I’m proud to announce the beginnings of a new movement toward achieving credibility and respect for self-publishing authors.

Manifesto

for

The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors

We, the members of The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors, witnessing a decline in publishing opportunities, the rapidly changing habits of the book buying public, and the unwieldiness of the traditional publishing industry, are seizing control of our own destinies and banding together for the purpose of increasing our credibility, respect, and profitability. We are not expecting or demanding that anyone else have as much faith in our work as we do, therefore, we will not shy away from the challenges and costs of self-publishing including production, marketing, and distribution, but:

1. We abhor prejudicial rejections. Self-publishers are never too old, too new, too unproven, too innovative, or too risky. We refuse to be disrespected, dismissed, or ignored. Our success or failure is determined by our own efforts, and the marketability of our work.
2. We understand that traditional publishers seek manuscripts with high potential mass audience appeal, but we know that reasonable profits can be achieved even in limited markets. Money isn’t necessarily the only goal, sometimes the appreciation and gratitude of our readers is its own reward.
3. We may be small individually, but by banding together we will have access to the finest minds in book production, public relations, marketing, etc. The finished work should reflect our highest dreams and aspirations and stand proudly with the best the publishing industry has to offer. We refuse to ever be ashamed of our products because of shoddy, or low quality workmanship.
4. We insist that those who are recommended to assist us in our endeavors are trustworthy, competent, of have the highest standards of integrity. We reserve the right to accept or reject a recommendation from the association because we are first and foremost independent business people and will keep our own council.

Like The Little Red Hen in the children’s story:

a) We will prepare the ground by learning all we can about self publishing, marketing, and distribution.

b) We will sow the seed by using every means available to establish credibility for our own work and increase respect for self-publishing.

c) We will water and fertilize by blogging, using press releases, doing book signings, appearing on television and radio, and all manner of self-promotional activity. By our efforts we achieve success and inspire others to do the same.

d) We will thin and weed concentrating our efforts on successful methods and discarding those less productive.

e) We will harvest our crop using proper accounting and other business means to create  firm bases of operations.

f) We will employ the miller no matter how competent and capable we are, there are some steps we cannot do by ourselves. We recognize these steps and rather than botch the job, are willing to hire professionals with the talents, knowledge and abilities we need to supplement our efforts.

g) We will make the bread through our individual efforts we will print, publish, and sell our books, choosing the avenues and manner of distribution, and standing behind our work until our audience finds us. We have no respect for the practice of floating new books for only 30 days, then pulling them from the shelves. We will work our titles for as long as we are willing and able.

h) We will eat the bread and happily enjoy a much greater profit on each book sell than we would have earned with just royalties alone.

i) We will save some seed from every crop to plant, and harvest again because we are writers and writers need to be read.

Therefore, The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors is formed for the purposes of:

1. assisting authors/members by offering all or part of the following services as requested: to professionally prepare their works for printing or electronic production, to manage the production process including finding the least expensive methods, to provide marketing assistance from instruction to implementation, to developing business plans, and any other services needed to assist authors to achieve their personal and business goals.
2. offering courses and learning opportunities to instruct authors in self-reliance by every means from recommending books, to on-line courses, to personal coaching.
3. giving author support, The Red Hen intends to establish quality and professional standards to provide author/members the peace-of-mind of knowing that recommended sources bearing The Red Hen seal have earned the respect and backing of the organization.
4. helping members  rise to meet high standards for business ethics and quality levels. Only those who are worthy will be given the right to use The Red Hen seal in their marketing efforts.
5. furthermore, The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors will actively represent the collected authors and promote its members in any, and every way possible, from marketing opportunities to the lobbying for fair and equal treatment under the laws. We affirm that self-publishers rights  will not be diminished.

A good friend bought my lunch (isn’t that the definition of a good friend one who buys your lunch?) and over pasta he mentioned the book TRIBES  by Seth Godin. It’s a small book with a big message. It addresses the changing social and business constructs and envisions a future already here and now, where power and influence are shifting from traditional hierarchies to groups united by common beliefs. The development of the Internet has facilitated this shift in a big way. Leadership is more defined by passion and faith than by wallet. For example in the last US presidential election Barak Obama raised almost 25% more in campaign contributions than Hillary Clinton, and John McCain combined and it flooded in from the Internet. Who would have thought that a relatively new face in Washington could pull together more financing than those two warhorses, an ex-president’s wife and a revered war hero? Why? Because of passion. Because of belief. The people wanted change and were willing to follow a leader who appeared able to create the change.

I’ve written a lot in my blogs about changes. The changes I’ve addressed mostly concern the printing industry, but change is happening on every front, in every field of endeavor. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines of the publishing business, observing, and occasionally commenting (link). Now, it appears, that I’ve been given the opportunity to lead a tribe of self-publishing authors. That was what the lunch was all about. Self-publishing, in my opinion, is on the verge of eclipsing traditional publishing. And with my background in writing, marketing, and printing I am the logical choice to contribute to this movement. I didn’t choose it, but by my preparation, it chose me. That’s another point that Seth makes is that Tribe leaders generally don’t go looking for leadership, instead they see a need and are compelled to fill it. It’s the leader’s faith and passion that attracts their followers.

Mr. Godin discusses the old factory model. Factory workers were hired by owners, who paid them to do a job. The jobs were generally routine and required bosses to make sure everyone stayed in line and did things exactly the way the boss wanted them done. Much like slaves on a galley ship. In this new world run by tribes, we join, or create tribes, because we are drawn to the ideal. We want to make a difference. We think that the purpose of the tribe is valuable, important, and worth giving of our time and effort. The tribe causes the change to happen. If this occurred on the factory floor it would be chaiotic. The smooth production of products would be interrupted. Participating workers would be disaplined and might be in danger of forfeiting their jobs.

I have another  friend who is fond of quoting Ghandhi, “Be the change you want to see [in the world].” The most monumental changes always begin with one person, one person with a vision.

Again the concept isn’t really new. The founding fathers of the United States of America were drawn together because of a mutual belief in freedom and self rule. The leaders stepped forward and the people followed. What’s new is the Internet. Tribes can be formed at lightening speed. Twitter, for example, provides a platform for a succinct idea of 140 words or less, to potentially reach millions of readers within seconds. Can you imagine what Paul Revere would have thought? Riding through the countryside, by horseback, required a commitment of hours and days. Too bad he didn’t have a laptop computer or even a cell phone.

What? You say that you don’t like this new world? You think that 140 character messages lack depth? Too bad for you. The Tribes rule and will only get stronger. Get on board or be left behind.

I’ve dedicated many of my blogs to self-publishing authors for a couple of reasons, first, I too am about to publish two books that I’ve written, a good brush up is always warranted, and second, I find myself working with authors more and more recently. As I listen to them I try to anticipate their needs. The miracle of the Internet has opened many more pathways for authors to get their work into the hands of their audiences, and self-publishing is a good way to go. In traditional publishing the authors were shielded from printing. It was the authors job to write and the publisher’s to handle all the other details.  Authors didn’t have to know anything about that other stuff, but if one goes the self-publishing route, you better have at least a cursory knowledge of what I’ve called in a previous blog printerese.

what you have to know

Suppose you were searching for a printer what do you want to know first? Right, how much is this going to cost? To determine the cost, the printer will  ask you some questions:

1. How many books do you want to print?
2. What kind of binding, hardcover or soft?
3. What is the page size of the book?
4. How many pages?
5. If it is hardcover, what kind of material do you want for the wrapper, leather, cloth, or paper?
6. If leather or cloth do you want foil stamping on the spine and cover?
7. What kind of paper do you want for the text?
8. Will it be half or full bound? This refers to using a different wrapper material on the covers than is used on the spine.
9. Will there be photographs, and if so, will they be color or black & white?
10. Will the pages bleed? (Remember this from a previous blog?)
11. Do you want the pages sewn or burst bound?
12. Do you want a dust jacket, if so will it print?
13. If the dust jacket prints is it four color, two color, or one?
14. Do you want a protective coating on the jacket like UV or film lamination?
15. Will there be any special processes such as foil stamps, or  foil embosses on the jacket?
16. Will the edges of the text be deckled or  smooth?
17. Will there be any other special requirements such as gilting?
18. Do you want a bookmark ribbon bound in?
19. Do you want endpapers (recommended), if so, will they print?
20. Do you want flyleaves?
21. How about headbands?
22. Are there any special boxing or packaging requirements?
23. If the books are to be shipped what is the address, how do you want them shipped, and do we use your account?

got lost after No.4

I’m sure there are other questions that must be addressed, but this is a pretty comprehensive list–don’t you agree? While each of these questions is important to pricing the project, unless you are in the business, you probably got lost somewhere after question number 4. What do you do? Well, you can run back to the safety net of traditional publishing, if you can find a publisher to handle your book, that is. Or you could decide to persist and learn what you can. Good resources would include, the web, the library, book designers, graphic designers, printers, or print brokers like myself.

knowledge saves

Whatever learning path you decide to take, concentrate on the 23 questions above and make sure you can answer them completely. Then and only then, are you ready to seek printing bids on your own. Otherwise you are a sheep just waiting to be sheared and trust me there are plenty of people who will gladly take your money while you are all starry eyed and dreaming of being a best selling author. In one case a woman spent over forty-thousand dollars before even one book was printed. Now that’s sad.