Herewith are the tips:

1. Pick a hotel very close to the event. It’s so much easier to walk. Then you don’t have to worry about exact change for buses or understanding what the HECK the taxi driver just said. But if you can’t find anything close by, stay in a “package” hotel where there will be shuttle buses to the event. Also, there are more book people at these event-linked hotels – which means even more chances to meet and schmooze. Sharing a room is a great way to cut your expenses, but pick a roomy with similar sleeping habits (early to bed & you are a night owl will end in tears).

2. Plan out what you want to see. There is so much going on that you will miss stuff and then be mad at yourself for missing it. But try not to spend all of your time in the autographed books lines. The BEA event booklet will have all the speeches, seminars, meetings, press events and autographs in it. This is your bible for the event!

3. That said, don’t over-plan. The best part of BEA is just wandering around and letting serendipity happen. You’ll meet the most astounding people, or folks you really ought to know, just in the exhibit halls. Yes, even in the lines at the bathroom (women’s especially).

4. Talk to everyone. This is no time to be shy! You never know who you’ll meet. A friend of mine met an agent in line at the bathroom, and she eventually sold my friend’s book to Random House!

5. Have business cards made up – you’re a business person. VistaPrint does a nice job. Name, address, e-mail, site name, maybe area of interest, phone. A color image or logo linked to either your blog design or your area of interest are easily obtainable via places like iStock photo. Give your card to everyone you meet. Keep your cards handy; put them in the back of your event badge for easy access.

6. Take other people’s business cards, too. Don’t just snatch them and put them in your pocket. Look at them and understand who you’re talking to (it might be a VP or CEO!). After you talk and have stepped away, jot down a note on the back what you chatted about, and get back to them 2 weeks later (if appropriate). I promise you, after 3-4 days, you won’t recall who any of these people were unless you do this last step.

7. Dress professionally from the ankles up. I am a slob who dresses in t-shirt & jeans, or sweatshirt and warm-up pants on an average day. But at BEA I wear a pantsuit every day. Don’t think it matters? Twice, just to see, I showed up on the last day in t-shirt & jeans. No one would talk to me. I had a heckuva time just getting a galley. But when I was in my suit, reps and all sorts of people were only too happy to talk to me, offer me samples and food. This is an event for professionals. YOU are a professional. Look it.

8. Wear comfortable shoes! I suggest walking shoes, orthopedic sandals or other shoes with great foot support. You’ll be on your feet for 4-5 hours on concrete. Your feet will swell to unnatural size! Do not, do not, do not wear those cute strappy spike-heel sandals unless you want to be crippled for a week. Going out later? Keep them in your backpack for easy slipping on (but my bet is you won’t be able to get your feet in them).

9. About that backpack: Keep it light. After 6 hours, you’ll feel as if you are carrying a hod of bricks – and you probably will be as you pick up books. But here are some essentials:

• Phone (if you have a Bluetooth, take it. It’s very noisy & you’ll never hear your phone ring, let alone whoever’s on the phone.
• Camera (if your phone camera kinda sucks or is as broken as mine)
• Breath mints. Seriously.
• Water
• More business cards
• Pad of paper
• Six or seven pens (attach 1 to your exhibit badge. You’ll want it close to hand)
• Small wallet with ID, 1 credit card and about $100 cash
• A snack, like trail mix or something easy to eat by hand. Food on-site is pricey and then there are the lines
• Brush/comb
• Lipstick for the ladies (you never know if you’ll get invited to a little party…)
• Maybe those sandals.

Yes, that’s it. I said keep it light!

10. Scope out a quiet place to eat, go to the bathroom or just talk with someone (it’s so noisy, you’ll want to find a place to lower the sensory overload). In the Javits, there is a third floor with a food court sort of place (only open for lunch). There are meeting areas (some speeches are given up there. I saw Walter Mosely speak there), bathrooms, and an unbelievable view of the harbor. A great area to have a quiet chat with someone or just sit and read for a while.

11. Carry water at all times. If the bottled water seems too expensive, buy 1 bottle, then refill with tap water as needed. New York is justifiably proud of its drinking water.

12. Yes, there are books! And they are giving them away! Thousands of books! Whoo-hoo! Book Nirvana! It is really, really easy to go hog wild. But consider this: you have to get them home somehow. If you are flying, there is a 50 lbs max on bags before they increase the per bag fee from $20 to $35. You can only have 2 carry-ons, 1 has to fit under the seat & one has to go overhead (how bulky & heavy are those bags?). Not to mention how your arms get stretched out dragging bags full of books across the convention (2 floors!) or JFK. They do have a shipping area. You pack the books, and they will ship (for a rather high price) via UPS. Either hand-carrying or shipping, you’ll have to figure in the additional price and hassle-factor. Try to use restraint when grabbing galleys. I try not to bring any home (I get them other ways) and still manage to bring home 10-12.

13. Bloggers, take note: There are still some idiots in the publishing business who don’t understand the value of bloggers. Don’t get mad. Think of it as a teachable moment. The more calm, clear-headed and professional you look and act, the better for every blogger (and the stupider the “industry professional” looks). Most publishers DO get the importance of bloggers and will be interested to find out your tastes. Be prepared to sign up to get direct mailings from them. And hey, they are in the business; why not interview them? Bring a tape recorder, pen and paper (yes, I AM old-fashioned. Why do you ask?), use your video function on your camera, or prepare to be really fast on your netbook. And make sure you get their business card so you can send them a link to the blog they are mentioned in!

14. Keep your ear to the ground – there are loads of parties each night. You may get invited. You may be able to crash some. Not invited to anything? Make your own with the folks you meet that day. New York has food for everyone, so the only hard part is finding an affordable place where you can hear everyone. Many people party all night and then do the convention. All I can say is, you MUST be young!

15. Some believe this is the last BEA. You’ll be able to say you were there for it! Stay in the moment and enjoy what is there. Have fun!

I’m not talking about people who don’t know any better. Ignorance is 100% curable (although willful ignorance should be punishable by being locked up in a library for 30 years). Publishing ignorance can be cleared up by reading a few books and my New Self-Publisher’s FAQ Or you can hire a consultant, like myself.

But some people really set themselves up to fail, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why.

I’ve had clients with terrific books that sold out, who refused to reprint.

I’ve had clients with a clear readership, but the publisher refused to believe that those were the buyers, and so wandered off, in search of “better prospects.”

I’ve had clients with award-winning books simply decide that they had done enough, and it was time to move on, when the market clearly was calling for more outreach to make more sales.

Publishing is HARD.

Succeeding at publishing is HARDER.

Don’t get in your own way. A few rules of the road:

Save some of the money from your sales for a new print run. If you aren’t in need of printing in a year, spend that on marketing.

If you sell through your print run within 18 months, that’s a good thing, and an indicator that with more marketing effort, you could sell twice as much. Print again.

When you stop marketing the book, the sales will stop. This isn’t rocket science.

If you do your marketing, get a case of ADOS (Attention Deficit… Oh! Shiny! (Credit: Peter Shankman)), then go back to marketing months/years later, you will have lost all marketing momentum. This is basic physics: a body at rest tends to stay at rest; a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

You can revive marketing efforts, but keep in mind it will take 3-6 months to get rolling agian.

Don’t plan to fail. Plan to succeed!

Let’s look at how the numbers work in another manufactured item business.

There used to be a great show on Food TV called ”Recipe for Success.” Mostly what they showed were folks trying to operate a restaurant and all the troubles thereto (I used to have “open a restaurant” on my Life To-Do List, but after I watched a few episodes, I scratched it off). Occasionally, they featured someone with a food product.

Once, they had some people who decided they wanted to market their frozen marinara sauce. Instead of investing money in a physical plant before they were established, they went with a commercial kitchen, a packager and a grocery wholesaler (any resemblance to a subsidy press, a printer and a distributor in the book world should be noted).

This group (all women. I think it was Grandma and a couple of daughters), spent $20,000 for the packaging alone. They showed it to their target grocery store buyer, who told them about fifteen things they thought were *terrible* about the cover—oops, I meant package—and would prevent consumers from buying it. (I couldn’t help but think of Barnes & Noble’s Small Press Department.) They spent another $15,000 creating a new package design.

Their product sold for $6.95 (It was a fair amount of sauce). Their actual ingredient cost was $.60. After they paid the kitchen, packager and wholesaler, they got $.20 profit per unit. They thuoght that was pretty good. And it was. Why? They expected to sell *volume*. That’s the key to most manufactured goods.

With the new packaging they showed it to a  major gricery store buyer He told them he rejects 80% of the products he’s shown every year. But he signed up their sauce! He said it tasted just like his Granny used to make. (Never underestimate the power of the personal in business.). They hoped to ship 50,000 units the next year. But first they had to find a loan to build up the physical plant they skipped over in the initial stage, so that they could lower their per unit cost (did anyone hear an echo of “change from POD or subsidy to offset printing” there?).

The book business is like any other manufactured-goods business. If you can sell directly to the customer at full—or near full—list price, glory halleluiah! Otherwise, there are discounts that apply and the way you sustain the company is volume. The way you get volume is marketing – that is, getting the word out to the customer (not the store). That’s so for marinara sauce just as much for books.

Many new (and even established) writers are not great self-editors. They may know that something isn’t quite right with their manuscript, but they have trouble seeing any solutions. This is a common problem. Although you can train yourself to edit in a methodical, non-emotional way, for most writers, it’s simply easier to find a developmental editor to help accomplish the task.

A developmental editor may be the crucial step to making your work succeed at getting picked by a publisher (or succeed as a self-published book).

What they do

Once hired, the editor will first read the entire manuscript to understand how the current work flows. then evaluate what is needed and construct an over-all plan to achieve it.

As with a mechanical editor, spelling, grammar and logical order are attended to. However, the most important job of a developmental editor is to retain the author’s voice. All alterations, suggestions and “fixes” are to better the story and voice – not an exercise in the editor’s ego.

Going through the manuscript, the editor will possibly reorganize the material, sometimes within chapters, sometimes from one section of the manuscript to another. Often, the first chapter should happen much later, and a middle chapter should be moved to the start. Whole sections can be moved for better clarity.

Special attention is given to the informational flow (if it’s a non-fiction) or clarifying the story arc and all the character elements (if it’s a novel). 

The editor may do some light fact-checking, simply to make sure s/he understands where some elements are coming from. A full fact-check is not done unless by arrangement – so make sure of your data before turning the ms over to the editor.

Not all editors are right for all books. Some specialize in technical subjects, others in children’s books. Ask if your book falls into an editor’s area of specialty.

What does it look like when the manuscript is edited?

Editors vary in how they manipulate the ms. Once upon a time, marks and arrows were used. However, with electronic documents, track changes and other tools, manuscripts have color to show what the editor has done.

In my own case, I’m thinking about dropping the use of red to denote deletions/changes. I’ve found it gives writers more of a feeling of being punished for wrongdoing – something that an editor does not want to imply. I use several colors to show various activities, plus comments.

How Much Should I Pay an Editor?

All of the above is a non-trivial task involving countless hours. Some editors charge by the hour, some by the project. You should expect to pay somewhere between $1000 – $5000. Or more. I know, that’s a heck of a range – but then there’s a huge range of projects, work needed and time to be used. Also, don’t expect the work to be done in a week.

Most editors will want to see 1-3 chapters to make sure your manuscript is ready for editing (it may still need work before the editor can actually be of help), if the manuscript is something they want to work on, if you are compatible together, and how much work will be involved. The editor will then return 3-5 pages to you with their edits. If you feel s/he has improved your work, that’s the editor for you! From there, the editor can tell you a price.

I once had a client tell me that working with me was like suddenly having an extra brain, and I helped him accomplish that which had been his aim (although he had not quite achieved it). That’s every editors desire – to help make a writer and his/her story better.

And yes, as it happens, I do have some spots available on my 2010 calendar. Let’s see if we can work together!

Areas of specialty
~Mature YA (readers 14 and up) novels and some non-technical subjects
~Novels (adventure, fantasy, non-technical sci-fi, non-literary)
~Biographies, history, narrative formats

Two to three months before the event, make sure the publisher and yourself are supporting publicity for the event. Some bookstores want co-op money for the PR to support the event. For many, this is effective. Talk over with the event coordinator how much this costs and what you get for the money.

Send out media releases to the local papers (don’t forget the free local arts paper!). Don’t just push the signing. Build the story around something in the book and its relevance to the location (is it a mystery tale set in that town? A “how to” beneficial to the paper’s/radio/TV station’s listeners?). Be prepared to do a guest spot on TV or radio. Mention the signing as a place where readers can connect with you.

Get in touch with that area’s book bloggers and do an interview/guest blog in advance.

Tout the signing at least once a day for the 10 days preceding the event on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

The month before the signing, make sure you or your publisher has a sufficient quantity of books in the wholesale system to support a bookstore buy of at least 12 books. Alternatively, you can do consignment with the bookstore (many chain bookstores won’t allow this). But always show up to the signing with at least a case of books in your car and a blank consignment agreement, just in case demand exceeds bookstore supply.

Arrive at least half an hour early. If you don’t have a clear idea how to get there, or are driving in from out of town, aim for an hour early. Just in case something goes wrong, have the event coordinator’s phone number on your phone. Call if it looks like you’ll be late.

Bring business cards and book postcards/bookmarks. Have them with you at all times – yes, even in the bathroom.

Dress professionally or in costume as befits your book. This is your business. Dress for success!

Don’t use perfume/cologne. Or if you absolutely must, be very sparing. You don’t want your odor to meet the customer first. Also, many people are allergic to perfume/cologne. Don’t make your potential buyer sick!

Create an index card with a short message the clerks can read over the PA every 15 minutes for your signing. Something like, “Looking for a great mystery? Today we have author so-and-so signing her book, The Mystery of Whatever in the front of the store until 4 o’clock.”

Don’t just sit at the table with your books. Get up, carry a copy of your book around the store (but try not to be a bother. Yes, it’s a fine line). Greet each incoming customer and ask them what kind of books they like. Your title just might fill the bill!

Don’t sit and read the paper or write (yes, I’ve seen both). No one will approach you if your body language is screaming “go away!” Many authors do this because they are actually shy, and being gregarious is difficult. Your book won’t sell if you don’t make the effort! Also, this is a self-fulfilling behavior: “See, publisher? I told you a signing wouldn’t sell books.”

If you do sit down at the table, stand up when you’re approached to let the person know you’re interested in them. Conversely, if the person is in a wheelchair or is a little person, sit down. No one likes to be towered over. For children, you might sit to the side of your table, so you can appear more approachable to the kid.

Don’t have a prolonged conversation with any one person. Remember, you’re here to work. If you have a gabfest with a friend, relative or the like, you are ignoring other people and sales! Again, remember, this is a not a social situation. This is business. I’m not saying you can only have a 4 word talk with someone. Keep all conversations on the short side. Make time for those interesting chats after your book signing.

Bring your own pens (3 or 4 in case of multiple break-downs). The bookstore is under no obligation to provide you with a writing implement. Many authors use Sharpie pens for a signing. I have no idea why this is the “in” thing to do. If the paper in the book is slick, the ink will transfer to the opposing page, making a mess. Use them if you want, but any working pen will do.

Don’t just scrawl your name as big as Sarah Palin does. No one cares about a book that is simply signed. They want personalization. Have a saying related to the book ready. For my book Captain Mary, Buccaneer I write “Yours in swashbuckling adventure reading” and then my full name. You can skip this if you’ve made some sort of connection with the person. Instead write something related to your chat: “I loved talking to you about our teacher back in grade school!” and then your name.

Bring a pad of paper. You will meet people to follow-up with, so you’ll want to write down their contact info.

Some folks will want you to sign the book to them (or a friend/relative). Ask them how to spell it, even if it’s simple (that’s B-E-N, Ben, right?). Even simple names can have odd spellings (Mylie for Millie, Dohn for Don, etc).  Write down the name on your pad before you attempt to personalize with their name. There’s nothing worse than a scratched-out mistake for a signed book – you can’t sell it!

Some bookstores will ask you to sign a number of books before you leave. Offer to come back and sign books that have been purchased instead. Once the book is signed, it’s not really salable in the book distribution system.

Always write a thank you note afterwards to the event coordinator. Thank all the clerks as you are leaving, too.

All that having been said, I am not a fan of book signings. They’re too static, too non-interactive for today’s customer. I’d rather see authors create an event around their book – a demonstration of a “how to,” a talk about the main theme of the book, even fiction writers can do talks on the research they did, the process of getting published… the sky’s the limit. I like events that use multiple authors, as this brings in more people (don’t be afraid to do gigs with authors from different publishers. Everyone wins!).

I’m also not convinced that bookstores are the only place to do these. If your book is about construction, see if you can do a talk at the local hardware store (and sell the book). I’ve advised one guy to hold poetry slams at the baggage carousel in the airport. Think outside the bookstore box!

Where have you held a successful book event that wasn’t in a bookstore? Inquiring authors and publishers want to know!

Here are a few rules to help guide you to a better title:

1. Watch the length of your title
Books in Print only allows for 30 characters (that includes spaces). So if you are just getting around to describing your book by character 27, you are in a heap of trouble. Short is your friend. I’m not demanding that you have one-word titles (Dune), but do try to come up with something short and punchy. One of my favorite recent titles is Nickled and Dimed. It makes you want to know more, even if you think you might know what the book is about.

A very famous rule-breaker is Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex* *But Were Afraid to Ask. But then, it was about sex in the 70s and no cared if it broke the rules.

2. Avoid passive voice titles
Especially with today’s audience, you want something that’s going to make them pay attention right away. An old standard written in passive voice was Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Today it might be titled Shriek: Lies that Panic Crowds.

3. Avoid punctuation
Commas don’t look great graphically on a book cover. If they’re necessary, work them in with attention to appearance, but try to avoid. The same with semi-colons and periods.

A title with a question mark begs the query from the would-be buyer, “Well, if the author doesn’t know, why should I buy the book?”

An exclamation mark should be avoided. I bump into this mostly in children’s book submissions (note: we do not take children’s book submissions). It’s meant to be cute and reflects that the main character is exuberant or in trouble all the time. Better to illustrate this with the cover art. A great rule-breaker is “Oklahoma!” But then, it wasn’t a book, either.

4. Don’t run the title and subtitle together on the cover
The title should be separated from the subtitle by space on a book cover. The subtitle should appear in a smaller font than the title. Some book designers change the font—but be careful not to put more than 3 fonts on the cover. On the title page, the full title (main title and subtitle) should be used; a colon should separate the two.

5. Avoid “How To” titles
Always remember that your title will appear in lists alphabetically. How to is such a common title beginner, it is abbreviated “H/T” in the trade – and the list of H/T titles is really, really long. It’s also passive. Think about it for a moment. If your proposed title is How to Crochet Tea Cozies for Every Occasion, wouldn’t it be better as Crochet Tea Cozies for Every Occasion?

Our book How to Love the Job You Hate was a reprint of an older title. But I should have gone with my gut and shortened it to Love Your Job (which is both active and positive). Someone else put out a book shortly thereafter with that title.

6. Don’t steal famous titles
I had an almost-client with a book bearing the same title as a very famous book in its genre. I advised him not to do this, even though there is no copyright on titles. He stuck to his guns, and we parted ways. A person picking up a book bearing a famous title will become incensed that they were “tricked” into buying the wrong book. In my opinion, if you use a famous title knowingly, it’s a kind of fraud.

7. There are no copyrights on titles
Really. No one can “steal” your title, and you can’t steal anyone else’s. You can trademark your titles for a series. For example, the For Dummies™  books are trademarked.

Here’s how to go about acquiring a trademark.

8. Who else has that title?
Check Amazon to see how many other books have your title or something similar. You may think your title quite cunning or spot-on, but then discover that there are 10 books out with the same title (and maybe you inadvertently chose a famous title you weren’t aware of). Be flexible enough to change your title. It would hurt your sales if you had a common title—how would anyone find YOUR book?

A quick story: I’d heard about a book and wanted to get it. At the bookstore, I asked for Possession. The bookseller looked it up. “There are 50 current books with that title, Miss.” I couldn’t recall the author’s name. It took the bookseller 20 minutes to sort out that I was looking for Possession by A.S. Byatt. That was before internet searches. But if you don’t know the author’s name, how will you find a common-titled book?

9. Tell your Reader/Buyer what the book is about
Clever titles are all very nice, but if the random buyer at the store sees your book and doesn’t know what it’s about by the title, you are not making a sale. Don’t mistake verbal legerdemain for sales ability. The point of a book is communication. If your title doesn’t resonate with your Buyer/Reader about the subject-matter, you’ve failed in your objectives.

10. Create series titles with care
If you are doing a series, make the series title the subtitle and the main title the subject. I know a publisher who put out three books with the series name as the title. Because of the 30 character limit, booksellers and librarians cannot differentiate between the three books in the databases. Disaster!

Are these rules carved in stone? Absolutely not. But one thing I tell my clients is: “Know the rules, then when you break them, you’ll have a reason why.” Breaking the guidelines in business is a tried and true format to success. But do so knowing what the ramifications are, not out of ignorance.

And yes, we do consulting on book titles, as well as on all aspects of publishing.

It depends.

The Cons

1. There are a lot of companies making a lot of money off contests. Most are “beauty pageants” where every entrant wins a nominal prize just for entering their book(s). Who really wins? Well, the promoter of said prize contest. Figure that at least 2500 people will pony up $50 or more for their book to be considered. Post a website and print 2500 certificates, and you’ve made an 85% profit. And most of the people participating are perfectly happy.

2. Unless it’s the National Book Award or something similar, book awards simply don’t sell books. No book award contest (except the very largest) make enough news to draw attention to your book’s prize.

3. Some contests label you in ways you might not want. For instance, the Writer’s Digest Self-Published award some feel stigmatizes your book, which otherwise couldn’t be identified as being self-published (if you did a good job).

The Pros

1. Not all contests are scams. Investigate each contest you enter. Look at their previous year’s winners. Have you ever heard of this organization? Do they do anything besides awards? It’s not that hard to spot the scammers. But you do have to look with your mind, and not your hope.

2. Winning a contest doesn’t sell any books, but it does create a new marketing platform. We have sold foreign rights to many countries after our books have won awards. Foreign publishers are more interested in a book that has been independently judged for excellence. See my article here.

Marketing can be renewed (what? You thought a book couldn’t be marketed after its first year? Nonsense!). You can do new angles on your topic, but now add, “In her award-winning book….” This has value to the media and your customers.

3. While the bigger, national awards are sexy and cool, don’t disdain the awards specifically aimed at your niche. I know a woman who won a book for “Best Book by a Presbyterian.” Now, at first, that seems like a joke. But she went on to use the book to help sell religious retreats on marriage to Presbyterians. That award was like a magic wand – people took her work very seriously because of it.

Conclusion

Book awards can be a useful adjunct to your marketing plans (you have one, right?). BUT, do your homework and make sure the award contests are legit, or at least suit your niche. Make sure they fit in with your budget, too (some are expensive).

Here are a few book award contests I know to be on the up-and-up that are also open to small presses and selfpublishers:

Writers Digest Sulf-Published Book Award

Independent Book Publishers (IBPA) Association Benjamin Franklin Book Awards

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards (BOTYA)

Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY)
      Also run by the same people: Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards
                  Axiom Business Book Awards
                 Living Now Book Awards

Reader Views Literary Book Awards

I will entertain (and I mean that in the literal sense, since shills will be sending me their fake awards programs to post) nominations for other awards contests.

The difference? The couple chose “sole proprietorship” or a “dba” (doing business as) to form their company. Since their business and personal finances were commingled, the trustee had to figure out what was going on financially. Perhaps he was suspicious that personal expenditures were masquerading as business expenses.

He’s not the only one. The IRS audits 1 in 10 Mom & Pop store tax returns.

Many people tell me they don’t want to incorporate because it’s a hassle, or it’s too complicated, or it’s too expensive. All of these reasons are poor. If you plan to be in business, do it the right way. A limited Liability Company (LLC) or S-Corporation helps you separate your business from your personal finances – which, as you’ve just seen above, is more important than you first might think. The government – all governments, whether local or federal – assume you are playing the game straight if you incorporate (given the number of cheats who are incorporated, this is laughable. But no one ever accused governments of thinking too hard about anything). If you are running this business with your Social Security number as a tax ID, you are leaving yourself open to investigation and interference from the government, as well as liability should someone sue the company (which is you) for whatever there is to sue about.

The two forms of incorporating are

Limited Liability Company. This is what most sole proprietors graduate to. It combines the liability sheltering of incorporation, but allows your revenue and expenses on your 1040. For whatever reason, the IRS bothers people in LLCs less. While liability limits are its name, this set-up does not fully protect you from liability. Courts have struck them aside when pursuing fraud and other civil complaints. See the Wikipedia article here.

S-Corporation. I won’t dally around here: I recommend this corporate form for those who are serious about making their business grow. S-Corp assumes the liability of the business, sheltering the person(s) responsible. Taxes are paid by those who own it on their 1040 – but only a proportional share. You can have up to 100 shareholders or 1 person holding all 100 shares. You’ll also have to file an 1120S tax return for the corporation, with a Schedule K for each shareholder showing their pro-rata share of profits and losses – not nearly as big a deal as its sounds if you get your books set up right at the outset (if you are unsure of how to do that, consult an accountant). Adding the Schedule K info to your personal 1040 is easy. While the S-Corp is supposed to shield you from signing personally, many vendors will insist that you give your person guarantee. Fight back. Insist to sign as an officer of the company. Bring your articles of incorporation and your secretary to dealings with banks, office space landlords and the like. More here on the Wikipedia article.

You can use your favorite attorney or The Company Corporation to set up your corporation.

[Disclaimers: 1. Yes, this is an affiliate link. No, I did not write this as an ad to get more sales through this link. We have used this company for ourselves and our clients and are satisfied customers. 2. Dear FTC: Bite me.]

Barnes & Nobles’ Nook

The Nook is, in most respects, a cheaper Kindle2. The differences: it has a small color LED screen to display true-color covers and includes navigation like an iPhone. It has a more useable keyboard. The machine supports more than the Mobipocket e-book format (Kindle only supports a variation of same); it also does PDF, ePub and the Fictionwise proprietary file (owned by B&N). The features that attract attention are the 2-week sharing feature – allowing you to lend the book to friends on almost any platform for a finite time; and the instantaneous Wi-Fi hook-up when you enter a B&N – allowing you to browse any title in the database and read for free.

At first glance, not a lot to get excited about.

Nook & Sharing

What has many upset is the free lending feature (Kindle allows up to 6 other readers to share the file (or 6 different platforms) for an unlimited time, but no-one’s made much of it). If you like the book – or know a few friends who want the book but aren’t willing to pay for it, all you have to do is send it to them with a keystroke. This feature seems to guarantee casual piracy, as did Napster.

This point of view tends to ignore the true life-cycle of books. For example: Person A buys Book B, reads it, and gives it to a Friend C, who, after finishing it, gives it to Friend D (or leaves it in a hotel for Maid F), and on and on. At some point, something else happens to the book: it’s either so tattered it gets tossed, it’s donated to a library or charity, or it gets sold at a garage sale/eBay/Amazon. The publisher never gets a cut of the book except from the first buyer. That’s the way of things, and always has been.

[A variation on this is that Book B gets sold to Library A, who then lends the book out to multiple readers until at some time they “deassession” the book by selling it at a Friends of the Library sale or tossing it in the Dumpster.]

Rather than fight the tendency of humans to share a book with other people, I really think publishing has to wake up and create licencing fees and possibly even time fuses embedded in e-book files. In that way, publishers can finally be reimbursed for the entire lifecycle of the title, instead of just its primary sale.

Likelihood of this happening in the next 5 years? Nil. But a girl can dream.

Nook in-store Wi-Fi connection

There are those who are incensed that books can be read for free when the e-reader is in one of B&Ns 700 stores. Uh, folks, you can read any of the paper books in the store for free, too. In point of fact, judging by the amount of coffee-stained returns I get back from B&N, I’d say they could almost call themselves a library.

The plus of this feature is that for the first time ever, a customer, upon not finding a paper book of his/her desire can go on-line to bn.com and buy/download it immediately. In this way, both publisher and bookstore win, since the sale is consummated. No telling how many sales are missed annually when books are not in stock and lazy clerks won’t order for the customer (if the customer even bothers to ask). I’m entirely on board with this feature.

Price Wars

This week, Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon and Sears (Sears???) got into a hardback price war, lowering the price of many hardback books to $9. Publishers immediately pitched a fit; indy booksellers raised such a fuss, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) sent a letter of complaint to the Department of Justice arguaing that the practice was “predatory pricing.”

As with so many things, this has two sides. On the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” side is the fact that publishers cannot control what price a company sells it’s books. As long as the publisher is duly compensated, it doesn’t matter whether the list price of, say, $19.95 is honored or not. Amazon routinely discounts books at or below break-even, figuring several million pennies are more attractive than a few thousand dollars. Meanwhile, on many book pages, the title is offered by Amazon Marketplace Sellers at ridiculous prices ($300? $2700?). All part of the fun. Obviously, if the folks selling for top dollar are regularly raking it in, a wise publisher might raise the price.

Ah! say some, But it’s hurting indy booksellers! The thinking is that no one will go into local bookstores and buy the book at full price. Well, that may be true to some degree – note that Wal-Mart, et al aren’t selling ALL titles for $9, just the marquee names - if your customer is already in your independent bookstore, s/he is likely to buy the book while it’s at hand, rather than go to the bother of messing with Wal-Mart.

Remember the furor when Amazon sold Harry Potter on the cheap? Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth! Yet when indy booksellers staged midnight sleepover/book releases, people were happy to plunk down full price, rather than order the book from bad old Amazon.

Besides, this offers a unique opportunity to booksellers: independent retailers can now buy top-of-the-bestseller-list hardbacks for less than regular wholesale from Target! Beats the bill from Ingram….

The Darker point of view sees this as the beginning of the end for publishers getting anything like a fair price for their books. Look at how the price wars in Britain almost broke the backs of publishers there! Consumer interest in lower-priced titles creates retailer demand for lower-discounts on publishers’ entire catalog. Now we’ll be stuck with a 70% discount on short-run books! And this on top of the $9.99 price point enforced by Amazon on its Kindle offerings!

Sorry for all the exclamation points, but it gets pretty hyperbolic.

These times are critical to publishers and indy booksellers. My guess is that most indies will simply fail unless they find a way to make substantially more money selling more than just books (and then are they a bookstore?). Book publishers are looking at a wholesale change in delivery mechanisms and price models. The Wal-Mart game has been pretty brutal to begin with (they demand a minimum 60% discount – and yes, they’ve heard of returns). Enforcing a $9 retail price point is the type of thing they do to all their vendors (how do you suppose China became the manufacturing hub for the U.S.?). I suppose we could all stop selling to Target and Wal-Mart. That’s our right. Then they simply wouldn’t have books in their stores. And those are sales we would have missed… oh wait, that doesn’t seem like a solution either.

Although the price war bears watching, I don’t think it’s something that can or should be a source of panic. But like the Nook (and the Kindle, and the Sony, and the fabled iTablet), these are signs this ain’t your grandma’s publishing business anymore. Here at Beagle Bay, we are now doing weekly reviews of where the industry seems to be heading and planning accordingly.

Don’t get left out of the changes to come. Understand what the issues are, ask questions, evaluate answers and then act!

Offset

This is the way books have been printed for [one] hundred of years—ink to paper on giant presses. The only new twist on this technology is that they use digital files to a transparency (much cheaper and easier to do) and not film, or even lead type. For a black text book, it’s a one-run deal. For a color book, the pages will have to go through the press 4 to 6 times (which explains why color printing is so expensive).

When to use: This method is effective when you need 1000 or more books. The more books you print, the cheaper per book it is—this is called economy of scale. Freight is usually an extra cost item, so it does matter where the plant is in relation to where the books are delivered. Most color printing is done overseas, but this does not affect the freight charge much, since boat shipping is way cheaper than truck shipping.

The downside: In the old days (all of 10 years ago), a self-publisher or small press only had the option of printing offset. (Digital was rarely used, except to print galleys—and the cost per unit was extremely high.) This involves a substantial up-front investment, plus having the carrying cost of 1000+ books in a warehouse, storage unit or garage. This meant that the cost of getting published was too high for many hobbyist publishers and small presses who were trying out rather experimental work or a new genre.

Digital or Print on Demand (POD)

Think of this as a very large laser printer, and you are pretty much there. Initially, quality on digital was pretty poor. It’s much better now – and if you format the pictures right, you’ll get very good reproduction (this was a big problem in the earlier days).

When to use: Typically, this method is best used for runs under 1000. Many digital printers will print as few as 10 books. This makes it seem to be a very economical way for new publishers to start out with little money out of pocket. Note the “seems to be” weasel there. The price per unit is, in many cases, much higher than offset (over 1000). However, since there are fewer books, the freight costs will be lower.

Digital printing and the print-on-demand concept revolutionized self- and small press publishing, in that it allowed fewer number of books to be printed at a cost per unit that was almost acceptable, in lower numbers. Since few self-publishers sell more than 100 books, it was just about an ideal solution. The downside to this was that hundreds of predatory companies sprang up—at first calling themselves Print-on-Demand (or POD) houses, then Self-Publishing companies. They overcharge authors for digitally-printed books which are poorly edited (if at all) and have dreadful interiors and covers.

Where the “New Model” comes in:  Lightning Source International (LSI), is the digital printing arm of Ingram. They did print-on-demand for large publishers with backlist books (older than a year) that sold marginally (1000-3000) but they still wanted in print. The books were available to booksellers and Amazon. Then LSI threw open its doors to small presses and self-publishing. This was a win-win for self-publishers, since the barrier to entry was lowered: no more huge upfront costs, storage problems and difficulties finding a way into wholesalers or finding distributors. For small presses, it’s a great way to test a book at a reduced cost. You can always go back and print the book in offset if sales shoot over 1000 units.

The downside: Because economies of scale are what they are, the fewer books you print, the higher the unit cost. So if you are only printing a few books at a time, it may “feel” as if you are spending less, but in fact, you are spending entirely too much to make a decent margin (the difference between the retail price and what you get after costs).

Most people are having trade paperbacks printed. This is a great format. But few of these books are priced over $16.95. For those who are trying to sell to booksellers, they discover that the retailers want a 40% discount (they need to have a discount to sell the book) and Amazon Advantage demands a 55% discount. To pay for the book, many self- and small publishers are raising the price of the book to $20 and more. Then they wonder why no one buys the book. It’s too high!

To combat that problem, some self- and small publishers are going through LSI to get the distribution into booksellers and Amazon, but only allowing a 20% discount and no returns. This is being called the “New Model” of publishing. From my perspective, this is a new way to make sure you fail.

A 20% discount and no returns means that booksellers will never order your book, unless they have a pre-paid special order from a customer. That means, you will spend money and effort driving customers into stores where they won’t find your book. Most will walk out instead of ordering, because folks are on-demand buyers.

Yes, you’ll be on Amazon, but at no- or slight discount. Amazon buyers are value buyers. They like that discount. A lot. If they can’t get it, they’ll buy a similar book that does have a discount. And never forget that Amazon has a history of aggressive moves against those who short discount. While it’s unlikely they will directly challenge LSI (again, their owner is Ingram, the largest book wholesaler in the world and a major supplier to Amazon), they could make up new rules to chop off self- and small presses who use short discounts at the drop of a hat. This leaves your entire business model at the whim of a capricious and often cruel company.

If you are simply printing up a few books for your friends and family and interested observers, yes, the short-discount LSI model can work all right. If you are using this as the basis for a small press, you are not running the numbers and seeing how you are losing money and sales.

In sum: If you want to test the waters at a low cost, you can use LSI for printing and distribution. But don’t choose the short discount or raise your book price to ridiculous heights. If you want booksellers and Amazon customers to get the discounts they want, take the 55% discount and returns for a short time. Price the book in-line with others in your section/genre. Do your marketing and see what happens. If the book never goes anywhere, then you aren’t out a lot. If it does sell in quantity, then you need to get the book printed offset (reducing your cost per unit) and either self-distribute or get a distributor.

I’m sure there will be some debate about this.