Internet Authors Don't Need Money

Perhaps the biggest surprise to all would-be writers and first-time authors is that they don't need to spend a pile of money to see their brand new book get into print. You can do it through the internet these days for practically nothing, probably for not more than the price of each book itself. Look at it another way: most aspiring authors imagine that one day they can go into their local bookshop and see their own books up there, on the shelves, alongside all the other great and famous people. Then, taking a book down, they would probably march up to the counter and proudly say, 'I'll take this, please. After all, I wrote it'. Then you pay. That's fair, isn't it? You wouldn't expect the bookshop to give you the book for free, would you? No, it doesn't seem unreasonable that at least you might have to put out for the cost of a single book. Well, that's how 'print on demand' publishers work on the web. You want a copy of your book, you pay for it. One at a time. You want six? You pay for six. Same as if you found it in a bookshop.

The big reason it's a darn surprise is because that's not what authors are being told. They are led to believe that there is only one way to get your book published at little or no charge, and that's through having a contract with a Traditional Publisher. Every other route, we are told, will end up costing us an arm and a leg. There isn't any sort of cost-effective alternative, we are assured. Of course, that's wrong. It might be how things used to be, in the old days. Back then, it was either get a publisher to like your book and let them publish it, (at their expense), or else pay a 'Vanity Publisher' some exorbitant amount of money to transform your proto-manuscript into book form. It cost, and you the author would pay. The 'old days'? Those days are gone. Look up a company like Lulu on the internet and see what their terms are. You'll be amazed.

Of course, there's the other end too. That's the point at which Traditional Publishers give you, the author, money. Writers need cash, we are told. You need to be rich, the publisher tells us. That's a lie, too. People who create books, then put them out through the internet are amazed how quickly they can make a small amount of money from sales. Then even greater pleasure they find that they don't have to share their 'winnings' with an assortment of hangers-on. No, it all goes in their pocket. The alternative, up to now, has been the dream of landing a big offer from a publisher. Just imagine: your manuscript is languishing on the desk of a publisher or agent, when suddenly the phone call comes. Your work has gone through a bidding process, they tell you, and the talk is of offering you a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Hey, that's great. Uh, two problems. One is that the figure is gross, before deductions. They haven't yet mentioned the top slices that all the hangers-on want. The literary agent wants ten per cent (at least); and then there's the solicitor, the accountant, the PR guy, and the advertising exec (plus the advertising budget that you'll be expected to pay for yourself). And there's tax to pay isn't there always? Second, and an even bigger disappointment, is when you find out that what they're offering is not a fee it's an 'advance' on your earnings. If you sell a lot of books (and you might not), you'll be pleased to receive a statement from the publisher telling you you've earned, oh say, a quarter of a million after the first year of sales. Great. Big bucks! Well, no, because you've already had a hundred and fifty thousand, remember? It was an 'advance', so it's simply deducted from the amount they were going to give you anyway. You got it up front, so that was good, but it was still your money, and you don't get any more until you've earned it through sales. (No sales? You might end up owing them money!)

The two scenarios are two sides of the same coin. The idea that publishing is all about large amounts of money lots of money in costs to publish a book, and lots of money to be earned from a book. Neither of those long-established but dubious 'facts' is still true, in today's internet age. But there's another kicker in the tail. The lure of 'big money' is one of the promises that has, up to now, managed to sustain the top-heavy world of Traditional Publishing. Because there are a few big earners in the world and, let's face it, you could count them on one hand all the other hopeful and trying authors get a false vision of what could be waiting for them out there, in the future, once they've written the 'best seller'. Let's be brutally honest. If you've written a book, the most likely outcome is that you will send it to a few publishers, they will turn it down, you will get disappointed and quit. The chances of you every getting it published are low, to say the least. But, and this is where it really starts looking like the world of Traditional Publishing is a casino at best, even if you do get published, (which was a long shot, remember?), the chances of you making 'big bucks' is remote. Most published authors don't earn a living from their work, let alone a fortune.

That's a 'double whammy', as we call it in England, and a pair of reasons why Internet Publishing is so much an option for the vast majority of writers. Here's the plan: write the book; publish it on the internet; think about submitting your efforts to Traditional Publishers. Hmm, somewhere along the line, we lost the promise of big money, huge houses and a luxurious lifestyle. Since it was only a vague and distant promise in the first place, actually we haven't lost much, have we?