Have you ever wanted to write a book?
The Internet and the growing popularity of eBooks have created new and exciting opportunities for aspiring authors.
One local author, James Shipman, has had some success navigating the new rules of the publishing industry. He is a partner in a family-law practice in Everett and is a member of Everett Community College’s Board of Trustees.
Shipman has loved to write since he was in elementary school. He also loves history.
He has combined his passions for writing and history by focusing on the historical fiction genre. He has written two books and is working on a third.
Shipman’s second book, “Constantinopolis,” has been the No. 1 historical fiction book on Amazon and in the top 100 for a year. “Constantinopolis” was published by Lake Union Publishing, which is the historical fiction imprint of Amazon Publishing.
I recently sat down with Shipman to get his perspective on the publishing industry and the challenges he has faced becoming a published author.
Here are the highlights from our conversation:
Question: What are some of the biggest differences between the publishing industry of 10 to 15 years ago and today?
Answer: The explosion of the Internet and eBooks has completely changed the publishing industry. There are now hundreds of thousands of authors publishing books on Amazon Kindle or other platforms and some of them are making significant sales (even millions in sales). The big publishing companies have always held the keys to the kingdom, but now they are in competition with hard working and persistent self-published authors. This is good news for writers because now they don’t have to wait to get their writing to readers all over the world.
Q: What have you found to be the most effective way to market your book? What has been the least effective?
A: The most effective way to sell books as a self-published author is through BookBub and similar sites. Bookbub is a company with millions of opt-in email accounts that have selected preferences for types of books. If you are selected by BookBub, you will pay a few hundred dollars and likely receive a few thousand dollars for your investment. Of course they are selective and you will need some positive online reviews of your book and a good product or they won’t take you.
Doing some marketing on Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads with an ad can have some results, but I find you spend about $100 and get $18 or so in sales (not a great long-term strategy). Getting your message out for free in social media is a great way to build an audience over time, but it takes a few years and you build your audience based on relationships and posting interesting items, not by spamming people to buy your book.
I would definitely avoid paying a subsidy publisher a bunch of money to publish your book unless you know exactly what you are doing. There are many “publishers” who will charge you $10,000 or $15,000 to put your book online when you could have produced the same product for $1,000 or $1,500. Be very careful with this process.
Q: What strategies would you recommend for finding time to write?
A: Writing is an intentional process. I look for time everywhere I can find it. If you take a half-hour three times a week to write instead of watching television, you can produce a book in a year. I will spend a half-hour writing before my kids’ sporting events, while they are practicing. Sometimes I’m slouched over in my car doing this, but I’m still getting a little writing done.
Q: What are the most common mistakes new authors make trying to get their first book published?
A: One common mistake is just throwing a book up quickly on Amazon and other eBook/print-on-demand sites without any editing or a decent cover. If you don’t have a professional product you aren’t going to sell very many books. It only takes four or five negative reviews that take you to task for the quality of your editing for many readers to avoid the product. At a minimum, ask a friend or two with an English background to edit the book for you. Even with one editor, you may eliminate 90 percent of the mistakes.
Another mistake is getting frustrated right away and giving up. Whether you attempt a traditional pathway to publication or self-publish, it takes persistence and a thick skin to achieve any level of success.
Pat Sisneros is the vice president of College Services at Everett Community College. Send your comments to entrepreneurship@everettcc.edu.
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