Be Your Own Editor

This question is from Sunitta:

I am interested in venturing out to be a publisher and start my own business. I write well and have contributed to various websites. I have also completed two books of poems. Writing is only a part of me but the whole process of publishing, writing, editing, proofreading, and finally, the completed book really interests me. Kindly help me on how I should go about it. I have a large investment but don’t have the right perspective and the approach. Kindly help me.

Oh, my. How to start a book business. I’ll do my best, Sunitta.

I’m an editor, not a businessperson, but I know this much: even if you already have a large investment, you need a business plan. Is your investor going to be a business partner, and if so, do they know anything about starting a small business? If not, and you have only a large amount of cash and a desire to figure out where to go next, you have some work to do.

I’ll assume, since you didn’t say you want to be a self-publisher, that you don’t intend to start a print-on-demand business. What you need first, Sunitta, is a thorough and well-thought-out business plan, and since it sounds as if you don’t know much about the publishing business outside of your experiences as a writer, you might want to look for a partner who does. A lot of decisions need to be made that may not have crossed your mind if you’ve never worked at a publishing house.

Much depends, of course, on the size of your investment, and on how many years you can operate before turning a profit. Again, I’m not a business expert, but expect to spend some time in the red, especially since it’ll take many months for you to be ready to release your first title. Even if you do find a partner who has more experience in the publishing industry, you should learn as much as you can about the business: many universities have graduate courses on publishing that might be helpful. You’ll need to know how to create a feasible budget for a publishing company that can meet your specific goals (both financial and creative).

Some items you need to consider:

• What genre of books will you publish? Will they be hardcover, paperback, or both?
• How much will you need to spend on the stages of production for each book: editing/proofreading, interior and cover design, and printing and binding?
• How many employees will you hire, and how much can you pay them? Will you use freelancers for editing and design? Will you need office space?
• What about new avenues in electronic publishing, such as making your books available online? The industry is changing, slowly but surely, and some new technologies may present alternate distribution opportunities to newer, smaller publishers.
• How many books do you plan to publish in your first year, and in subsequent years?
• What size advances will you pay your authors? What percentage of royalties?
• Who will distribute the books you publish?
• How much can you spend on sales and marketing? It can be hard for books put out by small publishers to find space on bookstore shelves.

These questions are the tip of the iceberg, and I’m afraid I can’t answer them for you. Each topic has a hundred variables. If you really don’t know where to begin, perhaps talk to an attorney who has worked in the book industry, or someone at the company that published your books of poetry (even if they were self-published, you probably dealt with people who are savvy about the business and might be able to advise you).

Or, as I suggested above, you can begin with a course on book publishing or on starting a small business. Above all, think long and hard about exactly why you want to make this investment. Book publishing is a risky, unpredictable business, so even if you do everything right, you’re not guaranteed to succeed. A lot depends on the whims of booksellers and of readers, so you shouldn’t invest a lot of money simply because it seems interesting—and certainly not before you’ve studied all the ins and outs.

Best of luck to you, Sunitta, and please do keep me posted and contact me with any more specific questions that come up along the way.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 12:35 am and is filed under Book Marketing, Readers Q&A, Self-publishing, The Book Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.