American college professor Mike Kowis has shocked his colleagues – to say nothing of his impoverished students – by revealing that it cost a staggering $7000 to self-publish his teaching guide Engaging College Students: A Fun and Edgy Guide for Professors. In short, his costs were fairly evenly split between the writing process, printing and publishing, and marketing his book.
His figures make interesting reading. They're quite high – he's gone for high-end support for much of the work – but they serve to remind would-be authors why it's so hard to get commercial publishers to take a chance on a manuscript from a new author.
Here at Comely Bank Publishing, we have no magic powers. If pressed, we'd say that marketing presents the biggest challenges: no matter how good a book is, you can't force a bookseller to stock it. There's always a risk your book will fall flat, and many famous books only sold well posthumously.
But there's no harm in trying. And by sharing his experiences of the cost, Kowis has rather neatly given his book more publicity. So let's reward him with a link!
His figures make interesting reading. They're quite high – he's gone for high-end support for much of the work – but they serve to remind would-be authors why it's so hard to get commercial publishers to take a chance on a manuscript from a new author.
Here at Comely Bank Publishing, we have no magic powers. If pressed, we'd say that marketing presents the biggest challenges: no matter how good a book is, you can't force a bookseller to stock it. There's always a risk your book will fall flat, and many famous books only sold well posthumously.
But there's no harm in trying. And by sharing his experiences of the cost, Kowis has rather neatly given his book more publicity. So let's reward him with a link!
