The advantage of getting published with pblishing.com vs. self-publishing

I am asking you to take a wild guess about how many books were successfully published this year? We can safely start with 19,000 books. The magnitude of the reading market is extensive and to a great extent monopolised. Now, how does a first time author stand out? Your answer should be marketing first and then content. Try squeezing into a staggering $3.9 billion (Rs 26,000 crore) industry and a reading population which according to the World Culture Score Index reads 10:42 hours per week. India has the capacity and willingness to read so what stops you from becoming an infamous author?

It takes skills and pblishing.com.

What you as an author need is guidance and direction.  Freedom of spending allows you to spend six digits on your promotion or simply a smart five digit figure on basic promotion in the right direction. Often, the ode to success is misinterpreted by investing in massive publishing houses. This is going to cost you a kidney and eventually deadly blood pressure. Each publisher has seen an estimate of a couple thousand books and rejected most, he loses taste and interest. This subjective liking is going to defeat you. Further, there is an unending hurdle of marketing which starts to incorporate the publisher’s creativity rather than yours. And finally, you will drown in the depth of shallow royalty rates. As an author optimise your sales as well as your content. Be smart, you have the advantage of a cybernetic world and a populous digital media. This brings us to self-publishing.

As any other digitally smitten person you will ponder on the merits of “self-publish.” It sounds so easy and effective, extremely ego boosting to Google your name and get hit with results of your work. That is a deceptive perception.  It is going to be very difficult with more factors contributing to failure rather than success.

The first factor is expenses, which will be unprecedented and undoubtedly cost you a pretty penny. The second factor being distribution errors which are going to make it seem more like wholesale than distribution. Corporate distributors will quote digits impossible to negotiate with and self-distribution is a stigma. Your street snacks will sell more, trust me.  One must not forget the sales agenda of super bookstores which will drought your time and dough (money.) Without the expertise and the resources you will find yourself flooded with excessive printed copies and no readers. Also, don’t forget your competition would be against heavily marketed books with better bookshelf rapport. You also need a ready platform to exhibit your book. Like any other individual who will mostly judge a book by its author and cover, I will not buy a book without a critic, review or third party recommendation. Your book could go ignored and unnoticed. Now, it is important to target your audience which is not a one man job.

Fret not, we have something for you.

Pblishing.com allows you the freedom of experimentation (as well as expression). You will be allowed to upload chapters of your work. This could range from the pitching of the idea, summary, prologue etc. Once you upload the same, it will gain traction in the form of reviews and feedback not only from your readers but also writers themselves. This is a booming and positive environment to thrive in. Once your work has captivated the viewers, you have the opportunity to submit a book proposal. The advantage here being you write on demand rather than compulsion. You will know exactly what and how much to expect. Your book can be the next best thing since sliced bread.

The second stage is to start a pre-order campaign which will realistically crowd fund your work. This isn’t fiction, we will effectively as a platform, guide you through the process of becoming the ‘hot potato’. Start with referring to our crowdfunding guide at https://www.pblishing.com/crowdfunding.

Once you have your niche established, you can expect to receive pre-orders of say 300 copies on demand from avid readers, friends and family. Enjoy the autonomy to pitch your vision and your readers will multiply. This will be followed by a proof reading, hard core edition coupled with designing, printing, publishing and shipping pre-orders. Our team will discuss the key strategies and enumerate the intricacies to be taken care of. The first step would be a customary meeting or call with your marketing contact, leading to the discussion on your book, the fundamental points and finally your publication date. Concurrently, our production editor will assign a team consisting of editorial, designing and marketing representatives. Basically, this would require your entire manifesto from your complete manuscript (electronic- pdf and .doc formats), your profile, photographs, illustrations, testimonials etc.

Most importantly once your foundation is set, we bring in the legality with a contract addressing copyright clauses to encourage financial and mutual growth. After due compliance of the contract, the execution commences with contractual obligations. Now, we will be working on the manuscript with you providing editing services based on the quality as well as the stature of your work. Don’t worry; this is going to be a well equipped and experienced team doing the following-

1: Proof-reading and copy-editing (1-3 weeks): In short, within this time your work is going to be evaluated in detail to oust mistakes, inconsistencies, confusion, errors, anomalies, ambiguities, repetitions, overlooked blunders etc. This is going to be initiated with analyses of the document structure for the typesetter/designer.

2: Developmental editing (4-6 weeks): The editor will correct and modify your manuscript if there are blatant contradictions, rational flaws, plot holes, erratic characterization, factual errors or syntactical problems. Now, if language lacks rhythm the editor will ensure this is changed. This also encompasses the re-arrangement of the chapters if necessary.

3: Book Layout: Whoever says they don’t judge a book by its cover are storytellers. Everyone finds a certain book cover interesting and attractive. The cover is first gnawed at, followed by the summary, prologue etc. Hence, your cover will be based on your genre and theme to prevent a misleading portrayal of your book. We will brainstorm with you and provide complimentary fonts, colours, layouts, imagery and a concrete format. At this stage, your involvement with the designer will finally produce a crisp layout targeting an age group. The importance of printing quality cannot be stressed enough; we will also take care of details such as the fabric, paper, binding etc. which highly contributes to the sales.

4: Distribution: Jay Baer said “Make your marketing so useful, people would pay for it.” Sales are a product of solely marketing. Our distribution network assures the availability of your book in over 100 cities in India (obliviously all the metropolitan cities) through more than 2000 partners (as per the demand of the book of course). Furthermore, a 3-5 month period of display in retail stores subject to availability of shelf space. The remainders will be stored and handled by us!

A minimum order servicing will be for 2 years and additionally 3 years indirectly through our partners. And one cannot forget the sales generated online from e-commerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, PayTM, and more. The distribution will stretch on the global network of Amazon and Kindle Unlimited (world’s largest e-book subscription service)

5: Promotional Initiatives: We suggest being involved in promotions for more awareness like personalised bookmarks, bulk emails, social media marketing, fan base meetings, etc. This buzz will be stirred through active involvement with book fairs, institutes, seminars, autographed copies contest, free copy quizzes etc.

Job much easier?

Yes it does get better…

Your royalty will stretch to as much as 30% of net sales which is DOUBLE compared to most traditional publishers.

Now please pause and think about this decision you’re about to make.

Lao Tzu, a famous philosopher said “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small.”

Publish today, sell tomorrow.