What do publishers do for me?

Question

I'm writing a book, and it's my first one. It seems to me that the following things need to happen to publish my book:

• Finish the book
• Design cover (a friend is helping)
• Edit manuscript (help of multiple people)
• Convert manuscript into proper format for print and ebook (I can do this myself)
• Get the book printed (Amazon)
• Get the book available electronically (Amazon)
• Marketing for the book

I can do some marketing on my own. I have a healthy readership on my blog that can be valuable for marketing purposes. I can handle most of the components I listed.

Am I missing any major components to publishing?

and

In the end, what do publishers do for me?

Answer 1

Publishers are most useful in mass-market books. If, for example, you had written a new horror or sci-fi novel it would be very difficult to achieve the same level of marketing you would get from them. They also, if they're good, get your book in front of the people best suited to spread the word about it. They have marketing connections in the industry that you can't hope to match without years of work. They can not only get your book onto store shelves, they can encourage stores to make it more visible if they reallly want to sell it.

In niche markets they are less valuable. In niche markets (like adventure motorcycling, which I'm assuming yours is about) there is a very limited audience to reach, they are primarily reachable through the internet, and getting your book into thousands of brick-and-mortar stores would result in a lot of unsold copies sitting around, because most people don't care about your niche (or any other niche, by definition).

I am, of course, speaking in large generalizations... The short version is, they save you the trouble of marketing it yourself. Do you really want to spend months marketing and selling your book in order to make it sell well enough to even have a hope of real income off of it? Or, would you rather get to work on the next book (or simply living) and let a professional work on that for you in exchange for a cut of the profits?

With that said, there are better ways to get your book printed than Amazon that will still get your book ON Amazon (both printed and kindle versions) however, addressing that issue is far beyond the scope of this question.

Answer 2

Publishers can do all of the things you identified in your list for you, but the degree of commitment that they apply to each will vary based on a number of factors. If they believe that you have a truly commercial product that has the potential to reach a very large fan base, they will devote more time and resources towards making your book successful.

The problem here is in getting them to agree to publish your book in the first place. Since you indicate that your book is targeting a smaller niche market, your best chances of getting picked up by a publisher would be for you to find one that specializes in your type of product. Failing that, you're facing a very difficult road.

It sounds like you already have a plan/idea in place for pursuing self-publication, which is most likely a more viable option for you. There are a number of advanatages that have been discussed in other posts, but it will also require a lot more effort on your part. In spite of that, you probably have a better feel for your intended audience than a major publisher would have, so you would probably have better success pursuing this on your own.

Answer 3

Your book looks like just the sort of rippin' yarn I'd enjoy myself -- I was a corporate type in the US for many years, and unwound on a Triumph Tiger in the Rockies whenever possible.

Having said that, I hate your cover design. Have you looked at cover designs for adventure motorcycling books in the shops? Don't forget that they are there to attract a particular type of person and they are therefore all a little bit of-a-type -- bloke on bike on high mountain pass, bike on side in swampy jungle trail, that sort of thing. The purpose of a cover is to get the book off the shelves into the potential buyer's hands, and you've got a pretty distinctive look yourself and would probably "sell well" on a cover. Books also have to be sold to retailers, and that is based muchly on synopsis, marketing, and cover.

Long story short, I'm afraid your friend who helped you with the cover has not served you well. It looks like a cheap self-published book with dubious production qualities.

To answer your question, a publisher would have got you a much better cover than that.