Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book

Publishing can be a tough business, but with the advice of Dan Poynter you can make your book a profitable reality. 'The Self-Publishing Manual' includes great nuts-and-bolts advice and lots of helpful resources for getting your book written, produced and distributed. The templates and forms Dan includes are useful, for everything from permissions requests to requests for print bids to discount schedules. Even if all you use are the lists of publishing web sites, printers, distributors, reviewers, etc., you will more than get your money's worth from this book.Dan's information helped me produce a quality book on a tight timeframe. Not only did I get the book done quickly, it was profitable within one month after release.I teach a course on publishing, and 'The Self-Publishing Manual' is the text I use. If you want to learn about publishing, this is the place to start.

If you have ever felt that self-publishing is similar to jumping out of a plane without a parachute, have no fear! "The Self-Publishing Manual" is your parachute! On your way to "landing" your first published book, you will learn everything you need to know. I think of Dan Poynter as the ultimate "how-to self-publish" expert! He will teach you all the tricks of the publishing trade. As an author of more than 80 books, he also has a proven track record of success. He will convince you that you too can succeed. The strength of this encyclopedic reference is the author's experience in publishing. Dan Poynter is also on the leading edge of technology. He welcomes the new era of book publishing and prepares writers by giving a "New Book Publishing Model." If you are looking for a complete reference on writing, printing, publishing, promoting, marketing and distributing your new book, look no further. Whether you just have the concept for your new book or have already advanced to the promotion stage, the information you will need to make your efforts more successful is here! The "Your Book's Calendar" section is like a true gift for the busy author. This section is vital to keeping your goals and progress in check. It will allow you to digest volumes of information in small sections. You can start with what you have started to accomplish, check the suggested readings and then check off your goals as you reach them. I especially enjoyed reading the section on professional reviewers. The glossary of publishing terms was so revealing. The "resources for publishers" section was detailed and informative. This source book also has a companion web site. You can find information kits, great book promotion mailing lists, links to useful Web sites and hundreds of downloadable documents. If you are still searching for an agent, sending out manuscripts to publishers, or writing those endless query letters, it may be time to take off that seat belt which is trapping you in that airplane seat! Then, read this book and jump! There are people who want your book. There are people who need your book. Believe it! Then, free fall to success! ~The Rebecca Review

In a previous review of the former edition this book, Isaid:This is a very good guide, especially for the author (orwannabe author) who is thinking about writing and publishing their own work.These days, the writing of the book, contrary to the belief of many, is not the end of the work. Perhaps the largest hurdle remains: getting the book published and out on the market where people may buy it.This book looks at those problems, and contains a great deal of very good advice.Even the biggest publishers take a loss, or just break even, on most of the titles they publish. They are supported by the handful that achieve the most attention, and become big sellers. Like the movie industry, only a few become stars. And, of course, the giant's share of their promotion budget goes to the books which show the most promise, leaving the ones who really need it out in the cold.It is a humbling experience for a would-be author to go into a large bookstore, see all of the shelves full of books, and realize that his book will just be one more of the hundreds of thousands of new titles that show up each year.So, this book fills a need. How about publishing? The primary functions of the traditional publisher are selecting books that will sell in the first place, editing, proofreading, design, production and--most important--marketing. In most cases, the new author is the primary marketing agent for his book, anyway. Why should he give up 90% of the sales price when he must shoulder the main responsibility of the publisher?The author, who created the book, must usually be satisfied with 10% royalties, with the publisher retaining 90% for their production and marketing efforts.So, more and more writers, faced with aloof publishers who will not even read their book, let alone buy it, are taking the self-publishing route. They need Dan Poynter's book. It tells them what they need to know.First, this manual contains some basic rules on how to write a marketable book. Then, the problems they will face in producing it, and finally--certainly not least--promoting it in a crowded marketplace.He does a very good job. I only noted one neglected area, and, unfortunately it was the very area in which I was most interested: Print-on-demand.Well, I must tell you that Dan Poynter has corrected that deficiency. In this, the latest edition of the Self-Publishing Manual, released in April of 2000, the entire area of Print-on-Demand (POD), as well as Print-Quantity-Needed (PQN)is amply covered with the latest available information. I have certainly learned things of which I was not formerly aware from the book.There is a new force in the marketplace, called print-on-demand. Some of the publishers who are utilizing it are simply vanity houses, but many others are not. The era of one-off book publishing is here (POD), along with printing only the quantity actually required (PQN). No more need to warehouse long press runs until they sell, or necessity to pay inventory taxes on warehou

THE SELF PUBLISHING MANUAL offers step-by-step instructions for producing a best-selling book. Poynter shares is vast knowledge on researching, publishing, handling printers, establishing credit, discount and return policies, promotion, and marketing. The information industry accounts for over half of the national product, and publishing a book can bring recognition, wealth and success in one's career so almost everyone wants to write a book. It seems most have the ability. Some have the persistence but few have the organizational skills. Poynter helps his readers organize their work. This easy-to-understand, fun-to-read, up-to-date book makes writing enjoyable. It shows how writing can be as uncomplicated as talking, and offers specific cures for writers block. Poynter shares this formula for establishing a track record and becoming recognized as an expert. He offers surprising, helpful information such as: (1) It is often more profitable to self publish and to sell for years than to sell a manuscript to a traditional publisher who retires it after one season. (2) More books are sold through the mail then through bookstores. He gives specific details on publishing and setting up a successful mail-order company to sell books. Perhaps most important, Poynter advises his readers to stop trying for a best-seller and create a best-selling book. He explains the many choices: New York publisher, self-published, small publisher, Vanity press. He describes how one traditionally-published author created enough sales for her book to excite the publisher to spend more ad money resulting in a best-seller. THE SELF-PUBLISHING MANUAL exposes many little-known facts about traditional publishing, such as, what a short time of book has to sell, how little money is devoted to marketing the average book and what a slow process traditional publishing can be. Because information is getting outdated faster today, books have even less time to sell. Whether a book is self-published or produced by a large publisher, the author must do the promotion. Poynter shows his readers how to announce their books to the industry, the government and the world without paying for advertising. By the time an author figures all this out, the book is not new anymore and has no chance of making it in the traditional game. If my co-author Jenny Wolf and I had read his book before Drake publishers in New York published our book RUNAWAYS in 1974, there's a good chance it would still be on the shelves today since millions of teenagers runaway each year. In fact we may use the information in this book and self publish a revised version. Poynter shows how to ask for testimonials, and how to time book reviews, radio and TV appearances, space advertising an autograph parties to hit after bookstore deliveries. THE SELF-PUBLISHING MANUAL can make the difference between an unpublished book and a best-seller. This book is a must for wo