In fact, on my web site at Write and Publish Your Book, the two questions I’m asked the most are how to self-publish a book and how to do it on a shoestring budget. They also, coincidentally, want to know the BEST way to do this.

But for now, let’s focus on this question of the best and cheapest way to publish a book. In fact, these are two entirely separate questions. The first question is, “What is the best way to publish my book?” Then, the second question should be, “What is the cheapest way to publish my book?”

See, most people who ask me this question are really just new to the business. It’s a perfectly legitimate question, especially if you’ve slaved over writing your book for two or three months (again, the timeline for writing a quality book is the subject of another essay). So let’s take these two questions apart.

What is the best way to publish a book?

Write an outstanding, must-read book that is unique, provocative, controversial, a literary masterpiece, or is endorsed by someone like Oprah. No, really. That’s the best way to publish a book.

Take for example Joseph Finder, author of the best selling corporate espionage book, Paranoia. He’d had moderate success with his previous well-written CIA suspense novels, but didn’t hit it big until he inadvertently created an entirely new genre with Paranoia. In his words, “All I was doing was trying something new – a thriller with a fresh setting, a fresh cast of characters.”

Or, how about Nora Raleigh Baskin, popular author of middle-grade novels such as In the Company of Crazies (HarperCollins). She’d had a knee-high stack of rejection letters until she wrote the book she’d always wanted to write – not because she wanted to be published, but because she wanted to write this particular book. That one book, which she wrote from her heart, got her on the road to a successful writing career.

Many people have a great idea for a book, and many of these books are from their life experiences. They have no experience as a writer, but the strange thing is that they almost always ask first about publishing the book before it’s even written.

Even if they do ask how to self-publish a book, they’re still thinking in terms of publishing their best seller before they’ve even determined if there is a market for the book!

For example, remember the story about the guy who had to saw his own arm off with a dull knife in order to save his life? Aron Ralston didn’t just come up with the idea to write his book Between a Rock and a Hard Place. His story was popularized well before the book was ever written.

Contrast that with the woman who wants to write about her experiences with domestic violence. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual story. As much as I’d like to see an end to this horrible sickness, the story won’t necessarily sell books.

And selling books is what it comes down to. Will your book sell? That’s the ultimate question you need to answer if you want your book published. The question of the salability of your book applies whether you’re self-publishing or attempting to sell your book to a publisher. Either way, it’s got to sell or it just won’t go anywhere.

That said, let’s get back to the original question: What’s the best way to publish my book?

Self-Publish or Traditional Publisher?

There’s no easy answer to this question, and the answer you get will depend on who you ask. I think a lot of it depends on you, the genre of your book, your experience as a writer and in sales, and your intentions for the book.

Self-publishing is ideal for a business person who wants to use the book as part of his or her overall business strategy. It’s a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field (assuming the book is well-written and informative). The book can be “repurposed” into E-books, teleclasses (telephone conference-call classes), Webinars (seminars held on the phone and Internet), and eventually advanced courses sold for thousands of dollars. Thus, the book itself is printed at a loss and is generally given away to seminar attendees.

Self-publishing is also an option for novelists who really believe in their books, but because they’re new can’t find a publisher for the book. The key here is that you’ve at least tried to sell your book to a traditional publisher.

Self-publishing with an aim toward eventual publishing with a major publishing house will require a tremendous amount of energy and perseverance to market and sell your book. If you can show that the book sells, you’ll find a publisher. Just putting it on Amazon won’t do a thing. You absolutely must work at marketing your book.

There are many self-publishing options, ranging from “free” (Lulu) to several thousand dollars. Perhaps the worst option is to go with what’s called “Vanity” press. These are companies who will publish your book for two to ten thousand dollars, print 2500 or more copies, and do a minimal amount of marketing. You’re stuck with a garage full of books and an empty wallet. Beware those companies who want to print your book in bulk.

Lulu is the most popular, but has its own costs. Most of the books published on Lulu sell no more than 10 copies – total. The books are amateurish, with home-made covers that look like something the dog chewed. The book print quality is good, but the printing prices are steep. For a fee you can have an ISBN number assigned and the book listed on Amazon.

On the other hand, for just a little more money you can buy your own ISBN number and have your book printed at Lightning Source for far less money per book. You’ll make your investment back with less than 100 books printed.

Then, there’s everything in-between, including “Print on Demand” book publishers who will create the cover, edit your book, and format the interior of the book so that it looks professional. Some POD publishers simply publish your book as-is. You provide the cover and the interior formatting.

Just consider that you generally get what you pay for, although some POD publishers will charge you high fees for what loosely resembles a marketing plan. Make sure you compare the options closely.

Traditional Publishing

Expect rejection. Seriously, the vast majority of books submitted to both big and small traditional publishers (publishers who either pay you up front or don’t ask for any up-front money from you) are rejected. It’s a fact of life simply because they’re in it to make money. If they don’t think the book will sell, they’ll reject it.

The best way to ensure success is to write a beautiful, clever, provocative, inspiring, brilliant book. No, let me take that back. The best way to ensure success is to already be someone popular, well-known, famous, or influential. Think Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, or Paris Hilton (dread the thought).

If you’re writing a nonfiction book, it’s best to be someone important, have a track record in sales, or have excellent credentials. If you’re not any of these, then consider co-authoring your book with someone who fits the above criteria.

Also, for nonfiction or a memoir, do your marketing research beforehand. If you can go into your book proposal or query letter armed with documented proof that people are buying your type of book AND that yours has a interesting and unique twist on a highly relevant topic, then you’ll get their attention.

You’ll need to write an excellent proposal. I’ve charged thousands to write nonfiction book proposals (and I have a good track record of success). It takes time to write a compelling lead that draws them into the benefits of publishing your book, and following that with a comprehensive plan for marketing your book. For nonfiction, you should have two solid sample chapters written.

Then, if these same authors decide to self-publish, they’ll quickly get lost in the morass of print on demand publishers and the time and money sink hole of self-publishing. In fact, most authors would rather die than think about book marketing, or spend money on book design.

Facing your book marketing competition

In 2005, around 172,000 books were published with an ISBN number, according to Bowker, which compiles publishing statistics. An ISBN number will get you into Books in Print, and allows your book to be distributed to bookstores and online sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. According to some sources, nearly one quarter of these books were printed by Print on Demand (POD) companies.

I’d estimate that number to be much higher, as many small publishers are having their books printed by Lightning Source, which also provides printing for many of the larger POD companies.

Additionally, Lulu Press, who publishes over 1500 books per week, says that only about 5% of their books get an ISBN number. That’s another 80,000 or so books circulating in the market each year, although most of Lulu’s books are only sold through Lulu Press on their web site.

The definition of “Best Seller” has changed

It only takes 300 book sales to get on Lulu’s all-time top 100 bestsellers list. 300 books! For some people, that can be attained simply by selling books to their extended family. While AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris, and other big players in the POD market might print more books with ISBN numbers, their sales records aren’t much better.

Some sources estimate that the average book sells no more than 150 copies, and other sources put that number at below fifty copies. In many cases, authors end up losing money on their books, which is why Lulu Press is so popular. At Lulu, you can upload your book interior and cover (you do all the design work), and have a book on your doorstep within days – all for the “cost of printing” (which is highly inflated, by the way).

The services and prices of POD companies vary widely, which is why we’re in the final stages of creating a comprehensive guide on self-publishing. It can be a confusing morass of information and data, with many unsubstantiated claims. The truth shall be revealed.

Will you be one of the winners, or part of the majority?

Will your book be dead before it hits the streets? If you have any intention of selling more than 50 books, then you’ll have to invest time – and money – into the production and marketing of your book. Here are the basic steps you’ll have to consider:

1. Write a great book that’s got an audience.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to assume that people will read their book just because it’s “good.” People will read a book if it is either applicable to their lives (non-fiction), or if it really is a damned good book (fiction). Even then, you’ll have to market your book. “How to sell a book” or “How to market a book” are two of the top questions we get, and search engine analysis shows that these are frequent search terms. If you haven’t written your book with an audience in mind, then you’re down to three legs on your four-legged marketing stool.

2. Spend some money on book cover design and book editing.

The second leg of book marketing is the interior and exterior design of the book. People do judge a book by its cover, so if you’re not spending some money on getting an outstanding cover, you’re losing sales. Then, people will open the book and read the intro or first few pages. Is it well-written? Easy to read? Is the interior book design clean, consistent, and well-implemented. I’ve seen many POD books in which the margins were too small, the fonts poorly chosen, and the images fuzzy. Who’s going to buy a book like that?

There are many great book cover designers. Then for editing, contact Charity at Mighty Pen Editing for your editing needs. Don’t scrimp on the editing because you WILL make mistakes (trust me on this – there are probably a few in this article).

3. Choose a good quality publisher.

Lulu Press is great if you just want to print a few books for your friends, or create a low-cost galley to send to editors, agents, or distributors. You’ll often be asked to send a “galley” of your book, which is simply a printed copy of your book with a blank cover. Lulu Press is great for creating galleys at minimal cost.

As we’ll show you in our upcoming comprehensive guide to self-publishing, which POD company you choose depends on your intentions and desires. If you want to have your book professionally edited and the cover professionally designed by your publisher (instead of outsourcing to some unknown person), then companies like Cold Tree Press might be a good choice. Other companies offer a varied level of marketing packages. Personally, I’d rather stay away from having these publishers market my book, and instead go to a good book marketing expert or media specialist.

But, there are a few small publishers (like Cold Tree Press or Arbor Books) who have excellent book marketing packages, ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

You COULD run around in circles trying to get your book in every bookstore in town. You COULD write Oprah or the Today Show, and hope for a call-back. You COULD spend months crafting a book proposal and wait another six months for the exact right time to send it to the exact right editor at the exact right publishing house with the exact right level of interest to stand behind your book.

But those are lies (well, for most of us, most of the time, they are) and here are the TOP SIX LIES and how you can avoid believing them:

Lie #1: You NEED to get your book in bookstores.

No, you don’t. Visit your local bookstore-any bookstore-and you’ll see thousands (maybe millions) of books crammed, piled, stacked and displayed. Do you really think that simply adding your book to this haystack will catapult you to success?

Truth: The right bookstore at the right location selling the right kind of books to the right customers CAN catapult your book to success. What is the right bookstore? One that sells your kind of book, whether it be a Christian bookstore, a success store, a health store, etc. For my book, “101 Ways To Pray Better And Get Faster Results,” I am targeting Christian bookstores in my area, especially bookstores in churches. They will give me the greatest amount of exposure to the people who will actually be interested in my book. Who buys your kind of book? What is the best place to sell it? Maybe it is at a grocery store, a pet store, or at an airport.

Lie #2: You MUST get on Oprah.

Yes, it would be nice to get on Oprah. Certainly, it could not hurt your book sales. But most people with this goal ask themselves the wrong question: “How do I get on Oprah?” Getting on Oprah is not the point, albeit a good objective, though a long-shot for most authors. However, as a natural optimist, I must admit there’s no reason for you not to try!

Truth: The RIGHT question to ask yourself is: “How can I create a book that Oprah would want on her show?” Why is this a better, more powerful question? First of all, it is focused on Oprah’s needs, and she will only care about your book if it helps her and her show get more people watching and talking about (you guessed it) her. After all, you want people to read and talk about your book, don’t you? That’s why you’re reading this article. Start with the right question, and you will end up the right answers. So how do you create a book that will appeal to Oprah? Write one that appeals to her television audience, mostly women who are at home at the time of her show. You can get more detailed, of course, and you should. Case Example: the new book “He’s Just Not That Into You.” Oprah has had one of the co-authors of that book on her show twice since its release.

Lie #3: You MUST get a big advance from a big publishing company.

Again, good idea, but it doesn’t guarantee success anymore than carrying around a four-leaf clover ensures good luck. You need more than big bucks to get people to read your book. In fact, the only thing that a big advance gives you is the knowledge that the publishing company will try hard to make people buy your book. Yes, that’s a plus. Yes, you want that. But it takes more than that to squeeze into the ranks with Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Seth Godin (author of Purple Cow, among others).

Truth: What you really need is a good book, written well, formatted with the reader in mind, that entertains, informs, persuades and gets customers talking to each other. No easy job, I assure you. But it can be done. And is done. Here’s how you can do it, too:

*Gather up the most popular, talked-about books in the last five years (Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code, among others).

*Ask yourself, “What makes people talk about these books?”

*Copy the strategies, change/add/delete whatever you need to make your book more success-friendly.

Also, create something (a flyer, a business card, a bookmark, something) that your customers can pass on to each other. Or post up on a wall or keep in their purse or wallet. Make it good, funny, entertaining, informative, but make it something people actually want to keep (like a good article on book marketing =).

Lie #4: You MUST get radio or television interviews.

Like the other lies, this one seems true because all the big-name, big-book, big-salary authors do them. And I must admit that we, if possible, should do them. But, the lie is that you actually NEED them to boost your book sales. They might and they might not.

Truth: What you REALLY need is to get your book in the hands of people who are ready, willing and able to buy them. How do you accomplish this? First, sit down and write out a description of the people who are most likely to be interested enough in your book to fork over money for it. Second, figure out where these people congregate: online, conventions, magazines, etc. Where do these type of people go to find the type of information which is in your book? Be specific. Write it down. Third, and lastly, get your book in front of those people in those places.

(French National Assembly, 1789)

I. What is a Book?

UNESCO’s arbitrary and ungrounded definition of “book” is:

“”Non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers”.

But a book, above all else, is a medium. It encapsulates information (of one kind or another) and conveys it across time and space. Moreover, as opposed to common opinion, it is – and has always been – a rigidly formal affair. Even the latest “innovations” are nothing but ancient wine in sparkling new bottles.

Consider the scrolling protocol. Our eyes and brains are limited readers-decoders. There is only that much that the eye can encompass and the brain interpret. Hence the need to segment data into cognitively digestible chunks. There are two forms of scrolling – lateral and vertical. The papyrus, the broadsheet newspaper, and the computer screen are three examples of the vertical scroll – from top to bottom or vice versa. The e-book, the microfilm, the vellum, and the print book are instances of the lateral scroll – from left to right (or from right to left, in the Semitic languages).

In many respects, audio books are much more revolutionary than e-books. They do not employ visual symbols (all other types of books do), or a straightforward scrolling method. E-books, on the other hand, are a throwback to the days of the papyrus. The text cannot be opened at any point in a series of connected pages and the content is carried only on one side of the (electronic) “leaf”. Parchment, by comparison, was multi-paged, easily browseable, and printed on both sides of the leaf. It led to a revolution in publishing and to the print book. All these advances are now being reversed by the e-book. Luckily, the e-book retains one innovation of the parchment – the hypertext. Early Jewish and Christian texts (as well as Roman legal scholarship) was written on parchment (and later printed) and included numerous inter-textual links. The Talmud, for example, is made of a main text (the Mishna) which hyperlinks on the same page to numerous interpretations (exegesis) offered by scholars throughout generations of Jewish learning.

Another distinguishing feature of books is portability (or mobility). Books on papyrus, vellum, paper, or PDA – are all transportable. In other words, the replication of the book’s message is achieved by passing it along and no loss is incurred thereby (i.e., there is no physical metamorphosis of the message). The book is like a perpetuum mobile. It spreads its content virally by being circulated and is not diminished or altered by it. Physically, it is eroded, of course – but it can be copied faithfully. It is permanent.

Not so the e-book or the CD-ROM. Both are dependent on devices (readers or drives, respectively). Both are technology-specific and format-specific. Changes in technology – both in hardware and in software – are liable to render many e-books unreadable. And portability is hampered by battery life, lighting conditions, or the availability of appropriate infrastructure (e.g., of electricity).

II. The Constant Content Revolution

Every generation applies the same age-old principles to new “content-containers”. Every such transmutation yields a great surge in the creation of content and its dissemination. The incunabula (the first printed books) made knowledge accessible (sometimes in the vernacular) to scholars and laymen alike and liberated books from the scriptoria and “libraries” of monasteries. The printing press technology shattered the content monopoly. In 50 years (1450-1500), the number of books in Europe surged from a few thousand to more than 9 million! And, as McLuhan has noted, it shifted the emphasis from the oral mode of content distribution (i.e., “communication”) to the visual mode.

E-books are threatening to do the same. “Book ATMs” will provide Print on Demand (POD) services to faraway places. People in remote corners of the earth will be able to select from publishing backlists and front lists comprising millions of titles. Millions of authors are now able to realize their dream to have their work published cheaply and without editorial barriers to entry. The e-book is the Internet’s prodigal son. The latter is the ideal distribution channel of the former. The monopoly of the big publishing houses on everything written – from romance to scholarly journals – is a thing of the past. In a way, it is ironic. Publishing, in its earliest forms, was a revolt against the writing (letters) monopoly of the priestly classes. It flourished in non-theocratic societies such as Rome, or China – and languished where religion reigned (such as in Sumeria, Egypt, the Islamic world, and Medieval Europe).

With e-books, content will once more become a collaborative effort, as it has been well into the Middle Ages. Authors and audience used to interact (remember Socrates) to generate knowledge, information, and narratives. Interactive e-books, multimedia, discussion lists, and collective authorship efforts restore this great tradition. Moreover, as in the not so distant past, authors are yet again the publishers and sellers of their work. The distinctions between these functions is very recent. E-books and POD partially help to restore the pre-modern state of affairs. Up until the 20th century, some books first appeared as a series of pamphlets (often published in daily papers or magazines) or were sold by subscription. Serialized e-books resort to these erstwhile marketing ploys. E-books may also help restore the balance between best-sellers and midlist authors and between fiction and textbooks. E-books are best suited to cater to niche markets, hitherto neglected by all major publishers.

III. Literature for the Millions

E-books are the quintessential “literature for the millions”. They are cheaper than even paperbacks. John Bell (competing with Dr. Johnson) published “The Poets of Great Britain” in 1777-83. Each of the 109 volumes cost six shillings (compared to the usual guinea or more). The Railway Library of novels (1,300 volumes) costs 1 shilling apiece only eight decades later. The price continued to dive throughout the next century and a half. E-books and POD are likely to do unto paperbacks what these reprints did to originals. Some reprint libraries specialized in public domain works, very much like the bulk of e-book offering nowadays.

The plunge in book prices, the lowering of barriers to entry due to new technologies and plentiful credit, the proliferation of publishers, and the cutthroat competition among booksellers was such that price regulation (cartel) had to be introduced. Net publisher prices, trade discounts, list prices were all anti-competitive inventions of the 19th century, mainly in Europe. They were accompanied by the rise of trade associations, publishers organizations, literary agents, author contracts, royalties agreements, mass marketing, and standardized copyrights.

The sale of print books over the Internet can be conceptualized as the continuation of mail order catalogues by virtual means. But e-books are different. They are detrimental to all these cosy arrangements. Legally, an e-book may not be considered to constitute a “book” at all. Existing contracts between authors and publishers may not cover e-books. The serious price competition they offer to more traditional forms of publishing may end up pushing the whole industry to re-define itself. Rights may have to be re-assigned, revenues re-distributed, contractual relationships re-thought. Moreover, e-books have hitherto been to print books what paperbacks are to hardcovers – re-formatted renditions. But more and more authors are publishing their books primarily or exclusively as e-books. E-books thus threaten hardcovers and paperbacks alike. They are not merely a new format. They are a new mode of publishing.

Every technological innovation was bitterly resisted by Luddite printers and publishers: stereotyping, the iron press, the application of steam power, mechanical typecasting and typesetting, new methods of reproducing illustrations, cloth bindings, machine-made paper, ready-bound books, paperbacks, book clubs, and book tokens. Without exception, they relented and adopted the new technologies to their considerable commercial advantage. It is no surprise, therefore, that publishers were hesitant to adopt the Internet, POD, and e-publishing technologies. The surprise lies in the relative haste with which they came to adopt it, egged on by authors and booksellers.

IV. Intellectual Pirates and Intellectual Property

Despite the technological breakthroughs that coalesced to form the modern printing press – printed books in the 17th and 18th centuries were derided by their contemporaries as inferior to their laboriously hand-made antecedents and to the incunabula. One is reminded of the current complaints about the new media (Internet, e-books), its shoddy workmanship, shabby appearance, and the rampant piracy. The first decades following the invention of the printing press, were, as the Encyclopedia Britannica puts it “a restless, highly competitive free for all … (with) enormous vitality and variety (often leading to) careless work”.

There were egregious acts of piracy – for instance, the illicit copying of the Aldine Latin “pocket books”, or the all-pervasive piracy in England in the 17th century (a direct result of over-regulation and coercive copyright monopolies). Shakespeare’s work was published by notorious pirates and infringers of emerging intellectual property rights. Later, the American colonies became the world’s centre of industrialized and systematic book piracy. Confronted with abundant and cheap pirated foreign books, local authors resorted to freelancing in magazines and lecture tours in a vain effort to make ends meet.

Pirates and unlicenced – and, therefore, subversive – publishers were prosecuted under a variety of monopoly and libel laws (and, later, under national security and obscenity laws). There was little or no difference between royal and “democratic” governments. They all acted ruthlessly to preserve their control of publishing. John Milton wrote his passionate plea against censorship, Areopagitica, in response to the 1643 licencing ordinance passed by Parliament. The revolutionary Copyright Act of 1709 in England established the rights of authors and publishers to reap the commercial fruits of their endeavours exclusively, though only for a prescribed period of time.