By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Publishing a book has never been easier. Almost everyone has a computer with the ability to crank in words and produce a manuscript—whether nonfiction or fiction. Authors struggle to find a literary agent and a traditional publishing deal. They get tired of crafting an excellent product, the waiting, and the rejection letters. Instead, they self-publish because that direction looks easy. It’s one of the biggest publishing myths that self-publishing is best.

For over 35 years, I’ve been reading about publishing, writing and working in this business as an editor and writer. If you decide to self-publish, understand several facts: You are establishing a world-wide sales record of your publishing efforts. Traditional publishers and literary agents look at book sales to decide if they are going to work with you.

While the creation of books has never been easier, here’s the reality that few people will tell you: making the book is easy but getting people to purchase the book will take hard work and persistent effort. If you connect to your audience through an email list and speaking to them face to face, then you can sell your book.

When I teach at a writer conference, I often meet people who have self-published their books. Some of these authors meet with me to see if an editor or a literary agent help move their book to a traditional publisher. To republish and move a book is rare. The change depends on several factors. When you have self-published (even using Amazon), you start to establish a public sales track record for your book. With a few keystrokes a publishing insider can find this sales information. If you’ve sold thousands of copies, then possibly you can move to a traditional house. If it is a small number (which is more typical), such a change is unlikely. Recently a writer pitched a novel saying they were published authors. The publisher was Publish America. To learn about this publisher and their reputation, simply go to Google and type in the words “Publish America.” You will discover many pages of negative public opinions.

As an editor or literary agent, I’ve read many poorly produced self-published books. When someone has decided to self-publish, they often do not research the distinctions between the various self-publishers. This resource removes some of the “guess work”: The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine.

In the second chapter, Levine gives the reasons to read this book: “If you decided to buy a television or a car, you might read Consumer Reports to find the best price and highest quality. Spending hard-earned money to publish your book should be approached with the same care. But, unlike buying a car, your book is an extension of you. If you choose any publisher ranked “Outstanding” or “Pretty Good” in this book, you won’t get stuck with a Lemon. This book is all about helping authors find and choose a publisher that offers a superior product at a fair price.”

“Here are a few reasons why you need to read this book:

• To know what you need to look and watch out for when choosing a self-publishing company
• To understand what these self-publishing contracts really say and how to negotiate better terms with a publisher
• To get the most value for your money by not overpaying for services or book printing and by getting the highest royalties” (p. 8)

What’s fascinating about this book is Levine’s editor took the same size book specifications to each of the companies, got their contracts, then studied and compared them. As Levine writes, “This time around, my editor contacted each publishing company discussed in this book as a prospective author—just like any of you would. The difference between you and her is that I armed her with the tough questions to ask, regarding justifications for 50%–200% printing markups, excessive publisher royalties, and more.” (my bold on the percentage of markup)

Also, Levine, a lawyer, provides a detailed explanation of a publishing contract and the different elements of author concern and what to watch in various clauses. Here’s another key quotation from Levine’s book, “The reason I keep putting out new editions of this book is because, now that I speak to writers’ groups and at writers’ conferences all over the country, I always meet people who got scammed—really scammed. I met a nice man who had been conned out of $35,000 to publish his book. His $35,000 got him 3,000 hardcover copies of his book that he couldn’t sell, a lot of debt, and a series of lies from an unscrupulous publisher.” (p. 9)

Levine cautions that every self-published author should have their book professionally edited. It’s one of the main failures of the self-publishing books that come across my desk. This book doesn’t cover every possible self-publishing company but many of them are included. I applaud Levine for his careful analysis, research and serving the broader writing community with The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. If you choose to self-publish, a resource like this book can save you a lot of money and grief.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s newest book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com