We all know that there are pros and cons on all sides of the question. But I was extraordinarily impressed with the time one participant took to answer the question in depth—so impressed, in fact, that I asked her permission to repost her comments here. Take them to heart.

I think that one of the most difficult things for authors to grasp is that finishing the writing part of the book is truly only the beginning of their work …

If I may weigh in on this, from the vantage point of someone who is neither author nor publisher nor IndyAuthor, but works with all of the forementioned…

In my experience, the single biggest obstacle that authors have on the road to self-publishing is themselves, period. I have exceedingly few authors who come through my metaphysical doors prepared to be publishers. Most authors get to the point where they type “The End,” and think they’re done; and many feel that, quite bluntly, they shouldn’t have to do anything further. At most, they think that they should have to suffer through editing their work—but most never think about what is truly involved in publishing, which isn’t the same thing as printing.

Moreover, I’ve yet to meet the client that was legacy-published (advance- and royalties-paid author, not subsidy author) who ever felt that their publisher “had done enough for them.” (This is not a criticism of the OP; this is simply a recitation of the sentiment expressed by and large by over 1,000 author-clients, a very large percentage of whom have been legacy-pubbed.) I speculate that this sensation, by the author, generally (not always) comes from a true lack of appreciation for what publishing actually takes, or how much work is involved.

At Booknook.biz, in fact, we’ve been working on a set of documents or tutorials with a lame working title of “So, You Want to Be a Publisher,” which in very broad strokes outlines all the nine bajillion things that a publisher does that an author doesn’t. It’s a long list.

I am asked by clients daily for recommendations for “publicists” and other fantastical creatures to do the work of publicity for their books. I am asked by authors daily to “get their ISBNs” for them, to “pick the cover designer,” to “upload their books for them,” and while we’re at it, can I find them an editor (who works for less than minimum wage), find a $25 cover designer, find royalty-free fonts to replace the expensive fonts they used in their ms (because finding, licensing and downloading fonts is “too hard”), and can they hire someone to send emails to bloggers to get reviews for their books? I am asked not less than five times a day how much an author should price his/her books at; and can I get them a list of the 50 best book bloggers for their genre, or tell them how to get a review at MBR for their ebook, while I’m at it?

This—all of this—is what a publisher does. Researching everything: from traditional publishing to subsidy publishing to indy publishing; buying ISBNs; assigning an imprint name; researching cover design styles, finding a cover designer, negotiating the fees for the cover, finding and licensing art for the cover, finding and licensing fonts for the cover (if the cover designer isn’t doing that) and for the interior; registering the copyright, determining how you will distribute your book (aggregator or yourself, or only in eBook form?), researching the niche/genre and the pricing therefore; learning how to navigate, use and leverage Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Library Thing; writing press releases, finding review blogs for your genre, deciding whether NetGalley is worth the price, determining whether KDP select is for you, scheduling book tours, virtual and physical—and, oh yes, doing all the accounting, bookkeeping and tax documents yourself.

This is what a publisher does, indy, small imprint or Random House. Far too many authors, in my experience, think of themselves as “artists,” and not as businesspeople. As hobbyists, not commercial enterprises.

Here’s the bottom line: publishing is a business. If you are not prepared to be businesslike about it, and run your book(s) like a small business, you are probably better off using a subsidy press and not doing much—and don’t expect much (because, after all, the vast majority of “subsidy” or “partner” publishers are really just grossly over-compensated printers, and you could do the same thing at Createspace for far less money, and get better distribution).

If you are prepared to put in the blood, sweat and tears—and reap the rewards—then indy publishing is for you.

Now, none of this will make a bad book good; but not doing any of it will certainly help tank a good book. And the part that most miss is that, promotionally-speaking, this is the same work that legacy-pubbed midlisters have to do every day, so the differences in the workload are really quite small.

I know—believe me!—that many authors are very shy people, and cringe at the idea of all of this–but this is what it takes. Self-publishing is indeed, in our lifetimes (as it was in Ben Franklin’s, and Aristotle’s, for that matter) a brave new frontier; but one has to remove the artist’s beret and put on that entrepreneur’s hat. If you can do that, then it’s a fantastic opportunity to do well.

The author of this post is Kimberly Hitchens (“Hitch”), and one of the things she does is produce ebooks. She’s listed as an Amazon Professional Conversion Service and an INScribe Preferred Conversion Partner. Follow Hitch on Twitter as well, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Note that I said “seen as an authority.” The sad reality is that the internet has changed the way we perceive others. The person who has invested years of her life to become an expert is easily supplanted by a Jane-come-lately who knows how to wrap Google around her little finger.

Authority is about perception. What people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

So whether you really are an expert, or you want people to think you are, here are some steps to getting there:

• Forget selling, it’s about teaching. The “hard sell” may still work when it’s a Jeep or a Honda you’re selling, but it doesn’t work in the internet world. What is valued online is content, knowledge, information. Use your website and your social media posts to teach people about your field of expertise. The more they see you teaching, the more authority you’ll be given.
• Content is king. Providing lots of foundational content that changes frequently will help you become the go-to authority in your field.
• Provide strong headlines. Most writers don’t think in terms of headlines, but they’re essential. Without a great headline, no one will even get as far as reading your content.
• Find your ambassadors. Every time you have a positive experience with a client, reader, or customer, use that person for a reference, referral, or testimonial. If you don’t ask, they won’t offer. Remind them to tell others about how great you are.
• Make them ask for you. In the heyday of direct-mail marketing, the power was in the list. Guess what——it’s still true! Whether you manage an opt-in email list (you can call it a newsletter if you’d feel more comfortable with that), have people subscribing
  to your blog, or accumulate followers on Twitter, the more people request contact from you, the higher your authority ranking will be.
• Don’t neglect SEO. Search engine optimization is still real. It needs to be integrated with social media, but it’s still one of the most important things you can do to boost the authority of your site.
• Take care of your people. Getting followers and subscribers is just the beginning. You need to be available to them, keep your updates current with them, and interact with them. The more you do, the more they’ll follow.

And that’s it. Not all that difficult, is it? The key to becoming (and staying!) an authority isn’t any kind of esoteric knowledge, but just going through these simple steps … and then doing them over and over again. Try it and see how it works for you! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

I’ve talked before in this blog about the do-it-yourself method of book publicity, and I’ll no doubt talk about it again; but today let’s say you’ve decided to spend some money and hire a book publicist.

There’s a range of choices available, and it’s hard to evaluate them all and decide which will work best for you … in other words, provide the best return on your not unsubstantial investment. And that’s something that you need to understand upfront: this costs money. Lots of it.

So let’s take a look at a few of your options:

1. Public relations firms: full-service professionals experienced at conducting a book-publicity campaign of limited duration. They’ll write media communications, transmit them, and follow up to confirm media interest, placement of stories, and booking interviews for you. Cost may vary but will typically run $5,000 to $10,000 per month for several months. You can negotiate what exactly you want them to do.
2. Pay-for-performance firms: specialized PR firms that will get you interviews and feature stories but will charge only when they’re successful. Costs will vary on the number and quality of the shows or articles. You can pay anywhere from $100 per interview up to $25,000 per placement on major national syndicated prime-time shows. The menu of options also includes things like a suite of satellite TV interviews, where you can do 25 to 50 news time interviews in major metropolitan areas of one to three minutes apiece for $15,000 to 25,000.



3. Specialty book publicists: specialized public-relations work on a task or contract basis, performing various tasks or services over an extended period of time. Costs will run from $1,000 a week to $4,000 a week, depending on the publcist’s reputation and what you ask them to do. Some have minimum project sizes of $4,000 to $6,000.

You need a good working relationship with your publicist to get the most for your publicity-project dollars. Remember that the publicist is working for you. At a minimum you should receive a weekly report detailing what has been done and what the action plans are for the next week. “Pitching to major newspapers,” is not a concrete plan of action.

You need to be working toward the same goals and establish clear and ongoing communication with your PR firm. And don’t think that hiring them means you can sit back and wait for the interviews to roll in! The best marketing results are those that combine the efforts of your PR team and your own efforts, working online and offline to spread the word about your book. Do that, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

How does it work?

1. Write an article first. Make it a decent article, one that contains useful information for people interested in your subject. Make sure to include any keywords you’re targeting in the article, but don’t overdo it — some of the article directories won’t allow overuse of keywords.
2. If you’re an author, what you do want to do is submit fairly short articles highlighting something (an angle about your book perhaps) that it reads like a mini-infomercial. These are then copied by people looking for content for their websites, newsletters, blogs, etc. The trick is that when they copy the article they are required to keep the “resource box” or “author bio” intact. It is here that you list yourself, your book/website/blog, and put in the links (usually a maximum of three). You not only get links via the article directories that you submit to, but if anyone uses your article, you get more links.
3. Submit the article. At the end of the article, there’s usually a space for a signature line of sorts: this is where you can provide the link back to your website. Change the sig line you use so that you can point to specific pages within your website — search engines like that.
4. If you want the same article to be on your blog, go ahead — just be sure to post it to your blog first, before you put it on the article directory site. That will keep you from being penalized for duplicate content. Wait for a couple of weeks before re-posting to the articles sites, and change the title and some of the content.
5. Article directories are generally free, though some will charge for faster service or for more prominent placement. In my experience, it’s not useful to pay these extra charges; just keep a flow of articles going out and providing links back to your blog or website.
6. Remember that these directories aren’t like magazines or journals. There’s some editorial screening, but it’s mostly to be sure that the article is on topic and not over-using keywords. You may not be in great literary company on the sites, but that’s not the point: it’s to get the links to your site. HOWEVER … don’t think this means you can be messy or submit anything but your best work — that sort of thing will come back to haunt you. Besides, you may wish to give the article URL to potential clients, etc., to show your thought leadership in your vertical. Often, as I mentioend above, these articles will be copied by others looking for content, which is good — they’re required to maintain the link back to you and your name on the piece, and this increases both backlinks and your reputation — but it means that you really can’t make this a halfhearted attempt at writing. If you don’t have a writer on staff, contract with a freelance writer: you won’t regret it.

Where do you find these directories? Here as always, Google is your friend: in about thirty seconds I found this list.

Squidoo is its own little world. Here your article takes the form of what they call a “lens,” that’s like a mini-website. You can use photos, videos, all sorts of things in your lens; they’re fun to create and you can use the lens as a calling-card to potential clients or readers.

So there it is. Use article directories to boost your visibility on the web. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

If you’re a fiction author, this can be a little more tricky, but the seminar or talk or workshop can be tied in to the novel via setting (place and time), characters, and other means.

Early on in my publishing career, an editor gave me some good advice. He said that the event was what was news, not the fact that I’d written a book. So I focused on promoting the event and was amazed at how many attendees subsequently bought the book in question! In addition, putting a specific date on the event gives the event priority with editors over “evergreen” news that someone has simply written a book.

I’ve also always had better luck out of town. The fact that someone travels to a city to do an event seems to get more attention than would a homegrown author. Maybe proximity does breed contempt — or lassitude!

Once you have the event scheduled, you can contact local magazine and newspaper journalists (make sure you do this a month or two out) and suggest that they might wish to review your book before the event, so that people can better participate in the event. Offer a free review copy. Follow up. All the usual stuff.

A lot of work? Sure it is. Writing a great book is only part of the formula for success. For some, the hardest part is only just beginning. But follow this advice and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!