Publishing your own work has never been easier, but easy is a relative term as co-hosts Glenn Fleishman and Matthew Amster-Burton discuss. Glenn recently produced a hardcover book with ebook and print-on-demand editions. Matthew has a series of ebooks underway. The two have both worked with conventional publishers in the past. The devil is in the many thousands of details: one wrong move and countless hours can be wasted.
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Show notes
The Magazine: The Book ultimately appeared in three editions:
- Hardcover
- Ebook
- Createspace (print on demand)
The fork is your enemy.
Matthew's story
- Started with Hungry Monkey
- Turned rejection into self-publishing
- Fan base from Spilled Milk Podcast
- Freelance food writer
Things publishers consider:
- No guarantee of sales
- Niche market is tricky and risky
- Profit and loss
The Magazine: The Book:
- Subscribers help as patrons
- Kickstarter lessons learned: long post-mortem published on Medium
- Dance troupe analogy
Know your audience:
- Don't overestimate the size of your audience
- Don't underestimate the size of your audience
Non-perishable books.
Why crowdfund and not self-fund?
- Copyediting expenses
- Cover design expenses
- Vanity project
- Is there another way?
- To gauge interest
- Pre-sales are awesome
- Looks are pretty damn important
Pages from Apple is pretty decent.
The quality of bookiness
- Codex
- Type
- Interface to words and thoughts
Budget needs to cover
- Copyediting
- Developmental editing
- Cover design
- Interior design
- Software
Glenn's tip: Choose the correct trim size!
Forks galore!
Matthew and Glenn's Saga of Unintended Budget Consequences
Print budget additionally needs to cover:
- Printing (for offset)
- Shipping (for offset). Note: International shipping will cost a million dollars.
- Startup costs (for some print-on-demand providers)
- Additional cover and interior design
- ISBNs (may also need for ebook)
- ISBNs image (EPS, typically)
Kickstarter price discrimination
Glenn's thoughts on The Magazine: The Book, Year 2.
Amazon's inertia, power and domination
Thoughts on distribution
Glenn's New Disruptors podcast episode with Ada's Bookstore owner
Matthew's new ebook: Child Octopus
Book thoughts: Matthew vs. Glenn
For immortality, choose wisely.
