Kawasaki Guy - APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur: How to Publish a Book

Blurbs

Before publishers blurbs were invented, authors had to make their reputations by writing.

Laurence J. Peter

As digitization creates a revolutionary opportunity for writers to become their own publishers, a new self-publishing infrastructure has emerged. This book will become the standard guide to this new publishing universe.

Jason Epstein

Former editorial director of Random House and cofounder of On Demand Books

Nuts, bolts, and inspiration, too. Once again, Guy delivers, kicking the shiitake out of anyone who would tell you that you shouldnt, wouldnt, or couldnt write a book.

Seth Godin

Author, and founder of the Icarus Project

Guys book is the perfect companion on the journey of independent publishing and great reading for the millions who aspire to become authors.

Atif Rafiq

General Manager, Kindle Direct Publishing at Amazon.com

Preface

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.

Benjamin Disraeli

T his fried my brain. In 2011, a large tech company wanted to buy five hundred copies of the ebook version of my book Enchantment to use for a promotion. Penguin, my publisher, doesnt sell ebooks directly, so it referred this lead to Apple.

Apple told the company to buy five hundred gift cards, scratch off the back, and then enter individual gift codes one at a time into iTunes. At that point, the company gave up on Apple and tried Amazon and Barnes & Noble. An employee of the company ended up making five hundred individual credit-card purchases.

Im not a novice author. My publisher didnt treat me like dirt. I had an agent, he got me a large advance, and the people at Penguin moved heaven and earth to make Enchantment a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. But the traditional publishing system could not handle an order for five hundred copies of an ebook.

Shortly after this experience, I had dinner with a friend named Halley Suitt Tucker, who told me to read Be the Monkey by Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath so that I could understand the advantages of self-publishing. This book sold me on the concept. I was ready to rock and roll. I thought self-publishing would be easy: write in Microsoft Word, upload to Amazon, and cash checks. Maybe the process works like this for novels, but publishing a nonfiction book with subheads, bulleted lists, and pictures is like swimming with alligators.

Over several weeks I asked five knowledgeable people about the best way to self-publish an ebook, and I got eight answerstwo of which directly conflicted with each other. Fortunately, I hooked up with Shawn Welch via Google+ (youll hear more from him later). He helped me understand the complexities of publishing an ebook, and he ended up designing and producing What the Plus!

But what happens if an author doesnt have a Shawn ? Then self-publishing is a mystifying, frustrating, and inefficient task.

Why self-publish, then?

The answer is that self-publishing enables you to determine your own fate. Theres no need to endure the frustration of finding and working with a publisher. You can maintain control over your book and its marketing, receive a greater percentage of revenues, and retain all rights and ownership.

A successful self-publisher must fill three roles: Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur or APE . These roles are challenging, but they are not impossibleespecially if people who have done it before explain it to you. And thats what Shawn and I will do in the book you are now reading. Our goal is to help you succeed as a self-publisher as quickly and easily as possible.

How to Read This Book

Though thoroughly reconceived, the 16th edition continues the Manuals tradition as an authority for generations of readers seeking answers to all things related not only to the written word but also to the myriad and evolving ways in which words and ideas are shared and published.

From The History of The Chicago Manual of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style Online

T wenty years ago I took The Chicago Manual of Style with me on a vacation and read it from cover to cover. I cant tell you that I memorized it, but it did make using the book more efficient for all these years.

Shawn and I hope that APE serves a similar function in your writing career. The process of publishing a book can take a year, and we hope youll write more than one book. This means you may return to APE again and again.

Self-publishing is a vast subject, so APE is a long book. Our advice is to blast through APE the first time to see the big picture. Later youll understand the importance of topics that didnt make sense or werent relevant the first time through. Then you can return to APE as a reference.

Youll learn that publishing is a parallel, not serial, process that requires simultaneous progress along multiple fronts. A traditional publisher has the luxury of throwing multiple people at these parallel activities. A self-publisher doesnt have multiple people.