The WellFed SelfPublisher: How to Turn One Book into a FullTime Living,New

Landing a publisher has never been harder. So many want to get published, but few understand the enormous challenges, the fierce competition, and the merciless reality of bookstore shelf. But, what if you are one of the lucky ones to land a publisher? Well, heres what you can count on: anemic royalty rates, 18 to 24 months to publication, and giving up the rights to your book. And guess what? Youll still be expected to do most of the marketing yourself! Theres a better way. Thanks to the Internet, selfpublishing has become easier, more viable, and more potentially lucrative than ever before. In 2000, veteran commercial freelancer Peter Bowerman selfpublished The WellFed Writer (an award winning BookoftheMonth Club selection) and in 2005, he did the same with its companion, TWFW: Back For Seconds (tripleawardfinalist). The books became standards in the lucrative field of commercial freelancing: writing for businesses, large and small, and for hourly rates of $60125+ or more. As this is written, together, the two books about 50,000 copies in print had earned him a fulltime living for over five years. The definition of a fulltime living (straight from the horses mouth): Okay, were not talking pickingoutchateauxintheSouthofFrance kind of money, but the book paid all my bills (including a couple of print runs each year), allowed me to stay the course in funding my retirement account, stay completely out of debt, and take a few nice vacations each year. Would that work for you? The WellFed SelfPublisher is a 300page, detailed, stepbystep blueprint that explains exactly how the author did what he did. According to Bowerman, This book is for those who really want to turn their passionate creative efforts into real paythemortgage money. Acknowledging that selfpublishing carries an enormous amount of negative baggage (and deservedly so), the author says the focus of the book is to dramatically raise the bar on quality, for starters: Ill show you how to create a book indistinguishable in quality from one produced by a reputable publishing company; how to do a far better job of marketing and promoting that book than a publisher ever could; and how to make far more money than you ever would with that publisher. And by doing it all yourself, you control the timetable (potentially shaving 12 to 18 months off production). Plus, you retain all the rights, allowing you to leverage the brand youve created into a host of profitable spinoff businesses each with its own income stream. Starting from perhaps notsoobvious fundamentals (Write a book people will want to read), the book progresses through a discussion of the significant limitations of the conventional publishing model (despite the best intentions of most publishers). Then, in a nod to the outright panic and terror most creatives experience at the mere mention of the term sales and marketing, the book provides an entire early chapter to help demystify these often daunting concepts. As Bowerman is quick to point out, Success as a selfpublisher is far more a function of a process than an aptitude. Its far less about some way you have to be than it is about a bunch of things you have to do. At that point, the book kicks into gear, offering up discussing indepth discussions of book production, distribution, marketing, promotion, publicity (through ones own web site, the Internet, radio, article writing, bookstores and far beyond), Amazon, spinoff businesses, and an entire chapter on the controversial socalled revolution known as POD publishing (printondemand). The book finishes with five appendices offering up resources and a time line for the selfpublisher, a primer on foreign rights, and more.