How I First Got into Publishing
I got into publishing after decades of working with academic authors who did not have a clue about the publishing industry or what they were getting into when they signed contracts to write textbooks. I wanted to write professional books that would help them and at the same time might improve textbook quality. I had been working on a book manuscript in my spare time over several years and in due course sent out a proposal. Three offers came in, but I was very unimpressed (appalled, actually) by the terms. The royalty rates were too low, under 10 percent, or were ranked so that I earned 10 percent only after the first thousand copies had been sold! One publisher told me outright that authors of academic books cannot expect to make money--they do it just for love! Yeah, right!
I knew that my market was small (professors involved in writing college textbooks), but even so my math showed that in the best case scenario I would make next to nothing. The publishers would make out fine, because the proposed pricing was so high (too high--one company wanted to sell my book as a $73 hardback, which I was sure would make it unattainable to many and likely would reduce sales)! The idea seemed to be to have such a high price point that volume sales wouldn't matter, (a philosophy I heard later from a distributor who insisted I raise my prices, which did in fact put my book in far fewer hands)! I began to understand that my goals and the publishers' goals were largely incompatible, and I began to think about publishing my book on my own.
The turning point came when I could not get a publisher to assist with or even endorse my ambitious marketing plan. If carried out, my plan would ensure success, I thought, but no publisher would so much as send their catalog to my mailing list of prospects or agree to send galleys to reviewers. The publisher who sent its catalog to 4,000 academics in the humanities was not interested in potentially doubling or tripling sales by sending it to 4,000 more in other content areas. The publishers claimed to have no budget for marketing, advertising, publicity, or promotion for individual titles! (Alas, I have since learned how difficult, expensive, and time-consuming marketing really is.)
I took about a year to research what I would have to do to publish my own works (but there's no end to the learning curve when it comes to being a publisher). I decided to establish my own imprint to avoid the innumerable barriers to commercial success that are thrown into the path of self-publishers. I also thought I would like to have titles by others in my list in addition to my own. I bought a block of 10 ISBNs and set the goal of publishing one book a year. I have three in print and two in the works. I've had a lot of fun but I've made a lot of mistakes. I think I've earned more on my own than I would have with other publishers, but I would not call myself a success. Yet.
Mary Ellen Lepionka, Atlantic Path Publishing
I knew that my market was small (professors involved in writing college textbooks), but even so my math showed that in the best case scenario I would make next to nothing. The publishers would make out fine, because the proposed pricing was so high (too high--one company wanted to sell my book as a $73 hardback, which I was sure would make it unattainable to many and likely would reduce sales)! The idea seemed to be to have such a high price point that volume sales wouldn't matter, (a philosophy I heard later from a distributor who insisted I raise my prices, which did in fact put my book in far fewer hands)! I began to understand that my goals and the publishers' goals were largely incompatible, and I began to think about publishing my book on my own.
The turning point came when I could not get a publisher to assist with or even endorse my ambitious marketing plan. If carried out, my plan would ensure success, I thought, but no publisher would so much as send their catalog to my mailing list of prospects or agree to send galleys to reviewers. The publisher who sent its catalog to 4,000 academics in the humanities was not interested in potentially doubling or tripling sales by sending it to 4,000 more in other content areas. The publishers claimed to have no budget for marketing, advertising, publicity, or promotion for individual titles! (Alas, I have since learned how difficult, expensive, and time-consuming marketing really is.)
I took about a year to research what I would have to do to publish my own works (but there's no end to the learning curve when it comes to being a publisher). I decided to establish my own imprint to avoid the innumerable barriers to commercial success that are thrown into the path of self-publishers. I also thought I would like to have titles by others in my list in addition to my own. I bought a block of 10 ISBNs and set the goal of publishing one book a year. I have three in print and two in the works. I've had a lot of fun but I've made a lot of mistakes. I think I've earned more on my own than I would have with other publishers, but I would not call myself a success. Yet.
Mary Ellen Lepionka, Atlantic Path Publishing
posted by Mary Ellen Lepionka at 10:00 AM
2 Comments:
I think you are a success by virtue of the fact that you had the courage to do it and that you are staying with it.
I always think people only fail when they give up.
Your comments, Mary Ellen, certainly underscore some of the principal reasons that I started Linden Park Publishers less than two months ago. Although I am not involved in the publication of textbooks - but rather, of literary fiction - I wanted to develop a vehicle through which I would control profit margins, the marketing and sales agenda, copyright issues and so forth. I simply don't have the time, or the motivation, to compromise my writing efforts and publishing ambitions with what's expected in New York.
Michael
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