day gone the countdown starts for the release of our new novel, "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?'' The target date is July 1st.

I've received the first two orders for the book - one from a wholesaler and one from a speciality account.

The newspapers have the review copies. The publicist is approaching the radio shows. The final proofs are being OK'd.

A very nervous time because we've put a lot of money into this project.

As you go through the process you try to anticipate what will happen at each step of the way. Like, will you be able to get the newspaper book reviewers to take a look. The rule for small publishers and self-publishers is no, that's not likely to happen.

So the publicist and I have been surprised to get 17 requests for the ARC (advanced reader copy) from newspapers in the Northwest. Never thought that would happen. Neither did anyone else. I think the problem for most self-publishers is that they don't have a smart plan and they're unwilling or unable to spend the money required to get the respect of the reviewers.

My part time publicist did the approach to the reviewers. We provided professional press releases, story ideas and book package. Not one reviewer said a thing about being a self-publisher or small publisher.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

Just Because You're Self-Publishing Doesn't Mean You Have To Act Like An Amateur

I belong to some lists that have to do with self-publishing issues. Self-publishing started out on the fringe and it's easy to tell a fair number of its practitioners are still out there.

At my advanced age I'm sometimes surprised but hardly ever shocked. I was shocked today when I read that many self-publishers believe it is just fine to misrepresent themselves in press releases to the media in hopes of pulling a fast one and getting a book reviewed. The idea is that if an editor knows that the author is sending in the press release about his or her own book the editor won't take them seriously. So they make up a name and pretend they're someone else handling the publicity.

Oh My God.

The argument is they're just trying to get publicity any way they can and the publishing world is already against them so all is fair ....

The self-publishing world is never going to get the respect it needs if people act like silly amateurs. If you can't put together a book that will sell being dishonest is not going to help.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

Getting Good Critiques Early Saves A Lot Of Time Later

Before you get about a half-mile down this self-publishing road you should stop and get about a hundred quality critiques of what you've done so far. Believe me, it can only help.

Just because you were once a kid doesn't mean you can write a really good kid's book.

Ha, ha, ha, Mike. No really. It irks me just a tiny bit that people who have written maybe 5000 words in their life think writing is so easy that they can just whip out a best-seller because, well, they're special. I've been writing for 30 years - mostly professionally - and I get pounded on every time I try to write something seriously. I completed the novel that's being released in July about six months ago. People are still going over it finding stupid things I wrote.

The only way you can speed up the experience process is to find people who will give you quality critiques. A bad critique is worse than not getting one at all. Why? Because, "Oh you're such a good writer, you should write a book,'' is going to set you back years. Mom can only buy so many books. And then you won't believe the person who says, "You Stink!''

If you've read this blog you know a book publicist recently told me I stink (I ran her comments verbatim). And maybe I do. But if I do, you (person who's only written 5000 words in your life) do, too. So find out if you have any chance at all and hire a professional to give you an appraisal. It will save a lot of time.

The publicist told me that because I was obviously a beginning I would just laugh off her critique (I didn't even though she was clearly having a bad day). But she's right, that's what beginners do. They laugh off the criticism and bask in the, "Oh you're such a good writer, you....

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Don't Get In The Way Of Harry Potter

My publicist was talking to a Border's Express store manager in Klamath Falls, Oregon, recently. She was working on setting up a book signing for our new book.

The store manager was anxious to pick a date but he told her not to waste time trying to do anything the second half of July. Why? Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Even in Klamath Falls, Oregon, Harry Potter is king of the book stores. Don't get in the way of that marketing tornado.

A lot of self-publishers point to J.K. Rowling when dreaming about how they could write the next genius book or set of characters that captivate a large chunk of the world. I think I've read in self-publishing blogs and lists that she was turned down by everybody in the publishing world, etc., etc.

Well, that's not quite true. The second agent she approached took her on. She had a book deal a year later. Certainly it wasn't easy for her but she wrote the first book relatively fast and got a book deal faster than almost all first-time fiction writers. Why? Because she did something brilliant.

She came out of no where and changed the world. Unfortunately, the rules say only one person a generation can do that. Or there abouts. Or you have to make a deal with the devil.

I think if your goal is to be the next J.K. Rowling or you're going to do Harry Potter for adults or some other crazy thing like that you're already lost your chance. I think genius work can only come from what a person truly believes in. Almost none of us are going to create anything approaching Harry Potter but we can all write what we truly believe in. That should be the goal.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

The Novel Project Is Interesting But Doing A Children's Picture Book Is Fun

I must admit it felt rewarding to have a book distributor take on my new novel that's going to be released in July. But it's a lot more fun to see Ginger's illustrations bring to life our next children's picture book (co-author Kim Messinger).

Stagger Lee Books has published two children's books. But we did that more to test the market as anything else. With this new book I think we'll have a body of picture book work that we can start promoting. The new book is called "A Song For A Giraffe'' and I think it's our best story.

I'll post more illustrations as we go along. I'm hoping to release the book in October - which is way too late for the selling season but it's probably the best we can do.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Where Have You Been?

Hi there.

By now the small group of people that use to read this blog have probably given up. Well, I was moving from California to Arizona and that takes a little time and effort. Sorry.

Here's an update. The work on the next children's book - "A Song for a Giraffe'' - is progressing. Ginger the artist has been doing a terrific job. I'm going to try and convince her to let me post one of her recent illustrations in this blog. I'm really looking forward to publishing the book.

The novel "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?'' is progressing. We got a fair number of good results in the first round of pre pub reviews. You can see them at the website. The next round of reviews will hopefully come from the "Official'' pre pub review organizations like Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal. They don't review many but can be very important to the success of a book if you can manage to get one. The final round of reviews come from the media. We'll be mailing those early next month. We should have some success there.

No matter what anyone says you have to have reviews as part of your arsenal if you're going to get book sellers to sell the book. We've done OK there so far. The next step is getting a wholesaler/distributor. This is important because book sellers won't buy from small publishers unless they absolutely have to. They buy books from a wholesaler or a distributor.

I applied to Ingram. They are a giant wholesaler and would have given the book a lot of credibility. They turned it down because they saw the book as being regional and thus not doing the sales they're accustomed to. That was sad.

However, Partners West out of Renton, WA, has agreed to take on the book. They wholesale on the West Coast. That was quite a relief. Now I can concentrate on marketing.

More later.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Surprising How Little Self-Publishers Know About Distributors/Wholesalers

I read a lot of self-publishing lists and the thing wanna be authors/publishers are always asking is what's the big deal about getting a distributor for my book?

They read about how much of the pie the distributors and wholesalers want for handling a book and they say no way i'm paying anybody that.

Well that's fine if you're a hobbiest, or only going to sell your book from your website, or going after a very specific niche. If the book isn't professionally done and hasn't got any pre pub reviews/marketing it won't matter anyway because the distributors/wholesalers won't handle the book anyway.

If your crazy plan (like mine) is to get in all the bookstores, well, you have no choice. The only way you can do that is by having a distributor. You might be able to get away with just having a wholesaler but I doubt it.

The chain book stores only buy from distributors for the most part. The independent bookstores prefer to buy all their books from one source thus a distributor or wholesaler.

A wholesaler is a place where a store goes to order books. A distributor sells to the book store directly, a significant difference. When all is said and done, though, you're going to end up giving these folks half or a little more than half the price of the book.

Welcome to publishing.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Darn It! Not Everyone Agrees With Me See Below

Hello there:

We've been sending out inquiries to authors/others about writing a review of my new book "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?'' So far several have agreed.

But I made a "professional'' mad doing that. Then she read the blog and got really mad. Then she read the first chapter and was outraged. Anyway her post below is to show the added burden we have in self-publishing.

For a more thoughtful review of the book go here: http://www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com/reviews.htm

Dear Michael,

Your publicist contacted many of our clients requesting an endorsement of your forthcoming novel. I suspect she didn't notice that most of their email addresses were the same, mine, so several came directly to me. Others were forwarded by the author as that is standard procedure. I screen the endorsement requests. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know directly that this blanket emailing isn't really a very good way to get endorsements from successful authors. It doesn't involve carefully screening which authors might be a good match for your book, and most endorsements are given because of some personal connection between authors. Contrary to your blog comments regarding endorsements it is not vitally necessary to get author endorsements, It is, however, paramount that one gets good, and relevant endorsements from known authors. To have glowing endorsements from other self published authors that booksellers, wholesalers, and media have never heard of doesn't do much good in an age when anyone can get published. Also, your blog mentioned the odds of getting published in the traditional model is 10,000 to 1. I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on that one also. Along with having a book marketing company I also act as a manuscript scout for a number of good agents. There may be several reasons why some really good books don't get picked up, usually having something to do with cross-genre placement that makes marketing the book challenging, but I've found that if a book is truly good, it will find a home with a traditional publisher 90% of the time. I've referred 11 manuscripts to agents, 10 were picked up by the agents, and 9 of those have been bought by publishers paying $25,000 to more than $100,000 in advance. By far the fast majority of fiction that can't be placed with a publisher is because it isn't good enough. However, most authors have a hard time accepting that their work isn't publishable (I do manuscript development and judge literary contests as well), and most authors only get feedback on their work from people they know in some way or another, and few people are willing to say, "This just isn't good enough".

Though we seldom work with self-published books and I rarely consider them for endorsements, I'm always open to taking a look because I know there can always be the gem hiding with the stones. I did agree to take a look at your book to see if it was something I felt one of our authors would want to read and possibly endorse. I'm afraid I found it lacking in quality, style, editing and structure. Therefore, I will not be forwarding it to our clients for an endorsement. Of course, this is only my professional opinion and I'm completely used to such emails being angrily delete. I imagine if it was a hard copy you would be assertively balling it up and looking to score with a toss to your waste basket.

I am taking the time to write to you for several reasons: I love words and stories and books, which is why I started Terra Communications. I have great empathy for writers and appreciate your passion and struggles, and I'm from Chiloquin, the gateway to Crater Lake and I was in high school there in 1975, the year the Park was closed. Obviously I felt a kinship to you and your book so I have taken the time to read and comment on it. Also, I am naturally protective of my home turf and take a particular interest in how writers portray it.

Your book certainly has some potential and if you can get the CLN Park folks to sell it at the gift shop you will probably sell some copies. But when writing so closely about a true situation and real places it is imperative that the facts be accurate since many of the people who read it will be from Oregon or visitors to the Park, therefore familiar with the area. Aside from the lackluster tone of the book there are 5 factual inaccuracies in the first chapter alone. If you want to have Hwy. 97 going west, something it doesn't ever do, then use a fictional highway number as well as fictional direction. If you want to mention that the landscape consists of four types, one being Doug firs, then don't call them pines throughout the rest of the chapter. And so on. This immediately creates a distrust in the reader who might be familiar with the place and if ones fiction isn't believable, it generally isn't very readable.

I hope you will accept my input in the kind spirit that it is intended. I wish you good luck with your novel.

Best,

Dawn G. StuartTerra Communications, Inc.1306 NE 8th St. Bend, OR 97701541-318-6288

Why Ideas Are More Important Than Press Releases

My novel - which is set for July release - is set in Crater Lake National Park.

More than 500,000 people visit Crater Lake each year. That's the start of an idea that might interest a reviewer or media editor. Sending a press release saying your book is coming out will score negative points with both those types of people and possibly shut their door to you forever.

I resisted people telling me to use a two word title like "The Lake.'' Crater Lake needed to be in the title to peak interest. We're trying to get readers, people. Subtlety for the sake of it is silly.

Did I write the book with the Crater Lake marketing angle in mind. Absolutely not. But when you're done writing you need to assess all your potential weapons. It also helped that the plot was set against a backdrop of real events. That's another potential angle.

Editors need an angle or story idea to look at your book. And it has to be a GOOD idea or you're done. Then, of course, the book needs to be good to be successful. But without people willing to look at it there's no chance to be successful.

Using a couple of our story angles, we sent out an email pitch to 75 potential book reviewers/authors in the Northwest to look at the book . We got 14 to do a review. That's a very high number. It has nothing to do with the quality of the book and everything do about interesting angles.

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com

I Got Lucky But That Was Part Of The Plan

So as I've said my first two books - written with Kim Messinger - were children's picture books.

To market a self-published picture book there's only one way - hit the street. School visits. Library visits. Local book store visits. I put the chances of making money on a book this way at about 2000-1. And that's if you have a professionally done book.

Now if your goal is just to get books sold as a sign that you've done a professional job and it's the journey that appeals to you that's another matter. I put your chances of selling more than 150 books at about 100-1. But of course that could go up or down depending on the size of your extended family (your best potential market).

Let's stack that up against the traditional route - selling a manuscript to a publisher that will actually pay you money. If it's good - in the current publishing marketplace - I put the chances of that happening at about 10,000-1.

I didn't have time for the traditional route. I wasn't going to hit the streets for various reasons so making money was out. I have hit on the 100-1 chance but don't find that very fulfilling at this point. But I got lucky. I have a Plan D that most don't have available to them.

I'm publishing a novel that I think will get enough traction to serve as a marketing device for the children's books.

Wow Mike, you call that a plan? There's nothing harder in the book business then to sell a self-published debut novelist.

I didn't say it was a good plan.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

To Get Pre Pub Reviewers You'll Have To Beg

So I had a features editor at a newspaper ask a book author if he'd do a pre pub review for my new Crater Lake novel: Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?

Here's what I got back from my friend.

"And, trying to put it as nicely as he could, he also told me that he'd probably only review another book if it was a reciprocal deal with a prominent author."

That's the problem in a nut shell. This author is not a best-selling author by any means. He went the self-publishing route and has gotten a couple other low visibility books published. But most often it's going to come down to what's in it for me. He probably gets a whole lot of dubious requests so who could blame him. But he should have at least looked in case he saw potential help for himself down the road. You meet the same people going down as you did going up.

If you're writing a non-fiction book this process is decidedly easier. If you have a useful, well-designed book that fits a niche that is. Say it's something about real estate. There are millions of people in the real estate business that wouldn't mind being asked. Folks in selling businesses see something like this as a business opportunity.

Fiction authors often don't, which is Okay.

Children's books are easier, too, because, well, it seems that everyone is a children's book writer. In general it's a friendlier more helpful group. But published authors are generally not going to help no matter what niche they are in. There are a lot of people in the gray area in children's book so that's where the help might come from.

This is where you have to start thinking about story angles. Is there something about who you are or what you've done that might interest someone.

More later.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Who Knew How Important Pre Pub Reviews Are?

I didn't.

Of all the issues I was concerned about starting down this path, pre publication book reviews were no where on my radar screen.

Pre publication reviews are not those book reviews you see in the newspapers and magazines. Pre pubs are those reviews that go in your selling material and on the back cover of your advance reader copy (ARCs) when you're making that last stretch drive to promote your book before it's released.

Who are you trying to impress before the release? Independent book store buyers, wholesalers, distributors, potential book reviewers. The people that determine whether your book will have any chance at all in the marketplace.

But don't forget. If you haven't written a great book, had it professionally designed, professionally edited, an excellent cover design, well, the pre pubs won't matter because it's already doomed.

As the small publishing market has grown up a lot of consultants are out there in all categories. To me the strangest category is the book review for pay group. You pay to have someone review your book. Please don't do that.

When I was an editor if someone had tried to promote a book to me that had paid for reviews I'd have toss that thing across the newsroom. Fortunately, now that I've gone to the other side I can be more benevolent. But still you don't want to do it no matter how desperate you are to sell your book.

More on this later.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Don't Depend Too Much On Press Releases

I was reading a group/list about how to time press releases when publicizing your new book. A lot of people seem to know what the best day is to send a press release to a newspaper to get instant attention.

I read these discussions with some wonderment. I was a newspaper editor for a good-sized daily newspaper for many years and a features editor for several of those years.

The preoccupation with which day to send the press release is a little overwrought. I can tell you without a doubt that unless it's some sort of breaking news angle it makes absolutely no difference what day it gets sent in.

I would guess that most self-publishing press releases are going to be feature section oriented. Or maybe non-breaking business or the like. My opinion is that most press releases take the same route and that's to the trash can.

Fewer and fewer daily newspapers have full-time book reviewers. Sometimes it's a features staffer that is interested in the subject matter. Feature writers/non-beat reporters will keep a file folder of press releases that peaked their interest and periodically look through them for story angles. A lot of these are book related because of the angle.

The writers are interested in the subject rather than the book. Now book appearances are different. There's always a calendar editor who will put the book signing in a calendar.

But you're best chance for a response is to write a compelling one page cover letter that introduces quality story angles along with your ARC/Galley. Everything else is wasting money.

A high percentage of press release writers really don't get what interests a reporter/writer.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Self-Publishing Has Gotten A Little Crazy

So I'm self-publishing this novel called "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue.'' By all accounts - and I do mean ALL - this is the silliest thing a self-publisher can do. Never going to work, they say. But it's too late to be a negative Nellie now.

Actually, the book could be printed next week and sold but that would assure certain failure. The only chance it has is if an army of book publicists spend the next four to six months creating buzz so stores will order it and then hopefully people will buy it when it's released in July. Four to six months sure seemed like a long time when I started this project. But I see now that every day will be required to try to find ways for one more person to hear about the upcoming release.

There are Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) to print and send out. There are authors to track down and beg to do prepublication book reviews...

By the way at this moment that is the biggest factor in whether this novel will be successful or not. Doesn't matter if it's a great story or if the cover design is beautiful. If there aren't any positive reviews on the back cover of the next group of ARCs a wholesaler might not carry the book, independent books stores that depend on books selling won't buy it, and the top reviewers won't take it seriously. End of story.

You can't even afford to really think of all the other marketing things that need to be done in month 3 and 4 if you don't have those prepub reviews. This is an odd business.

Oh, that army of publicists is actually one free-lance PR person, me and maybe one other. A little bit of pressure wouldn't you say.

In the midst of all this angst a nice thing happened last week. I received the rough sketch copy version of a children's picture book that my writing partner and I wrote. Ginger Nielsen is the artist. She spent a lot of time on the research and it really shows. While there's work to be done with our little giraffe book getting to see those illustrations in rough book form made up for all the annoying self-publishing things that happened that week.

Michael LaLumiere

Self-Publishing Reading Assignment No. 2

Okay, have you finished the reading that was assigned earlier this week? Good.

Now here is a list of some definitive books on self-publishing.

The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 4th Edition
Tom & Marilyn Ross
ISBN: 9781582970912
Self-publishing Checklist on pages 439-443

Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual
Dan Poynter
ISBN: 9781568601342
Self-publishing Checklist on pages 412-416

The Publishing Game: Publish a book in 30 Days
Fern Reiss
ISBN: 978-1893290853
Step-by-step with timeline

Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers
Pete Masterson, Aeonix Publishing Group
ISBN 0-9669819-0-1

Jump Start Your Book Sales
Marilyn Ross, Communication Creativity
ISBN 0-918880-41-6

Okay, there you go. Get back to me when you're done.

Michael LaLumiere
www.staggerleebooks.com

Places You Can Go To Get Some Basics

Okay here's a reading assignment for anyone who is thinking about publishing a book.

You must completely understand ISBNs. You can find almost everything you need to know right here. http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbnqa.asp#Q11

Pete Masterson has links to everything about self-publishing at his website. http://www.aeonix.com/

If you wondered just how many small publishers there are out there visit the Independent Book Publishers Association. http://www.pma-online.org/

Learn about the No. 1 book event in the U.S. - Book Expo America. http://www.bookexpoamerica.com

Start thinking about how you're going to sell your book way before you ever print it. Find hard core info about that process here. http://www.midpointtradebooks.com/faqs.aspx

It will be overwhelming. But if you don't do your homework it's hard to pass the course.

Michael LaLumiere

Your Time Versus Your Money Is An Interesting Equation

You've heard it from me before. Don't try to publish a high-end book without having a lot of money to spend on the project. Trying to publish using short cuts spells d-o-o-m.

I've also said that all the self-publishing answers are on the Internet courtesy of your buddy Mr. Google.

But I'm willing to admit that reading about something on the Internet isn't the same as being in pre-production on the biggest gamble of your publishing life. Naturally you may feel isolated and although you've been working on it for years you're still a newbie and you could do something stupid that might harm the project.

I recommend working with a self-publishing consultant. Here's an example of why.

I'm working on the final pre-production tasks for a novel I've written. I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed for the copyright page. I've done them for children's picture books but this was different and I didn't want to make a mistake. I could look at other novels and see what they did. But you don't always know what you don't know.

So I sent a copy of what I had to a consultant I work with. Later that day he reviewed and fixed what I had. That probably saved me a couple days of angst about whether I did it right or not.

Here's another example. You always want to list your book in Bowker's Books In Print because it's a data base that's respected and people can find out about your book there. But for a newbie the questions asked during the process are very difficult.

It's important that you have the right book info listed in this important data base but if you're not a hard core book merchant it will make you want to throw your computer out the window. Fortunately Pete the consultant is helping me get the right answers into my file. That's saving me days and heartburn.

So what do you have to pay these people? First of all there are more of them every day as the self-publishing business grows way faster than the standard publishing business. But expect to pay anywhere from $125 to $300 an hour.

I've found that certain people are helpful in very specific areas but few have everything you need. I've also found people who really shouldn't be consultants.

Bottomline: I believe two days of my time is worth a lot of money. So paying a consultant for me is a bargain. There's just too much at stake to screw around.

Michael LaLumiere

It's Dangerous To Learn As You Go

I admit it, when it comes to self-publishing, I only spend time learning those things I need to know right now. Time is always tight and I hate to spend it on research that I don't have use for within the next day or so.

For an old guy like me I use the excuse that for every new thing I let in my brain, something else has to come out. And I have no control over what comes out so I have to be careful.

But really I'm just lazy.

Unfortunately that bad habit can kill your project before you ever get a chance to sell a book.

Say you went through the process of printing a book. And you didn't buy the most basic of all book things - an ISBN number. The project is dead on arrival. No one will ever be able to buy your book except from you personally. What if you bought the ISBN number from the wrong place. The project is dead on arrival. Same reason. Everyone who sells books uses ISBN numbers.

Did you purchase a library code and put it on your publisher page? No. You just lost a gigantic market. Without that code a library can't buy the book.

Remember when we talked about cover design? Did you end up having a friend design the cover to save money? Dead on arrival. Neither a book wholesaler or distributor will take on a book that doesn't have a professional looking cover. That means no bookstores can buy the books.

Have you written out a marketing plan that talks about how many books will be sold and who will buy them? No? Neither a book wholesaler or distributor will take on a book that doesn't have a good marketing plan. That means no bookstores can buy the books.

All the information you need to stay ahead of the learning curve is easily found on the Internet. But you can't afford to be lazy because bad things will happen.

Michael LaLumiere

More Talk About Book Covers

Last time I mentioned a little problem about Team Princess Caitlin's choice of a book cover. Since then the other members of the team haven't emailed me once. It's tough at the top, even in the self-publishing world.

But if you're going to take this self-publishing business seriously the cover is such an important issue. So I wanted to dedicate a few more words to it.

Here's the link to a cover that was recently designed for a novel I wrote. http://staggerleebooks.com/CLComp17lores.pdf

That cover was No. 17 in the process which really isn't that many for a novel. It's not like a children's picture book because in that case you likely already have the cover illustration somewhere inside the book. With a novel you're starting with AIR.

After I OK'd the cover I sent it to a self-publishing list/group to critique. The designer cringed because she knew a lot of weird stuff was about to be said. While most of the feedback was positive there was a few jokers complaining about the typeface, the type placement, the lake was too blue, there wasn't any contrast, the image was out of focus, the title was too sad, whatever.

I really do take all critiques seriously. You have to in any business because it shouldn't be about your ego it has to be about the best possible outcome.

But I rate this cover as nearly perfect for this particular novel. I'm even willing to say I've never seen a better cover for a self-published novel. People who know me just gasped. I never say stuff like that.

My rating is based on reaching the No. 1 goal - getting people to pick up the damn book. That's the only goal there is for a book cover. They don't have to buy it. That's the job of the story description on the sleeve, a lot of marketing, a very well-written story, a hundred other things. The book cover simply needs to get the potential buyer to pick it up. And you know what? The buyer doesn't care about typefaces or leading or a lot of other things. Are they interested enough to pick up the book is all that matters.

In this case the photograph does at least 75 percent of the job. It's a stunning, moody image that thousands of people in the Northwest will relate to. I licensed the image from a well-known landscape photographer. The book designer wanted me to buy a much less expensive image of the lake because she felt she could manipulate any image to whatever we needed and then I wouldn't have to pay the big dough for this particular photo.

I looked at a thousand images of Crater Lake. She was wrong. We needed a photo just like this one for this particular book. I think the difference in cost was $350. She was just trying to help me out. But if I had done that I would have made the same mistake I made on the Caitlin book.

I believe that choice will end up being critical to marketing this book.

The headline works too. It's provocative and many people will stop and wonder what that's about. I relieve confusion by having "A Novel" right there so they know. More than one person tried to talk me into a two-word title - that's a trend today. Some people believe that a question headline is a cheap device. Sometimes it obviously is but not in this case. When you learn more about the story it fits perfectly on a couple different levels. The only better marketing device would have been "Written by Nora Roberts'' or someone like that. (Now that would have been a cheap trick as she didn't write it.)

So I think this cover is going to work. I might be proven wrong.

But I believe the moral of the story is if you don't think something is just right for YOUR book you absolutely have to try something else.

Michael LaLumiere

It's So Easy To Make A Bad Cover Decision

Let's talk about book covers for a moment.

I'm thinking a lot about covers right now because I'm going through that process on a novel I've written. So many of the tasks are different when doing a novel but one thing remains the same. The most important page of most books is THE COVER. At least if you're interested in marketing or selling more than one or two copies a year.

Ginger the artist and my crazy co-writer persuaded me to use the current cover on our "Princess Caitlin's Tiara'' (See below) picture book. It was a bad decision on my part. I was responsible and I made a bad decision. Not because I thought it was the greatest cover ever but because I was just giving my friends the benefit of the doubt. Remember this rule: NEVER BE NICE WHEN IT COMES TO CHOOSING YOUR COVER. The goal of writing the book is to have people buy it.

So what's really important is how enticing that cover is when it's sitting on a bookshelf or being represented online by a small cover image.

Now, both Ginger and Kim read this blog so they will be annoyed with me but what I say is the truth. The image is nice but they both got emotionally involved with it. Ginger is a fantastic artist. She's working on another one of our books now. But almost every illustration in the Princess book would have had more impact on the cover than the one we chose.

Darn it.

They still don't agree with me but it's a burden I must carry. If you check out the other book -"Birthday Snow'' - that's the effect a cover should have.

When we do the next printing of the Princess Book it will have a different cover. More people will read it because of that. Again, THAT'S WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT.

Not only that I broke a rule I mentioned earlier. If you have a feeling something is wrong change it.

Michael LaLumiere

Once You Commit To A Press Run Everything Is Serious Business

So, we're looking overseas for an offset printer to do our children's book.

During this whole process the best helper I've had is Google. It almost never fails me. No matter how specific a question I have or how broad an issue I need training on, I type the words in and I instantly have good leads in finding help.

This is because the self-publishing business is getting so big. There are many highly-qualified experts out there with websites that list many helpful articles and tips. There are also list groups. The best one I've found is self-publishing@yahoogroups.com. I wish I'd found it a year ago. Do these searches and you won't have to learn everything the hard way.

Through these websites and groups you can get an already screened list of potential print vendors.

When using an overseas printer you'll either contact a broker here in the U.S. or deal directly with a rep from the company. Dealing direct saves you money. A broker saves you gray hairs. But as you might suspect you'll pay more for that help. You'll pay nearly 2/3rds more if you use a U.S. printer.

Downsides for printing overseas are the potential communication and shipping problems. Plus it takes two to three months from the time you hand over the file until the time you get books on your driveway.

Like many other industries, China is taking over the offset printing business. I had my first two books done in South Korea.

Something you may not be thinking about is formatting. In a children's picture book an experienced illustrator can do most of the formatting. But artists aren't book formatters. That's not their expertise. In my case I've had good luck because the artists I worked with were patient and could handle most file issues. But if that printer doesn't get a problem-free file they're going to charge you. Because of the sketchy communication you really don't know if you caused the problem or they did. Either way you're going to pay for it.

I suggest you take the file from your artist and have a professional print formatter do the work. They'll also probably find some content errors because of your inexperience. That's a good thing. But again it's expensive. If you can't pay for professional services don't publish a high-quality book.

One of the things that constantly comes up on the self-publishing blogs is self-publishers asking for advice on how to do things themselves and for shortcuts.

We've been over this right? The book will absolutely fail if you're under capitalized. Don't do it. If you do a job a professional should be doing it just won't work. I know.

Michael LaLumiere

Okay It's Time To Get Serious, What Do You Do First?

I guess I couldn't convince you to rethink your idea about publishing books.

But first, again, i'd like to say I think everyone should publish a book. I do believe the world would be a better place if everyone wrote a book. I just don't want people thinking they can make money at it except in very, very specific cases.

The first place to start is www.bowker.com. Read everything on this site. This is the starting place for making your book official. You buy ISBNs here. This is the number that identifies your book for everyone in the book industry. As I mentioned earlier I made the mistake of buying an ISBN from a POD publisher. Don't do it.

You have to buy ISBN numbers in blocks of 10 or 100. Remember that each version of a book - paperback, hard cover, etc., - requires its own ISBN number. That's why the numbers are sold in blocks.

You need an ISBN before you print your book. It's like the book's social security number. It's always printed on the book.

There's a lot of discussion on the Internet regarding the relative quality between offset printing and digital printing. Digital printing is the future. Its quality is getting better almost every day. Its magic is one book at a time can be printed.

But the following is still the final word on this discussion today. If you're doing a full color children's book, test it with a digital press, but when you're ready to do the press run have it done on an offset press. There's not a single picture book at your local Barnes and Noble that's printed on anything but offset.

If money is a factor then you'll have to use a press that's outside the United States. Your homework assignment is to go to http://www.aeonix.com/ . Pete Masterson has a list of printers there that will give you an idea of who is doing what.

Michael LaLumiere

It's Still Not Too Late To Stop The Craziness

Just because I decided to go all in doesn't mean you should.

If you've done your book the right way and hired a professionally good illustrator you've spent a few thousand dollars at least up to this point. Not to mention all the time and anxiety you've put yourself and others through.

I read a column the other day that was so true about Americans in general. It was in reference to George Bush. The gist was that most people can't seem to make the decision to cut their losses even if there's no reasonable chance of success. Pride takes over and bad decisions become horrible decisions.

The idea that you can't stop now because of all the money and time you've put in is faulty logic if the chances for success are bleak.

You still have to pay someone to format the book, print the book, ship the book and if it hasn't been executed at a top professional level nothing you do can make it successful. Much more money will have to be spent just to sell a book.

So if you want to get 1,500 children's books printed for some other reason that to get your money back then go ahead. But the old saying don't throw good money after bad is very true.

Smart, successful business people can make that tough decision but generally people like us who are caught up in the allure of being in the book business can't.

Michael LaLumiere

"Birthday Snow'' Attempt No. 2

So my first printing - I mean test - didn't go so well.

I had a soft cover color picture book with only average color that I would have to sell for $14.95. That was never going to happen. Even my mother said, "Nice dear, but too bad it doesn't have a hard cover, it would look more professional.''

Fine.

Fortunately - I thought - LuLu started doing hard covers. I charged ahead. Better result. But it still wasn't Book Store quality. The worst thing though was it cost $21 per book to produce through LuLu. Picture books range from $14 to $17 retail. That was a non-starter.

That forced me to finally look at printing the book myself. Book printers insist you order a minimum of 1,000 to 1,500 books. The reason is it's hardly worth it to them to start up the press to only do that few. U.S. printers were too expensive. Overseas you could get it done for $2.50 to $3 a book at a 1,500 minimum press run.

Decision time. Was this book good enough for that kind of investment? Would I be stuck with a lot of books? Did I care that I would lose money? Why was I really doing this? Was I just a legend in my own mind?

I went in the tank. In no-limit hold 'em poker that's what you do when somebody goes all in and you have to decide what the hell you're going to do. You sit there trying to think of all the probabilities and either decide to throw all your money in or just fold and wait for some other hand.

I went all in.

Michael LaLumiere

My Early Book Production Errors

I've just received a pallet of shiny new "Birthday Snow'' books that I wrote with writing partner Kim Messinger.

The books look great. You can see the cover at the bottom of this blog.

It reminds me of all the production problems I had with the first attempt at printing this book. That was when I was publishing books at LuLu. LuLu is a POD company and they served me well for non-color books but I knew that I was in for headaches when it came to trying a full-color picture book. Of course I can now see that it was an excellent testing experience but to be totally honest back then I was a brand new newbie so I knew success was just around the corner. I didn't need no stinkin testing.

Back then LuLu couldn't do hard covers on books with 32 pages. I charged ahead anyway. End papers weren't possible. End papers are the inside front cover and inside back cover. A children's book needs to have some artwork there not a totally white, blank page. For some reason I left in another blank page before the first page of the book. Then I screwed up the copyright page.

That's not all. On a couple pages the color hid the text. In preproduction I had the feeling that was going to happen. LIFE LESSON: WHENEVER YOU THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG IN PRODUCTION, 95 PERCENT OF THE TIME IT IS WRONG. (This does not apply to crazy people like my co-writer.)

Just change it and move on.

Oh and the big one. I had a big fat typo right in the middle of the book. It took two more production runs to fix it. A picture book is only 32 pages and has very little text. A professional cannot let a typo through like I did. Several of us read it but as the publisher I'm responsible.

It wasn't a misspelled word, it was a word than had an ing on it when it shouldn't have. Can't let that happen. Don't ever think spellchecker is going to save you.

The good news is if you sell your manuscript to a publisher you don't have to worry about the production, art, artists, etc. The publisher does that. If you're going to self-publish it's all on you baby. My eighteen years of production/publishing experience didn't look so formidable after that first try at a book.

Michael LaLumiere

Update On Self-Publishing Projects

As I write this, a pallet of my "Birthday Snow'' books is in a truck somewhere between Los Angeles and Phoenix. The books had been in a container on a huge ship crossing the Pacific. I'll have them available for sale next week.

The next children's picture book, "A Song For A Giraffe'' is sitting on Ginger Nielson's drawing table being illustrated. It's going to look great. Perhaps in a couple weeks we can post an example of what it's going to look like.

Then there's the novel - "Why is Crater Lake So Blue.'' A designer is working on the cover. A copy editor is working on the text. I'm suppose to be figuring out the marketing plan.

I haven't done any marketing for the children's books. More than a 100 of the first picture book - "Princess Caitlin's Tiara'' - have been sold. Just by placing them in a couple independent book stores and using them for fundraising with a couple non-profit organizations. But no serious effort really.

I can't imagine anything harder than marketing a self-published children's picture book. I don't do school visits, etc. However, I think I can take a good swing at marketing the novel. And use that success - hopefully - as a platform for introducing the children's book. We'll see. Everybody out there in marketing is shaking their head no.

We'll see.

Until then my young niece Morgan is my VP of sales and she's doing just fine.

Michael LaLumiere

I've Got The Illustrations, I Have The Words, Now What

A lot of beginning self-publishers think the Holy Grail is getting their book on Amazon.

Nope. Just another sad bus station on the selling-your-own-book highway. Almost anybody with an ISBN number can get listed on Amazon with a picture of their very own book cover. Amazon has several ways a self-publisher can do this. But the bottom line is if your target market doesn't know it's there, well, you'll be one of about a million people selling one book a month.

That gets me back to my first publishing attempt. As a newbie I was intrigued by LuLu.com's marketing pitch. Low upfront fees and they have a website where they will sell your book for you. Now there are a thousand print-on-demand (POD) shops and they almost all offer that service.

But it's the same deal as Amazon. If you don't have a very specific niche where you can tell all your built-in customers where to buy, you have a significant problem. Nobody is going to these websites to casually buy a book. So please don't think that will happen. The only way you sell books is by a strong, well-financed marketing plan. Honest. Or if you have that built-in market.

If your doing a full-color children's book the correct reason to use a company like LuLu is for testing. PODs are good places to do many kinds of books but not a full-color children's book. Not yet. The quality isn't there and neither is the price. But it is a cheap way to find out what you did wrong.

But don't make the mistake that I did.

I needed an ISBN number. And at that time I wasn't clear on all the nuances surrounding ISBN numbers. LuLu offered to sell me one so I wouldn't have to figure it out on my own. So I bought one. And the smart guy that I am, I didn't read the fine print.

Turns out LuLu was selling me the number but I didn't own it. I could only use that ISBN number if LuLu was selling the book. They absolutely did not make that clear to me and it really pissed me off because I didn't realize it until I went to publish that book on my own. Caused me problems. That was intentionally disingenious.

There's a lot of that going around in the self-publishing world. That's why you need to fully understand important steps like getting ISBN numbers.

Michael LaLumiere

I'm A Beginner On Something New Almost Every Day

In my last blog I gave beginners a hard time.

But the fact is as I journey through this self-publishing world I become a beginner on some new facet of the business almost every day. Unless your self-publishing for fun or as a hobby it really should be a last resort option for making something a business.

I read a blog the other day from an author who had a 300 book pre-order on his new children's book. That's amazing success. But he was still willing to say that if he knew how much work it would be he wouldn't have done it.

End of today's sermon.

So I needed an illustrator for our first book. In a past life I had hired artists and worked with them for years. So I knew the terrain. The problem was if you're going to have any chance as a self-publisher the product has be as good as the best books at Borders. And in children's picture books the art is obviously pretty darn important.

The Internet made the search a tiny bit easier. I was able to see 3,000 plus portfolios online at various illustrator websites. Out of those 3,000 I wrote down about 10 names.

You have to remember that an artist working for a mid-size publishing house is going to get at least $5,000 for doing a picture book. Those folks have agents. You can't contact them. I wasn't paying that much anyway so there was no way. I contacted a few artists on my list that looked like they were still accepting projects. No I don't work with self-publishers. No I don't work with authors, only editors. No I don't work for that much. If you want a few illustrations I could do that but not a complete picture book. No I'm booked up because I'm so darn good. No, how did you get my email?

So what about those other 2,900 artists? I didn't see my main character in any of those portfolios. There was plenty of skill being demonstrated but as a graphics editor I'm after a look, a tone, a style. Or overwhelming talent. I didn't see it. There is such a big gap between good and professionally good. A lot of struggling artists don't get that. Writers are the same way. But if I don't find a professionally good artist my book is doomed before it's ever published.

For the first time in my adult career I was unable to fill a postion.

In desperation I put an ad in the SCWBI forums saying what I needed and how much I was paying. I really didn't want to do that because it was going to attract other people who were desperate. I was shocked and relieved at how few inquiries I received. A lot of people must have been to that rodeo already and been bucked off the horse.

Luckily for me Angela Ursillo sent me an email. Angela had never done a children's picture book. She was working as a production artist at a film company and wanted to try something else. I saw my main character - Daniel - in her portfolio. She did a professionally good job.

Unfortunately, I was a beginner at being a graphics editor of a children's book. More later.

Michael LaLumiere

Artists and Writers Working Together Oh My!

So which is harder to work with an artist or a writer?

First I want to say that the two artists who have illustrated my books have worked out very well. I'd work with them again. In fact, one is illustrating a book of mine right now. Whew, that was close.

Actually I should clarify anyway. It's merely DIFFICULT to work with artists and writers. As a long-time editor I occupied the ground between the two and it was always tense. But what's really AWFUL is working with BEGINNING artists and writers. I wouldn't do it. Neither will artists with paying clients. This is business, people.

So let's get back to where we were in the last blog. All you're getting from publishers are rejection form letters. You don't want to spend the $10,000 plus it takes to produce your own professional picture book. And/or you don't know how. What can you do?

If you want to keep moving forward the next step should be a rough dummy of the book. That's what it sounds like - a full-sized paper version of the book using sketches for illustrations. Don't even try and get a professional artist to do this. So many writers go to artist websites asking if they'll do spec work. A professional looks at that email and says 50 percent of 0 royalties is 0. They get mad when you do that.

I'd contact college art programs. Neighborhood artists could do this. The goal is to have something that looks like a book so you can continue to test it. Read it to children. Have parents read it to children. When you have a book to work with it's easier to see what can be improved. The illustrations don't have to be great. It's what you can do to continue moving forward.

Next time I'll talk about how I found artists to do my books.

Michael LaLumiere