During her 2018 TAA Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference presentation, “Independent Publishing: Securing a Return on Your Investment, A Practical Approach to Indie Publishing”, Margaret Thompson Reece shared benefits of independent “indie” publishing options, including greater control and distribution options, flexible pricing, and easier editing.
These benefits, however, are not without cost. Below are the ten investments Reece said authors must make to be successful book publishers.
Recently we asked several TAA members the question, “What changes are you hoping to see within the publishing industry this year?” Five key changes were identified: improvements in self-publishing, technology-driven innovations, better peer-review processes, increases in open access publishing, and a new era of transparency in publisher-author communication.
As an author and publisher (and new member of TAA) preparing manuscripts of my own design and assisting other authors to do the same, I needed a service that was cost-effective and efficient. After researching several different services, I selected CreateSpace.com, which is a part of Amazon, because it allowed me to print quality textbooks for pennies on the dollar. I also like this service because of the free ISBN number and the fact that if you intend to revise an edition you can lock in the ISBN number for subsequent editions.
Due to an increase in availability of print-on-demand services that provide lower-cost alternatives for converting a manuscript into a printed and bound product, there is growing confusion among new authors about what constitutes the role of a publisher. Although many publishers and printing companies have symbiotic relationships, publishing companies provide much more than simply printing and binding of a manuscript.
To better understand the role of a publisher, and what authors should look for in a publisher relationship, we reached out to two of TAA’s industry professionals and 2017 conference sponsors: William England of Sentia Publishing and Sean Wakely of FlatWorld.
Self-publishing, not to be confused with vanity publishing, is now seen as a much more viable option when it comes to publishing a textbook. Self-publishing companies offer a wide range of services from manuscript editing to cover design and distribution. You, as the author, often have complete control over each stage of the design, publishing, and promotion process. Keeping all of this in mind, if you decide to self-publish instead of following the traditional route, these ten self-publishing companies are ones to explore and consider:
The Copyright Clearance Center’s Director of Business Development, Christopher Kenneally, interviewed self-published author Dr. Robert Hoyt, M.D., on CCC’s Beyond the Book program about his textbook, Health Informatics: A Practical Guide for Healthcare and Information Technology Professionals, now in its sixth edition.
During the interview, Hoyt told Kenneally that self-publishing gave he and his coauthor a lot more flexibility, the biggest one being turnaround time. Standard book publishing takes 2-3 years, he said, and their topic mandated a faster turnaround: “Self-publishing was the only way to do that.”
