The Church Answers Podcast

So You Want to Write and Publish a Book? Part 2: Should You Self-Publish Your Book or Seek a Commercial Publisher? Jess Rainer

In this three-part series, Jess Rainer and Thom discuss the details of writing a book. You will discover some insights you've never heard before. For example, this episode examines some surprising insights about self-publishing versus commercial publishing.

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 14 May 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. Hey, if you did not listen or watch the previous episode of So You Want to Write and Publish a Book, I'm with Jess Rayner, he is the founder and CEO of Kraft Book Publishing. That's craftbookpublishing.com. Do that right that time? Yeah, that's craft book. And it's in the show notes as well. They are the superior self-publisher. You get more for your money. You just get a whole lot more. So I'm going to encourage you to go there and look at their company. I mentioned in the last episode that most of their business they get now is referrals. Obviously, they get new business, but their growth is because people keep coming back, because they're so satisfied with the product they get. We'll be talking about self-publishing. In this episode, should you self-publish or commercially publish? If you don't know what commercial publishing means, it means that there is a company that is actually going to do a lot of the work for you. Like in the Christian world, there's Tyndale or Zandervin. They're these Christian publishers, and they do a lot of the work for you. We'll get to that in just a moment. Hey, you heard the bumper for Chaney and Associates as always. You got any accounting, any bookkeeping, anything financial that you need to do. You really don't need to be doing that in-house. Send it to Chaney and Associates. They're working with over 1100 churches. They are the accounting firm for the church. As part two, Jess, should you self-publisher book or seek a commercial publisher? This used to have a lot of pluses and a lot of minuses on both sides. I'm going to lean so strongly on self-publishing right now, just because of the market that we're in. Again, we're kind of jumping ahead to the conclusion, but how would you conclude it and then we'll go back and talk about why? Yeah. Well, you just look at the history, just real quickly, self-publishing. I mean, this is from a historical perspective, last 10 years. I mean, we've just seen self-publishing to take this major, you know, just rise in the industry. And it's large part due to technology due to printing, distribution, all the things that have made our world more efficient has given the ability for authors to actually go begin to self-publisher book. And so, yeah, the self-publishing market is growing leaps and bounds every single year. There's more books published every year than ever before. And so it's definitely created a place where authors can learn to get their message out how to do it and actually get their message out. So it's, yeah, I'm obviously pro self-publishing as well. There is a place for commercial and traditional publishing. There's both, but yeah, I'm pro self-publishing for sure. Well, let's talk about commercial publishing. One of the things that we want to say about commercial publishing, no matter how much pro we said about it, there are only so many slots that can be filled. I mean, it's so fewer books that commercial publishers are willing to publish now. They're fewer commercial publishers, number one, and they're fewer books coming out. They're focusing more on a few books than a lot of books. When I was CEO of LifeWay, our book publishing company was B&H. And we were publishing about 170 books a year, and we just kept cutting it down and cutting it, but ourselves didn't go down because we were putting more and more emphasis on individual books. I can't remember how many it was when I left LifeWay B&H, but it was significantly fewer than were there. Now, let's be fair. Commercial publisher will do things for you that are self-publishing. You either have to pay someone to do it or you have to do it yourself. Let's talk about some examples of that. Yeah, and that's a big advantage of going to the more traditional commercial publishing route is that you could just turn up your manuscript, and at that point, you can be done. They can do the formatting of the book. They can do cover design. They can do marketing, which is a really big deal. They do product distribution. It's everything that's needed to get the book out there. They have existing sales channels, which is really, this is why a lot of authors are drawn towards commercial publishing is because they have existing sales channels. And the thinking is, well, I'll be able to sell more books. Yes and no. Yes and no. I know. Yeah. I did some quick research. Two out of three trade books published commercially sell under a thousand units in the first year. And that's with commercial publishers. It's with commercial publishing two out of three. So the guarantee that most authors think that if they can get their book published by a trade commercial publisher that they're just going to sell thousands of 1000s of books. Just isn't the case anymore. And trade publishers are scaling back because it's a major investment. They're investing, not only just the resources to get the book published, but the marketing and the sales channels cost a lot. And so we're seeing this shrinking of the market in a lot of ways with commercial publishing. It's, it's a great route to go. But it's not for everyone. In fact, it's not for most people. It's probably not for 99.9% to be to be fair. And that's not enough commercial publishing. I'm dealing with some, some commercial publishers in the Christian world that they will not even take your proposal unless it comes to an agent. And so the agent has to filter it and to make sure that it's okay. So it's just fewer and fewer books. Let me say something about the marketing of commercial publishers. It's usually a burst at the beginning, and then it's done. But the only way that they will continue to put marketing into it is if that book begins to catch. And then they will fade a more marketing. But beyond that, they're going to stop, you know, how long does a burst last, usually about three or four months. Right. Then, boom, at least that's been my experience. Yeah. And that's, that's what you get with commercial publishing. But you guys, you see that the market's shrinking the trade books that are getting published is less and less, which is why self publishing has become such a viable option. For so many people. One of the awesome things about going more the self publishing route is that what you, what you give up when you commercial publishing are your rights and your royalties. You, you, you still own your content as an author, but you lose the publishing rights. If a publisher decides just I'm not going to print your book anymore. You don't have any more control over that. You lose a lot of in your royalties that you actually make from the sales and so stuff publishing. One of the things I absolutely love and that's why I love working with authors is that self publishing gives you control over everything. Yeah, you lose some of the marketing, but what you gain, I think, is so much more advantageous as an author, especially if you're new, new or beginning author. You retain control, you contain rights, you control royalties. And, and from a royalties perspective, you get, you get more money in your pocket per book sold. So even you don't have to sell as many books in order to potentially, you know, make the same amount of income that you would from a traditional publisher. Well, let's talk to the founder and CEO of craft publishing for a moment. All right, Jess, I want to do a book with you. I want to self publish. What does craft do. Give us an example of a self publisher. Go through the checklist. What does craft do. Yeah, and just even before that just a quick understanding, you have self publishing and you have guided self publishing. I'm going to kind of break those apart. Self publishing self publishing, you know, by its term, you can go publish your own book. Everyone has the capability to do that. And there's a lot of different ways you can do that a lot of different companies that will provide you the resources to do that. What I do at craft book publishing is actually doing guided self publishing. And so I create everything an author needs to self publish their book. And so I'm able to take what is offered at trade publishers, you know, interior formatting, cover design, publication systems distribution, all those things that don't forget editing. I have editing as an option as well. All the things you need to get your book digitally on shelves and physically in your hands. I have the ability to do that. And all for you as a self publisher. So so many authors, the authors I work with, they just want to write. They just, they want to write. They want to craft their story and then I want to go. I don't want to have to mess with all that. I don't want to do it. I know I can, but I don't want to do it. And so I work with them and it's it's a joy because I get to see their, their book, their message come to life. And so at the end of the day, the authors I work with self publish their books, I do everything they need and I just hand the keys back. That's what there's there's a kind of the finish line process where say I'm handing the keys back to you now, and you get to keep all of that from rights from royalties distribution, you get complete control over the books that's. Well, that's like a hundred thousand foot view of what I do, but at least paints a little bit of picture with craft book publishing. Hey, before before we leave this particular session, somebody says, I'm really interested in the self publish, especially guided publishing where Jess is guiding me along the way to self publish. Where do they begin? What happens? Just contact you at craft. Yeah, yeah, that's the easiest way. Go to craftbookpublishing.com or email me at Jess at craftbookpublishing.com, either one of those. And you can kind of begin to see on the website what we do, but also, you know, just ask questions every every author I work with. You know, I have a personal relationship, you know, I'm working with them. It's not like a. It's kind of like more of a boutique style, mom and pop kind of style. And so it's very personal, very connected along the way. It's not just some person in an office just running through some stuff templates and cutting it back out. This is truly, you know, every book I do is one of a kind. And so just reach out to me. I'd like to have it typically have a conversation with every author up front. Make sure it's a good fit and see if this is what they're looking for. And if it is that we move forward. So yeah, that's, that's the best way to start. But yeah, it's, it's, it's a blast. I love doing it. Well, that's craftbookpublishing.com. Jess will guide you. He will, he will help you along the way. You're an advertiser and our new directory. By the way, Jess, that everything church resources directory. The second day it went out. Somebody said, I've already gotten the sale. I've already gotten the sale. So we're seeing some great results. Thank you for being an advertiser in that and being early. But we list all the church resources that we know of and will continue to build on that list. You can download that. You can look at it online. Just, just go to the link where you can get the everything church resources directory. Jess, we got one more to do. We did the first one. So you want to write a book, you know, where do you, where do you begin? You know, what? How do you write a book? The second one, should you self publish or commercial publish. Now we're going to go to the brief FAQ. One of four things that you may not hear if you're aspiring author. And we're going to talk about those. You may want to add a fifth or six. I don't care. But anyway, we'll be talking about that in the next episode. It's already downloaded. It's waiting for you. I want to try this. I did this on YouTube. So if you're watching, I'm going to try to do this again and see what happens. If you're on YouTube, give us a thumbs up. Can you give us a thumbs up? Yeah, give us a thumbs up. I'm waiting for the fireworks. There's a thumbs up. It didn't work this time. It worked the last time. If you're in your favorite podcast, or if you're subscribed to the church answers channel, please do that. And if you're in your favorite podcasting app, give us a rating and review. We always say that because we always appreciate it. We'll see you in the next episode as we talk about those things that you need to know as an author for things no one tells aspiring authors. Jess will be back for the last of these three episodes. Hang tight. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the church answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]