In real world of self-publishing industry, authors do not have the luxury of picking more than one book publishing and marketing service so that publishing their books can be perfect. Yet, depending on the kind of the quality of services that can furnish their books, authors do take risk as well—just to get that name dreamed by every aspiring writer.
So, where do you start in that weighing scale to single out the right publisher?
Quality of service
Everything starts with the quality of the service and ends with the quality of service: any other bits and pieces in between are just the seasoning of it. So, before jumping to which publisher might offer the best services for your books, consider first whether that certain publisher’s tactics in making a publicity campaign, the kind of marketing support, the quantity of physical distribution of marketing campaign materials, and the pricing strategy it implements. Compare all these features with the other publishers and surely at the end of the day, it will help you decide whether you will be getting good value in the deal.
Do research about the publishers that are on your list of preference. Most of their book publishing and marketing services are comparable based on the quality, popularity and prices—and they are all found online. Bookwhirl publisher’s Full Color book publishing service for instance starts at $699 while the Refresh publishing package at Author Solutions starts at $999.
Define your target audience
When you have time and money to invest, it is always safe to assume your enthusiasm about your self-publishing is on the highest level. And, when you’ve got that high level of fervor to self-publish your book, then you know your direction or at least, you know what you really want for your book. Your goals for your books will always be based on what kind of genre you have for your book. For instance, when you have children’s book, you should target children to be your right audience. So get those finest services from that publisher who can help you furnish your book the best way that it should appeal to child readers.
Most publishing companies have specific book publishing and marketing service designed for each genre of a book. Let’s take a look at Bookwhirl.com’s new launched Ingram Catalogs service. The company has specific catalog service for children’s books and these can be distributed to 10,700 booksellers, librarians, and international accounts.
Meanwhile, Smith Publicity has also a specific marketing and publicity campaign for children’s books. The company enables the campaign to work out using media (magazines, and newspapers), broadcast, and the Internet.
Consider the publisher’s track record in the business
Like any other company, every publisher has its own highs and lows. No matter how excellent and great the services seem to most of the authors based on their experiences working with the company, there are really some who do not see any satisfaction with the service. They start to post bad reviews online and worse, some who have not even tried to experience the service for real, do also criticize the company.
In some point, some online criticism, especially when reviews are coming from those who have personal experience with the company, do help authors to decide which company is really reliable and not. It is just important to take note whether the person posting reviews online has really experienced the service by himself so as to turn your researching time and energy worthwhile.
There are publishers who have been in the business for quite a long time and that makes them worth to be called established firms. Yet, there are also some firms who are just starting the business but are really fast-growing industries, by which they are reaching the level of those established ones and giving the same level of service quality that established companies have been offering ever since self-publishing world evolved.
At the end of the day, the verdict is all yours. What matters most is that you are right there and ready to get published. Research more and opt for the right publisher for the kind of book you have on hand.
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