{"id":42670,"date":"2023-10-20T15:22:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-to-kindle-a-diy-publishing-business-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:22:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:22:54","slug":"how-to-kindle-a-diy-publishing-business-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-to-kindle-a-diy-publishing-business-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Kindle a DIY publishing business – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"feature-sean-roach-thumb\"<\/div>\n

US entrepreneur Sean Roach admits he is not the world\u2019s best writer, but he has managed to make a career out of publishing books via online platforms such as Amazon and its eReader, Kindle.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Roach is in Australia as part of his consultancy business, which advises budding entrepreneurs how to establish themselves as self-published literary moguls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Taking on the publishing giants in such a way seems an unlikely way to generate sales, but Roach insists that even up-and-running small businesses can turn their hand to eBooks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

StartupSmart<\/i> spoke to Roach to find out if self-publishing is viable for ambitious business owners rather than just frustrated amateur novelists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What first got you into the self-publishing area?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wrote Get Off Your Duff and Make Your Own Cheese<\/i> as a kind of take off of Who Moved My Cheese?<\/i> [Dr Spencer Johnson\u2019s 1998 bestseller on change management]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s about how you have to realise that change is happening and react to it. I had a meeting with a New York publisher that offered to do me the honour of publishing and distributing my book, in return for me doing all of the marketing and PR.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They\u2019d then take a big chunk of money. Typically, for a $20 book, the author will make 80 cents to $2.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Authors are completely dependent on publishers, but they don\u2019t know their numbers or what they are saying is true. A lot of authors don\u2019t get paid on time and then the publisher can go bust and you don\u2019t get paid at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This publisher then told me that they wanted to change parts of the book. They wanted ants, rather than rats, on the cover of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was ridiculous, as ants aren\u2019t the kind of creature that will just get up and start-up on their own. If I was doing a book about unions or something, I\u2019d choose ants. But rats fit in with the theme of the book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So I got up and left.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So what do you do next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

I tried working with a company that helped you self-publish, but even that was a disaster. I eventually went with another publisher, and the book came out in 2009 and sold tonnes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book has sold 200,000 copies and I haven\u2019t seen a royalty cheque from it yet. The publisher treats me like a dog.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I should\u2019ve done it by myself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t you do that to start with?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, the book doesn\u2019t rely heavily on retail sales \u2013 there are lots of bulk orders to places such as SouthWest Airlines or IBM. Back in 2008, a site like GoDaddy wouldn\u2019t have purchased a Kindle eBook, either.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the beauty of it now is that Amazon has created a whole point on demand space that gives you complete control. And there\u2019s iBooks on Apple and other platforms now, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Right now, if I want to make 15 changes to my printed book, I\u2019d be charged thousands of dollars. With a Kindle book, I can literally go in and make changes within minutes and no-one at the user end realises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t this option only open to a small niche of entrepreneurs? Specifically, the ones who can write?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

It can make money for businesses that don\u2019t do much in the way of internet marketing, or even have a website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Amazon does 80% of the heavy lifting \u2013 you\u2019re dealing with the world\u2019s fourth largest search engine here. Same with iBooks \u2013 Apple has the reach that you can take advantage of.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You could be a tradie and come out with a book. Even if you can\u2019t write, you could get it ghost written for $300 to $500, or just record what you want to write and have it transcribed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This can make you money and also gives you the status of being a bestselling author \u2013 Amazon, for example, has top 100 bestseller lists across all kinds of areas. So you\u2019re a tradie, or chiropractor or whatever, and a bestselling author. It\u2019s good for your business.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t that muddy the waters with your existing business?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good point. One popular niche is cooking \u2013 I love cooking but I don\u2019t know too much about it. I\u2019ve got it ghost written and sell it under a pen name.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I know of someone who wanted to write a cookery book under the same name that he\u2019d used for five fiction titles. Readers become a bit wary or confused if they see you\u2019re jumping from one genre to another.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He used a pen name and his sales rocketed. It\u2019s just like Mark Twain did with his pen name \u2013 it\u2019s not new.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US entrepreneur Sean Roach admits he is not the world\u2019s best writer, but he has managed to make a career<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}