Should You Publish A Paper Book or eBook? | Sparkle & Shine

Considering Self-Publishing: A Panel Conversation, Part 1 of 4

This is a series of blog posts transcribing a Google+ Hangout conversation I had in October 2012 with a panel of experienced book authors, book marketers, writing & publishing coaches and a few people who had some burning questions for our panel!

In this first?installment, we?ll introduce the panel and address the first Question we conversed Q1: Should You Publish A Paper Book or eBook?

Further discussion points in upcoming posts include:

Book Authors & Publishing. For this second episode of #SparkleSOS, as with the first, we had a Facebook RSVP Page and Google+ Event Page. I also created a Feedback Form, which I encourage you to fill out to add your thoughts and help shape the next #SparkleSOS Hangout.

Transcribed by: Alex Conde

• Guest: Christine Cowley, Author, editor, writing coach Life Gems
• Guest: Michelle Vandepas, Professional book marketer
• Guest: Richard S Todd, Author Raincloud: A Novel
• Guest: Daniele Rossi, eBook author, Hangout/podcast producer, illustrator
• Moderator: Debbie Horovitch, Social media concierge, Social Sparkle & Shine

Here is the video:

Debbie: Welcome to the #SparkleSOS episode #2 where we?re talking to book authors and we?re talking about the questions that face book authors when they?re looking at self publishing.

So, I have here with me tonight, we?re looking at Christine on the far left, Christine Cowley, who is an author and has also written a book that helps people when they?re publishing a book and going through those questions.

Next to Christine we have Michelle Vandepas, and Michelle has told me that she helps book authors and has helped a number of book authors get to the number 1 position on Amazon which I find very impressive. I?ve worked with book authors before but I don?t have anything like that to boast.

Next to me is Richard Todd who is a novel author. I actually met Richard a number of years ago when he published Raincloud which is a murder mystery that I read myself. I found it very exciting to read. It reads a little bit like a mystery movie.

Thank you everyone for joining me tonight, and if you can please introduce yourself to everyone who?s watching.

And we?ll start with Christie

Christine: So, thank you for that introduction? this is so awesome. I hadn?t heard of this whole Google Hangout until Debbie mentioned it yesterday and having just met her last night, so this is really exciting.

So, I am an author and I have self-published as well. I am an author with a traditional publisher as well as having self-published. I also have a micro publishing business that helps other people get into print. Mainly I write books and I help other people write books and get them out there.

Debbie: Fantastic! Alright, Michelle?

Michelle: Hi! It?s great to be here. I?m Michelle Vandepas, I?ve been online for 102 years (sic) and I help other people sell stuff. ?My claim to fame is that I help people sell lots of stuff online and I help authors reach #1 on Amazon. Amazon is not the only piece of the pie out there, but it?s one piece of the pie. There are some tips and tricks. I don?t work with people before they?ve published, I work with people after they?ve published. Either self-published or through a more traditional publisher, it doesn?t matter. The goal is the same to sell more books.

Debbie: Hi Richard

Richard: Hi Debbie and hi everyone. Thanks for having me on tonight. As Debbie mentioned, I?m the author of a self-published book of a novel called Raincloud. I?ve also been traditionally published in an anthology called Brainstorms. And also, my short story Clive that was published there was published in a Journal from the University of Calgary.

So, I?ve seen the industry from both sides, but to be honest, self publishing is really been my forte and has brought me a lot of satisfaction in the way that the industry has worked for me. I also mentor other writers when it comes to meeting their self publishing goals and also their writing goals as well.

I?ve done book tours and tours to writing groups to help them along with their endeavors.

Debbie: Awesome. I like that you say that self-publishing has brought you a lot of fulfillment and it makes you feel good, because I think for a lot of people it is not quite as appealing and it seems kind of like that last stop, whereas the event that both Richard and I was at last night with Christine, a lot of what I heard made me feel like self publishing is an empowering option for a lot of people and it doesn?t need to be looked at like a last stop if you?re not able to get an agent or a traditional publisher. Because you maintain a lot more control over everything.

So, I asked a few people over the last week and a half about what they thought and what sort of questions they would have if they had the opportunity to ask coaches and book authors, what would be the main question.

The most popular question that came back was whether people should consider publishing in e-book or in hard/soft copy book. Should it be a real tangible book or an e-book?

Michelle: I can only speak for what works for me and my clients and the authors I?ve worked with. I?ve worked with a lot of authors who work in the non-fiction genre. So, you?ve got to have both.

People buy kindle books all the time. it?s an impulse buy. People are out late at night on their kindle looking for something interesting to read and they?ll download kindle books. A real impulse buy. But if you?re out their speaking or you have an author platform, you?re teaching writing for instance, or you are talking about self-development and going to conferences, you?ve gt to have a physical copy to sell. That?s where you?re going to make more money per book, you?re going to connect with your audience, you?re going to create a long-term relationship, if you have teaching services or if you have writing services, publishing services, editing services, you?re going to connect with them for the long haul. So, my answer is both.

Debbie: Okay, Richard or Christine?

Christine: I totally concur. Being the technology Luddite that I am, I?m still working on an e version of my book. I?m really close, I?ve actually got it ready. I?ve decided that for me I think smashwords is going to work best, so I just have to get on the site, figure out how to do it, and upload it. So, for me I agree with Michelle. You?ve got to have hard copy. There?s nothing like a tangible thing when you go and speak to people, and so very much of what I do is getting in front of people, so if I didn?t have a book in my hands ? to tell them to go and download it isn?t the same. Plus, it depends on the sort of book you?ve got.

I?m even going to do a downloadable version, I?ve decided. The Gift, which is my latest, which is the one that helps you write your own book actually has a workbook component, so they write in it. How better to show them what they can do than to have a tangible book? So, I agree.

Debbie: Richard?

Richard: The only thing I would add to that would be that the big disadvantage for the print book, if there are any at least for self-publishing, would be the cash outlay initially. E-books at least are free, at least at that point, you have pre-production costs, you can upload it and the margins are great. SO, what I?m going to try with my second novel, The Orphans ?of the Creek, is to release it as an e-book initially and use the proceeds of that to fund a print run. Then I can do a book tour like I did last time, which is very easy to do.

At least in Canada, with the Chapters/Indigo chain, it?s simply a matter of getting your book in their system and calling up the stores and saying my book is in your system, can I get a table and chair in your store on Saturday, and you can go in and connect with your audience. If it wasn?t for the cash outlay, beautiful, we?ll do a big print run right now. But, if you?re in a situation where you want to recoup your funds or if you don?t have funds to invest in as much as you like, e-books are a way to start building a little bit of capital before you make that investment.

Christine: That?s a great idea. And while you?re building that capital you?re getting the word out there. You?ve got word of mouth happening for you, people are telling each other about the books, so that?s really a great approach.

Richard: But it?s hard to sign an e-book. That?s the only problem I find.

Christine: Richard, you said something interesting there that is news to me. The last time I checked, Chapters would not accept self-published books. That was fairly recently.

Richard: Do you mean Chapters as a physical book or Kindle as an uploaded e-book.

Christine: Okay, so when you say you call up a Chapters store and you go in and want to set up a table, do you mean because you?ve uploaded to kindle?

Richard: Oh no no no, it was a physical book that was in their system. I published Rain Cloud through iUniverse, which I believe has an exclusive contract with Chapters Indigo, that they?re the only self-published company that they?ll take into their shelves. Before I knew that, I went into the Chapters in Newmarket and gave them my book and said, ?Here?s my book, read it, and if you like it let me come in and do an in-store.? It was as easy as that even if I wasn?t in the system.

Christine: Well that?s really unusual.

Richard: It worked for me!

Debbie: Michelle?

Michelle: Debbie, can I add to that, I don?t know about Canada, but for any US listeners I want to add that iUniverse has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years, you probably know that as well. There are pros and cons to print on demand, there?s pros and cons to doing a print run, and one of the few in the US that distributes everywhere is LightningSource as a print on demand, so it?s the same sort of thing if you do print on demand, you have to find one that does distributors or you?ll never get book signings. They have to be in a major distributor. But there are some self-publishing, the stigma is really going away and a lot of major authors who have published a lot are doing the self-publishing route, but print on demand can be tricky as I?m sure you guys know, so I would encourage anyone listening to really research their options and not just go with the first print on demand place.

Richard: Yeah, the stigma, I know what you?re talking about. And it doesn?t help when the president of Lulu.com has been quoted as saying ?We publish the worst poetry in the world?. And it doesn?t help self-published people who do actually have a talent to hold their head up high. Fortunately, we can still. If we build our audience and get good reviews, then I think we?ll be okay.

Michelle: I know major authors who?ve left their publishing houses because they have to do all the marketing work anyway and they?re self publishing. But the question is where to self-publish and that?s a very important question for an author.

Debbie: I just want to point one quick thing out for anyone that is watching the video. Myself, I?m located in Toronto, Canada. I have never published or written a book myself, I hope to do so at some point in the future and I blog a whole lot of words every day. Richard Todd is also in Toronto, Christine is North of Toronto in Collingwood, and Michelle is in Colorado Springs.

I?m so glad all three of you were able to join us. Myself, in my experience between e-books and hardcovers, I have a tendency to think really far into the future. And my experience with books as a consumer ? I?ve been reading books my whole life, I?m really passionate. You can?t really see it to the right, but I?ve got 2 big huge full bookshelves of hard copy books and I love real, tangible books you can carry around that make your wrists sore. There?s something special to that. And what I realized a few years ago when I started having authors coming to me and asking ?Should I publish? I?m just going to publish an e-book. I?m not going to the expense of a hard copy book.? That made me really think what?s going to happen in 200 years.

If you as a book author want to leave a legacy well beyond your time on this planet, really the way to do that is to publish a hard copy book because we don?t know what the technology will be or how the technology will change in just 5 years, or 10 years or 50 years it could be completely different and the world of books that were published 50 years previously, or 100 years previously or 200 years previously will be the books being published right now. My belief is that the cost of publishing continues to rise, that there are fewer and fewer trees that we want to cut down and there are fewer copies of each hardcover book being printed. And so, if you want, it?s a good idea, I think, to at least have a few copies, a few hundred or a few thousand, to create a legacy for yourself and I think that?s something Christine might have some thoughts on, working with authors who create memoirs.

Christine: I do have some thoughts on that. Actually, the cost of producing books has gone down dramatically. I started producing books for people, it would have been about 2007 when I started to do something along the lines of a proper book. Something you could put on the Chapters bookshelves that looks like a traditional published book. The costs were extremely high. Now we have digital printing and we didn?t have that in 2007. It existed, it just wasn?t accessible for the average Joe. So, the costs of printing have gone down, which means all the more reason, even if you follow what Richard did and fund your hard copy with your e-book, don?t dispense with the hard copy.

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The next episode of #SparkleSOS discussing issues of books authors & publishing is scheduled for November 14, 2012 on Google+ Hangouts on Air at 8pm ET.

Want access to my FREE public resource library of social media whitepapers, ebooks and courses from experts around the world? Want Social Sparkle & Shine to review your business, media channel, launch event or promotion? Send an email invitation to debbie@theSparkleAgency.com for immediate access

? By: Debbie Horovitch

Source: http://www.thesparkleagency.com/should-you-publish-a-paper-book-or-ebook/

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