The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing [Paperback]

Jennifer Basye Sander (Author), Mark Victor Hansen (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592573584 | ISBN-13: 978-1592573585 | Publication Date: October 4, 2005

A practical guide for a booming market.

Every aspiring self-published author needs this guide, which covers everything from design to sales. It reveals all the tools they’ll need, including worksheets for estimating costs, timing, and resources; up-to-date information on production and design; formats for many genres; strategies for publicity and sales; plus success stories from self- published authors.

• Publishers Marketing Association estimates there are 73,000 small and self- publishers in the U.S., with 8,000-11,000 new ones each year
• Of the approximately 2.8 million books in print, 78% of the titles come from small/self-publishers (PMA)
• For small and self-publishers, sales increased 21% annually from 1997-2002; in 2002, these 73,000 publishers grossed $29.4 billion
• 81% of the population feels they have a book inside them; 6 million have written a manuscript; and another 6 million have a manuscript making the rounds

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jennifer Basye Sander has self-published two successful titles. She’s worked in all aspects of book publishing, and as a packager, she created a New York Times bestselling series for William Morrow. The author or co-author of more than 20 books, she has been featured on CNBC, CNNfn, The View, Book TV, Fox News, and in USA Today, Investors Business Daily, The New York Post, Newsday, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times, among others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592573584
• ISBN-13: 978-1592573585
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Basye Sander is an author and book packager of more than 50 titles on topics as varied as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published (over 100,000 copies sold, now in a fourth revised edition) to The Martini Diet, and many more in between. A former editor for Random House, she runs weekend writing retreats in Lake Tahoe, Write By The Lake (www.writebythelake.com), and in Washington's Skagit Valley, Write At The Farm (www.writeatthefarm.com) and teaches at the UC Davis Extension Arts and Humanities Creative Writing Progam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Little, Too Late, May 28, 2006

By 

Breeze Vincinz (Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing (Paperback)

There are quite a few positive aspects about this book. It does give you a comprehensive guide to the different forms you will need to file for different entities to get your company off the ground as well as a few marketing and distribution techniques. However, you will have to plow through close to 200 pages of pure unadulterated drivel to get to it.

I know this is a book for novices, in fact it was one of the reasons I picked it up, but it is written in such parochial language it almost bordered on insulting. The first half of the book is dedicated to explaining how difficult it is to be a self publisher and the different types of books that can be published (e.g. poetry, cookbooks, memoirs, etc...) It came off more as an extended guide a High School counselor would pass out to her students on career day than an actual guide for grown men to use to start their own publishing company.

It also should be noted that the book is geared towards the publication of non-fiction titles, especially when discussing marketing and distribution strategies. Many examples that were used would not transfer easily into the fiction literature arena. And I also found it quite disconcerting that the author referred to her own titles so frequently. It would not have been so confounding if it were not for the fact the titles she kept referring to were non-fiction titles geared towards the self-pampering of housewives and career women. She often referred to the seminars she attended on luxury cruise ships and the high end department stores where her books were made available. I could not help but wonder what would be the equivalent for fiction titles that revolved around inner city life, blue collar romances or hate crimes.

I appreciated the overall description of the nuts and bolts of the publishing industry and what is needed to actually publish a book under your own imprint. But this information was found much too late in this book and not terribly informative for self-publishers of fiction titles.

For what it's worth, this could have been condensed into a twenty page pamphlet and it would have had the same effect.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nah! I'd Say PASS on This Book!, May 24, 2006

By 

Monica Main "Monica Main" (Valencia, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing (Paperback)

I guess I expected so much more. It went on and on about getting the book to look a certain way but hardly any content on marketing and distribution (which are MOST important).

The best book I ever got about self-publishing was FREE from Infinity Publishing who prints self-published titles (infinitypublishing.com). I have every self-published how-to book out there and this one, by far, has been the most informative, step-by-step, comprehensive, and simple book on this topic I've ever read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-buy, November 4, 2005

By 

Aaron Shepard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing (Paperback)

This is a must-buy for almost any self publisher because of its excellent discussion of what goes into producing a book of commercial quality -- the subject in which most books on self publishing are weakest. In other words, read this book so you won't give yourself away as a self publisher! I suggest, though, that you supplement it with Morris Rosenthal's book Print-on-Demand Book Publishing, for a more advanced look at the possibilities in print on demand and online bookselling.