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Self-publishing a book is a serious business
Seeking paid outside help is now a common practice among independent authors. To date, it has proven to be effective in terms of boosting a book’s quality and its chances of increasing sales-a fact further confirmed by author Catherin Ryan-Howard on her blog post “Wait Until You Hear THIS! The Taleist Self-Publishing Survey,” in which she wrote:
“Does spending money make money?
In a word, yes. This was the most interesting part of the survey [Taleist’s] results for me-and of course it’s confirmation of what I’ve been saying all along, which is that every self-publisher needs to hire professional help, especially in areas such as cover design and copyediting/proofreading. But now here is proof that in doing so, you not only help the self-publishing side as a whole, but you actually help yourself as well, because you’ll sell more books and so earn more money from them.”
According to the Taleist survey, independent authors who invested in their book covers by hiring professional artists earned 18% more than authors who made the covers themselves. Authors who hired professional editors for editing, copy-editing, and/or proofreading received an average of 13% more earnings. Meanwhile, authors who paid for ebook formatting only have an average of 1% advantage than other authors who did not do the same.
Unfortunately, despite the number of authors who have successfully published their works with the help of author services firms, publishing services providers in general are still looked at with distrust and cynicism-due to the notorious reputation a few large firms have created over the years, tainting the entire industry-mostly by unhappy authors who believe that they [authors] were either not able to get their money’s worth, or had been completely robbed of it.
Since keeping customers happy is a fundamental rule in running a business, author services firms try to be on top of their game to gain the trust and confidence of their customers. But with so many firms also competing for attention, another challenge for authors is to determine which one is the perfect partner to help them on their publishing quest.
Early in 2013, Publishing Research Group (PRG) conducted a survey of 600(?) self-publishing authors, gauging author satisfaction in 3 areas. In addition to the survey results in general (more than 20 author services firms were cited), the survey published the author satisfaction ratings specifically of 8 firms (Accurance, AuthorHouse, CreateSpace, iUniverse, Lulu, Publish America, Trafford, and Xlibris). The survey result published in September revealed some surprising-and some not-so-surprising-information.
Experience teaches that not everything that glitters is gold
Even with the inclusion of Author Solutions’ major imprints (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, and Xlibris) in the lineup, the outcome unexpectedly did not go in their favor, with them almost always at the bottom four. At the top of the heap, Amazon’s CreateSpace and publisher services firm Accurance consistently snagged the first 2 spots on a number of measures. On the other hand, the Author Solutions firms (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, and Xlibris) almost perfectly grabbed all four of the bottom-of-the-barrel spots (11 out of the 12 lowest scores).
The three areas the survey focused on are:
1. Overall Satisfaction
2. Customer Service Satisfaction
3. End-product Satisfaction
High client satisfaction serves as a form of guarantee for those who are contemplating doing business with any company. On the other hand, the survey clearly shows that marketability need not be related to actual performance. In fact, considering the fact that Author Solutions firms market themselves better than any firms around, one could extend the argument that the best self-promoting firms are the worst performing firms. Certainly, this survey emphatically shows the latter half of that statement to be the case.
There also exists a pervading yet misleading consumer mindset that the more expensive a product, the better it is-this, however, is proven false by the survey. While authors naturally learn from bad experiences and become even more careful in choosing their new partner firms-those with good customer satisfaction ratings-they also learn that high price is not always an indication of high quality services. As the PRG survey discussion section states:
“The more experience an author gets, the more they learn to avoid the firms that have given them problems, and engage the firms that have the higher satisfaction ratings. Those firms [CreateSpace and Accurance] also happen to be among the least expensive of the firms featured in this survey.”
Bridging the gap between authors and author services companies by understanding client satisfaction and publishing as a business
Another prevailing trend that the survey reveals is how authors lose trust in their partner firms and decide to switch to a new one. The result states the top four reasons:
1. Unsatisfactory book sales
2. Poor client service
3. High cost services
4. Low quality products and services
While the second through fourth reasons cited are matters that self-publishers/author services firms can be held responsible for, the first one is a factor over which a firm has only partial control. Like when you purchase a promotion service, the service can only guarantee book exposure and higher chance of selling-NOT sales itself. The decision to buy lies in the hands of the possible buyer; the only aspect the firm can control is the rigorous process of enticing and convincing the person that the book is every penny and time that will be spent on buying and reading it, respectively.
Authors’ trust and confidence in a publisher/author services firm is not and should not be based on keeping the authors happy by doing everything they want, but on helping them understand the things that would work for the mutual benefits of parties involved-the authors themselves, the publishing firm, and the readers. The survey results clearly indicate that author experience contributes to an author’s satisfaction with his or her chosen publisher. The corollary to this is that if “an experienced and knowledgeable author is a happy author,” then it is the responsibility of the publisher to help the author become knowledgeable, as this leads to picking the right publisher.
Self-publishing firms can help minimize their clients’ frustrations by educating the latter instead of just reaping monetary benefits off them. Authors who feel that the firm they are in are offering them genuine and long-term help have higher chances to stay with the firm.
The other side of the same coin
While self-publishing/author services firms are the usual go-to spots for authors who want to self-publish, there are also freelance professionals that some self-publishing authors seek to help them prepare their books for publishing.
BiblioCrunch founder and CEO, Mila Sattar, wrote an article (” The Real Costs of Self-Publishing a Book” ) in which she put a breakdown of estimated costs per service when hiring individual professionals to help with the manuscript preparations, such as editing, cover design, formatting (print and digital), etc., as well as distribution and marketing.
The prices range from two-figure hourly rates to as high as five-figure payments, depending on the service, the manuscript, and the experience of the professional hired-one, however, can also get help for free, but this is only if you know someone who would be willing to work on your manuscript without pay. Regardless of the payment and whether the manuscript is entrusted to a freelance professional or a self-publishing company, there would still be authors who would end up satisfied or disappointed, either with one aspect of the self-publishing process or the overall experience.
Experience, in the end, would still be the best teacher; self-publishing is neither like winning a lottery nor striking it rich in a gold mine; it is more like starting a business. The PRG survey’s discussion section speaks to this:
“Self-publishing one’s own manuscripts is no different; it is in fact starting one’s own business. It is a race, one’s learning curve pitted against one’s shrinking wallet. Publishing one’s own book is a big enough learning curve in and of itself. When one begins to look at how to get attention, how to get an audience, how to get book sales, it is exponentially more a mystery and a challenge to learn.
This is why it is so important, for both authors and publishers, to understand the underlying truth and opportunity of the fact that the more experienced authors in this survey are in fact also more satisfied with their publishers.“
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