Survey Responses: We asked. You answered.
Taking your first steps to be a self-publishing author can be quite a bit of work. In an effort to improve our service model,
we constructed a questionnaire in order to reach out and get a feel from
our veteran clients' experiences. The answers we received were not
only well written but very insightful. Thankfully, we learned that book
publishing was a positive experience for you, with over 98.3% of you responding
that you were happy that you published your books. We're glad to hear
it and promise to strive to ensure your continued happiness by strengthening
our services and listening to your concerns, requests and ideas.
Book Printing
From the responses received, we were astonished with the
large quantity of initial book printing runs. 29.9% indicated that their
initial print run was over 1,000 books and the average number of
books sold was 2,500. Two of our clients indicated that they have sold
more than 40,000 books each!
Note: Only 59% of respondents indicated they planned on
providing their publication as an ebook.
Key Concern: Marketing
One of the important things we've learned from you is your method for selling.
Most of you answered that selling direct to customers is your most effective
method; local bookstores coming in a distant second. This might be directly
influenced by your promotion methods which included hosting local events and
book signings as means of generating interest in your writing. In fact more
than 71% of you rely on local events/book signings to sell your publications.
Based on your comments, we found
that marketing your book was the most prevalent concern.
To
view quotes regarding marketing, click here.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
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“The biggest hurdle is being taken seriously by the big box book
stores.”
“Formatting -- I'm still learning tricks of the trade.”
“The personal financial burden.”
“There are many more aspects to publishing than I ever imagined,
many things to learn about the business. Without assistance I
would still be struggling (my husband did the book
design/layout, I hired an editor and illustrator, and my
brother-in-law did photography.”
“Getting the right cover was a challenge when dealing with
someone far away. Marketing is always a challenge, as is getting
the book into bookstores.”
“It's all about getting the book out there to people --Promotion
is key and expensive”
“Proofing. Spell check doesn't sea normal words used
incorrectly.”
“Once the process of publishing prep, and printing ar mastered,
MARKETING is the continuing biggest challenge”
“Difficult to find adequate time to do marketing.”
“As a first time self publisher everything was challenging.”
“Distribution”
“Formatting beyond basic Word document (PDF, etc.)”
“Editing a book is always a challenge. Several people need to
go through the book to make sure all errors are noted.”
“Proofing and layout design. Proofing took almost a month. had
to hire a person to do it. The design aspectc changed with the
software that I was using.”
“Distribution of book”
“Printing and proof reading”
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Suggestions
It has always been one of our goals to
create a community of independent self publishers who can share
experiences and ideas.
Click here to view suggestions from veteran publishers from our survey.
We would like to thank everyone who participated in the
survey. If you have any additional comments, please send them to
pubserv@barcode-us.com
Global Book Distribution is Coming Soon......
Publisher
Services has now provided ISBN assistance and/or book printing to over
12,000 self publishers. We appreciate your business and strive help make
your publishing business grow. Bar Code Graphics (the parent company of
Publisher Services) is working with Ingram to provide an economical
global distribution channel for our clients without disrupting their
existing direct to consumer sales.
