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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."
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.
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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
Personally, I hate having to read reference material off a monitor. I have poor eyesight, which just exacerbates the problems of eyestrain/bad posture of reading stuff online.
Also, books are still far more convenient to lug around wherever and whenever you choose, allowing you to get in a little reading whenever you have a spare moment (no batteries required is also a nice feature).
Of course, both of those points will eventually be rendered moot by advances in portable computing and display technology, but until then, given the (relatively) low infrastructure costs of setting up a vanity press as described, I would advise the original poster to make hay while the sun shines.