Publishing on our own
About two weeks ago Chuck and I made the decision to proceed with self publication and marketing. This was not easy as the allure of a traditional publishing contract is powerful. Visions of talk shows, a savvy publisher marketing team, our book displayed in bookstores everywhere is enticing. But there are significant downsides to going with one of the major New York publishers. For one, you surrender all control. They select the publication date, and worse, they decide when to stop shipping books. It is, as well, very difficult to coordinate your marketing efforts with those of the publisher as they withhold so much information. Next, you give up ownership. In the old days a year after the book went out of print the rights returned to the authors. No more. Now the publishers turn to print-on-demand and sell just enough copies each year to keep the rights indefinitely. The consequence is to keep you from self-publishing or pursuing other potential deals. Finally, your rate of return pe