We Canadians

 By Subhas Puri

So you want to be an author and publish a book?

Why?

Because, you have many good thoughts in your mind, you want to put them on paper, you want to share them with others.

Ok, I am convinced.

Now what is your subject area: fiction? Non-fiction?Children books?Biography?History?Or even politics? First, realize some areas sell well and some dont. This is where the internal fight starts. You have to write what the readers want – and that is not what you want to do. You are stubborn. So, you  chose to write non-fiction – on “relationships”, for example.

Writing a book is neither  easy nor difficult. So, you decide to write on relationships. Why?  Because you think that the present approach is  deficient and you have a groundbreaking idea that will change the face of “togetherness.

So you work hard and Voila! You have a produced a manuscript that looks great.

The next step is to put it into print? That’s  easy, just take it to any printer and for a couple of thousand dollars, you can have five thousand copies of the book that you can now stack in your basement.

So, you see  writing and printing are both  simple tasks – it is the selling that is  hard. So, you have essentially two options: find a publisher and let him do the rest,  or, to self-publish the book. Now the fun begins.

A publisher is a business person  whose sole aim is to make money. The person  publishes whatever sells. He doesnt want ot  help the human race – he simply wants to make money. If the publisher accepts your manuscript, you are on cloud “9” and you think you have found God. But you do realize you would only get 5% to 15% royalty on book sales.

However, it doesn’t work that way. I’m sorry to tell you that you would find it hard to get a publisher to accept your manuscript on relationships because it will not sell so easily.

The next  option is to self-publish? Remember what I said; it’s easy to get it printed selling is much harder.So, here comes the biggest challenge of all – “how to sell”?

Selling needs effort and money. The money part is catch 22 – if you don’t spend, you don’t make  money  and if you  spend, you may be  bankrupt before you make any. Spending means giving away free copies of the book, putting out ads, contacting all sorts of companies, talking to the media and the public. Let me put it this way – it is very strenuous, but it can be done. So,are you willing to make this effort? 

What do I suggest?

• Better to go with a publisher – try hard to find one. For this, you have to have a product to sell and convince the publisher that it will be a market success. And if you are  sure about its value, tell the publisher that you will buy back all the unsold books at production cost.
• If, you can’t find a publisher to accept your book, try the other option of self-publishing. But, it takes a  lot of preparation and effort.

Editor’s Note: Subhash Puri is an accomplished writer with over a dozen published books to his credit. He knows what he is talking about and he writes from personal experience. Please check out his personal website shown in the Links section.