Your manuscript is your hard work. It is the result of hundreds of sleepless nights and endless sacrifices you did to make it the best one. Then, how can you let it go into the wrong hands? In fact, you must look for a publisher/ self publisher who would take care of your manuscript like you do. Who would nurture your hard work and raise it in the form of a perfect novel. Who would understand your requirements and give his one hundred and one percent in making your dream come alive with the available resources.
Before knowing ‘How to compare various self publishers?’ we should understand that a novel is made of three things.
1. Story (can be fiction or nonfiction, but should be perfect with emotions).
2. Narration (should be in such a way that the reader understands a particular scene in the same way in which you want them to understand).
3. Grammar (should be perfect with punctuations as well).
So now when we have made sure that your manuscript has the above three basic criteria which a Self Publisher is looking for in your manuscript. We are confident that your script is ready to rock and we are ready to find out the Best Self Publisher for your book.
Here are the criteria based on which you can choose a Self Publisher for your upcoming bestseller:
- Services Available: There is always a difference between a printer and a publisher. A printer is just a machine owner who will print your manuscript and hand it over to you, but what about the pre and post publishing help which you need. That is where a publisher comes into the picture. A publisher not only prints the book but also make sure that he is providing,
- The Pre Publication Services: Manuscript Editing, Cover Designing, Interior designing of the script, ISBN allocation, Pre publication marketing.
- The Post Publication Services: Copyright Registration, Inventory Management, Online Distribution, Offline Distribution, Post publication marketing, Post publishing support.
- Packages Available: The customised services are mostly expensive, therefore almost all the publishers have their pre decided publishing packages which include the number of services they offer in a particular amount of fees they charge. All you need to do is decide your budget and compare the packages available with different self publishers within your budget. You need to see which publisher is providing maximum services within your pre-decided budget.
- MRP of the Books Published by the Publishers: We know that the MRP of the book is an important factor. In fact, this is the factor that affects the sales of your book. When the bestsellers are selling at Rs. 137 then why your book should be sold at Rs. 250? Therefore, you should take out some time and see the MRP which various publishers have kept for the books they have already published.
Note: MRP always depends upon the number of pages in the book. While comparing the MRP you should consider the books with a similar number of pages.
- People behind the Publishing House: A publishing house may have a big name but have you ever seen the people behind it? An author and a publisher’s relationship often last for a lifetime. How could you give your script to someone famous for threatening the authors for court cases? Or would you like to hand over your script to someone who is a fake Marketer?
To safeguard yourself from future insecurity, you should always look for people behind the publishing house and make sure that their professional profile is neat and clean. As the saying goes, money doesn’t matter when the trust is there. If the profile is good, the price of publishing packages can be ignored.
- The Level of Online Presence: Your book cover showcases you and it also showcases the one who published it. Being smart you should always choose the one which has a positive online presence. By positive online presence, we mean either the one who is having a lot of followers on their social and professional networking sites or the one whose followers are increasing day by day. A publisher and an author go hand in hand when they both have a good online presence, which in turn helps in huge sale and visibility of the book.
Note: If a social media account has a huge number of followers but their per post engagement is less than 10% of the total followers of the profile, it means they have gained followers by paying to a third party. This can be misleading for you as such followers are not genuine.
- Post Publishing Help: A vanity publisher will just publish and make your book available online. And when your book stops selling, he will dump your book and go out of your reach. But what if your book needs lifetime support?
Here comes the requirement of a lifetime post publishing support. A publisher should be just a call/email away. He should respond to all your queries even after five years of your book’s publication.
- Regular Payments and Updates: It’s okay that you have got published and it’s good that you have sold a good number of copies. But, will you get your royalty as and when promised by the Publisher? Will your publisher give you a regular update on the current market scenario? Will your publisher be able to help you with marketing tips when you are not selling? This all depends on how the publisher is behaving with his currently published authors. You should always take out time to talk to any of the authors who are already published by the publisher and ask him for feedback, he will be the best person to guide you through.
- Channels of Distribution: A Self Publisher should make the books available on almost all the major online selling platforms. The book should be available in both paperback and ebook format. The more easily the book is accessible to the readers, the more it sells. But it doesn’t mean the publisher with a reach to the maximum online seller is always better. You should always compare the publisher based on good and credible online sellers he is dealing with. And the seller rating of the publisher on those online selling platforms is also an important factor.
- Marketing Services: You should always lookout for a publisher who can help you boost your visibility and provide you with out of the box ideas to make your book more visible in the online and offline markets. As the saying goes ‘Jo dikhata hai wo bikta hai’ in this field, which indicates that the more visible you are, the more you sell. After the publisher has successfully published your novel, the first question which comes to your mind is How to market the book and what all you need to do for that? Your publisher should be able to provide you with online and offline strategies for the marketing of your book.
You can compare the publishing houses based on marketing services/packages they provide within your pre-decided budget for marketing.