| I have been putting pen to paper since the age of | | | | had just started. |
| thirteen with various levels of success. Apart | | | | The entire process comprised of the following |
| from my regular job, I took to freelance writing in | | | | phases: |
| 2005. This entailed various odd content related | | | | |
| stuff like website content, marketing collateral, | | | | 1. Signing a standard author contract with the |
| brochures etc. In 2005 I decided to seriously write | | | | publisher |
| a book. In fact, I have had always wanted to | | | | 2. Getting an ISBN allotted to the book |
| write a novel but it never materialized. Some got | | | | 3. Getting the cover page designed |
| abandoned after the title selection and some after | | | | 4. Laying out the manuscript for it to be print |
| a few pages. It took me close to 4 years to | | | | ready |
| write Have a Pleasant Journey, my first book. I | | | | 5. Printing |
| started writing Have a Pleasant Journey in 2005 | | | | Just like traditional publishing, POD service |
| and had to fight distractions like affairs, jobs and | | | | providers ask you to submit your manuscript. You |
| marriage (not in that order) to complete it in the | | | | can either edit and proofread your manuscript |
| latter half of 2009. | | | | yourself or engage the POD's services to do the |
| Publishing experience: | | | | same. The book cover design comes next and |
| Now that I look back, the easiest part of the | | | | finally the listing. Most POD service providers have |
| entire exercise was writing the book. Getting it | | | | their own online bookstore. The listing is free but |
| published was a different ballgame altogether. | | | | it comes for a price (more on that later). Once |
| I had completed the first draft in Oct 2009. I was | | | | the book gets listed, all one has to do is shop for |
| so tired of getting it finished that I wanted to get | | | | it online. After the payment is confirmed, the |
| it out of my system. I wanted to get this done | | | | publisher would go ahead and print a copy and |
| and move on. But before I could send the | | | | ship it. |
| manuscript to the publishers, I wanted to check | | | | In my case, the above 5 took less than a month |
| whether this story was worth reading. The | | | | as I had already formatted my manuscript for a |
| easiest way was to give a printed copy each to | | | | 5"x8" book. |
| my wife and a friend for reading it. I told them | | | | Show me the money: |
| not to pay attention to grammar and/or typos. I | | | | The basic services of a POD provider are free. |
| wish I had not given them that brief. After I got | | | | These include, ISBN allotment (in India at least it |
| their feedback, I started off with the editing. | | | | is) and book submission. Most of the POD service |
| There was a problem with this though. I was so | | | | providers do not screen submissions but some do |
| acclimatized with what I had written over the | | | | for language and the content. If you want to go |
| years that I was overlooking all the mistakes. | | | | beyond the basics (ISBN, printing, binding etc), and |
| I should have edited, re-written, re-edited and | | | | add proofreading, editing, formatting, cover design, |
| re-written some more before I submitted the | | | | marketing services, and the like, you will have to |
| manuscript to publishers and literary agencies. Not | | | | purchase these services separately. Now comes |
| that my chances of getting published were | | | | the second most trickiest and complicated part of |
| affected by the substandard language (I had read | | | | getting a book published (I'll talk about the No. 1 |
| bad books in terms of language and grammar | | | | trickiest part later): Pricing the book. |
| making their presence felt in bookstores), I just | | | | Let's discuss the cost price of the book first. I'll |
| wanted to deliver a book which was in proper | | | | discuss this with an example. Let's suppose that |
| English. How difficult could that be, you ask? | | | | the book is of 195 pages. At a rate of 60paise |
| Well, quite difficult if you ask me. | | | | per page, the printing cost would come to Rs 117. |
| I found out that it is very difficult to write a book | | | | Now you add the printing cost of the colored |
| without making any mistakes and even more | | | | cover page and perfect binding, which is Rs 60. |
| difficult to find those out alone. The typos that | | | | He is the lowdown, point wise: |
| creep in during the writing process are always | | | | - Cost of printing the book: Rs 117 |
| very difficult to find by the author. My suggestion | | | | - Cost of printing the cover page and binding: Rs |
| would be to take help from people who know | | | | 60 |
| their English. In the 8 rounds of editing that my | | | | - Total cost price: Rs 177 |
| book went through, I managed to find hundreds | | | | So Rs 177 is the cost of 1 copy. Now comes the |
| of mistakes. This continued till the time it finally | | | | "author's cut" or royalty. As an author who thinks |
| went into print. | | | | that you have delivered your magnum opus, you |
| I was so excited at having completed the | | | | would obviously want some of the book sales |
| manuscript that I sent it out to all publishing | | | | proceeds to come into your pocket. Fair enough! |
| houses after a couple of rounds of cursory | | | | Now here's the deal. It's a trade off between low |
| editing. I later realized that the manuscript had | | | | royalty (and higher volumes in terms of sale) or |
| huge holes in the plot interspersed with | | | | high royalty (which might result in low sales |
| in-your-face grammatical and typographical errors. | | | | volume). I'll leave it to you to decide how much is |
| It was no surprise that the manuscript was | | | | too much. |
| rejected by many. If I read the book again after | | | | Now comes the price for listing and the |
| a year or so, I am sure to find a few hundred | | | | commission. Yes you heard me correctly. The |
| more mistakes. That's the power of editing and | | | | online book retailer takes his/her own commission |
| re-editing. | | | | for listing and selling the book. There are 3 options |
| After giving up on finding mistakes, I chose to go | | | | when it comes to retailing your book: the POD |
| for professional help. Just as I was about to send | | | | service provider's online bookstore, 3rd party |
| out the manuscript to a professional copy editor, | | | | retailers (e.g. Indiaplaza, Flipkart etc.) and brick and |
| a publishing house showed interest and I dropped | | | | mortar bookstores. Here's how the pricing would |
| the editing idea. Bad choice, I'd say. | | | | work for the 3 options: |
| The publishing contract never materialized and I | | | | 1. If you get your book listed on the POD service |
| was left with my mistake-ridden manuscript. I | | | | provider's online bookstore, you will have to pay a |
| went back to the MS Word document and read it | | | | commission of 20%. After the 20% is deducted |
| word by word till I was convinced that I had | | | | you will have to pay for the printing cost of your |
| pulled up every single word, sentence and | | | | book. After the printing cost is met, whatever |
| punctuation mark that was guilty of making the | | | | remains will be your (authors) revenue. |
| book a badly-written one. I was happy with the | | | | - Suppose you price the book at Rs. 250, then |
| result but alas it was too late. I had already sent | | | | after deducting the 20% commission the price will |
| out the "badly-written" book to the publishers. | | | | be Rs. 200. From this you will have to pay for the |
| Pursuing traditional publishers and literary agencies | | | | printing cost of your book which will be Rs. |
| was quite interesting though. I started off by | | | | 200-177. So the author's cut would be Rs 23. |
| creating 4 documents: | | | | |
| | | | 1. If you get your book listed on Indiaplaza and |
| 1. A proposal or covering letter | | | | Flipkart, you will have to pay a commission of |
| 2. A sample chapter document (1/3/5 chapter/s | | | | 45% and 40% respectively. |
| sample, based on specific publisher's requirements) | | | | 2. If you want distributors to market your book |
| 3. A synopsis of the story | | | | to brick and mortar bookstores, they will |
| 4. Author bio | | | | distribute a minimum of 100 copies. These 100 |
| After the book proposal along with the sample | | | | books will have to be printed at the cost of the |
| chapters and synopsis are sent, you wait. Yes, | | | | author. The author will have to offer a discount of |
| wait till you lose patience. It normally takes around | | | | 50% on the MRP of each book. Books will be on |
| 4-6 weeks for the publishers to get back with a | | | | returnable basis. You can receive a count of your |
| response: positive or negative. If it is a direct | | | | books at any time on request from the POD |
| rejection, you move on but if they show interest, | | | | service provider. |
| don't be too excited. You are not there yet. | | | | Marketing the Book: |
| If the publisher likes your synopsis and sample | | | | Now let me come to the trickiest (discussing this |
| chapters, they might ask for the entire | | | | as promised earlier) part of self-publishing or going |
| manuscript. The manuscript evaluation might take | | | | the POD way. It's marketing. The downside of |
| between 6 weeks to 6 months since a publishing | | | | self-publishing or using the services of a POD |
| house receives hundreds of proposals every day. | | | | service provider is the absence of marketing |
| I started sending out the above documents to | | | | backbone. When I mean "absence", I mean it is |
| publishing houses and literary agencies. All this | | | | not free or at the cost of the publisher. In |
| happened a month after I had completed the | | | | traditional publishing, the publisher pays for the |
| manuscript and 2 rounds of editing. I waited with | | | | marketing which includes press releases, book |
| bated breath for a response from any one of | | | | launches and author signing. In self-publishing or |
| them. | | | | POD, it comes for a price and this comes out of |
| The very first response came from a renowned | | | | the author's pocket. |
| Indian literary agency. The lady mentioned in her | | | | If you have the money, you can go a long way in |
| email that they had a first reading and appraisal | | | | getting publicity for your book and selling it |
| fee depending on the word count of my | | | | (provided it's worth reading). If you want free |
| manuscript which would give me a detailed | | | | marketing, then you need to be smart. Not that I |
| feedback by the team of within eight weeks. She | | | | have sold billion copies and am a pro in this but I'm |
| further mentioned that paying didn't ensure the | | | | learning and trying. So here are my two paisa on |
| team accepting my work for representation. The | | | | generating that buzz for you book that will get it |
| reading fee came to 10K. | | | | sold and fly off the virtual online bookshelf. |
| Nice start, I said to myself. | | | | |
| Then a call came from a publishing house. He said | | | | 1. Get someone of importance to review your |
| that they were willing to publish my book at a flat | | | | book. Good or bad, at least people will know |
| fee of 35K which included 20 free copies. I asked | | | | about your book. |
| him whether those 20 copies would be the only | | | | 2. Check and convince a bookstore to stock your |
| ones in circulation. He said something profound | | | | book and offer free book reading sessions. |
| that involved dreams, 20 copies and 35K in a | | | | 3. Offer a monthly newsletter that has |
| single sentence. I still haven't understood what he | | | | information about your books in particular and the |
| said. I never heard from him again. | | | | publishing world in general. |
| Next came the rejections. They were short, | | | | 4. Offer sample chapters of your book for free. |
| sweet and invariably ended with wishes for my | | | | 5. Print personalized business card with your |
| book finding another home. I was okay with | | | | book's details and offer them to anyone |
| rejections as they gave me a feeling of closure | | | | interested. |
| unlike some publishers who just wanted me to | | | | 6. Network socially. This could be offline and online. |
| hang onto the edge. These were the ones who | | | | Use the power of Internet to exploit the |
| made me wait a week at a time till I lost all hope | | | | marketing buzz creating potential of Facebook, |
| and patience. | | | | Orkut, Linkedin, Twitter etc. Believe me, doing this |
| My POD Journey | | | | will result in creating and increasing the buzz at an |
| I have a flaw. I don't have patience. If you want | | | | exponential rate. |
| to get your book published by a traditional | | | | 7. Generate original content on the publishing |
| publisher, learn to have patience. Since I had | | | | industry and issues surrounding your book and |
| already waited 7 months for the book to be | | | | publish them on your website, blog or ezine sites. |
| accepted, I was not too keen to wait anymore. | | | | You can even write on the aspects of being a |
| After researching on the subject, I zeroed in on | | | | published writer similar to this one. |
| Print on Demand or POD. | | | | 8. If everything fails and you have the money, |
| Print on demand (POD) as the name suggests is a | | | | hire a PR/marketing firm to publicize your book. |
| service wherein a book is not printed until an | | | | At the end of the day, publicity or no publicity, |
| order has been received and paid for. So, if there | | | | marketing or no marketing, traditional or |
| is a specific demand, the book would be printed. | | | | self-publishing, it is the quality of your book that |
| This ensures that there is no inventory or unsold | | | | will take it far or fall flat on its face. If your book |
| stock. This also means a fixed cost per copy | | | | is good, it will find a place in the reader's |
| which is higher than offset printing. In offset | | | | bookshelf. |
| printing, the setup cost (i.e. making the print | | | | The tools: |
| plates) is higher but as the print runs are high, the | | | | We all have only one lifetime to achieve our |
| overall cost comes cheaper than POD. | | | | dreams. If you want to see your book getting |
| POD is not without its share of risks, the main | | | | published during this lifetime, then you need to |
| being content quality. Anyone with a manuscript, | | | | manage your time well. With all plot and sub-plot |
| irrespective of its content quality can go for POD | | | | ideas, characters and settings, it is very easy to |
| and get a book published. If you will, POD is a | | | | lose focus on your time lines. |
| form of self-publishing minus all the hassles. | | | | As a first time writer, it is very important to |
| In India ISBN (unique book identification number) is | | | | deliberately and systematically measure and keep |
| given out free. In my case, I could either have | | | | track of your progress. |
| got myself an ISBN for my book and published it | | | | There are a number of ways to track your |
| under my own name or taken help of POD | | | | progress. Some may use free tools available |
| experts. I opted for the latter as it was easier | | | | online to keep track of your daily word count and |
| and simpler. | | | | some may use spreadsheets. For keeping track |
| The following are the 2 most reliable POD service | | | | of the progress on my first book, I had come up |
| providers in India: | | | | with a spreadsheet which automatically showed |
| · Pothi | | | | whether I was "On Track" or is the project |
| · CinnamonTeal | | | | "Delayed". This spreadsheet might come in handy |
| For authors who are outside India or who want to | | | | for any writer. Get in touch with me to get this |
| market their book outside India, here are a few | | | | spreadsheet. The cells have comments which |
| options: | | | | would make user-input fairly easy. |
| · Lulu | | | | At the end of the day, I'd say, it's the journey |
| · TheBookPatch | | | | which matters, not the destination. I suggest you |
| · Xlibris | | | | never lose touch with the pleasure of writing. |
| · Amazon's CreateSpace | | | | Write what you would like to read. Getting |
| After some discussions with CinnamonTeal, I | | | | published is just a perk but the satisfaction you'd |
| decided that this Goa based POD service provider | | | | get by writing a book is something that can only |
| was the one I would tie up with. This was in June | | | | be experienced to believe it. |
| 2010. My journey of becoming a published author | | | | All the best! |