1. Publish a book at the expense of the publisher

Being published by a major publishing house is the preferred way that any aspiring writer dreams of. Not only will your book be published, handed over to stores, promoted and advertised - you will also receive a fee for your work. The fee in large publishing houses is, as a rule, 7-10% of the cost of the book. No, not from the price at which it will be displayed in the store, but from the wholesale price at which the book publisher sells it to its partners. It is 3-4 times lower than the store. But still nice, right?

What does it take to be published by some publishing giant? The answer suggests itself: "To be a brilliant writer," but no. The modern book world does not benefit from lone writers, no matter how talented they are. Books are sold in series or projects, and if your work does not fit into the series, publishing analysts will consider that it will not be sold, which means there is no point in publishing it.

Want to make money writing? Explore the book market, see which series and projects are selling out the most actively now, and write in them! Yes, on order. Contact the publisher, let them know that you want to work on a specific project, discuss the synopsis with the editor and go ahead.

What is a series and what is a project? A series is books by different authors connected by a common theme. "Girls' Favorite Books" - detective-romantic stories for teenagers, "Magic Academy" - magical detective stories for slightly older girls, "Other Worlds" - fantasy for both sexes, more serious but still necessarily romantic. There are many series. Choose! Maybe the book you conceived will fall under some kind of series anyway? Maybe you don't have to adjust?

Project - books by different authors, united by one universe. The universe of "Patrols" Lukyanenko, his own "Borderlands". "S.T.A.L.K.E.R" based on the game of the same name, "Ethnogenesis". Right there, just write to order, merge into the world invented by someone. Yes, it is more difficult, but if the world is interesting, it is even bring you pleasure.

2. Raise money for a publication on a crowdfunding platform

You won’t have to adapt to anyone, write to order - too. Write your masterpiece the way you see it. Tell the world what you want to say. Contact the printing house, ask them to calculate the price of the book for different editions, and by creating a project on a crowdfunding platform, try to interest the maximum number of people in it.

What is the principle of crowdfunding? People sponsor this or that project. Buy a book before it is published. Or a movie disc before it's shot. You promise, for example, that whoever pays for one copy will receive an autographed book as a gift. Who pays 10 - will receive not only copies, but also a blueberry pie baked by you personally. Be original, try to stand out among other projects.

Thus, you are in a much better position than the publishing house. It, publishing a book, risks money and does not know whether this novel will be sold. You, having raised the money, have already sold the entire circulation in advance.

There are no risks. By collecting a smaller amount, you can simply reduce the circulation. Without even collecting the minimum circulation, you simply return the money to the project participants.

Some pluses? No, there is one downside. It's not easy to spread the word about your project. It's not easy to get people interested and persuade them to buy your unpublished book. But you are a writer! You are the creator of the worlds! You are a creative person! You can do it if you want. You will succeed!

3. Publish a book at the expense of a sponsor

The same crowdfunding, but in reality. Contact large companies, again, already having a finished, written book in your hands and a breakdown of the cost for various circulations. Promise them advertising on the back cover. Promise them a mention in the work. Promise blueberry pie to the principal. Do not forget to mention that the published book is an information occasion that can be used for mention in the media.

This benefits both you and them. But yes, it will take all your charm to bypass the secretary, reach out to the manager and convince him to invest in this long-term advertising.

It will be an additional advantage if you discuss with bookstores how you will sell this book before going to potential sponsors. And not only with shops. Get to know local literary clubs, libraries, discuss with them the possibility of organizing your creative evenings with the sale or distribution of books. In a conversation with a sponsor, operate with numbers. "You invest 100,000 and the book with your advertisement will be distributed in such and such a circulation!" or "You invest 100 thousand and 70 of them I expect to return back on sale in the first month!"

You risk nothing again, and if successful, you find yourself the author of a book that has been published and sold in good circulation.

4. Get a book edition as a gift

The method is not simple, and indeed, it is conditionally a "method". Taking into account modern publishing technologies, the price of publishing a book becomes comparable to the price of a good laptop or vacuum cleaner. And many publishers have long been selling gift certificates for their services. Do you have friends who want to give you a really nice, memorable gift? Hint...

5. Find a literary agent

A literary agent will do all the work described in the first three paragraphs for you for a certain percentage of book sales. In the West, the profession of a literary agent is common and highly paid. There are only a few of them in Russia so far, but they exist. Have you written a book that you think is really talented? Look for a literary agent. Convince him to sell your book, sell you as a brand, and if he takes it, he will. He already has established channels of communication with publishers and sponsors. That's why he's an agent to do his job well.

6. Participate in literary competitions

Of course, you need to participate in them in principle, without being tied to a specific task of publishing a book. A prize-winning place in the "Debut", for example, dramatically increases the interest in you of both publishers and users of crowdfunding platforms, and in general the influx of readers to your page on the network or public on a social network. The famous "Ragged Hot Water Bottle", in which the story needs to be written in a very short time, on a narrow and original topic, and often starting with a certain sentence and ending with a certain sentence, will not only attract attention to you, but also help you discover new facets talent.

Well, in general, the prize of participation in the competition is rarely the publication of a book by one author. Much more often this is a collection of short stories, but nevertheless, this is a publication, this is an edition of a book, albeit not completely yours.

Monitor websites and public publishers. There are often announced contests of short stories and novels for certain dates. By May 9, someone will launch a contest of stories about the Great Patriotic War. For the birthday of a famous poet - a competition of poems or stories inspired by his works. To the launch of a new book project - a competition of stories about the world of this project. Monitor the sites konkursy.pishi.pro and vsekonkursy.ru. Something will find a response in your soul, you will definitely want to participate in some competition.

7. Become a publisher yourself

This method can be attributed to the publication of the book for free only conditionally. Will have to invest. Find money, contact a printing house, print a book, sign an agreement with bookstore networks, organize creative evenings, negotiate with literary clubs and libraries, and sell the entire circulation, not only recouping costs, but also making a profit.

It's possible and it's real. Only, of course, you don’t need to invest in circulation, and only then go to bookstores. First, outline a plan, collect preliminary agreements, and only then - act. Remember that in modern printing houses, the acceptable price of one copy of a book does not begin at all with a circulation of several thousand. You can start by publishing fifty copies, or a hundred. And see how they sell. The cost of producing a book can be calculated in an online calculator.

And most importantly, before you start all this, let a good friend read your book, and then ask him: "Only honestly, tell me, would you buy this?" And if the answer is no - think about it, maybe you should write something better first?

Compliance with the rules of the game is extremely important. Many authors do everything in their own way: they send in which you can’t make out anything, or they write at all: “My book is in the application. I want to publish. This shows that the author is a hack. If from the very beginning he treats his business carelessly, then what to expect from him in the future?

Pitch

Negotiations with the publisher

The application and all supporting documents are sent to the publisher either by e-mail or by regular mail. The review time can vary from a few days to several months.

If you suspect that your letter has been lost, do not hesitate to call the publisher. Always ask the editor when to contact them for a decision. It is likely that you will have to repeat the procedure several times: editors are extremely busy people and often do not meet deadlines.

Can I submit a manuscript to multiple publishers?

Novice writers often ask themselves the question: should I send a manuscript to several publishers at once, or should I first wait for a response from one, and then move on to the next?

My opinion is this: the manuscript should be sent to all appropriate editions. If you have several offers, you can negotiate on the price. If you don't get a single positive response, you won't waste time waiting in vain.

Dead season in publishing houses

The dead season can be called the time of book fairs - Frankfurt, Moscow International Book Fair and a number of thematic exhibitions. At this time, it is better for the author not to disturb the publishers: they still have no time, and they will postpone reading the manuscript until after-fair times.

Summer is the holiday season, May holidays are the barbecue season, New Year and Christmas are sacred.

What is suitable for publication and what is not

In the publishing house, each manuscript suitable for the genre is evaluated for compliance with the following criteria:

Text quality

• the norms of the Russian literary language are observed;
• the principles of composition are observed, the logic is sustained;
• the text contains new useful information (non-fiction) or entertains the reader (fiction).

Demand

Works of this type should sell well. If sales of similar books have been poor or the data simply isn't there, distributors won't take the novelty.

By the way, this is why publishers do not like non-format so much - it is very difficult to attach it to bookstores.

unusual

The manuscript should have a striking feature: a theme, a point of view, a way of presenting the material, etc.

PR opportunity

This is not about posters with commercials, but about the interest of the press in the topic of the book or in the author himself. Theoretically, any competent book can be made a bestseller (at least for a short time), but this will require huge investments, and the profit will bring a penny. Only those books that the press itself begins to talk about sell well. And for this you need some kind of clue.

For example:

• celebrity books or about celebrities,
• books that have become bestsellers abroad,
• books on pressing social and economic problems,
• books written by extraordinary people
• books that destroy the usual ideas about some phenomenon, etc.

If the first two points - quality and relevance - are observed, the book is accepted for publication in the general series. If the work is also unusual, and the author has signs of a potential star, an advertising budget can be allocated to promote his book.

Book cost

Try to do everything to reduce the cost of your book. If the budget turns out to be large, then the publisher is forced to lay down a high retail price, and this, in modern times, is almost a guarantee of a failure in sales.

Editing and proofreading can easily be done at the expense of the author. By the way, the need for editing (i.e. additional attachments) is one of the most common reasons for refusal to publish.

Correspondence with the editor

If the editor believes that a book that has arrived by chance has a chance, he notifies the author that the publisher is interested in working with him.

When entering into correspondence with the editor, adhere to the following rules:

• No familiarity. The tone of the letters should be emphatically business-like.
• Indicate the subject in your emails - it's easier to find them in the general thread.
• Be brief - long letters are read last.
• Check spelling and punctuation.
• If you've just started a conversation, remind the editor who you are and/or what you're talking about.

For example:

Good afternoon, dear Larisa Ivanovna!

On August 27 you asked for the manuscript of my love story Roses and Tears. File in attachment.

Sincerely,
Adelaide Konforkina

I wrote on the page that I am the current glared editor of a glossy magazine and work in a large publishing house. Therefore, I will describe the process in detail. Not the fact that I will fit into one article, but for some time I will certainly lay out all the details. Today I will try to explain what needs to be done and how to cooperate with publishing houses to the authors of their works.

Any work with a publishing house begins with the submission of a manuscript (of course, in a printed version). But before you bring it (the manuscript) there (send it), you need to choose an organization that will print your book.

Today there are many publishing houses, both small and large. Among them, the largest and most desirable are the Russian EKSMO and AST. Last spring, there were rumors that these two giants were merging into one big company, but so far things are still there.

Why desirable? Because the gentlemen from these structures can replicate and promote your book at their own expense, paying you interest according to the contract (which we will also talk about).

Usually the author sends his manuscript to several publishers at once with the hope that one of them will take it to work. It happens that several organizations offer their services at once. In this case, the author himself chooses the one that suits him best in terms of payment and promotion.

Today I will not list all the publishers where you can contact (I will do this a little later on a separate page. You will receive a notification about this by mail if you subscribe to updates), but I advise, of course, to contact EKSMO and AST first of all. Especially if you don't want to pay your own money for circulation and promotion. The latter is the easiest option to "perpetuate" your name, but it is too expensive. On average, a print run of 1,000 hardcover copies will cost you $8,000. Paperback and A6 format will cost twice as much.

You can also send your work to the Book Club (Kharkiv), but it will not be easy to get them to print you at their own expense.

Move on. You have chosen a publisher, now you need to present your work to him. On the resources of all publishers there is a special section "for authors", where all the conditions for providing materials are indicated. It is necessary to read this section very carefully, because if you make any mistake, you can say goodbye to the dream of being published in this edition. I asked the editors of the company I work for why this is happening? They answered the following (not verbatim): " we are literary editors, people are very, very scrupulous and we love accuracy in everything. If the author sends us a sloppy text or does not fulfill the conditions that we offer, then the work of such a person is not worthy of attention, because it will be just as sloppy and stupid". These are their principles.

From here advice: Follow the publisher's instructions exactly. If they require text in RTF format, then you should not send them a work with the DOC extension. If they want 5 author's sheets, then don't send them 3 or 8. And so on.

After you read the terms and understand that they are all feasible, you need to prepare a short "preview" for your text. Those. Roughly speaking, it is necessary to answer the question: how will your novel be interesting to the reader? As a rule, the preview is an integral part of the annotation to the work.

For example:

Novel " Accountant» - about the topical everyday life of a small financier

About myself: Forbes Accountant of the Year

Plot: As an accountant, Vasya became a director, Vasily Ivanovich. His path, thorns and reward.

In the description of the work, you will write more widely (without “about yourself”), but this preview is exactly the material with which your editor will decide the fate of, say, a novel on the commission.

Once your work is ready, the preview is written, the publisher is selected and the conditions are understood and accepted, you send your materials to them either by Email or by the usual method by mail.

If you send by e-mail, then make sure that your correspondence is official (no need to write a message like “Hello! I made a cool novel here, please watch it :)”). Be concise, write without errors and be sure to include the subject of the work, title and surname in the subject of the letter.

Do not think that the answer will come to you the next day. It usually takes an average of a month to review your manuscript. In large publishing houses - up to 90 days, in small ones - even 10 is enough.

After some time, say 15 days, feel free to call the editorial office and ask if your message has reached them. If it came - humbly wait for the verdict. If not, resubmit.

One Russian writer, whom I have mentioned more than once, advises not to send materials during the period of book fairs (check the schedules of book events beforehand), since all publishers are busy during this period and they do not care about you.

Now let's talk about the criteria used by editors in publishing houses, deciding the fate of the book:

exclusivity: an unusual point of view, the subject and way of presenting the plot

Commercial component(demand): the editorial board analyzes the situation on the market and sees whether your book will be sold or not. Is the topic of your work interesting at the moment? If your book is not in demand, then it will not be published, despite the fact that it may be brilliant. Remember - publishing houses are companies whose goal is to make a profit!

Quality text: entertaining, useful, literate, sustained and observed all the principles of composition.

Based on the conclusions made according to the specified criteria, the book is either not taken, or taken into a series, or, if your work has the potential of a bestseller, they also allocate an advertising fund for promotion and PR.

In order not to be rejected outright, try not to shift the responsibility of editing and correcting the text to the publisher. Do it yourself or hire a private editor to help you with this task. Let the text come to the editor completely "white".

I think that's enough for the seed. In future publications, we will talk about the next steps of the young author in the framework of working with publishers.

Book publishers. What do authors offer?

In one of the articles, we have already touched on the topic of services offered by today's publishers, but at the request of visitors, we decided to create a separate topic of what services book publishers offer.
Commercial book publishers offer not so many options for cooperation, so we will first describe the conditions offered by book publishers in stages and then write for which authors these conditions can be beneficial.

First option.

The book publishing house offers you to publish a book at your own expense, while the service is considered to be completed in full after the transfer of the printed edition to the author.

Stages of work(it is not necessary that the author needs all the services, and it is likely that in order to reduce costs he will limit himself to only the necessary ones, but we decided to list them all):

1. Conclusion of a service agreement (namely, a service agreement or a work contract, and not an author's agreement, because the publishing house only prepares the book and is not the copyright holder of either the book or its content, and only the author has an unconditional right to the book).
   Since the author fully pays all costs, we believe the author has the right to demand that all rights to layout, editorial corrections, illustrations used in this book and the book in general belong exclusively to the author, the publisher is only responsible for the quality execution of the circulation.
2. The author submits materials for the book to the publisher. Materials are transferred in the form in which it was discussed before the conclusion of the contract.
3. The publishing house translates the text into electronic form (if the material was provided in paper form), makes proofreading and editing (depending on what services were included in the terms of the contract).
4. The publishing house agrees with the author on editing and offers layout options, sketches of drawings.
5. The publisher does the layout, one more final proofreading and prints out the signature proofreading.
6. The author very carefully checks the signature proofreading for missed or made errors and sends the signature proofreading back to the publisher with a signature, date and the phrase "For printing" or "With correction for printing"

I focus on this point - it is the most important. All missed errors, shortcomings or fundamental disagreement with the general appearance cannot be corrected after the transfer to the circulation, the circulation of the book will be spoiled, and in my twelve years of practice there were quite a few circulations that were "no one needs". Therefore, once again I appeal to all authors who print books at their own expense - you are the only one who should look very carefully at signature proofreading, if there is the slightest doubt, coordinate them with the publisher, be sure to mark the errors found with a pen and put a noticeable sign in the margins of the page with the error, and indicate for all shortcomings in the transfer to the publisher for printing. If there are a lot of errors, it is better to insist on re-printing before printing the main print run - always remember the cost of the entire print run - this is how much a mistake will cost you.

7. The publishing house either prints and gives you the circulation to the author, or transfers you the materials ready for printing in the printing house of your choice (according to the previously accepted terms of the contract).

I always recommend authors to look for a publishing house that, under the contract, should provide the author with a finished edition of the book, even if it will be a little more expensive for the author, but cheaper than the case when the printing house refuses to accept work and the publishing house proves that all the materials were prepared correctly, or if an error occurs, it is already in the finished The circulation of the parties - the author, the publishing house and the printing house - all shift the blame on each other and it is already difficult to figure out at whose expense the entire circulation needs to be corrected.

Who benefits from the first option?

Let's say you are an author and you really want your work to be published in the form of a book, and you do not set yourself the goal of your book being on the shelves of bookstores, but your main task is to make a good beautiful book and give it to close friends or you there is a circle of readers interested in your work and ready to purchase these books directly from you. This option is perfect for you.

Second option.

In this case, an author's agreement is concluded between the author and the publishing house, according to which the author transfers for a certain period, certain rights to use and sell specific written works or a specific number of future works to the publishing house, the publishing house, in turn, undertakes to publish and sell books in a certain circulation and pay the author a certain amount of royalties.

The most preferred option for unknown authors who decide to connect their lives with writing. The most important thing in this cooperation is not even the royalties, but the fact that your book will be sold by professional people who are directly interested in the speedy implementation of the circulation of your book, we recall that today the most difficult thing is not to print a book, but to be able to sell a book (shops , Internet projects, etc.)

But for one of my acquaintances, such an agreement turned out to be very burdensome. By the time he received an offer from a major publisher, he was already a well-known author with a dozen books published by lesser known publishers. The author was flattered that he would be printed by one of the largest Russian publishing houses and the circulation was almost an order of magnitude larger, he signed a contract for two years. As a result, he had to cancel a huge number of visiting lectures to fulfill the terms of the contract in which he was obliged to write a specific number of new books within a certain period of time. Read the contract carefully and discuss all points.

Third option.

The publisher offers you to print an edition of your book for your money and guarantees to deal with sales of your book.

In most of these offers, I see only a scam.

On the Internet, you can find many sites that offer you to print your book and distribute your book through their (supposedly developed) network, which includes central stores (partners of this company), online stores, etc. But the author himself pays for his circulation, and if the book sells well, then the publishing house undertakes to make additional circulations necessary for the author.

This option completely repeats the first one, but in addition the publishing house undertakes to sell the author's book. As a rule, the cost of publishing such a print run is 2 times higher than if you simply ordered your book to be printed in another publishing house. But the authors, seeing the clause of the contract that the publishing house undertakes to deal with the sale of books, agree to a high price.

To understand why I wrote the word scam, I quote from a conversation between the author and a representative of such a publishing house.

• Representative: All of our partners with whom we work are the largest bookstores in Moscow, an online store that operates throughout the country, as well as book networks and wholesale bookselling companies that have their own stores throughout the country.
• Author: I understand you correctly - my book will be sold in the Moscow Biblioglobus and other large stores.
• Representative: Yes, you understand correctly, so let's conclude an agreement, pay us money and we will give you 250 books, and the remaining 250 will be sold through chain stores and cover the remaining costs of the publishing house.
• Author: And we can prescribe in the contract the names of stores with addresses and chains of stores on the shelves of which my book will be, say, a month after the production of the circulation

AND HERE THE CULMINATION

• Representative: No, we do not write down the names in the contract, what if there are new ones and we do not write them down, and then what? ..
• Author: You know, I still insist that you and I write specifically in which stores and bookselling networks my books will be
• Representative: The thing is that we include your book in our price list, and stores and chains themselves choose to order it from us or not

It is on this phrase that I will finish reproducing this dialogue. I am 99.99% sure if you are a young author, your book will never be ordered by any network, not a single store, especially in Moscow. And for those who still believe in miracles, I will tell one story from my personal experience.

My work experience: I worked in a publishing house and we published an author already known in Russia, and the subject of the books was very popular at that time (esotericism, not traditional methods of treatment). We have already worked directly with book retail chains and really wanted our books to be sold in Moscow bookstores - Moscow House of Books (large chain), Biblio-Globus, etc. Through all channels I tried to find people in these stores who deal with the purchase of books, but all my attempts were even, after several months of searching, they gave me the phone number of a person in Moscow who was engaged in the supply of books to these stores. I got through and they made it clear to me that all purchases of books (does not apply to very large publishing houses) to Moscow stores go through this organization (a specific person) and that in order to start work (not even the delivery of a book, but just the inclusion of our books in the price list from which will be chosen by books in stores) we have to pay a very large amount and this is not a guarantee that our books will be constantly sold in these stores and in full assortment. I want to say that the event of selling a book by an unknown author on the shelves of the central store in Moscow is similar to the case if a young family came to the head of their administration and, at their request, they would be given an apartment on the central square of the city.

Author's story: Arriving at the store in the supply department, they told me that the store does not work with individuals and organizations whose assortment is less than 50 items and they themselves gave me the coordinates of one of their suppliers who, under certain conditions, takes the book from the author for sale and delivers them already to the store . By calling the proposed phone, the person agreed to take part of my circulation on the terms of sale - in case of successful sales, he gives money and takes new books for sale, in case of no sales, the books are returned to the author within a month. After agreeing to the terms, my books were on the shelves of bookstores within ten days.

In the article, I deliberately left both examples of working with bookstores to illustrate how much depends on luck and perseverance, and if it doesn’t work right away, you need to try again and again. If you decide to print a book in a particular publishing house only because you expect that they will sell your book, then I recommend that you start discussing the sale of your book even before printing, fully discuss the conditions and write them down in the contract WHERE and WHEN your book will be sold.

If you find a publishing house that prints a book at the expense of the author and after honestly fulfills its obligations to sell the circulation, I kindly ask you to write me their coordinates, I will be very happy to post their coordinates on my website in the public domain for all authors and I'm sure it will be the best useful information of my site for young authors.

An exception is the service of large publishers, which offers you to print a book and sell your book, while the amount of the service is dozens of times more than the cost of printing your book (a more detailed description of this offer can be found in another article on the site)

Comments on this article

THANK! EXACTLY WHAT IS NEEDED!

Thanks for the site. Found a lot of useful stuff

Very interesting, but there are a lot of grammatical errors - take a closer look please))

Our publishing house E.RA really sells books. In particular, Bibilo Globus takes almost the entire price list from us. But Dom-Knigi and the Young Guard take only very popular books. An important point that the author of the article did not mention is the promotion of the book. Submitting it to critics for review, etc.

Oh, something scared me ... It seems that I will never publish my book, all these vicissitudes are beyond my mind, beyond my strength. It's a pity... The author of the article is sincerely trying to be useful to beginners (that's how they should be called, and not at all "young") authors. So one should not expect special literacy from his text, he does not pretend to it. I sympathize with those whose eyes are scratched by mistakes. :o) Be patient, gentlemen. Se, today, our terrible la vie.)))

I'M ALSO TRYING TO WRITE SOMETHING, IT SEEMS TO BE SUCCESSFUL, BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT??

I guessed that everything was not so simple, but I did not think that it was so ...

The publishing business in Russia is somehow organized incorrectly. To publish my book, I have to pay first. I've been working on it for several months already. Why publishers, it’s easier to print as many copies on the printer as you want and go sell it yourself. I don’t see the difference: (I chose the wrong profession, definitely the wrong one.

When I was writing my novel, I was never so tired as now, when I look for publishers on the Internet, which, probably, are only interested in the proposals of Rublev writers.

I believe the article is helpful. But to make so many mistakes in words?! I'm starting to doubt the talent of the author. And you don't have to go far: I tried to add a comment, but I couldn't!

It's scary from all these tricks. I am writing a book now, or rather, a small series of four parts, and now I am completely confused what I should do with all this writing. I can bring the manuscript into proper form. I have a wonderful LaTeX program where you can do everything. The question is how then to sell this happiness.

When publishing books, I tried all the options. If you print it yourself - it's 2 times cheaper than contacting a publisher. With self-publishing, you can successfully sell books on local topics. Especially books with photographs dedicated to historical places. (like guidebooks). Here you can agree on the implementation not only with souvenir shops, museums, etc. but also with the local branch of Rospechat and other distributors. Another plus: you can bravely make a good cheat on guidebooks. Sometimes 100%. As for the publishing houses that will print the book at your expense, contact Dekom (Nizhny Novgorod". Send the uncorrected text. They will do everything themselves anyway (they don’t need your mistakes). And their design (your wishes will be taken into account) BUT Be careful! Immediately negotiate the price at which the publisher will take your book for sale! (And let it be in the contract). When they name the full price, bargain for cucumbers like in a market. You can bargain for 10 or even 20 percent. And one more very important advice: Print a book (in a publishing house) with a circulation of at least 5,000 copies. Only then will there be a more or less adequate price per copy. There is another option. Make a super book. Beautifully illustrated, maybe bound in genuine leather, with all sorts of bells and whistles Price will start from 3000 per copy But will be a hit with collectors (unless of course you wrote something worthwhile) Sell for 8000 On the plus side: you can print 2-3 copies Very suitable for a collection of poems about love, about home. On the history of the region, for children's books.

Is there a list of publishers that are engaged in publishing at their own expense?

That's what I thought friends! It is a lot easier to write than something worth publishing, but in general, does anyone need me? I wrote one novel in twenty copyright sheets ... and I read it for my own pleasure - it is impossible for me to publish such a "masterpiece" at my own expense. Then I set to work on a new novel and am already writing the sixteenth part of it and they will also be in my desk for a long time I think! No one will ever want to help an unknown writer! Bitter word of honor...

Excuse me, but who are you that publishing houses suddenly rush to print you? This is the same market - a very worthwhile thing, if no one knows about it, you can't sell it for three kopecks. But if you hang a label on it, for example - BOSH ... You can sell it for three rubles. Do you get what I mean?

The article is certainly interesting. However, the number of grammatical errors killed just on the spot. Now there is so much crap on the shelves in stores ... They write only to cut the dough, nothing more. Yes, and those who have this money are published, because mere mortals cannot afford it. FYI.. There are quite a few literary competitions where you can submit your work. For example, competitions held by the magazine "Samizdat", and many others. They help to publish those who are really worth something. Submit your work to competitions if you think they are really worth seeing the light of day.

Nikita Prokhorov, co-founder of Sidorin Lab and author of the book Reputation Management on the Internet, talks about simple rules that anyone who one day decides to write (and publish) his book needs to know.

What does it take to publish a book

Almost all media and business characters sooner or later publish their book. It's prestigious, it's stylish, it's memorable. In short, you need to go through the following steps:

1. Publishing agreement
2. Develop a writing concept
3. Find a niche for a topic
4. Choose a theme
5. Write content
6. Order or make your own illustrations
7. Proofreading and editing
8. Layout
9. Edition

Theoretically, many other points can be added here, but these are the main ones. The first point is the search and selection of a publishing house - in fact, this point is not chronologically the first, but it is one of the most important and it is around working with publishing houses that most discussions arise.

Publish and earn: let's go!

Why write a book at all? Someone will say that this is too old school, the format is out of date, everything has been on YouTube for a long time, and so on. However, for a business person, a book is a very unusual and stylish way to promote a personal brand.

I first got the idea to write a book at a meeting with a big businessman, when I handed him a business card, and he, grinning, gave me his own book with a signature from the author in return.

Well, you must admit that the title "scientist, lecturer, teacher, businessman" does not sound as nice as "scientist, lecturer, teacher, businessman, author of the xxxxx book and the bestseller uuuuu."

Okay, let's start creating a great (or not so) book...

How to publish a book?

There are several answers to this question:

• At the expense of the publishing house and in the publishing house;
• In the publishing house and at their own expense;
• Samizdat;
• There is also an e-book option. Such books can be made without a publisher at all and distributed on your website, as an option.

By the way, a serious publishing house will eventually release an electronic version of your book. The main advantage of publishing a book by a publisher is that the publisher is interested in sales, which means that its employees will try to distribute the book to the maximum number of stores, plus they take on some of the promotion work.

In fact, communication with the publisher can begin when a third or half of the book is ready. Just open in any online store cards of books you know that you are guided by when writing your own.

For example, you are writing a book called 10 Viral Marketing Techniques, and your writing benchmark is “The Truth About Word of Mouth and Viral Marketing.” Write out a list of publishers where such books were published. Then you go to the websites of publishers, find the section “for authors”, download the brief, fill it out, and send it for consideration.

Publishing houses such as Alpina, Piter, Synergy, MiF are suitable for publishing a book on business. Examples of their "for authors" pages with instructions on how to propose collaboration - and .

Typically, an application to a publisher requires something like this list of data:

• title;
• abstracts of the content;
• short description;
• data about authors;
• description of the target audience;
• a story about how you are going to promote yourself;
• a story about how you can help promote the publishing house;
• a story about why you deserve to be published;
• readiness forecast;
• a file with ready content;

All this is sent either to the specified email, or attached and filled out to the application form on the site. Further waiting. Some sites explicitly state that the waiting period can be up to a year. As my personal experience shows, when publishing fiction, the waiting times are much higher than for business literature.

And now, the answer from the publisher appears in the mail. There will be one of four options:

1. You are cool, we sign a contract;
2. Cool, but not enough. The publishing house is ready to work, but at your expense;
3. Refusal in general or postponement of the discussion for a year, two, three ...
4. Need more information - send questions.

The first two options are very close. In both cases, you are entitled to some kind of royalties - usually a percentage of the sales of the book. As for the paid order from the publisher, then In my practice, the end result was something like this: paperback, pilot edition of 200-300 copies, worth 190,000 rubles, while the author is entitled to 50 copies. A second publisher later issued a similar proposal.

If you were refused, this does not mean that the book will not be available. Self-publishing has not been canceled. Do not be embarrassed by this phenomenon. It is possible to print the book yourself, even in a quality better than that of eminent publishers, and at the same time distribute it to the main stores.

If you do not have any experience in this matter, there are services that will help you. I advise you to familiarize yourself with sites like Ridero - with its help you can do layout, design, proofreading, they will also print circulation and distribute the book to stores. The advantage of publishers is that they assign an ISBN code (international encoding) to a book. In the same Ridero, this can also be ordered. There is also a similar service SelfPub, their partner network includes Litres, Ozon and other book sales sites.

Rates can be viewed on the websites themselves. On the same Ridero, a circulation of 100 books with A5 parameters, soft cover, 200 pages, black and white printing - 16,748 rubles per circulation, which is about 168 rubles per copy.

How to publish a book for free

One way or another, if the text has already been written, the book can always be published, and at the expense of its own audience. For example, the book "101 Ways to Promote a Personal Brand" was promoted as a fundraising campaign on Planet.ru. At the same time, the leading fundraising sites in Russia have separate entire sections for literature - here and here. See which authors on different topics are promoting their future publications through fundraising.

If there is a desire to publish a book in a publishing house, but it turns out to agree only on a paid circulation, you can collect the required amount in open areas.

In any communication with the publisher, I immediately advise you to say the following points:

• The number of books in the author's circulation - how many books will be given to you when the book is released in your hands. The more - the better - see the next paragraph;
• The ability to buy books yourself at a publisher at a discount after the release - or you will, like everyone else, buy it in a store at a retail price;
• How and when to release the electronic version - some publishers may try to take away your copyright without releasing the electronic version. Or release it, but after six months / a year / two;
• The deadline for transferring rights to a book to a publisher. The shorter this period is, the better for you. If the cooperation is successful, then extend the contract. If something does not suit you, you can then try to subscribe with another publisher;
• The countries in which the book will be published. Sometimes it makes sense to subscribe to other publishers in other countries;

Well, the main thing- if one, two, three publishers refused - do not panic. We send briefs to other publishers. And those who refused can honestly ask questions - what's wrong? Sometimes the motivation for refusal can serve as an instruction for action - to fix something, rewrite chapters, change style.

At what point and where does the earnings on the book start?

1. Publishes and distributes publishing house - you% of sales;
2. Publishes at your expense and distributes the publishing house - you % of sales;
3. Samizdat - distribute yourself, perhaps with the help of services -% will go to services;
4. Supplement 1 and 2 points - you sell author's copies on your own - the money is for you.

I also want to note that earnings on a business book may not be from the book itself, but from the activities around them. For example, selling tickets for a book presentation. The ticket price includes a book, champagne, communication with the author. You rent a small restaurant for the evening, and you can sell tickets through services like Timepad.

It is always worth remembering that the publication of your book on business topics is not only a story about money, but, more importantly, about prestige. Examples that I like are Ditriy Kot "Selling texts", Timur Aslanov "Alpha sellers", Vyacheslav Semenchuk "101 ways to promote a personal brand".

What makes such books good is that the authors describe their own vision in them, therefore they contain a minimum of officialdom and many examples. Nobody prevents you from strengthening your prestige in the industry. In any case, if you decide, then create further. As you know, the book about Harry Potter was rejected by more than ten publishers. And today everyone knows the author.