There was a question posed a couple days ago about starting a publishing company. If you have ever started a business, any type of business, the process may be similar.

Because of the power of outsourcing, online resources, etc., one can literally set up a business in a matter of days. Whether or not that business will be successful is another issue. I will cover that in other postings.

Again, starting the business is the easy part; keeping it going - wellllll.

To set a point of reference for this discussion; most books never make money. There are tens of thousands of books published each year. I recently read some stats on how many books sell on average and it is under 500 per title. This means that most people will lose money at the game of writing and publishing.

Because of the way I approach writing, publishing and marketing my books, I have never lost money and have made money on every single title. There have been some days I have made thousands of dollars from book sales, other days, not.

Because of my books, I have had other opportunities present themselves that I otherwise would not have had. However, I didn’t rest on my laurels and hope for something to happen. I am proactive in my approach to writing, publishing, marketing, sales, and backend business opportunities.

Mind you, there is some writing I do that is not done for the sake of making money. Some writing I do simply for the love of writing. Other writing I do for the love of writing and because it is my business.

I do not say this to impress anyone, but to impress upon you that there are strategies for success when you have your own publishing company. One is, if you are going to make money at writing you must treat this like a business.

Many writers and self-published authors have a belief that someone else will market their book for them. In most cases, this is not true. Secondly, many people think if a publisher picks up their title, the publisher will do all the marketing. Again, in most cases, not at all true.

If anyone is interested in my strategies on marketing books, I will be happy to share some insights. Just ask the questions and I share what I have done to not only make money, but take my last book, The Law of Achievement, to best seller status on Amaozon.com.

Back to a publishing company…..You do not need a physical building to have a publishing company. However, it does help to have enough storage area in your home to keep the boxes of books you will want to keep in stock. The beauty of POD - Print on demand is that you can do very low runs and keep your inventory low, thus not investing a lot of your own money. You can keep a very healthy cash flow going as you grow your business.

How large you grow is based on your own personal goals. Personally, I like the freedom of working from home. A few years ago, after running a career development company for a period of time, having a staff of 25 and loving the whole team energy, I considered buying a building and growing my company in that fashion. However, I find that for me, I enjoy the way things are at this point and don't see great benefit for working outside of my home. Other people may have different goals, so you must decide for you what is most appropriate.

You may also want to consider a shipping area in your home unless you outsource. One author I have worked with uses a company to store her books and do all fulfillments. I prefer to keep stock on hand and ship out as needed. However, when I do larger campaigns I have used Amazon to save time and effort of shipping out.

The first thing to look at is if you have the stamina to keep your business going. There will be ups and downs that many people are not willing to deal with.

There are the pros and cons to setting up your own publishing business compared to going with a traditional publisher.

Traditional Publisher (pros and cons)
-You do not have control over many of the decisions
-Before you can sell copies you have to buy them from the publisher.
-You don’t often get a better price than a book store would get.
-Publishing house picks up initial costs
-Little, if any out of pocket expense
-You may get an advance, and yet, if the books don’t sell you might have to refund some of the advance.
-Short shelf life – often only a matter of weeks.
-Slow turnaround time for acceptance of manuscript - often as much as 2 or 3 years
-Lots of rejection
-You have to have good marketing potential in many cases
-You have to market

Self Publishing (pros and cons)
-You have control and make all the key decisions
-Fast turnaround
-Higher profit margin
-You can target very unique markets
-More investment costs on your part.
-You have to market
-Many mainstream houses are looking for excellent self published books to make their own
-You retain all rights
-You can test market with a low run
-You have to store the books


Establishing a publishing business

-DBA
-Licenses within your city
-Business plan
-Separate phone and fax line
-Bookkeeper or accountant
-Web site URL
-Location
-Merchant account
-Tax ID number
-Bank account
-Stationary
-Business cards

Develop a business plan

-Business name
-Executive summary
-Business idea and description
-Market analysis
-Financial position and forecast
-Marketing
-Future books
-Complementary marketing strategies

Well, I hope this helps a bit. More to follow. Feel free to ask any questions you might have. I will be happy to answer based on my own experience and what I can tell you in working with other authors.

Kathleen