Publishing: Types and Definition

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A. Royalty Publishing: This is where you submit your manuscript to a publisher and they publish your book. Unfortunately, you only get a small percentage of profit for your intellectual property, and you must negotiate buy-back rights. And, often they want you to help support the marketing efforts!

B. Self-Publishing: You publish your book and maintain all the profit. However, you must have the proper knowledge and expertise to do so. Otherwise you may wind up losing the shirt off your back. If you learn how to properly self-publish, it can earn you an enormous profit!

C. Subsidy Publishing: You want to self-publish your book, and don't know how to do it, you can hire someone to tell you how to do it, or have them do it for you. The benefits are: you keep all the profit, you maintain all rights to your intellectual property, there's no buy-back clause, and you own all copyrights!!

Publishing Workshops:  Getting Published - From Concept To Consumer!    (4 hours)    Workshop $375   Workshop/Books/Forms $435
We're often asked, "How do I get my book published?". To answer that question, we frequently conduct publishing workshops in which we cover all aspects of publishing from self-publishing to getting a publisher (royalty publishing). The workshop provides a step-by-step guide to help you with the process.  Below we list some of the topics that are covered. Note: Collins Publications is not taking any new authors at this time. However, if you have publishing needs sign up for one of our workshops. We honor credit cards.

To Sign Up: Self-Publishing Workshops are conducted . If you would like to be notified for the next event is scheduled, go to the top and put your email address in the box, when the page opens select Self-Publishing in the category choices after you fill in your data.
 

Getting Published – From Concept To Consumer Workshop
 

Publishing – Making the Right Choice!

Is There a Market for Your Book?

How to do your homework before investing your money.

Self-Publishing, Royalty and Subsidy Publishing –

Selecting the best option for you and how to get it done.

|Giving Birth – The Administrative Process

What you need to do to get your book in the system.
 

Getting the Book Printed

What you need to know to get the best printer for a good price.

How to structure an “RFQ” – request for quote.

POD – Pros and cons of Print On Demand.

Electronic books: To be or not to be—that is the question!
 

Marketing: Notifying the Ultimate Consumer

How to create demand for your book so it makes you a profit.

An in-depth look at the web and it’s place in book marketing.

Vertical versus traditional marketing strategies.

Distribution and Fulfillment

Getting the book to the consumer. Do-it-yourself.

Shipping and Warehousing

Third party intervention: Wholesalers, Distributors, Sales Reps

Fulfillment services (outsourcing)

|Exposure, Exposure, Exposure!

Positioning the author for signings, reviews and media appearances.

Book tours: Who should be included on your list and how to reach them.

Publicity that works: Do-it-yourself versus hiring a publicist.

Developing a winning press kit and how to write a dynamic press release.
 

Spin-Offs -  Maximizing the Books Potential

How to multiply your book into additional revenue streams.

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Books:
The Self Publishing Manual:  A step-by-step guide on writing, publishing, marketing, promoting and distributing books. It will take you from idea, through manuscript, printing, promotion and sales, along with book marketing formulas. Acknowledged as the most authoritative guide to publishing. A classic reference on writing, publishing, marketing, promoting and distributing books. It will take you step-by-step from idea, through manuscript, printing, promotion and sales and will reveal numerous innovative book marketing formulas. See Publishing Resources: by Dan Poynter

The Complete Guide To Selling For The Self-Published Author: Discover how to: Get your book picked by major bookstores; put together a national book tour; sell to the library; book seminars around your title; pre-sell your book; increase back of the room sales; turn TV/Radio interviews into book sales; sell on the internet and more. Forward by Dan Poynter.  by Linda Coleman-Willis 

January: After the holidays, it seems like everybody's thoughts turn to diets, fitness, and New Year's resolutions. And therein lie wonderful angles for PR. In fact, January is National Diet Month (and National Soup Month for those of you doing cookbooks). Maybe you can inject a motivational, inspirational, or health-related backlist title with fresh pizzazz by giving it a "new beginnings" twist to tie in with all those resolutions everyone makes and needs help keeping.

 February: Of course, with Valentine's Day, and President's Day falling this month, there is much grist for the creative publicist's mill. But you needn't stop there. It is also Vegetarian Month, American History Month, Black History Month, and Celebration of Chocolate Month (yummy!) Additionally, there is Pay Your Bills Week (yuk!), National Crime Prevention Week, and Health Education Week. Both non-fiction authors and novelists can certainly find something here to entice the media.

March: PR opportunities roar in like a lion. The biggie for many self-publishers is that this is Small Press Month, which lends itself to much local and regional publicity. It is also National Procrastination Week. (But if you practice that you won't get any PR!) And it's National Feminine Empowerment Month, National Craft Month, and National Talk to Your Teen About Sex Month. Glenn Miller has a birthday on March 1st, Jerry Lewis on March 15th, and Edgar Cayce on March 18th. What great fodder for books on music, humor, and psychic phenomena. World Day of Prayer occurs in March, as does St. Patrick's Day not to mention National Organize Your Home Office Day, Garden Book Week, and American Camping Week. Have fun!

 April: This month is replete with things that connote new hope: Easter, Daylight Savings Time, plus the birth of spring and all things green and growing. Can you hitch your book to that theme? In April we have Professional Secretaries Day and Take Our Daughters to Work Day, great tie ins for business titles. There is also Pets Are Wonderful Month (we agree!), National Humor Month, and International Twit Award Month. This time of year also finds both Harmony Week and Hate Week occurring, not to mention taxes are due, which could be a perfect connection for books on how to reduce stress.

May: Moneymaking publicity ideas. Promotional opportunities for this month abound. Mother's Day is a huge book buying event. With some creative thinking, you can probably slant a news release for a book that is only peripherally related. Then contact local radio stations and newspapers, plus pitch independent booksellers to feature your book in their window or for an interior display. Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day provide fuel for related titles. And if you're a poet, how about arranging readings for May 31st, Walt Whitman's birthday? Have something on the environment? May 27th, Rachel Carson's birthday, may be just the hook you need. Pegging the topic of your book to a day, week, or month can lead to expansive national publicity -- or set the stage for intriguing local exposure. Take, for instance, the publisher of the novel, The Emerald Necklace, who got a jewelry store to feature it during May. Why? Because emeralds are the birth stone for that month, of course!

June: Got a book on fishing? Or antique cars? Or a biography of a famous man? Are you pitching it to booksellers and your distributor for Father's Day? Have something about rock and roll or the Beatles? Paul McCartney's birthday is June 18th. If you have published a work whose main character is blind, or a nonfiction book that deals with improving your sight, you might use Helen Keller's birthday of June 27th as a news angle. Of course, June is a natural for any book that would make a graduation gift. And many brides and grooms tie the knot this month. Think about your list and how you can target specific timely events to promote individual books, plus give backlist titles a boost.

 July: Embrace National Independent Bookstore Week. Have you set up something with your main local store? Arrange a reading, signing, or mini-seminar. You take the initiative to publicize it to local newspapers and radio. (Why not offer to donate 10 or 12 free books to radio stations for them to give away to help promote the in-store event?) As self-publishers we have a natural liaison with independent booksellers. Do you publish mysteries? Then see if you can't piggyback on July 17th, which is Earl Stanley Gardner's birthday, for some media attention. And don't overlook using Independence Day as a hook. Your message needn't be strictly patriotic. One can declare their "independence" from spousal abuse, overeating, illiteracy any number of things. Get creative!

 August: If you have reference titles, college survival guides, even simple recipe books that would appeal to busy college freshmen, now is the time to roll out the publicity campaign big time. There are also a lot of birthdays in August around which you could plan a PR campaign. Garrison Keillor is the 7th, Alex Haley the 11th, Ray Bradbury the 22nd, and Michael Jackson the 29th. That gives you an excuse to push humor, African American studies, sci/fi, music, and any number of other imaginative twists.

 September: Include Banned Books Week, which provides a natural media opportunity to highlight the importance of free expression. One of the more obscure holidays, National Grandparents Day, falls in September. And with both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur usually occurring this month, the possibilities for Jewish themed books are ripe. Notable literary lights' birthdays that might also yield a peg are Agatha Christie (15th), F. Scott Fitzgerald (24th), and William Faulkner (25th). Strip off the blinders and look ahead for special days, weeks, months, or people for a fresh publicity angle.

 October: National AIDS Awareness Month. If you have a book on AIDS, related diseases, or safe sex, partner with local healthcare professional organizations to set up tables at their meetings and donate part of the book sale proceeds back to them. October is Mystery Month for you fiction folks. National School Lunch Week falls this month -- that's a new one, eh? Why not work creatively with local teachers to organize a school reading group that meets during lunch to discuss specific books? Of course, there is Columbus Day and United Nations Day. And Halloween screams in on October 31st, replete with a plethora of opportunities.

 November: Early November is National Authors' Day, certainly a natural to build a story around. National Children's Book Week occurs this month. Two wonderful humorists were born in November: Will Rogers on the 4th and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) on the 30th. Additionally, Election Day falls this month, as does Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving. These three events furnish excuses for any number of ingenious twists.

 December: Whether you wear a baseball cap, fedora, tam, cowboy hat, beret, or helmet, there is an appropriate date in December on which to capitalize. The Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year's Day cycle is the biggest buying season of them all. But many literary lights and famous people also have birthdays that fall this month. One of them may also give you a PR hook. How about Walt Disney on the 5th, Willa Cather on the 7th, Nostradamus on the 14th, Ty Cobb on the 18th, Kit Carson on the 24th, or Rudyard Kipling on the 30th? You can promote everything from poetry to sports to children's books and more by capitalizing on this list. Go for it!

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