An advantage to POD over traditional publishing that I’ve discovered over the years can’t be overlooked. As long as your story is in their database, the book is available for printing and purchase. In the traditional route a publishing run of, say, 5,000 books is most likely all you will ever have in most cases. Not all authors can boast Stephen King-like sales and most will never approach that number. So, if you want to have long-term exposure it’s important to have your novel(s) available as long as you want them on the market. POD allows that. Plus, there are almost no carrying costs (due to almost no warehousing costs) for POD publishers, so they can carry quite a few titles. POD sort of reminds me of music file-sharing in one respect. Music file-sharing allows little-known or virtually unknown musicians to be heard by a wide audience. People who might never hear of an artist or band because they’ve been by-passed by record companies (for whatever reason) have the opportunity to hear music they might never have the chance to hear otherwise. Record companies are just like book publishers. If they can’t ‘guarantee’ a specific number of sales, you’re toast. POD doesn’t necessarily allow one to share an electronic version of the book, but rather it allows a totally unknown and bypassed writer to finally get their due. It worked for me!
Contact Mark at mark@mark-kendrick.com or through his website at www.mark-kendrick.com
Desert Sons, Into This World We’re Thrown and Stealing Some Time Vol. 1 and 2 can be found thru all major and minor distributors and retailers throughout the world.
For more information on iUniverse, go to their website at www.iuniverse.com.
Article comments
1 - Ashok K. Banker
Mark, congratulations on your success. I wish you a great deal more sales and popularity. Most of all, keep writing--and keep pushing those copies off those shelves, or rather, watch them get pulled off the shelves. You give hope to everybody who has a hard time making it (and breaking in) to the New York publishing world.
And I'm going to buy a copy of your book for sure now.
2 - Victor Lana
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you, Parker Owens, for this fantastic interview.
Thank you, Mark Kendrick, for being an inspiration to us all.
I have been worried because I faced all your issues with publishers while trying to place my 9/11 book for over a year, so I turned to iUniverse for the same reasons.
THE SAVAGE QUIET SEPTEMBER SUN is coming out, probably next month; and now, thanks to this post, I have some great ideas for marketing it.
Thanks again!
3 - Steve Bell
I've been through the mill on this one and come back to the beginining.
Let me tell you the story of the new book & movie
Secret Revelation
www.secretrevelation.com
I have contcats in hollywood and in publishing so know that if I really want I can go the way of Harry potter, or Dan brown and follow the traditional publishing route. But...
What I soon realised was-- you go through all the hoops to get and agent, then to get a contract- your work gets butchered and then it languishes... why?
Because if you're not a big author you get little to no marketing money. That means you need to do it yourself -- so why not do it yourself from the start and cut ou the middlemen. I am now also using iUniverse to print it and then my own creative power to publicise the book... worth looking into...
4 - Victor Lana
Steve,
You express my sentiments very well (as to why I ultimately chose iUniverse).
My book was accepted by an agent over a year ago, who then proceeded to make contacts and then tell me the book needed work (after first telling me she loved it).
Then I sent it out on my own and the manuscript was accepted. This publisher wanted me to delete five stories (of the 12 short stories) and so on. Anothe rpublisher wanted me to change some stories, get rid of others, in order to publish it.
In the end, for the book that meant so much to my family and me to be truly the book I had written, I went with iUniverse.
Good luck, Sean! All the best!
5 - Victor Lana
I meant good luck, Steve! That's what happens when a four year old is watching cartoons in the same room.
6 - Mark Kendrick
First, let me thank Parker for asking me to do the interview. She is the best! Her interview style was great and her comments during the process indicate that she's someone I'd like to know personally.
Second, thanks to all of you who have commented so far. Those of you who have chosen the iUniverse route know exactly what it's like to have total creative control of your material - something that I forgot to mention in the interview. In fact, that's one of the most important elements with respect to POD.
It's also great to see your comments here, which indicates that there are people who are not only reading this blog, but who are published as well.
I think what's particularly amazing is how someone (Steve Bell) who has contacts in Hollywood was unable to get a proper audience. Now he'll get the audience he deserves!
I look forward to other comments. Please feel free to contact me directly if you'd like for more info about iU or the process. I've had nothing but good luck with this whole endeavor and am eager to share my experiences with anyone who wants to listen.
Thanks!
Mark Ian Kendrick
7 - alienboy
Could you put in some numbers about the costs involved, so potential authors know what they need to do in that regard?
Great work by the way, both author and interviewer.
8 - Steve Bell
For those asking about costs -- I'll share my full and expected budget:-
Preparation of manuscript: (Using the brilliant services of scribendi.com - can't recomend them enough!!) - $700 (optional but well worth it)
Printing through iUniverse - $600
Marketing:--
Web site - $30 per year and build myself with dreamweaver (But for about $200 you can but a great template) www.flashtemplates.com
Creating book marks - $80
Creating book business cards - $40
PR Web press released (very important!!) - $150 for the life of the campaign ($30 per release)
Travel for book signings (I have $1000 for total travel costs)
$500 for free book samples
So all in all for a 1-2 year campaign I have about $3500 budgeted - not so cheap but this covers everything.
You can of course do it a little cheaper .
Oh and of course if you really want traffic to your site - google add words is the only one worth doing -- $1200 for a major 6 month campaign. (but this is luxury)
Finally look at a realistic return on investment - to cover a $3500 campaign - you need to be selling about 3500 books if your ona 10% royalty. But my last book did this without too much trouble.
Hope this helps
Steve
9 - Victor Lana
In today's NEW YORK TIMES Book Review there was a full page ad for iUniverse.
Now that's wonderful, but my questions are:
1. How is your book/ my book going to get on that page?
2. What's the success rate of people buying from an ad like that?
3. Will the NYT Book Review ever accept an iUniverse book and actually review it?
If anyone can answer these things, I'd appreciate it.
10 - Steve Bell
This is known as a Co-Op ad and anyone can join it.
I will do it when Secret Revelation is published.
It is pricey but at $2000 it is good value to be part of this with a 1.5MM circulation.
I did ask iUniverse if they can measure the pick up rate -- but they said it was hard to track. Anecdotally they have had good feedback from authors saying they get major sales spikes.
You saw it... so maybe it works.
I will report back in the new year after i try it..
Steve
11 - Victor Lana
Steve,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. My book, THE SAVAGE QUIET SEPTEMBER SUN, will be out before the end of the year, so I am trying to gather as much info as I can to proceed the best way.
My page for the book can be found at:
http://journals.aol.com/vicl04/THESAVAGEQUIETSEPTEMBERSUN/
I'll keeping checking in on your page as well.
Good luck!
12 - Temple A. Stark
This post was chosen by the section editor as a BC pick of the week. Go HERE (link) to find out why.
And thank you
- Temple
13 - James Williams
i love it
U should check out another IUniverse writer
Jason S Lane a gay teenage poet his book is
21st Century Poet Jadam Loulock
help the kid and promote it
i read the book and it changed my life in a sense
14 - mec
Mr Kendrick is a remarkably successful author. Of some 18,000 titles, iUniverse publishes per year on 73 sell more that 500 copies. Authors who choose this method of publication should be very conversant with the editorial process or hire their own copy editors and proof readers. Those services are available from iUniverse but the outsourced providers are not professionally competent.