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The $100 MBA Show
MBA2730 Book Publishing: What Are Your Options (And Which Is Right For You)?
00:18:44
Have you ever thought, “Someday I want to write a book”? The idea is exciting, but figuring out how to actually publish it can feel like a maze. With so many routes to choose from, it’s easy to get stuck wondering which one makes the most sense for you. This episode is here to clear things up.
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I'm your host Omar Zenholm where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. We read every single review. Seriously. It's how we know what's helping and what to dive deeper in on. The next episode. So if you got 20 seconds, leave a quick review and tell me what you want more of. I'd love to hear from you. Here's a little secret. I want to write a book in the near future and I was curious about this world of publishing. What are my options? What's the best option for me? So I did a deep dive and did all the research for you. I actually did it for myself, but I thought, hey, why don't I share this with my audience, with everybody on the show so that you can benefit from all the research that I did already. So today I'm going to break down the three options that I believe are viable options for publishing a book. And I'm going to go through the pros and cons of each and which one I believe is the best option for most entrepreneurs, creators, and experts today. And yes, option number three is a game changer. So stick with me for that. The first thing I want to say is that writing a book and publishing a book are two different things. We need to establish the fact that writing a book is about writing something valuable, that's compelling, that's fun to read, that's a page turner, that's a thing, that's a skill, and that's something that you're going to need to work on. Today's episode is not about that. Today's episode is about publishing a book. And publishing a book is about getting that book into the hands of your readers, getting it out in the world, and making sure that it's available and seen. A lot of people spend a lot of time on the writing part and forget about the publishing part. They forget about actually making the effort of figuring out what's best for them. And what happens is that they spend so much time on creating this great book that no one actually learns about because they chose the wrong option for publishing. This is what I want you to avoid, and this is why I'm doing today's episode. This is what I want to avoid as I write my book. In my opinion, there are a few reasons why people fail at publishing a book. The first big reason is that they choose the wrong publishing model. There are three options, like I mentioned today, and each option has pros and cons, and each option kind of leans towards a certain outcome. You got to know why you're writing this book, and if the outcome of the model, of the publishing model doesn't match the outcome that you want, then you're choosing the wrong model. So this is why I'm doing this episode, is because I want to make sure that your goals and your ambitions for writing a book are met through your publishing model. The other thing that causes people to fail in this process is that they don't understand the trade offs. They don't understand that there are pluses and minuses to every single decision in life, including publishing a book. So you got to be okay with the drawbacks with your choice, and you got to really want the pros for you to be able to choose that choice in the first place. The last mistake people make when publishing is that they actually choose the wrong outcome. This is a little bit deeper. Meaning that some people, they're not really sure why they want to write a book. They like the idea of writing a book. They think the book will give them authority and make them feel special, make them feel like an expert, but it actually doesn't make them feel anything. When they actually write it and publish it, they realize that actually what I was chasing, that external validation, is not going to come by just putting a book out in the market. I actually have to get it in some other way. We'll talk about that in another episode. But that's something for you to think about. Having said all that, publishing a book can be incredibly powerful and can be incredibly impactful for you. It can build your brand, it can create authority, it can drive leads, it can generate revenue for your business, it can open doors you didn't even know existed, like speaking on stages, at events. So this is an exciting time. But it's really important that you choose the right publishing model so that you actually get what you want out of this big project that you're going to invest a lot of time and money and effort in. Many people spend a year, maybe even 18 months, maybe even two years in the process of creating, writing, publishing a book, marketing the book, getting it out in the world, making sure people know about it. That's a long cycle. So you want to make sure you choose the right path. And that's why I'm here for you today. Let's start with option number one, and that's self publishing. Self publishing wasn't a thing like 20 years ago. Okay, this is fairly new. But in the last 10 years, self publishing has really picked up steam and become really popular amongst a lot of entrepreneurs, business people, creators, because there are a lot of advanced. Now with self publishing, you do everything yourself. You hire the managers, you hire the people that you need to design the book cover, for example. And you use different resources and platforms like Amazon, KDP or IngramSpark. Or you can even sell your book directly from your site if you want to. Self publishing gives you a lot of flexibility. Here are some big advantages of self publishing, and this one is number one with a bullet. And it's profit margins. When you self publish, the vast majority of the revenue goes in your bank account. In many cases, 70% profit margins. That's pretty good because if you compare that to traditional publishing, where you might see 5 to 15% profit margins, the difference is pretty massive. I know a lot of established authors. There are friends of mine that have books that you see in bookstores, that you see in airports, and the book might sell for $25 and they get like a dollar or two. So it's not much. The second big advantage of self publishing is total control. You get to control everything because you are the boss. You get to control the title, the COVID the messaging, the pricing, the positioning. There's no committees, there's no compromises, there's no negotiation. You get to do whatever you want. Advantage number three, speed. Speed and timeline. I would say you can publish a book as fast as you can write it if you want to. You can do it in three months and six months, whenever you're ready. And there's no waiting two years for a release window. When you have traditional publishing, often they have to find a release window because this publishing house might be publishing many nonfiction books, for example, in business, and they don't want to release competitive products, competitive books in the same publishing window. So you got to keep that in mind as well. So in self publishing, you could just release it whenever you want. That leads me to the fourth big advantage of self publishing, which kind of encapsulates it all, and that's total autonomy. You own everything. You decide when to update the book, when to revise it. You can bundle it with other products and services that you have. You can use it as a lead magnet. This is why many entrepreneurs and creators love self publishing, because they have total autonomy. There are very limited trade offs, but there are trade offs. Let's talk about them. You are the publisher. That means you have to fund the editing, the design, the formatting, everything it takes to write and create a great book. You have to handle distribution, you have to handle marketing, making sure people know about this book. You carry all the risk. Now, if you're an entrepreneur, you're probably used to that already, so maybe this doesn't deter you too much. But it's good to know what you're going to be responsible for. If you don't already have an audience with your business or a marketing engine. Self publishing can be very lonely. It could be very overwhelming. It can also produce very underwhelming results. Because how are you going to sell your book if you don't have an audience to sell to? If you're serious about choosing this option, self publishing, I recommend a book called Published by Chandler Bolt. It's a good place to start and there's a lot of great information on how to self publish your book. Chandler also runs an academy called self publishing school if you want to go even deeper. Everyone's deploying AI agents now. But here's the thing. Sometimes they mess up. They delete the wrong files, make changes you didn't authorize, or just go off script, leaving you stuck trying to figure out what went wrong. Unless you're using Rubrik Agent Cloud, AI is here to stay. It's not going anywhere. But can you control the risk? Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that allows you to monitor, govern and rewind AI agent actions. One platform to help you unleash more agents faster without the risk. You need full visibility into your agent's actions, enforce policies, quantify risk, and undo destructive actions to data. Rubrik Agent Cloud gives you AI resilience and the rewind happens fast. We're talking minutes, not hours or days. Rubrik Agent Cloud gives you that safety net when you're experimenting with AI, so one mistake doesn't tank your whole operation. 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Option number two traditional publishing. This is what most people think about when they think about publishing a book. And this is publishing a book with a publisher like Penguin, for example. This is Penguin's little logo. You've probably seen it on a book. They're very popular with nonfiction books. Another publisher is like Wiley. There's Hyper Collins, there's a whole bunch. And usually you work with an agent from this publishing house. Now, there are big advantages when it comes to traditional publishing. The advantages are, number one, if you have some sort of authority, you have some audience, you have the opportunity to get an advance on your book. That means they will pay you money to write the book. Your advance amount will depend on the size of your audience, how strong your platform is, how compelling your idea is, and if they want to back this idea of a book, you might receive a pretty significant advance. Some experts with huge audiences like that have big podcasts and YouTube channels. They get like a million dollar advance. Now that's the other side of the spectrum. You know, advances can start between 20, 30, $50,000. Even now you need to understand that you only start earning royalties on your book, meaning how much money you get for each sale after the advance is earned back through the sales. So say for example, a publishing house gives you $100,000 in advance. You write the book, you publish it. You don't for the sales of the book until the amount of sales and your cut of the sales goes past $100,000, your advance. The second big advantage of traditional publishing is distribution power. Traditional publishers are still very good at this. Getting your book into bookstores, airports, libraries, corporate offices, you know, sometimes corporations want to buy your book in bulk. This is pretty big. If seeing your book in a major international airport matters to you, then traditional publishing is going to be your route. The third big advantage of traditional publishing is prestige. Endless. Here's a hard truth that I found out in my research. If your dream is to be on a New York Times bestsellers list, traditional publishing is essential. And it's pretty much the only path, especially when it comes to the New York Times bestseller list. I did some extensive research on this and it's almost impossible for you to get on this list as a self published book. So just keep this in mind. If you are only writing a book so that you can hit the New York Times bestseller list, which is the goal of a lot of writers, because they feel like that's the ultimate reward or the ultimate prize of being a best selling author and something that they can leverage and use to increase their speaking fees or even get on talk shows, or even get pitched other ideas or products, then you're going to need to self publish. Now there are trade offs, so let's get through them. Like I mentioned, much lower margins. The royalties are typically 5 to 15% of the price of the book. Sometimes it's even less. The second big trade off is you lose a lot of control of your book. You often don't control the book, meaning you don't control the title of the book, even the COVID the release date, the positioning. Of course everything is a negotiation and you can talk it out, but at the end of the day they have a lot of power because they are the ones that are going to tell you, hey, we're publishing this book. We know what's best for you, we know what's going to sell and you're going to have to fight through that third big trade off, and to me, this is the biggest trade off of all, is that in many traditional deals, the publisher owns the publishing rights, sometimes international rights, sometimes even audio rights of your audiobook. Now, you can negotiate, like I mentioned, but the leverage is usually on their side. So you got to be very careful. And I would definitely use a lawyer in this process to make sure that you keep ownership as much as possible of the IP and the different forms of your book. The fourth trade off is a slow bureaucratic process. I spoke to several authors and many of them who first traditionally published, then went to self publishing, switched to self publishing because of this reason. Books can take up to 18 to 24 months to hit the market and many entrepreneurs feel that's too much time and I want to get my book out sooner. I want to have more control of the timeline. This is especially true if you are writing a book in an industry that is evolving very quickly, like AI for example. So a lot of authors I know have really complained about this, but if it's worth the payoffs, it's worth the advantages, then maybe you want to put up with this. Now let's get into option number three, hybrid publishing. In my opinion, it's sort of the sweet spot. This option is an option that most people don't even know about. Okay. And in my opinion, it's probably one of the best options if you are a business owner that likes autonomy. Now, I've met a few really good authors, people that have sold many, many books using this model. And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's something in between self publishing and traditional publishing. A good example of this is PA Publishing, which actually was introduced to me by Alan Dibb, who is the best selling author of Lean Marketing. He also is known for the one page marketing plan which we reviewed here on the show, which has over like 10,000, 11,000 reviews on Amazon. It's just sold so many copies and if you look on the spine of the book, it's page two Publishing. There are many other books that are published by this publishing house. One of the books I recommend before as well is exactly what to Say and here is Page two Publishing's little logo. Now, Page two Publishing or this model, hybrid publishing gives you a few things. One, you retain creative control, you retain most of your rights, and you retain significant margins opposed to traditional publishing. Now, the advantage is that they provide professional editing, design and production. They also handle distribution. They get you into bookstores, into airports, bulk orders, all that stuff. They also act as a true publishing partner, but you get to keep your ip. This is huge. Your book can become any kind of format. Like it could be a course, it could be a speaking framework, it could be a license, coaching style, it could be a lead generator. You don't lose control of your ideas, which is huge and something you really need to think about. The other thing I love about the hybrid approach is the margins are a lot better than traditional. Now, you won't get self publishing margins, but you'll earn far more than traditional publishing, that's for sure. At least per book. Of course, hybrid publishers can also get your book out into the world. It can really handle a lot of the distribution. It also lends a bit of credibility without having kind of the golden handcuffs. Many hybrid publishers have hit many big lists, like the USA Today bestseller list, Wall Street Journal lists. Not the New York Times, not yet, so far. But it is possible to hit a list with a hybrid publisher. So of course with anything there's trade offs. What are the trade offs with the hybrid approach? Well, you usually have to invest upfront. This isn't a vanity fee, it's a partnership model. And for business owners, this investment often pays for itself many times over through the brand leverage that you're going to get through your book. And honestly, the reason why I think this option is really cool is because that's the only trade off, right? Really, honestly, that's the only trade off and it's something you really should consider. Now, I can't make a decision for you. You got to choose the right option for you. But let me make it a little bit simpler for you to make a decision. I recommend you should self publish if you want maximum control. You already have an audience, you care about, speed and the margins of each book sale, and your book supports your business. Also, it's a great choice if you don't really care about the prestige of a traditional published book or you're not trying to hit the New York Times bestseller list. I recommend traditional publishing. If your number one goal is prestige. And that's okay to admit that, that's fine if that's your goal. If you want to hit the New York Times bestseller list, that's something that you want to just admit to yourself. If that's your goal, then that's fine. Go with traditional publishing. If you're willing to give up a bit of control and margins, that's also okay. If money is not really something you're trying to gain out of this project. If you're okay with a bit of a longer timeline, then traditional publishing is right for you. I would go with hybrid publishing. If you want a little bit of both worlds, like you want a good balance of control and credibility, if you want a balance of distribution and keeping your ip. If you see your book as a long term business asset, or maybe you just can't deal with bureaucracy and politics. Most entrepreneurs, creators and experts I have found that have used the hybrid approach are really happy. I've heard a lot of glowing reviews of the process and they feel like it's one of the smartest moves they've ever made. Just remember, your book is not just a book, it's a platform. It's a calling card. It's a trust builder. It's a leverage tool to show that, hey, you got something important to say. That's all the research I've done on publishing a book. Hopefully it was helpful and if it was, the best thank you you can give me is to share this episode with somebody else, you know, that's looking to publish a book sometime in the future. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Your book is not just a book. It's a platform. It's a calling card. It's a trust builder. It's a way for you to really differentiate yourself and leverage yourself out in the world. And the worst thing you can do is publish it the wrong way for the wrong reasons. So give this some thought before making a decision. Choose the path that serves your goals, your life, your business, not just your ego. So hopefully I gave you the tools to do that. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast podcast app, the one that you're using right now. Whether it's Apple or Spotify or ever, you listen to podcasts by hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
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Hey everybody, Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co host Woody Harrelson. It's called where everybody knows your name and we're back for another season. I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms and many more. You don't want to miss it. Listen to where everybody knows your name with me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts.