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What's Your Biggest Challenge with Your Book?

I'd be interested to learn what authors/publishers on this network think their biggest challenges are with their book. I wonder if there's any common, pervasive challenge we all face.

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I have nothing but good to say about Booksurge and my account rep, Allison Brown. But, I might add a feature that you may have overlooked. You can also have your books printed by a small, backyard shop printing company and those are the books you sell yourself. You won't see the stats on Amazon or anywhere else, you don't hear about ratings, you just bank the cash and pay your taxes. I have been using the same printer twelve or fifteen years. He will do as many or as little as you like, but the best price comes with 250 or more. He keeps a record of your books for future printing and most of the time, he puts one of your books on display at his shop. There are lots of angles to marketing and they all don't come with stats, glory or stars. (cover quality is not as good, but I have some left over books from back in 1969 and the covers are holding color pretty good) Keep working and talking, it is good for us here on this amazing web page.
Robert,

(You're Robert, right?) That's GREAT information. One of the neat things about Booksurge is that we retain all the rights and do what we darn well please with our book. My rep is John Mark Schuster. He's intelligent, informed and responsive. I've been very pleased with the entire organization.

Your idea is great. I'd falsely assumed that, unless you were printing 2,000 copies or so, that you really wouldn't save any money per copy. So my book's 254 pp. and I get it from Booksurge at about $4.50 per book when I buy 51 copies. From your experience, what do you think I could get 51 or 250 copies printed for?

Can I still use the same ISBN, etc.? And you're saying that if I land a distributor, I just send them copies from my stash at home? Any other tips or tricks up your sleeve along that line I should be aware of with doing my own printing?

I assume that I should not only compare local printers that I know, but also other book printers that specialize in smaller book runs?
Steve, I don't know about distributors, I don't use them anymore. The last one I used was way back in the late 1990's. I offer my book to companies who use them in promotions, open houses, employee gifts, etc. Those are the ones I sell from the printer, and of course the books that I sell from my website or the ones that require a signing. There is a little work in getting set up with a printer, but my guy uses single page copies from me and has a collator that puts them in large sheet form in the right order. When the book is printed, it is done on a huge sheet of paper and the numbers on each sheet are from various places in the book. When he cuts them with a huge paper cutter, they come out in perfect order, don't ask me how he does it, I just watch in amazement. He also has a nice bank of offset printers, which are programmed to print selected covers. He does not assemble the books, he sends them to a local handicap (disadvantaged) group who do the binding. I have looked at overseas printing as well. My books are around 220 to 250 pages and the average cost is only about a dollar less then booksurge, but the convenience is worth it. Yes, you also use all the same identity numbers now on your book. The only difference is the booksurge label that they put in the front of their books. we put our own information, but that often includes the on line places that the books can be found, including booksurge. By the way, one company in Florida has me sign all of their gift books and lists them at a very high value with signature. ha I am not worth it.
Great information. A dollar saved is a dollar earned. (That's the penny saying adjusted for inflation.)

I think that my book would also do well as a special promotion, incentive, etc. One CPA bought 100 copies to give as a graduation gift. A pastor bought 30 copies to do the same.

Brian Jud (Beyond the Bookstore) started a service to help authors sell to these special sales niches. I've joined that program and will comment if I start getting sales.

Did you just start contacting businesses personally, or did you go through some "special sales" organization?

J. Steve Miller, author of Enjoy Your Money! How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It - http://www.amazon.com/Enjoy-Your-Money-Make-Invest/dp/098187567X/re...
Very succinctly put. Great job!
I am grateful I have found this site. I spend most of my time in solitude working on this book and I am so close to the work and harbor many doubts about my ability and also aske the question: Who am I to write this book? The more research I do about publishing and writing the less confident I feel.
You are you, and that is the wonder of it.
I wish to encourage you to do something that you have chosen to do. When we stand before an audience, we may be a little nervous at first, but once we realize that we are there for a reason and that is usually to convey something we know pretty well, then we settle down and become a leader of knowledge. I have spoken before three or four-hundred people and I think of the audience as one, not as four hundred different people with different ideas who might not like what I say. I have never had one single bad comment about any of my talks. I feel the same about my books. I tell it like I see it and let the audience decide. Thus far, I am elated at the response I have gotten. I have been writing for many years and will continue as long as there is pen and paper. Ummm, computer that is. So, please, be encouraged. write your message to the audience and they will come, honest it is true. Most likely you won't make a lot of money, if you are in the book business solely for that purpose, you may be disappointed. I might add, there will be checks in the mail if you work hard at telling your audience about your book, but the most important factor is those small checks will be coming in for seventy or more years. I am still making money on books I wrote forty years ago. But, first of all, never reject yourself before your audience has had time to judge. It is a lot harder than one might think and it is a lot more personal than most think as well, but it is all worth while. The best to you and your book and when you get if finished. Let me know where it is and what it is about and I just might be part of your audience. Dr Robert E McGinnis
Thank you very much for the encouragement Dr. McGinnis. I am not writing to get rich but rather to convey an important message. I am writing to everyday people/women in terms they can fully understand. It is not a clinical work or an scholarly work it is a work of accounts of various types of abuse that happens behind the freshly painted doors and neatly manicured lawns in suburban America. This account is written in satire and virtually every woman and some men who I have shared my work with can relate to it. I am finishing my undergrad program at Union University in VT (on-line) determined to finish my BFA with a concentration in English and Women s Studies. I am learning a lot about the craft of writing mostly that it takes years to master! So I have been free writing and sending it to an editor friend for polish. My audience will judge but I do not care about that writing about domestic violence in satire is a bit taboo, but it has never been done and this is a non-fiction book. It teaches about the laws, personal accountability, types of abuse and the heart of the book is the narcissism. It also encourages potential readers to seek spiritual healing and guidance. Dr. Pecks: People of the Lie was a huge influence on my writing and the subject in general.
You have my best wishes. I believe my son earned one of his degrees from Union U and he is now a professor. It is admirable to want to help people and one way you can do that is with writing. I wish you the most success possible,
Shawna,

I think Dr. McGinnis' advise is wise. If your passion is to get your message out to people that you sincerely care about, that will come through.

When I started writing seventeen years ago, I decided, "This message needs to get out there. Even if nobody publishes it and I just run off copies to give to people who need it, it's worth the work." Yet, I was delighted that a mainstream publisher took it.

And don't be intimidated by all the "how to write" and "how to get published" stuff out there. I'd never taken a writing class other than what you get in high school and what I got from basic college English when I wrote my first book. I did read a few books on how to write and had friends read the manuscript and give me input. Since then, I've continued to learn, but if I'd waited to start writing until I'd mastered the craft, I'd still be waiting to write for publication.

I looked at your profile and love your sentence: "I Live on a small Island that as the locals say, 'Islamorda a small drinking village with a fishing problem.' I think that would be a great opening sentence for a novel!

J. Steve Miller
Thank you for taking the time to respond and read my profile. I am going to keep plugging away at this project and hope for the best. As for Islamorada it deserves a book onto itself. The local culture and lifestyle here is almost like living in a foreign country. Fish fish and more fishing LOL Jimmy Buffet made the mark when he writes lyrics about the Florida Keys. I actually have a cute chapter finished about the "School of Tourists that swim up every season." Its a favorite local pastime here "Fins to the left Fins to the right" to go fishing for tourists!

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