Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
–Thomas Edison
I advocate self-publishing as the perfect path when becoming a business owner/author, because you are already a decision maker; you understand product and service development; you get the importance of sales and marketing; you have valuable intellectual property (probably more than you realise); and you know how to make things happen.
Pitching a book idea to an agent and then to a publishing company seems to me like standing in a queue with your hands out, begging for a crumb that may never come your way. You don’t need to do that!
Show your initiative, determination and spirit. Invest in your book through your business, as you would invest in a marketing or professional development program. Back your (tax deductible) dream and make it happen.
Here are some ways to raise some necessary capital, if that is a consideration for you.
Pre-sales
- Your book cover image and back cover sales blurb can be used for promotional purposes well before the book is ready to sell, so it is important to get that done as early as possible, while you are still in the writing process.
Sponsorships
- Research companies who would benefit from aligning with you and/or reaching your intended readership. Is there room for a partnership where you promote them to your new readers, and they promote your book to their existing followers?
- Several book clients have received help to pay for their book production costs by selling full-page and half-page advertising spaces at the front or back of their specifically niched books.
- Can you offer a bundle to sponsors? Here are some ideas:
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- Advertising space on your cover or in your book (on a page in the front, middle or back)
- Their content on one side of your bookmark
- Their postcard or sheet inserted into every book as it is printed or packaged
- Their content on your website and in your newsletter
- A display and presentation presence at your online or in-person events?
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Co-branding and Partnerships
- There is no limit to the creative ways businesses can work together for a common good and find inspiring ways to provide value to a common audience.
- Some authors sell branding rights to companies, so the company adds their logo and/or other visual elements to the book cover and within the book, then prints a special run or runs of the book for distribution to their own client base.
Crowd Funding Literary Agency: Publishizer
- Publishizer is a book crowdfunding platform and literary agency that matches authors with publishers.
- The site services authors seeking funding through pre-sales of their book, or their book plus other bundled services such as coaching, workshops, speaking, and consulting. During your campaign, you attract interest to your Publishizer page and buyers can pre-order one or more of your variously priced offers while the book is being written.
- Basically you can pre-sell your book, as well as other business offers, ranging in price from $20 to thousands of dollars. Brilliant!
- The site now also facilitates a literary agency of sorts, where publishing companies can approach authors they are interested in working with, and offer publishing services or publishing contracts.
- The site receives a percentage of funds raised as their fee. See more at publishizer.com.
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This is the eleventh of a series of articles taken from the book, ‘Smart Women Publish – Write the book that expands your world’ by Bev Ryan. Each article in this series will present the key ideas in its 15 chapters, from what a book can do for you, through planning, writing, publishing and leveraging your published book.
Bev is a certified non-fiction book coach (including memoir with a message) and book production manager, working with accomplished and interesting people as they write and self-publish their best non-fiction books.
Are you procrastinating or stuck in the planning or writing stages? Contact Bev to find out how she can help you with your book, and your publishing choices.