Slashdot Mirror
Vanity Press For Linux Geeks?
VasLor asks: "I am considering going into the publishing business and would like to publish manuals, how-to computer books, documentation for specific applications or anything else related specifically to Linux or geekdom. I would like to set this up on a vanity press system and then sell the books directly off of my site without going through Amazon (They insist on a 55% discount on any book they sell). My question is this: Will the Linux/Computer Geek community be willing to pay something around $100 to have their book printed? The model would be something akin to iUniverse, though you would retain ALL rights and it would not be so expensive (iUniverse tends to nickle/dime you with extras, like using images inside the book and a custom book cover.) What would be the best terms for an author? Or is it just too easy to go to Xlibris or iUniverse? This will help me decide whether it's worth my effort."
Is the printing/fulfillment engine behind iUniverse and other book-on-demand services.
Get in touch with them, and see what their requirements are for signing on as a publisher.
That's the fastest way to get set up. Now, as to whether there's a market for the type of books you wish to publish, or what have you, well, that's for you to research.
Posted by polar_bear:
Something I'm not clear on -- are you wanting to make money at this project? Amazon isn't peculiar in wanting 55%, because large publishers still make money when they sell a book at 45% of the cover price. How is this possible? Economics of scale -- in most retail your costs for an item (as a manufacturer) should be in the neighborhood of 10% of the retail price. So, a $50.00 book should cost no more than $5.00 to produce. When you sell that book to Amazon (or whoever) you'll charge them $22.50 and make about $17.50 on that, out of which an author should get about $1.75 for each book...if you sell enough, you'll make money.
The odious thing about Amazon isn't their margin (or as Tony Soprano would have it, their vig) on the books, it's the time they take to pay. I've heard (rumor) that their standard is something like 90 days.
The question, to me, is why a geek would use a vanity press when they could simply write the book using DocBook, output to PostScript and zap that file to a local printer who could whip up 250 to 1,000 copies of the book and they could sell it off their own site. What other services (proofing, tech editing, typesetting, promotion) would you offer that they'd find useful?
Publishing is extremely expensive, you should probably at least talk to a few people who work in publishing to find out what you'd be getting into. It sounds like a nice idea, but you could easily lose a lot of money that you'd never recoup.
As a final thought, too, consider this -- what geek is willing and able to write a good book that can't find a publisher? Acquisition editors are climbing all over themselves trying to find geeks who can write because there's a serious shortage of technical writers -- at least in the Open Source fields... if you can't find a publisher for your book, it may be that your writing skills aren't up to par, or that the topic you're writing on is not popular or it's overpublished.
Well, hope that helps. Sorry to be negative, but I'd hate to see someone lose serious money on a whim...
The thing that the Internet provides is the potential for new, "more direct" ways to sell things.
For instance, if I had a book ready to sell, I could set up an "auction" at EBay, or some such thing, set up an account on PayPal to accept payment, and thereby be fairly readily able to sell 50 copies of something that I might get printed by a "vanity press."
The fact of this making it easier to get access to "obscure titles" means that while there are doubtless losses to people simply "publishing on the 'net," there can be gains where things that would never otherwise have any market can attain one.
The author of Successful Lisp: How to Understand and Use Common Lisp apparently did not succeed at getting a "dead trees" publisher; it would surprise me not at all if he could get a couple hundred copies (of something of a more complete edition of the material) sold out of using a "vanity press." For $30, I'd almost certainly buy a copy, if only to encourage there to be continuance of such literature.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
On the other hand I know a guy who has a re-production historic printing press, it is very cool but not what you would call easy to use.
The cure of the ills of Democracy is more Democracy.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
This sounds an awful lot like what I set up last year. bookzilla.com did the same thing, same conditions.
[Note: I work for Amazon.com, but I speak for myself and not my employer]
Just sell it on Amazon.com. Yes, you'll make less money per-order, but you'll get something like 100 times the traffic and brand name of selling it at Amazon.com.
What your doing is putting yourself in really a small market, then your going to limit yourself even more by selling it off your own tiny website.
Just ask yourself, would you give your credit card number to me or any other person? Now, how about giving your Credit Card to a big established name?
Whatever you do, make sure you don't limit yourself anymore by making your small business smaller than it already is.
Linux O Muerte!
I think what we need is a truly open-source solution to the problem of printing.
Now, I know you're all saying "but what about patents?" That used to be a valid concern. Fortunately however, the printing press was invented in 1452, meaning that the patent expired in 1469 (this was back when patents lasted for 17 years - not 20 like they do now).
This means that we can LEGALLY reverse engineer the original Gutenberg press and distribute our version.
I emailed RMS about this and he's very excited. As long as we call it the Gnutenberg printing press we'll have the full support of the fsf.
Isn't it about time the linux community stopped relying on papyrus scrolls? This is a major step in making us competitive with M$ Winbloze (the 1337 h4x0r way to spell Microsoft Windows).
Of course it'll take years before we manage to get smooth fonts with the Gnutenberg printing press, but I think that's a small price to pay for freedom.
--Shoeboy
This is not, however, the largest source of vanity press material. And it gives vanity press a name it does not deserve.
When an academic press prints a thesis, they are putting their reputation (and good legal standing) on the line in defense of the work. When a person self-publishes their own paper through a vanity press, then they are only putting their own reputation on the line. I agree, that when it comes to an academic paper or something, this could be a little shady, but that doesn't mean that the vanity press should enforce peer review. That was the author's responsibility.
In a more common case, when my grandmother decides to self-publish her memoirs, there's no reason for peer review. And nothing shady at all.
Am I making sense?
--
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I think that offering this service would be great. I would also suggest researching the possibilities of having electronic format for the documentation. Having pdf format is good for me since I like to print out chapters sometimes and read. I would also partner with the coming Gnome and KDE based handhelds and build a way to have services so people can download and read docs on these future devices.
I disagree. Especially with manuals, I prefer paper, even though I can't do a full-text search, etc. It's just more convenient to browse through a book, and also to have it open next to you without the need for screen space for that information. And besides, you don't have to do *everything* with the 'puter ...
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
What I think is more important than the possibility of being sued is your reputation. If you don't verify stuff, and you and your books are known to be sloppy and buggy, people won't buy them. So especially when you're doing stuff online, it is vitally important to do good work.
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
Okay, I'm biased as I work for Wrox, and we spend far far more time and work on editorial than anyone else (and we still get typos), but I don't think you can print a book that cheap - unless you don't mind printing something that could tarnish your image as it hasn't been edited and proofread.
Good idea though, even if you just printed books of all the HOWTOs (edited of course) it would be worthwhile.
You can get Acts of the Apostles from a few bookstores but not many. (Too much hassle setting up distribution.) So far I've sold about 400 copies from my website. (and I only take check and money order--no electronic payments).
Amazon and fatbrain are my biggest distribution channels. People evidently trust the names. Even though my site links to Softpro, (and not Amazon--I'm trying to give Softpro my business) and even though Softpro is a real live 4-store chain with strong local presences in Colorado and Massachussetts, evidently people prefer to go to Amazon. I've only sold about 150 through Softpro. Amazon don't pay too good, but they are VERY easy to work with. Fatbrain is much more disorganized-- a lot of hassle getting paid-- but they do (eventually) pay better than Amazon. Between Amazon and fatbrain I've sold close to 2K copies. (By the way, although I've sold about 50 copies each through Barnes & Noble and Borders, I don't recommend them to small publishers. They don't care about us. They still list my book under "religion," for Pete's sake.)
In deciding to publish myself, I was inspired by my old friend Tim O'Reilly. I remember when he didn't have enough $$ to get the holes in his shoes repaired, and he was producing "Unix in a Nutshell" on photocopiers and stapling them on his kitchen table, selling them mail-order through tiny ads in "Unix Review" (about 1986 or so). As most /. readers know, "O'Reilly & Associates" is now a publishing giant. (Although I couldn't talk them into doing my book, the blighters!). So obviously Tim & Company either had a better product (no argument here) or more fire & passion to succeed as a publisher (without a doubt). The whole point of this is, it's fun but it sure as hell ain't easy, and unless you have the skill of & determination of somebody like Tim you don't stand a very good chance of coming out in the black.
NA
Ultimate Geek NanoNovel: Acts of the Apostles at www.wetmachine.com Fear the Future! Defrock the Infodruids!
The Linux Documentation project web pulishes any good Linux text.
O'Riely then prints LDP books for general distribution.
I can't see the need for your service. Ofcourse as an author who gets PAID to publish, and the son of similar authors, I've always felt "vanity publishing" was basicly a crock living off silly people's egos.
If anything I do ever gets to the point that people want a printed manual, it will than be worth while for a publisher to make a normal run of it. Until then a web page, man pages and word of mouth would just have to do. There's not much I want to learn so much that I'd spend $100 on a manual.
Good luck!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Vanity presses work for literature, poetry, humanities, etc. because the content of the book is unique: if you learn of an interesting author (at a book reading, lets say) and want to read his work, buying a book by someone else won't cut it.
However, when it comes to technical books, you are often more concerned with the quality of the material, rather than the particular author. Therefore you buy books based on the reputation of the publisher, reviews you have read, etc. It would be very hard for an independent printing to gain that kind of notice. Very few people would choose you over O'Reilly.
This is not to say that all titles would do poorly. Readers would be interested in buying a vanity publication if it was of a topic never before covered, and if the author did an exceptional job. But if that were the case, it probably would not be too difficult to find an interested publisher.
With the vast quantities of technical material freely available online, you would have a very hard time finding a market for bound versions of How-To's. And with the big publishing houses releasing volume after volume, you would have a hard time finding a topic they haven't done.
A completely electronic press might succeed, because there is minimal overhead, put people do have a hard time believing that they need to pay for data.
next thing we'll see is a "linux for dummies" series..
<kw>
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. For Dummies is a registered trademark of Hungry Minds. All other trademarks yadda yadda yadda.You mean like Debian for Dummies, Slackware for Dummies, SuSE for Dummies, and Red Hat 7 for Dummies? What about GNOME for Dummies and KDE for Dummies? Or Linux Programming for Dummies?
</kw>
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?
Will I retire or break 10K?
I take it you are not programming much, then. It would be hard to start using a new programming language or a new library without having read some sort of documentation first. I also guess you don't use TeX, or sendmail, or any other program with a significant learning curve... Let me guess, you are a Windows user, right?
If your plan is to take some of the existing documentation (howto's, FAQ's, info page, man pages, etc.) and publish them with the authors permission, I'd definitely pay real money for it -- with a couple of stipulations.
I wouldn't care too much about the paper or binding quality, but the typesetting would have to be reasonable. If I got anything that looked like it came out of Microsoft Word, or got screen dumped from a web browser, I'd never buy another one again for as long as I live. (Typesetting is my primary beef with many of the vanity books I've seen. I can understand the non-existant editing -- good editing costs real money. But reasonable, computer assisted typesetting has been available for a long time now. Yet, the typesetting is often worse than the editing on some of these books.)
Second, I would need some way to get diff's from the dead tree version to the current version, at least for a little while. You should be able to do this pretty easily, and deliver diffs online.
Third, it couldn't cost much more than just typesetting the thing myself with TeX or groff, and printing it on the office laser printer. This last one is the kicker -- you'll have to pay the author, typeset the book, print the book, bind the book, and ship it to me, all for less than the $50 or so it costs me to just do a half-assed job on my own.
Of course, I might not be the typical market for this kind of thing. I'm just letting you know what kind of thing I can see myself buying.
Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
Vanity presses are under threat from the internet, where publishing for yourself is both easy and cheap. Given the techie background of the audience I can't imagine any reason why anyone would want to see a book in print, besides the fetish and fondlement value of the binding.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
- Most papers have multiple authors. Once the work is ready to be written up, one author writes the actual text, and then iterates with the coauthors for a while.
- They start giving talks about their work, and getting more feedback that way.
- They post the paper to a preprint server such as arxiv.org.
- They submit it to a journal.
- The journal solicits anonymous peer reviews from people it knows are active in the field.
- The peer reviewers typically ask for some (major or minor) changes, and then recommend publication (unless the whole thing was a botch).
The interesting thing about this is step #3, which didn't exist before, and is threatening to make 4-6 irrelevant. In physics, the rule of thumb is that if the paper's been published in a print journal, it must be too out of date to be interesting. I've heard that in certain fields like string theory, the preprint server essentially has replaced the journals. This presumably works because there is such a small number of people working on string theory, and they all know each other by reputation.The reason #4-6 used to be required, not optional, is that there was no such thing as zero-cost electronic distribution.
BTW, cold fusion was messed up because Pons and Fleischman never even made the relevant info public. They bypassed the whole publication process and just gave press releases. Other scientists who wanted to try to reproduce their results were reduced to stuff like looking at photos and trying to estimate the size of an electrode by comparing it with the diameter of Pons' wrist!
The Assayer - free-information book reviews
Find free books.
(1) Since the author retains the rights and only pays $100, it sounds like we're talking about print-on-demand??? From what I've seen, POD technology isn't really ready for prime time, but maybe that's just because the POD publishers are still doing the authors' layout and design for them, which eats up a lot of money. For geek publishing, it might make sense just to require them to submit PDF or LaTeX and do all the layout and design themselves.
(2) Marketing is very important. Most authors' biggest complain about POD -- and vanity POD even more so -- is that the publisher doesn't lift a finger to promote the book. Do you intend to do any marketing, or is it up to the authors? (But see my sig for one way to get free promotion of a book.)
(3) Are the books going to be available as free downloads? I've actually been reasonably successful at selling print copies of my own books, even though they're available as free downloads (and one is open-source). But I'm not convinced my situation is analogous to what you're talking about. First off, my books are textbooks, and students are going to read them cover to cover (well, at least they're supposed to do that :-). Nobody reads a book cover-to-cover from a CRT, so their choice is either to download and print it (expensive, and you end up with a thick stack of single-sided output), or buy a nice bound, printed copy from me. But when it comes to technical books, most people are using them for reference. If you offer it in electronic form, they're likely to download it, put it on their hard disk, and refer to it as necessary. Here's a sobering fact for you: I get maybe 500 downloads/week of my book, but retail sales are about 1/week. Virtually all my sales are wholesale. If I had to depend on retail sales, I would have given up a long time ago.
The Assayer - free-information book reviews
Find free books.
Vanity press can work if you find the right printer, have the right subject, and encounter demand. On the other hand, authors entering the publishing world face a nasty business of contracts with myriad stipulations, protections for the publisher at the expense of the author, and sometimes hidden clauses that can come into play during the course of one or work's lifespans. You'll discover "cross-linking" of titles, where any monies you earn on a popular title will be applied to losses on other titles, "reserves for returns," where the publisher retains up to 25 percent of a title's monies to cover any returned items, and the ability of the publisher to keep any earned monies for a title (to cover their mistake in overprinting), which effectively kills any income from a title. Authors rarely earn 10 percent of 50 percent of a title's cover price. New authors can be offered at little as 2.5 percent royalties, meaning that a book that sells for $25 cover price will cost Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Borders, or B. Dalton's only $12.50. The author would then receive 31 cents for each book sale. However, foreign sales only pay one-half of the rate, book club sales perhaps only 1 percent, and lot sales nothing. Publishers in technical fields also typically retail *ALL* copyright ownership, so the author cannot use any material for residual articles or other content unless granted permission. Advances, or payments given to an author to cover expenses while working, aren't really advances at all, but are paid as work is turned in; rarely are advances paid in lump sums, and the monies are generally in the low- to low-middle class salary range. Combine these factors with the fact that publishers typically want books prepare in 90 days, and you can begin to see why some of the content and quality of the technical books about Linux is somewhat lacking - there is a lot of garbage out there (some publishers have been so cheeky as to re-publish man pages, not as blessed by linuxdoc, but as original, hacked content!). Self-publishing may be a good pursuit, and having the time to craft, revise and update content is a good idea. Also, note that not all publishers play "follow the distro version" game, and some, such as O'Reilly, will also allow authors enough time for an update, revision, etc. I also believe O'Reilly is the only publisher to publish its authors' contract on-line - this is commendable.
Sorry, couldn't pass that one up...
OK,
-B
--
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
I don't know about any of you guys and your oh-so-high-paying-jobs, but I very rarely spend over $20 on a book -- and those are usually the $50 bible sorts. For $100 I could all sorts of things.. Such as -
- 1000 minutes anywhere in the U.S. with a cheap calling plan.
- About 4 cases of Bawls.
- A new processor to overclock.
- A bribe for cmdrtaco.
All of these things I would like more than a book. Also, on the issue of electronic or paper binding -- I think you are asking for trouble if you read books on your computer monitor. I just can't do it. Looking at something that isn't backlit is a pleasant suprise, and I haven't seen the online-book market skyrocket recently.
Seeka
$man microsoft
Crowded elevator smell different to midget. -Chinese Proverb
While most of what you say is true in fact, my experience as a published author (Samba Administrator's Handbook, Samba for Dummies) isn't as horrendous as you imply.
From my point of view, I was given to opportunity to learn a new network operating system, prove that I know it by getting my name on a published book, and was even given 5 figures (for both books) for my troubles. I look at it like getting paid to go to school.
You'll discover "cross-linking" of titles, where any monies you earn on a popular title will be applied to losses on other titles,
I didn't see this in my contract.
"reserves for returns," where the publisher retains up to 25 percent of a title's monies to cover any returned items,
This is in my contact, and it makes sense, as books are one of the few consumer items you can easily return.
and the ability of the publisher to keep any earned monies for a title (to cover their mistake in overprinting), which effectively kills any income from a title. Authors rarely earn 10 percent of 50 percent of a title's cover price. New authors can be offered at little as 2.5 percent royalties, meaning that a book that sells for $25 cover price will cost Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Borders, or B. Dalton's only $12.50. The author would then receive 31 cents for each book sale. However, foreign sales only pay one-half of the rate, book club sales perhaps only 1 percent, and lot sales nothing.
My royalties are based on the publisher's price, which is typically half of the list price, but they start around 10% for domestic, and 7.5% for foreign sales, and they increase as sales go up. They are probably less than that in reality as some sales get discounted, on the flip side, I can buy any IDG book for 40% off, if I wanted to fill a bookcase of shockingly bright yellow and black Dummies books, I could.
Publishers in technical fields also typically retail *ALL* copyright ownership, so the author cannot use any material for residual articles or other content unless granted permission.
I'm not sure how my contract handles this, though IDG has the right to buy any competing titles of mine in the Samba line, before I can ship them to another offer. This is kind of like a non-compete clause, and it does expire.
Advances, or payments given to an author to cover expenses while working, aren't really advances at all, but are paid as work is turned in; rarely are advances paid in lump sums, and the monies are generally in the low- to low-middle class salary range.
Do you know what the definition of an advance is? An advance is royalties (based on the sale of the book), paid in advance. If you see one red cent before your book ends up on the bookshelf, it's an advance.
Typically, the advances are split amongst the authors, a percent raked off for your agent, and done in quarters, as each quarter of a book is turned in.
Getting 10 grand at once for no work may be normal for Hunter S. Thompson, not for tech writers.
Combine these factors with the fact that publishers typically want books prepare in 90 days,
You can negotiate your schedule, and a deadline for output is hardly cataclysmic. It keeps you focused.
and you can begin to see why some of the content and quality of the technical books about Linux is somewhat lacking - there is a lot of garbage out there (some publishers have been so cheeky as to re-publish man pages, not as blessed by linuxdoc, but as original, hacked content!). Self-publishing may be a good pursuit, and having the time to craft, revise and update content is a good idea.
Granted, there are a lot of poor quality books out there, but there are also a lot of publishers screaming for authors. If you know something fairly bleeding edge, and you don't mind a second job for six months, and you can write fairly well, you can probably find a publisher willing to give you a book contract. You end up with something concrete to bring to a job interview, and if you think ego-surfing the web is cool, you should try going to Border's or Barnes & Nobles and look for your name on books.
Though for fiction, youur best bet may be to slef publish.
George
Personally, I hardly ever read manuals when I get new _ware. I will only read the technical documentation that comes with a product if I get stuck. I find that I learn more about something if I get stuck in and 'get my hands dirty', because when you have to actually find the cause of a problem by trial and error, you generally remember the solution better than if you just read it out of a manual/book. However, if I want to learn about something completely new, I will usually do a bit of research beforehand. Maybe read a book or an FAQ.
The problem you could face, from a sales point of view, is that if your target consumer is a typical geek type person, they will probably be fully aware that they can usually find pretty much any information, on any subject, free of charge on the internet.
----------------------------
-----------------------
Moderator's essentials
A good open-source analogy is the peer-review process within academia. Before a thesis can be published, a panel of the author's peers should read and review the work. If the panel tests and approves the author's methods, experiments and conclusions, then the work is deemed publishable. If the peer-review process fails (as with cold fusion), then the work is generally rejected. Often, such rejected works are then published by vanity presses.
Having said that, there's nothing inherently wrong with a vanity press as long as there's a transparent and accountable peer-review process before a book is accepted to press.
Also, you have to realize that as a publisher, especially of reference manuals of any kind, much less computer/OS reference manuals, you have to verify the information contained within. It's one thing to publish fiction. It's another to publish material that is intended to be used by Joe New-to-Linux.
I'm not saying that people would send you bad information to be published on purpose, but that is always a possibility. You also have to be concerned with inadvertant typos and the like. Because, right when it falls down to it, it doesn't matter if the writer retains all rights to the published material... the publisher can be sued too.
Sorry to be so down on you about this, but them's the facts (well, the opinions, but you get the point).
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Last month I spent two days printing out and binding the freely avaliable mod_perl guide. In the end I ended up with four bound sections that take up a lot of space. This took a lot of my time, and was a very frustrating experience (Dammit Jim, I'm a coder, not a reprographics clerk.)
I'd chip in 20usd to have this published, and know at least four other people who'd do the same. I simply am that lazy - and I think it would be great advocacy too. We rely a lot on this kind of information, and it'd be great to have it in meetings, take it home to read in the bath, on the desk not taking up screen space, etc, etc, etc.
What I'm basically trying to say is that there's a lot of online only material that I'd love to have in dead tree form as well. And I (and my firm) would be quite willing to pay to see it happen.
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
Well, it seems like you have a bad business plan. You plan to enter a market with an established firm by undercutting them. You wish to target a technical audience selling documents that have equivalents on the web. It would appear that you are going for a VERY small market.
/.) of die-hard coders that believe in Free Software, there is a HUGE majority of kids who believe in free stuff, for whom Linux is "leet" (or is it 31337?)and never pay for anything.
To make matters worse, remember the mentality of many people in this "community." While there is a small minority (that is vocal on
I think that you're aiming for a VERY small market, and I wouldn't suggest this group for your target.
Alex