This book has been put together in an effort to answer the questions that are being presented daily to me, a publisher, by authors and would-be authors all over the world.
The story of how I became a publisher is unlike most.

I wrote a book.


It was a good book. Everyone who saw it, loved it. It was not a perfect book, as many who fancied themselves editors loved to point that out. But it was a book that touched souls and changed lives and I knew that it had to be in print.

I joined "writers" clubs to see what other authors had done in this situation - I wanted to learn what tricks it took to get a publisher’s attention. I learned how to write query letters and submit manuscripts - paying strict attention to guidelines. So, I did - I submitted and submitted and submitted and got rejected and rejected and rejected.

No one else could see my vision, yet I saw it as plain as day.

One of my fellow authors spoke of his experiences self-publishing and it caught my attention, as he was very successful. He had first commercially published and subsequently self-published and vowed to never commercially publish again.

Why?


Money. Control. Time. Love.


Money: He compared his two experiences. In both cases, there were 5000 copies of the book sold.

In the case of the commercial publisher, he was given a royalty check of roughly $900.00.

In the case where he self-published the book, he grossed $50,000.00 In this case, of course, he had expenses, so his net profit was less. Guessing his print cost was roughly $15,000 (or $3.00/per book in a volume print of 5000) and his marketing costs were $5000 (ad placement, internet site, posters, business cards, etc) - he still netted roughly $30,000.00.

The staggering difference between the two amounts changed his way of thinking forever.


Control: If a book is bought by a commercial publisher, they buy the rights and the right to change it. When self-published, the control remains with the author.


Time: Most authors don’t last through the months of submissions, rejections and sending the queries back out again. They get discouraged and believe that their project is no good because they get rejected. First, of all, nothing could be further from the truth - but I will address that another time. If the work is accepted, according to most publishing firms, it takes between 12-24 months for an accepted manuscript to make it onto the store shelves. The publishers have calendars and print jobs already in the queue. Let alone the fact that they need to review and possibly change the manuscript to get it into their format. Self-publishing allows the author to set the timeline. It won’t take several years to get the book into print. It will take however long the hired printer takes to produce it. Usually, just a few weeks.


Love: The book is a baby to its author, an addition to the family. No one loves it the way the author does, so to let it out where it can be changed, or taken away for literally years, is hard to accept. The author wants the book close enough to touch. Self-publishing allows the author to keep the work close and safe.

This is one of the reasons that authors chose to self-publish. It isn’t because publishers won’t ever pick it up - it is because of the love they have for their own creation.

That is why I learned how to self-publish and how my first novel Angel On Board became a dream come true.

I became a publisher when my fellow authors saw the way I did it and they asked me to help them do the same. I became the publisher I wished I could have found.


Some people call self-publishing, vanity publishing, but this author and I call it Profitable Publishing!