Common Print on Demand (POD) Publishing Problems And 3 Book and Ebook Publishing Blunders to Avoid
Common Print on Demand (POD) Publishing Problems
Anyone can be a published author today. It doesn't matter what level of education you have attained or what your experiences in life have been. If you have the ability to write a book, you can take advantage of affordable print on demand (POD) publishing to get your message out to the world.
In fact, POD has opened the literary world to millions of people who may have otherwise had no chance or little of being published, and less of paying for often costly self-publishing ventures. Yet, there are many problems that can come out of POD as well such as the following issues.
- Many POD books are sloppily written and filled with inaccuracies. This gives the industry a bad reputation that consumers don't trust.
- Too many POD books are not properly formatted and are extremely difficult to read. Just one consumer review stating the book is unreadable could be the kiss of death for the book.
- If you don't know how to properly market your POD book, you could find yourself without sales. There is no publishing house to send you out on book tours and pay for glossy magazine ads.
- Many people don't want to spend the time to do research and then also spend more time to get word of their book out to the public. When you have to do all the work yourself, it is time consuming.
- If you don't understand the publishing world, you may tumble around and make tons of little mistakes that cost in the long run. A basic knowledge of the publishing world past and present is essential, so take the time to learn.
- Once your name is attached to an unreadable or a sloppy POD book, it becomes difficult to sell other books even if you do clean up your act.
So, anyone can be a published author today. The question is what type of published author do you want to be. If you want to be one that is successful and respected you can't just slop together a book and throw it out there. Make sure it is ready for the public eye.
3 Book & Ebook Publishing Blunders to Avoid
Publishing a book or electronic version of one, AKA an ebook, on your own is not that difficult today. The problem is that making mistakes while publishing is also not that difficult either. To help steer you away from the most common mistakes, here are three big self-publishing blunders and some ideas on how to 'not' make them.
Blunder #1: Plagiarizing the work of others.
It doesn't matter if a poem has been reprinted in a million textbooks or if the lyrics to a song have been broadcast over every radio station in the world. You cannot steal the words of someone else and put them down on paper as if they are your own.
Always give credit to your sources! Unless something is truly a spark of your own genius and experience, give credit. As long as you balance out the material you reference from others with fresh thoughts of your own, your readers will still value your work. You just avoid problems when plagiarism comes back to bite you.
Blunder #2: Slopping together cover art with little to not effort and investment.
Everyone has heard the term "you can't judge a book by its cover," but unfortunately that is exactly what most people do. If they are unfamiliar with your book, they are going to use that cover as the first impression. It's like shaking your hand for the first time and sizing you up.
Make sure that shake is firm and authoritative. Make sure the cover art is worth cracking open to see what it holds inside.
Blunder #3: Agreeing to print huge quantities of the book just to get a few free copies.
You are better off to pay for every single book you print than to print thousands that you may never sell just to get some copies for free. The free books don't matter if you spent way more on publishing than you will ever make back in sales.
A lot of these publishing blunders can be avoided if you just think rationally. Don't get so caught up in the dream of being published that you end up unsuccessfully published.
Anyone can be a published author today. It doesn't matter what level of education you have attained or what your experiences in life have been. If you have the ability to write a book, you can take advantage of affordable print on demand (POD) publishing to get your message out to the world.
In fact, POD has opened the literary world to millions of people who may have otherwise had no chance or little of being published, and less of paying for often costly self-publishing ventures. Yet, there are many problems that can come out of POD as well such as the following issues.
- Many POD books are sloppily written and filled with inaccuracies. This gives the industry a bad reputation that consumers don't trust.
- Too many POD books are not properly formatted and are extremely difficult to read. Just one consumer review stating the book is unreadable could be the kiss of death for the book.
- If you don't know how to properly market your POD book, you could find yourself without sales. There is no publishing house to send you out on book tours and pay for glossy magazine ads.
- Many people don't want to spend the time to do research and then also spend more time to get word of their book out to the public. When you have to do all the work yourself, it is time consuming.
- If you don't understand the publishing world, you may tumble around and make tons of little mistakes that cost in the long run. A basic knowledge of the publishing world past and present is essential, so take the time to learn.
- Once your name is attached to an unreadable or a sloppy POD book, it becomes difficult to sell other books even if you do clean up your act.
So, anyone can be a published author today. The question is what type of published author do you want to be. If you want to be one that is successful and respected you can't just slop together a book and throw it out there. Make sure it is ready for the public eye.
3 Book & Ebook Publishing Blunders to Avoid
Publishing a book or electronic version of one, AKA an ebook, on your own is not that difficult today. The problem is that making mistakes while publishing is also not that difficult either. To help steer you away from the most common mistakes, here are three big self-publishing blunders and some ideas on how to 'not' make them.
Blunder #1: Plagiarizing the work of others.
It doesn't matter if a poem has been reprinted in a million textbooks or if the lyrics to a song have been broadcast over every radio station in the world. You cannot steal the words of someone else and put them down on paper as if they are your own.
Always give credit to your sources! Unless something is truly a spark of your own genius and experience, give credit. As long as you balance out the material you reference from others with fresh thoughts of your own, your readers will still value your work. You just avoid problems when plagiarism comes back to bite you.
Blunder #2: Slopping together cover art with little to not effort and investment.
Everyone has heard the term "you can't judge a book by its cover," but unfortunately that is exactly what most people do. If they are unfamiliar with your book, they are going to use that cover as the first impression. It's like shaking your hand for the first time and sizing you up.
Make sure that shake is firm and authoritative. Make sure the cover art is worth cracking open to see what it holds inside.
Blunder #3: Agreeing to print huge quantities of the book just to get a few free copies.
You are better off to pay for every single book you print than to print thousands that you may never sell just to get some copies for free. The free books don't matter if you spent way more on publishing than you will ever make back in sales.
A lot of these publishing blunders can be avoided if you just think rationally. Don't get so caught up in the dream of being published that you end up unsuccessfully published.