Seeking Advice Re Exotic Self Publishing Plan

stevkaprel

Registered
Joined
Aug 25, 2019
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Location
connecticut
I’m an octogenarian who has written a book. My existing sources of income are adequate to support my life style so my desire to see the book succeed is not monetary.
All of this leads me to wonder the following: If I self publish with a print on demand arrangement can I find a partner to promote and sell the book who will accept, instead of an up front fee, the ability to collect all of the proceeds of the book until such time as the amount that would be paid upfront (multiplied by a factor to compensate for the the delayed payout) is earned over time within a certain period? It would also be helpful if you could suggest over places could ask this question.
 

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 8, 2005
Messages
19,519
Reaction score
22,742
Location
Aotearoa
I’m an octogenarian who has written a book. My existing sources of income are adequate to support my life style so my desire to see the book succeed is not monetary.
All of this leads me to wonder the following: If I self publish with a print on demand arrangement can I find a partner to promote and sell the book who will accept, instead of an up front fee, the ability to collect all of the proceeds of the book until such time as the amount that would be paid upfront (multiplied by a factor to compensate for the the delayed payout) is earned over time within a certain period? It would also be helpful if you could suggest over places could ask this question.
We can probably better advise you if you can define for us what you mean by "see the book succeed." Is there a particular target you have -- copy number sold, winning a particular award, book store placement, favourable review in a specific venue?

And can you tell us genre, length, etc?

Having said that, I'm not aware of any business that will invest time and money in publishing a book in return for a portion of its future earnings -- other than a standard trade publisher.
 

Polenth

Mushroom
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
5,017
Reaction score
735
Location
England
Website
www.polenthblake.com
You shouldn't be paying someone an upfront fee to publish your book. That's vanity publishing and not the same thing. With self-publishing, you upload your book directly (for example, to Amazon) and don't pay anything unless a book sells. When a book sells, the vendor keeps a cut and the rest is put in a balance for you. The money is held for a few months in case customers want a refund. If they don't, you're paid the money.

You may need to pay someone to do things like cover art for you, depending on your skills. This isn't the same as paying someone to publish for you.

You aren't going to find someone who wants to promote your book for a portion of the sales. Vanity publishers that say they do this are lying. There are some promotional things you can pay for, but really, the first step is getting the book ready to go.
 

Al X.

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 9, 2017
Messages
1,042
Reaction score
587
Location
V-Town, check it out yo
Website
www.authoralexryan.com
There are services out there that will offer to be your "publisher" for your self-published book. They are scams, and you basically sign the rights over to your book in exchange for them handling the administration end of self-publishing (uploading the finished product to Amazon and various other self-publishing outlets.) You do the work, and they keep most of the money if it does sell. No, they aren't going to magically make more copies of your book sell. Book promotions take time, money and effort, and no such service is going to expend either on a self-published work.
 

Barbara R.

Old Hand in the Biz
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
1,963
Reaction score
242
Location
New York
Website
www.barbararogan.com
I’m an octogenarian who has written a book. My existing sources of income are adequate to support my life style so my desire to see the book succeed is not monetary.
All of this leads me to wonder the following: If I self publish with a print on demand arrangement can I find a partner to promote and sell the book who will accept, instead of an up front fee, the ability to collect all of the proceeds of the book until such time as the amount that would be paid upfront (multiplied by a factor to compensate for the the delayed payout) is earned over time within a certain period? It would also be helpful if you could suggest over places could ask this question.

First of all, congrats on finishing your book!

Second, you will not find anyone honest who will agree to partner with you in return for potential royalties if and when the book sells. If you could sell your book to a trade (aka traditional) publisher, they would bear all the expenses of publishing in return for part of the proceeds. But they would have to believe the book has the potential to sell many thousands of copies for them to take that on.

If you self-publish, all expenses fall on you. If you use a vanity press (aka assisted publishing, subsidy publishing, "new paradigm" publishing and many other obfuscating terms) all expenses still fall on you, but the bulk of your money will go into their pockets. Their business plan depends on profiting from the author, not the ultimate buyer. For most neophyte self-published writers, sales figures tend to be in the dozens, not the thousands, so there's nothing there to tempt honest publishers, only the vanity sort.

All that said, it's not a bad idea to have a POD option for readers who prefer print. Your best bet is to look into reputable service-providers (Smashwords I believe is one, and other forum members will know others) that offer a POD option. You're still going to end up out of pocket, but at least all the money will go into your books, not their pockets.

Just be careful. There are a lot of bad players out there. Keep coming back here for feedback, and if you're not already familiar with Writer Beware, best bookmark it.

Good luck!
 

M. H. Lee

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
501
Reaction score
67
KDP Print is probably the simplest POD option to use in this situation. Although I believe Draft2Digital has a service now to convert a Word document into a print version so that might be the better choice. As others have said, it doesn't actually have to cost a thing to publish a book. KDP actually provides a basic cover creator that you can use that will provide you with an adequate cover for the ebook and/or the print. With a little effort, this could all be done for no cost at all. Only question is # of sales because that is likely to be quite low without promotion.
 

pattmayne

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 7, 2017
Messages
50
Reaction score
5
Location
Ottawa, Canada
Website
www.pattmayne.com
I've never heard of anybody offering the services you're talking about.

If they don't know that your book is great, then all they know is that it's self-published, which means it probably won't sell any copies, and so it would seem like a waste of their time to promote your book in the hopes of making a profit.

So if such services existed, I'd be really suspicious of them. You're basically looking for a publisher!

Why are you choosing self-publishing?
 

Dave.C.Robinson

... with the High Command
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
2,130
Reaction score
186
Location
At the computer
Website
www.daverobinsonwrites.com
For what it's worth, I did KDP print with my self-published books and while it took me some effort to figure out the layout etc. I've actually made more so far this month from my paperbacks than I have from ebooks. That's not bad for zero additional investment except for my time.
 

Cephus

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 1, 2018
Messages
259
Reaction score
66
Almost certainly not. Most self-published books fail. Either the book wasn't any good to begin with, the author had no idea how to properly market, the competition was too great, they were writing in a genre that wasn't hungry, etc. Mostly it's a combination of the above. Nobody is going to do all the hard work on a book that may completely flop. If you want someone to do it, you're going to have to shell out the money up front or learn how to do the marketing on your own. That's what self-publishing is, after all. You do it yourself.