Two Dilemmas for a 1st time author with a great book. Thanks for feedback!

Hi -

I have questions; I'm not sure I can answer all of yours. I can try to help but I need a bit of clarification first.

Also, was this journey made into a movie that I saw at Banff? If not, you're not alone in this idea, heh. Not that that's bad or anything; it's just weird!

Is there a reason you're not exploring trade publishing? Is that because of your timeline? Your timeline seems kind of short for that given where you say you are regardless.

With a media push - how are you thinking retailers will stock your book if there's a demand, if it's not with distributors?

I've not done a book tour, but I can't see what you gain from touring without having the book on sale. People will buy it when they hear about it, not six months later. You also don't seem to have ebooks in the plan, which is an obvious way to open up the market (and you can put your colour photos in an ebook).

peacepedaler said:

I am seeking some advice from the indie publishing community out there on setting my pub date and also whether to go print on-demand or print my own book/find a distributor.

Here is our current situation. I completed an 80-country trip around the world on a two-seat tandem bike picking up strangers and inviting them to join the journey, pedal, connect and find ways to contribute in the global community. It was an amazing trip with tons of rich stories. I spent the last three years writing a very soulful, engaging narrative memoir.

Click to expand...

It sounds fascinating, and just the sort of book I'd love to read.

I am working with the New York Times best-selling author as my structural editor and the book is looking awesome.

Click to expand...

Alarm bells are ringing.

Writers do not necessarily make good editors; and I've seen lots of writers call themselves NYT best-selling, when they're not, really, in order to get editing gigs. I am now worried for you.

The book is final editing right now and still needs polishing, copyediting, design/layout and will likely not be ready to go to press until early April. At the same time, I am doing a six month, 12,000 mile, 38 State nationwide book tour starting at the end of April (more on book tour at http://www.abicyclebuiltfortwobillion.com/family-book-tour-route). I plan to be doing a lot of talks directly to the public, media work and hopefully some book signings at independent bookstores. That dilemma here is when to set our pub date because I don't want to go on the tour and not be selling the book

Click to expand...

You're right: you need that book to be available when you're on the tour. The problem is that if your book isn't going to be ready to go to print until early April, you won't have time to organise a print-run and have the books in your hand for the end of april: unless you pay a swingeing rush-fee, it can take two or three months to get books printed and shipped to you (if you're printing offshore, which is often the most cost-effective route), and that usually requires you to book your printing slot a few months in advance. You might find a local printer to print the books for you but the cost will be substantially higher.

You could use print-on-demand but the cost per book is going to be very high, especially as you're including images too. It could easily be pushed so high that in order to cover your costs you'll have to price it at a point where your potential readers won't buy it.

and I'm not sure when major media will happen but it likely will at some point as we have a very attractive story for the media with lots of photos and videos taken from the journey. Plus, we have a great publicist working with us. I’m afraid to set a date up four months away and have a major media hit suddenly and retailers not be able to stock the book. I also don't want to miss out on getting great press from the bigger media outlets and reviewers who say they only want to review things with the pub dates that are way out in advance. It’s a great book and no doubt will get great reviews. Should I just set the pub date when I start the tour or set it way out and hit the road still selling the book out of my RV direct to book stores and public before pub date???

Click to expand...

For a book which will be published at the end of April, you've already missed the deadline for getting reviews. I've always got review copies out a minimum of three months prior to publication: six months is not uncommon.

There is no point at all in you doing your tour if you don't have books to sell. Can you postpone the tour? That would be your best option, I think.

As for question of whether I should take the print on demand route or the printing/distribution route here is the info on that.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what "printing/distribution route" you're considering, but I suspect you don't realise how things work in publishing.

Print and distribution are two separate things.

Vanity publishers often offer variations on these things but the "distribution" they offer isn't enough to get your books onto the shelves of bookshops, which is what you're going to need to make your tour a success and to maximise your sales.

As a self-publisher, you are almost certainly not going to be able to find a distributor willing to take you on.

If you want full distribution--that is, bookshop placement and all the sales that usually produces--you're going to need to get a contract with a trade publisher.

If you decide to take that route your book will not be published until next year, I'd guess, at the earliest.

I think trade publication would be the best option for you. Your book is heavily illustrated, so it's going to be expensive to produce well. And it's going to require a lot of expertise too.

My journey took me around the world to 80 countries and I took some amazing photos (17,000+ to be exact). Print on demand will not allow me to use color photos but will allow me to use black-and-white printed on the pages with decent quality. By printing myself I can print full color inserts and have a lot more options to the look and feel of the product. Plus I can get it done cheap and the margins are attractive.

Click to expand...

What do you consider "cheap"? Have you found a good designer to do the layouts for you? What about typesetting and jacket design? And how many copies do you expect to sell? All this is expensive and without full distribution you're unlikely to see a good return on your investment, I'm afraid.

But it's also a bigger risk and warehousing and distribution is a lot more work than I expected.

Click to expand...

I'd be surprised if you found a good distributor willing to take your book on. They very rarely work with self-publishers.

The book is a narrative memoir and not a travelogue per say so I'm not convinced that the photos are the biggest selling point as much as the story. Has anybody done a good profit comparison of the two?

Click to expand...

A profit comparison of memoir vs. travelogue, of photos vs. story as selling point, or of POD vs. whatever printing you're planning? I'm not sure.

That is also a consideration since I’m trying to get the best return on investment of all the time, money and energy I spent doing this project + book and it seem like there was more money to be made printing our own books assuming they were successful (and more to lose if it flops)

Click to expand...

It sounds like you're planning on self-publishing a very expensive book, and you have limited knowledge of how sales and distribution work in the book trade. I am very concerned that you are about to make a hideously expensive mistake.

My original plan was to print a limited edition 2,000 books just for my 6-month road trip and for signed Kickstarter backers + to send to reviewers. This would allow me to get a good discounted price in volume. Then anyone who bought in any other way got a book from Create Space (Amazon direct to readers only) or Ingram Lightening Source (Bookstores). But want to make sure I’m making the right decision.

Click to expand...

Years ago, when I was still blogging about publishing, I did some work on the average sales of the print editions of self-published books. It worked out at just 38 copies per title.

You have a tour arranged which might well sell a few copies for you, but your book might not be available for that tour in which case, assume it's not going to sell you any books.

I think you need to scale back your expectations by a great degree, I'm afraid.

Anyhow, these are turning out to be a lot more stressful and difficult decisions then I expected so I decided to see if anybody wanted to shed some light, have a phone call, and help me make a decision on this as I need to choose a path and start on that right away. http://www.peacepedalers.org

Click to expand...

You have a potentially good book, but your lack of knowledge and understanding of the publishing business and of how reviewers, book sales, and printers work is hampering you. Postpone your tour until next year. Use that time to get a good literary agent or learn more about the practicalities of publishing. You'll be glad you did, I think.

Just from what you've said it sounds as if you have a potentially salable product. One, furthermore, that could have a sales life of years, and possibly go back time and again for more print editions. It could even have the possibility for one or more follow-on books, as did Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence. It spawned three sequels and a movie.

But I'll echo Old Hack. It will work only if you take your time getting it out there and do it right. Among other issues, if your publisher decides to do at least some minimal PR, that takes time for them to schedule, and the bigger the PR effort the longer it takes.

A footnote: I've self-published six books. In each one I've added more and more graphics. Getting one in black-and-white (your least expensive paper choice) requires both technical expertise and creativity. I had the advice of two women who have a very successful printing business who I helped set up 20+ years ago (with free computer consultancy). And even so despite a lot of work and their backstopping my efforts the graphics are only mildly interesting visually.

That could be in part because the books were published by print-on-demand, but my friends say it's because black-and-white print on regular paper has limited contrast - even if the printed product is done by offset rather than a Xerographic (copier) style of printer. You have to use stippling or half-toning on the original artwork to get acceptable quality, neither of which is easy for an amateur to do. (The graphics come out beautifully in the ebooks, which sell about a 100 times more than the POD books.)

Echoing what Old Hack said. Please check on your editor by doing a quick Google search for "New York Times bestseller & [the author's name]." The person should show up on the NYT site on a specific list for a specific book. If the person is a fiction author, please be careful because editing for memoirs is very different than novels. <worries...>

Old Hack said:

Postpone your tour until next year. Use that time to get a good literary agent or learn more about the practicalities of publishing. You'll be glad you did, I think.

Click to expand...

I suspect you've started wheels in motion and will disregard what Old Hack has said, but she's absolutely right. Your story sounds fascinating and you shouldn't rush it to market.

Digging a little deeper, it appears Jamie raised over $10,000 on Kick starter for this project, is working with Franz Wisner as his editor, and his book tour is at least partially sponsored through KOA Campgrounds -- so he may not have the option of changing plans at this time.