In the old days–you know, just a few years ago–publishing a book meant producing a volume printed on paper, using an offset press (ink on paper). Offset was expensive to set up, involving editing of multiple galley proofs, so minimum runs were in the hundreds or thousands of books. This is why some authors ended up with boxes of books stored in their garages. It’s the reason publishers had to have warehouses. With offset, the main choice was between hardback and paperback. Generally, the more expensive hardbacks were issued first. Once the hardback sales began to taper off, then the less expensive paperbacks would be released.
Today there are many more options. For paper books, a new option is Print On Demand (POD). This digital printing method uses toner on paper, so it is more expensive per copy than offset, but it is possible to print a single copy at a time. With this method, there is no need for warehousing (and no garage full of books for self-published authors).
The other new option these days is an e-book. This can be as simple as a public blog entry, to a pdf file downloaded from a website, or a specially formatted file designed for an e-reader. Because only electronic files are involved, the cost of production is minimal, and distributors pay higher royalties. No warehouses, no shipping. Purchased books are instantly available to the reader.
But e-books are still in transition. Different platforms use different file formats, so multiple conversions are needed if you want to cover all possible readers. Each format requires a separate ISBN. There is also still a lot of uncertainty about the right pricing level for e-books relative to paper books. Because there are no print costs, royalties are higher, so many authors are willing to price e-books much lower than paper books. Authors can also choose to release a few chapters of an e-book for free as part of a marketing campaign.
It’s a new world for authors. All of the old options are still there, but many new options exist for getting your words to readers. By one report, the number of new books published per year has gone from 10-14,000 a year to over two million this year. So it should be no surprise that marketing is key to success in the new world of publishing.
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