Launched in 2008, North Bridge Magazine is a twice-yearly publication tailored to Acton, Carlisle, Concord, Lincoln, Sudbury & Wayland residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in six of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: http://northbridgemagazine.epubxp.com/i/118939
Besides not having the prestige of being produced by a large, well-known publisher, self-publishing places the entire burden for producing and marketing a book on the author. ���I always say to my students, congratulations on writing a book. That was the easy part. From now on everything is hard,��� says Wasley, who teaches a popular course on marketing for authors at the Wellesley Free Library and in Marlborough. Some area writers say that self-publishing can be a mixed bag. Jim Leahy It���s not an easy process, notes Cygan, who says getting her book to market ���took well over a year and was an awful lot of work.��� Although she adds that she would recommend the self-publishing process to other local writers. So if a writer does decide to self-publish, what���s involved? After completing a book, a self-published author must ��� among many which has sold about 500 copies locally. He says he invested only a few hundred dollars but that he played many roles, including writer, copy editor, and editor. other things ��� hire a book editor, format the book, work with an On the other hand, DeLong, author of a number of books includ- illustrator to create a cover, purchase an ISBN (International ing his best-known one, Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of Standard Book Number), determine what form the book will take an Aging Workforce, published by Oxford University Press, esti- (ebook, POD, softcover, hardcover, audio book), and decide how it mates his latest self-published book cost him about $7,000. This will be distributed. Then comes the hardest and most expensive amount includes cover design, interior layout, editing, and market- part: marketing the book. ing. DeLong, a professional writer and speaker for years, empha- Jim Leahy, Concord-based writer of Living in Concord, a compilation of columns he wrote for the Concord Journal, says he has sizes the importance of hiring a good editor, even for the most experienced writer. been lucky in terms of marketing. He says as manager of Debra���s Basically, you can spend anywhere between $100 to $10,000 or Natural Gourmet in Concord he is well known in the community more, with most falling some place in the middle, says Wasley. It and, as a result, did not have to do much marketing of his book, depends on how much time and energy you want to invest. Much of the most expensive part, marketing, can be done on the internet, on social networking sites, websites, blogs, and email blasts. The important thing to remember, according to CNET���s David Carnoy, in his article entitled ���Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know,��� is that the average print self-published book sells about 100-150 copies, with niche books doing much better than novels. So self-publishing needs to be a labor of love. As Baumel says, ���If I didn���t sell a copy, it would still be an amazing accomplishment.��� He adds, ���To step outside my comfort zone, write a book, and see it become a reality has been an incredibly rewarding experience.��� ��� 22 ��� north bridge magazine ��� SPRING/SUMMER 2013