Navigating the Publishing Maze with Polly Letofsky - From Self-Publishing Insights to Mastering Book Marketing

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:15.551
Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Rhonda Pearson, where we will dive deep into the world of networking, collaboration and partnership, unlocking the secrets to a successful team working within innovation.

00:00:15.551 --> 00:00:28.495
Whether you're an entrepreneur, a creative professional or just someone eager to understand the power of networking and collaboration, this podcast is your go-to resource.

00:00:28.495 --> 00:00:41.935
Join us as we explore the stories, strategies and insights from experts, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.

00:00:42.680 --> 00:00:44.182
Tune in to Ready.

00:00:44.302 --> 00:00:51.494
Set Collaborate podcast on a journey towards achieving your goals with host Rhonda Pearson.

00:00:53.262 --> 00:00:58.536
Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate podcast, but I am actually starting my well.

00:00:58.536 --> 00:01:00.000
I have started my series on the book collaboration.

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:08.822
I am so honored to have my guest as a wealth of knowledge that you guys are gonna just be over blown away, polly.

00:01:08.822 --> 00:01:13.000
Polly is actually a person I just met, but I feel like we've been friends for a long time, polly, right?

00:01:13.682 --> 00:01:14.003
Getting.

00:01:14.003 --> 00:01:16.691
Yeah, I better be invited to your house for Christmas next year.

00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:18.623
Oh yeah, you will have a lot of fun.

00:01:18.623 --> 00:01:20.947
I tell you, we like to have fun.

00:01:20.947 --> 00:01:25.561
We like to dance down to my grandkids, to me, and they know this man likes to have fun, but I love it.

00:01:25.561 --> 00:01:29.731
No, thank you so much for joining me and helping us to get the myths up.

00:01:29.731 --> 00:01:38.444
You're gonna teach us some pitfalls of self publishing and you're gonna teach us this different options and publishing so thank you so much for that.

00:01:38.444 --> 00:01:39.367
I really appreciate it.

00:01:39.367 --> 00:01:51.635
Before I get started, I want to actually make sure people subscribe and share the podcast Ready Set Collaborate, because you're gonna get a wealth of knowledge from a lot of experienced entrepreneurs that actually have been through this journey.

00:01:51.635 --> 00:01:54.808
But thank you, polly, but why don't you tell them a little bit about you?

00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:12.954
When Polly Levtowski wrote her book 3MPH and I got that book too, thank you so much for writing it One woman's walk around the world and got ripped off in the publishing world and launched her into starting a new publishing model that protects authors.

00:02:12.954 --> 00:02:15.247
Thank you, you should have been around a long time ago, polly.

00:02:15.247 --> 00:02:29.795
In 2012, she started my Word Publishing, a publishing model that interrupted the publishing world by helping authors professionally self-publish their books while maintaining 100% of all their rights.

00:02:29.795 --> 00:02:54.576
My Word Publishing is now going to a publishing library of over 900 books Wow, four publishing consultants, 45 editors and has recently been submitted into the US Congressional Record for interrupting that and established publishing world and helping authors protect their rights.

00:02:54.576 --> 00:03:01.483
I love this, polly, because you really say anything right here in these sentences, though I advise you to get her book.

00:03:01.483 --> 00:03:05.832
3mp, 3 miles per hour, to mention the one woman's walk around the world.

00:03:05.832 --> 00:03:07.927
Polly, tell us a little bit about yourself.

00:03:07.927 --> 00:03:10.516
You tell me something, but I want the world to know exactly what you're doing here.

00:03:10.516 --> 00:03:13.328
How do you get the point?

00:03:14.721 --> 00:03:23.735
Okay, I'll try to do this in a couple of paragraphs, but it's started from the age of 12, believe it or not, when I got this dream to go walk around the world.

00:03:23.735 --> 00:03:29.271
Finally, at the age of 37, I left and I learned how to write on the road.

00:03:29.271 --> 00:03:35.205
Okay, when this thing called the Internet was coming out, no one had a website except me.

00:03:35.205 --> 00:03:44.152
I was so cool, so I learned how to write and it took five years, cross-four count as 22 countries and over 14,000 miles.

00:03:44.152 --> 00:03:51.993
Over the course of that time, I won a couple of writing contests like who knew, and learned how to write.

00:03:51.993 --> 00:03:59.734
Anyway, I got done with that walk, submitted my, took six years to finish writing the book and then handed it over to a crooked publisher.

00:03:59.734 --> 00:04:09.000
And that's when I started to learn a lot about publishing and watched as people continued to make the same mistakes that I was making, and that's what I want to talk to you about here today.

00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:13.931
So people learn from my $15,000 mistake.

00:04:13.931 --> 00:04:15.144
Is that horrible?

00:04:16.127 --> 00:04:16.447
Wow.

00:04:17.060 --> 00:04:17.380
Yeah.

00:04:17.380 --> 00:04:20.367
So anyway, I finally got out of that situation.

00:04:20.367 --> 00:04:22.833
I didn't really legally get out of that situation.

00:04:22.833 --> 00:04:25.007
My attorney said run for your life.

00:04:25.007 --> 00:04:27.980
I said okay and I thought now what?

00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:35.752
So I had to figure out how to do self-publishing by myself, and that happened to be at the very beginning of the self-publishing explosion.

00:04:35.752 --> 00:04:41.252
And so I did that for a couple of years just helping people finish my own book.

00:04:41.252 --> 00:04:45.665
And then I started helping other people under my word publishing.

00:04:45.665 --> 00:05:01.093
And it took off from the beginning because I think my timing in history with the new industry was right and started helping people stop making the mistakes that I make because they're dangerous and expensive and not necessary anymore in today's world.

00:05:02.134 --> 00:05:11.303
Wow, and I'm glad we had someone like you, because you learn from experience and the problem is you learn the expensive way from experience, and it's a shame.

00:05:11.303 --> 00:05:13.350
You don't know who's honest, who's truthful.

00:05:13.350 --> 00:05:15.927
And probably the biggest thing is integrity.

00:05:15.927 --> 00:05:17.987
Integrity means so much to me.

00:05:17.987 --> 00:05:22.690
A lot of people don't have that integrity anymore, so thank you for sharing it.

00:05:22.690 --> 00:05:24.000
That really does make a big difference.

00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:30.547
But I want you to tell us about the options in publishing, and you're going to give us that Publishing 101 lesson.

00:05:31.048 --> 00:05:35.980
Yeah, and there are four major kinds of publishing.

00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:38.000
One is traditional publishing.

00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.629
I'm going to give you the pros and cons to that in a second.

00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:46.959
And the second option is the small independent press Pros and cons to that, Pros and cons to all of them.

00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:51.713
The third one is the subsidy press.

00:05:51.713 --> 00:05:55.485
Subsidy publishing Subsidy meaning you're subsidizing, You're giving them the money.

00:05:55.485 --> 00:06:02.552
And if you were to Google how to sell publisher book, these subsidy publishing companies are the ones that come up.

00:06:02.552 --> 00:06:13.127
The giveaway is, if they have packages the Vietnam package, the gold package and there's no flexibility and all the rest of it and who would?

00:06:13.127 --> 00:06:13.809
I guess, my goat.

00:06:13.809 --> 00:06:19.000
And then the fourth option is true independent publishing Pros and cons to all of them.

00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:27.093
The pros and cons to the traditional model is that you don't have to spend money.

00:06:27.093 --> 00:06:35.615
Okay, and so your learning curve is a lot less aggravating because they're taking care of everything and they know the way around the system.

00:06:35.615 --> 00:06:38.593
But cons to that are you ain't gonna get a deal.

00:06:39.004 --> 00:06:48.151
I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but a true independent or a true professional traditional publishing house will give you an advance.

00:06:48.151 --> 00:06:50.785
That is their investment in you.

00:06:50.785 --> 00:07:02.201
Okay, you have to do all the marketing Every time I give a class on publishing, I'll say how many want a traditional publishing deal because they'll do your marketing.

00:07:02.201 --> 00:07:02.805
All the hands go up.

00:07:02.805 --> 00:07:05.805
I'm like I hate to be first your bubble, but it has never been the case.

00:07:05.805 --> 00:07:07.108
It's never been the case.

00:07:07.108 --> 00:07:08.553
Okay.

00:07:08.553 --> 00:07:15.636
So people are like Michelle Obama's not out there marketing her book and I say, yeah, she is and she has the big platform.

00:07:15.636 --> 00:07:17.711
Therefore, they're gonna put money towards that.

00:07:17.711 --> 00:07:23.666
Okay, so that's one of the big downfalls is you're doing all the work these days.

00:07:23.666 --> 00:07:28.677
You're gonna get very little advance and, of course, very small chance you're gonna get a deal today.

00:07:28.677 --> 00:07:29.807
Okay.

00:07:30.449 --> 00:07:31.432
So the pros.

00:07:31.432 --> 00:07:33.797
To the next one, which is the small independent publisher.

00:07:33.797 --> 00:07:37.615
The good news is they'll take almost anybody, Okay.

00:07:37.615 --> 00:07:41.533
The bad news is plenty is you're not gonna get an advance.

00:07:41.533 --> 00:07:56.730
A lot of times, a lot of times, this model there are different variables within, but I've seen the model many times where, no, you don't get an advance, but equally, you don't have to pay for any of the services up front, but then you don't make anything on your book either.

00:07:57.904 --> 00:08:05.499
So it's the bottom line in all of this is that there's nothing they can do for you that you can't do yourself today.

00:08:05.499 --> 00:08:08.526
Nothing, Bring it.

00:08:08.526 --> 00:08:09.970
I promise there's nothing.

00:08:09.970 --> 00:08:12.456
They don't have special relationships with distributors.

00:08:12.456 --> 00:08:16.475
There's nothing that they can do for you that you can't do yourself today.

00:08:16.805 --> 00:08:20.776
The subsidy publishing model the pros are, it's a one-stop shop.

00:08:20.776 --> 00:08:23.353
You're on the internet going I'll take that and that and that.

00:08:23.353 --> 00:08:25.911
Here's your receipt and a for it.

00:08:25.911 --> 00:08:37.294
The bad news is plenty, however, but you might not all of these companies take your copyrights, but some let you leave have your copyrights and some don't.

00:08:37.294 --> 00:08:49.251
Okay, Great, but the cons are plentiful, and that is that whoever owns that ISBN on the back of your book ISBN, the 13-digit code that represents your book.

00:08:49.251 --> 00:08:50.735
It's your book's identification number.

00:08:50.735 --> 00:08:55.235
Whoever owns that owns your sales and distribution rights.

00:08:55.235 --> 00:09:06.975
Okay, Maybe not your copyrights, but your sales and distribution rights, and what that means is all of the sales go through them and every six months, they distribute your portion of the royalties.

00:09:06.975 --> 00:09:09.859
Okay, no one's ripping you off.

00:09:09.859 --> 00:09:10.804
They're taking their portion.

00:09:10.804 --> 00:09:12.149
They're giving you a portion.

00:09:13.025 --> 00:09:15.181
No, one's ripping you off, but there is a much better way.

00:09:15.181 --> 00:09:17.490
Okay, so that's what I tell people.

00:09:17.490 --> 00:09:18.712
There's just bad decisions.

00:09:18.712 --> 00:09:19.716
And then they're being ripped off.

00:09:19.716 --> 00:09:21.804
They're not ripping you off, it's just a bad decision.

00:09:21.804 --> 00:09:23.471
There's a much better way to do it.

00:09:23.471 --> 00:09:29.140
You should own all your copyrights, sales rights, distribution rights, foreign rights, digital rights, everything.

00:09:29.140 --> 00:09:32.813
You should own it, okay, and so they own it.

00:09:32.813 --> 00:09:39.610
Okay, and their printing costs are four times Not even exaggerating.

00:09:39.610 --> 00:09:44.509
I might be known for exaggerating a few times, but this I am not exaggerating.

00:09:44.509 --> 00:09:48.477
It's literally four times the cost of just doing it yourself.

00:09:48.477 --> 00:09:51.804
That's where they're making their money on the printing of the book.

00:09:52.207 --> 00:09:58.804
The fourth way is true independent publishing, and the pros are you get to make all the decisions.

00:09:58.804 --> 00:10:03.657
You get 100% of rights and royalties, decision-making.

00:10:03.657 --> 00:10:07.073
The cons are, of course, you've never done it before.

00:10:07.073 --> 00:10:07.535
What do you know?

00:10:07.535 --> 00:10:14.936
And, frankly, that's where I know we're not here to just advertise myself, but that's what people like me come in.

00:10:14.936 --> 00:10:20.051
Okay, so we come in and we do everything that a publisher does, but we maintain no ownership.

00:10:20.051 --> 00:10:26.270
Okay, so we manage everything for you, because there are many pitfalls, even though you're doing it right.

00:10:26.270 --> 00:10:34.073
The pitfalls are a plenty and we can talk about those, but I don't want to overwhelm you, so we can breathe for a minute.

00:10:35.327 --> 00:10:47.700
No, and I want you to tell because you aren't talking about what you can do as far as what makes it easy for people Like your business, what you do, but with my eyes, what I did one through two collaboration books that I've had, that's Shining Impact.

00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:49.331
One Voice I said I want to do my own.

00:10:49.331 --> 00:10:50.370
So I did my own.

00:10:50.370 --> 00:10:51.610
Now I actually have my checklist.

00:10:51.610 --> 00:10:57.508
I did my copyright, I did my own ISBN and then I went through KDP.

00:10:57.508 --> 00:11:00.831
What do you think about one?

00:11:00.831 --> 00:11:01.212
Through KDP?

00:11:01.212 --> 00:11:09.095
I get my own, I order my books from them, but if they do buy them from Amazon, I do get a portion of what they sell for me on Amazon.

00:11:09.095 --> 00:11:10.210
What do you think about that?

00:11:10.644 --> 00:11:11.971
Big advocate of KDP.

00:11:11.971 --> 00:11:14.833
And for those who don't know, kdp is Kindle Direct Publishing.

00:11:14.833 --> 00:11:17.573
It is Amazon's Publishing Arm.

00:11:17.573 --> 00:11:19.105
Yes, I like those.

00:11:19.105 --> 00:11:29.498
There's always a debate in my world as to who is better KDP or Ingram Spark, because those are the two big print on demand self publishing options.

00:11:29.498 --> 00:11:33.118
And we like both and I don't have an allegiance to one.

00:11:33.118 --> 00:11:33.965
I don't work for one.

00:11:33.965 --> 00:11:41.085
I don't get kicked back from nobody, but I usually fall on the side of KDP For a number of reasons.

00:11:41.085 --> 00:11:44.544
But yes, I do think that's the way to go.

00:11:45.610 --> 00:11:48.484
One thing I'd like to clear up that I hear all the time is KDP your publisher?

00:11:48.484 --> 00:11:53.485
No, the publisher is the person, entity who is putting together all the pieces.

00:11:53.485 --> 00:11:54.961
Okay, they are the producer.

00:11:54.961 --> 00:11:57.424
A publisher is a producer of books.

00:11:57.424 --> 00:12:02.465
They are KDP is your printer and distributor fulfillment platform.

00:12:02.465 --> 00:12:03.985
You are the publisher.

00:12:03.985 --> 00:12:09.964
So all the books we've worked on 900 books and our author is always the publisher.

00:12:09.964 --> 00:12:12.484
We are the project manager.

00:12:12.484 --> 00:12:16.124
So we're doing everything, but everything is in their name.

00:12:16.124 --> 00:12:20.960
Yeah, we will present them an option, and so I'll tell people in advance.

00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:28.158
Sometimes there's an option A or B and it's just an opinion, but sometimes there is.

00:12:28.158 --> 00:12:29.003
This is the way to do it.

00:12:31.878 --> 00:12:35.871
It's just like I've got to be a tough guy in that and sometimes there's legalities no, you can't use the lyrics in the, etc.

00:12:35.871 --> 00:12:40.700
But if it's an option, I'll just say I am, but there's color better.

00:12:41.494 --> 00:12:42.424
There's nothing right or wrong about it.

00:12:44.293 --> 00:12:46.445
I love it because, actually, at least what I did, I did right.

00:12:46.445 --> 00:12:47.998
Yes, you did, yes, you did.

00:12:51.394 --> 00:12:57.121
You didn't have to go down the painful no that I did, yes, and it was great because actually I did my.

00:12:57.142 --> 00:13:03.144
I was a publisher, I copyrighted it myself, my girl, and then I went through KDP to actually print it out.

00:13:03.285 --> 00:13:05.345
And the good thing about it was all in the family.

00:13:05.345 --> 00:13:11.859
So my daughter created my book cover, so I already had the book cover done, and my son-in-law, who's my graphic designer, he actually did my editing.

00:13:11.859 --> 00:13:15.625
No, I had another lady, mary Marvell.

00:13:15.625 --> 00:13:18.924
She actually did my editing and then he did the formatting.

00:13:18.924 --> 00:13:23.258
So it was all in the family that I brought it all together and I'm just glad that they turned out the way it is.

00:13:23.258 --> 00:13:24.365
So thank you so much.

00:13:24.365 --> 00:13:32.057
I wanted to try the self publishing mode, because I tried it two times the collaboration and it's great Because they got me out to do what I'm doing.

00:13:32.057 --> 00:13:36.177
I would never have written a book at all if I had not started with the collaboration.

00:13:36.177 --> 00:13:38.297
So thank you for that.

00:13:38.297 --> 00:13:39.381
I appreciate it.

00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:41.264
So, let me ask you something.

00:13:41.264 --> 00:13:47.955
So by you doing it and I really love your business and I would love for people to contact you and what you're doing but how did you handle the marketing and promotion of the book?

00:13:47.955 --> 00:13:54.298
Do you do that, Especially when you could sit in multiple authors?

00:13:54.298 --> 00:13:56.065
If you don't put collaboration Right, Great questions.

00:13:56.065 --> 00:14:03.197
As I mentioned before, no one will do your marketing for you as far as the traditional houses being big deal with Simon and Schuster Penguin.

00:14:03.197 --> 00:14:04.784
No one will do your marketing for you.

00:14:04.784 --> 00:14:06.323
It's the one mistake I didn't make.

00:14:06.323 --> 00:14:07.543
So hit that book.

00:14:07.543 --> 00:14:11.000
I knew no matter what I'd have to do my own marketing.

00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.456
But equally I felt bad just sending our authors into the universe without a plan at all.

00:14:18.549 --> 00:14:19.620
I haven't liked book marketing.

00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:20.044
I had done it.

00:14:20.044 --> 00:14:35.705
I'd kept track with this little word document, bullet pointed list on how to, and over the years I just kept adding to it and then I started making designs out of it and then eventually I came up with Buzz your super sticky book marketing plan.

00:14:35.705 --> 00:14:40.445
And here's the thing it's Buzz your super sticky book.

00:14:40.445 --> 00:14:45.183
And this is the fourth edition because of course, these services are changing constantly.

00:14:45.183 --> 00:14:48.703
Right, and you'll see it's big and fat and colorful.

00:14:48.703 --> 00:14:51.970
I was trying anything To make it not overwhelming.

00:14:51.970 --> 00:15:16.816
Very doable, yeah, because when I started in on my marketing part of my book publishing process, I ordered all the books and they come back with like hundreds of pages and just blocks and blocks of content and it was so overwhelming and never I never opened them a second time.

00:15:17.571 --> 00:15:23.240
And so once I got my head around it, I started creating my own and just sharing it with our authors.

00:15:23.791 --> 00:15:26.799
And then of course, now I share it with everybody.

00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:28.173
But what we do.

00:15:28.173 --> 00:15:31.791
If you're an author of ours, I guess you don't even have to be an author of ours, you can.

00:15:31.791 --> 00:15:35.061
We have what's called a book marketing consultation.

00:15:35.061 --> 00:15:48.916
So we sit down three different one-hour sessions and we make a plan together, because a marketing book marketing is this magical intersection of who is your target demographic, of course, what is your happy place.

00:15:48.916 --> 00:15:55.057
For example, if your target demographics all hanging out on Instagram and you hate Instagram, you're not going to do it.

00:15:55.057 --> 00:16:01.395
So it's the intersection of where your target demographic is, what you enjoy doing and your budget.

00:16:01.395 --> 00:16:01.717
Of course.

00:16:01.717 --> 00:16:08.352
The good news is there's a lot of free marketing tools these days, a lot of them, and yay.

00:16:09.155 --> 00:16:13.360
That helps and I advise people to get Holly's Buzz.

00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:14.332
Is it called Buzz?

00:16:14.693 --> 00:16:17.596
Yeah, buzz, you're great, buzz, your super sticky book.

00:16:17.596 --> 00:16:18.592
This is.

00:16:18.592 --> 00:16:21.517
It just came out, so this is the latest version.

00:16:21.517 --> 00:16:24.118
You'll see this is the proof, but that's mine too.

00:16:24.830 --> 00:16:25.774
Oh, that's awesome.

00:16:25.774 --> 00:16:28.477
That's awesome, and I'm sure they can get that off your website.

00:16:28.477 --> 00:16:33.636
She has it right there, my work publishing right in the background there, so yeah my word publishingcom.

00:16:34.350 --> 00:16:39.142
If someone's interested, there is a freebie called bookmarketingcalendarcom.

00:16:39.142 --> 00:16:46.570
Go to bookmarketingcalendarcom and I have everything all your tasks to do for the first six months of your book Wow, wow.

00:16:46.570 --> 00:16:48.356
Marketingcalendarcom.

00:16:49.291 --> 00:16:53.009
And I wish you were around when I was doing my second to head all these here.

00:16:53.009 --> 00:16:58.298
But it didn't take me long when I said I made a commitment, I want to get my book out, and this is what I actually.

00:16:58.298 --> 00:17:03.801
Marched it this year Well, and I'm sorry this year is 2024, isn't it 2023.

00:17:03.801 --> 00:17:07.373
When I lost it.

00:17:07.373 --> 00:17:14.401
But I was going through step by step, so I feel good that I actually followed what you were saying to do when I did it.

00:17:14.520 --> 00:17:20.829
Yes, you did, and sometimes there are a lot of pitfalls and when I talk to people sometime I'm like no, you're way ahead of the game.

00:17:20.829 --> 00:17:24.990
You did not make the horrible mistakes I did, so congratulations.

00:17:24.990 --> 00:17:31.352
And usually mistakes are just things they haven't done yet or things we just need to tweak.

00:17:31.535 --> 00:17:32.747
But no, that's great.

00:17:32.747 --> 00:17:35.230
So I want and actually I wanted the pitfalls of self-cublishing.

00:17:35.230 --> 00:17:38.766
Give us some pitfalls of self-cublishing, yeah.

00:17:40.534 --> 00:17:43.406
One of the biggest pitfalls we see is doing things in the wrong order.

00:17:43.406 --> 00:17:52.130
Okay, so here's an example, as someone the other day just said to me yeah, I went to lay out, I went to formatting, so I want to go to editing next.

00:17:52.919 --> 00:17:53.546
Hold on there, Shreve.

00:17:54.375 --> 00:17:55.727
Back it up.

00:17:55.727 --> 00:17:58.450
Gotta go to editing first, absolutely.

00:17:58.450 --> 00:18:02.609
So we see that all the time they're doing things in the wrong order.

00:18:02.609 --> 00:18:03.654
Someone actually put it up on Amazon.

00:18:03.654 --> 00:18:14.490
They did the whole book by themselves, put it up on Amazon, and their theory was I just want to go and get some sales and then I'll come back and do it.

00:18:14.490 --> 00:18:18.583
Right, that's just going to bite them in the ass.

00:18:18.583 --> 00:18:22.048
And did because here's what happens is, you can't take reviews off Amazon.

00:18:22.048 --> 00:18:29.390
So the reviews said great information, but he really needed to get an editor and a proper layout designer.

00:18:29.390 --> 00:18:33.288
And all the reviews were saying that, yeah, he can't take them down.

00:18:33.288 --> 00:18:37.450
So the wrong order is a big pitfall.

00:18:37.450 --> 00:18:38.705
Can I tell you another pitfall?

00:18:38.705 --> 00:18:45.108
Yes, please, when you hear the word free, okay, I want to respect your wallet.

00:18:45.108 --> 00:18:45.771
Okay, I honestly do.

00:18:45.771 --> 00:18:48.805
But when you hear the word free, it's coming at a cost of something.

00:18:48.805 --> 00:18:55.289
It's a cost of skill set or limits, limitations Okay.

00:18:55.289 --> 00:18:57.509
So there are, just be careful of them.

00:18:57.509 --> 00:19:04.068
And if you're okay with those limitations, like you can do this layout design for free.

00:19:04.088 --> 00:19:05.900
Okay, polly said be careful of the word free.

00:19:05.900 --> 00:19:07.490
Yeah, that's right.

00:19:07.490 --> 00:19:12.182
So what is the limitation in that?

00:19:12.182 --> 00:19:15.393
Limitation is in the design elements, and how advanced can you get?

00:19:15.393 --> 00:19:17.250
How professional can you get?

00:19:17.250 --> 00:19:18.615
Does it look like a free version?

00:19:18.615 --> 00:19:23.170
Yeah, okay, gosh, another one.

00:19:23.170 --> 00:19:30.650
Another pitfall is you do not do your layout for a book in a Word document.

00:19:30.650 --> 00:19:32.542
Don't think we can't tell.

00:19:32.542 --> 00:19:37.517
Yeah, we can tell at a glance.

00:19:40.326 --> 00:19:49.928
And that, oh, yeah, yeah, I did mine in Google Docs, that my editor was able to go in and edit and take things out and even like when out it was four minutes.

00:19:49.928 --> 00:19:53.564
Yeah, you learn from experience, but yeah, yeah, so give us another pitfall.

00:19:54.627 --> 00:19:54.909
Okay.

00:19:55.422 --> 00:19:56.125
I know you got some.

00:19:57.080 --> 00:20:00.321
Oh, look, sure, we get this.

00:20:00.321 --> 00:20:00.804
All the time.

00:20:00.804 --> 00:20:02.863
We'll say it's in editing.

00:20:02.863 --> 00:20:08.673
Okay, is the broad category of this, but we'll get it all the time We'll start working with someone.

00:20:08.673 --> 00:20:11.209
We'll say tell us about your editing, have you done any at all?

00:20:11.209 --> 00:20:14.027
Oh, yeah, editing's done, like editing's done.

00:20:14.027 --> 00:20:15.932
Okay, can you tell me about that?

00:20:15.932 --> 00:20:17.502
My sister, she's a school teacher.

00:20:17.502 --> 00:20:18.125
She edited it.

00:20:18.125 --> 00:20:25.924
Huh, okay, that's not a professional editor and, depending on your goals, okay, that might be fine for your goals.

00:20:25.924 --> 00:20:28.948
I guarantee you it's not a professional edit.

00:20:28.948 --> 00:20:34.932
Okay, and it might be okay for you and your goals to have your school teacher neighbor do it.

00:20:34.932 --> 00:20:38.398
But you got to know Chicago manual style you're going to get hit in contests.

00:20:38.398 --> 00:20:40.066
You're going to get hit in reviews.

00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:45.892
I had these two people who were reporters at the Los Angeles Times.

00:20:45.892 --> 00:20:55.410
They did a book together and they are editors by default because they'd been in the business so long, and I said can I just swing it past our editor?

00:20:55.410 --> 00:21:02.605
I just want to see, because these guys were going for it full on professional, making a career out of it, so they don't want to take shortcuts.

00:21:02.605 --> 00:21:04.445
They said, yeah, show it to her.

00:21:04.445 --> 00:21:07.809
It was just Redmar, page three.

00:21:07.809 --> 00:21:11.167
They're like okay, okay, I get it, I get it.

00:21:11.167 --> 00:21:15.127
Yeah, so that's what I mean.

00:21:15.127 --> 00:21:19.339
There's good enough, and then there's professional, so national.

00:21:19.339 --> 00:21:21.887
We see that all the time, exactly.

00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:30.824
And it makes a big difference because you wanted to be professional, because that's you, that's your face of your book, so you want to make sure that you get the right setup here.

00:21:30.824 --> 00:21:32.346
It is yeah.

00:21:32.366 --> 00:21:35.271
Okay, go ahead and go ahead, go ahead Okay.

00:21:36.940 --> 00:21:40.087
Another pitfall is what we talked about already is giving away your rights and not realizing it.

00:21:40.087 --> 00:21:48.962
Okay, so I want you, the author, to own all your rights and royalties, and so you don't.

00:21:48.962 --> 00:21:53.932
My fantasy world is to not have anyone own anybody's rights.

00:21:53.932 --> 00:21:55.546
You heard about the Taylor Swift thing.

00:21:55.546 --> 00:22:02.981
We've all heard about Michael Jackson buying out Paul McCartney's rights this as an example.

00:22:02.981 --> 00:22:07.691
They took his rights and all of those were quote unquote, legal, just dumb.

00:22:07.691 --> 00:22:09.134
And that's what I'm saying here.

00:22:09.380 --> 00:22:12.608
There's no reason in the world anymore why you can't own your own rights.

00:22:12.608 --> 00:22:22.686
And so we're in a world today where you don't have to have someone else publish your book for you and you can become the publisher.

00:22:22.686 --> 00:22:29.713
So that's our model is to have someone else be your, or have you be your own publisher.

00:22:29.713 --> 00:22:31.104
Here's a book as an example.

00:22:31.104 --> 00:22:37.247
So she has her publishing company, that's her ISBN, that is associated with that.

00:22:37.247 --> 00:22:49.190
We put it here, we put it on the copyright page, and that's the case for all of our books Our names nowhere on our books, except if they choose to put us in the acknowledge.

00:22:49.810 --> 00:22:50.271
And that's great.

00:22:50.271 --> 00:22:55.083
I'm glad that you have this out here for people who want to write a book, who are not sure of writing it.

00:22:55.083 --> 00:22:57.307
What are the different models of publishing?

00:22:57.307 --> 00:23:01.029
You may have already said some already, but the different model of publishing, what would you suggest?

00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:07.153
Yeah, the different models are so that traditional publishing they own your rights and royalties.

00:23:07.153 --> 00:23:16.785
They are giving you an advance and that advance is they are purchasing your material, your copyrights, therefore they get.

00:23:16.785 --> 00:23:20.644
It's an investment for them, so they get the final decision making.

00:23:20.644 --> 00:23:22.148
It's over.

00:23:22.148 --> 00:23:43.830
So when you, I just hear I want to be very emphatic about that, because I hear it all the time when people say they didn't do anything to market my book and you have to market your own book but you're giving all your rights away and here's the thing is you're not making much money out of it.

00:23:43.830 --> 00:23:53.772
$20,000 advance is a pretty good deal these days for a first time, unknown author and you're not actually getting $20,000.

00:23:53.772 --> 00:23:55.645
Can I do the math for a second?

00:23:56.167 --> 00:23:56.387
Yeah.

00:23:56.839 --> 00:23:58.428
I'll try to make it easy for non-math people.

00:23:58.428 --> 00:24:05.771
But if they agree on a $20,000 advance, the agent gets 15% at least, sometimes 20.

00:24:05.771 --> 00:24:07.605
We'll just say 15% of it.

00:24:07.605 --> 00:24:11.828
Okay, so 20,000 minus 15, that's $3,000.

00:24:11.828 --> 00:24:16.348
Okay, uncle Sam's going to get 25% to 30%.

00:24:16.348 --> 00:24:21.053
All right, so that $20,000 advance, you are actually getting about what?

00:24:21.053 --> 00:24:22.720
$11,000, $12,000.

00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:26.719
Okay, you have to unback the $20,000.

00:24:26.719 --> 00:24:27.863
That's so.

00:24:27.863 --> 00:24:33.385
The advance isn't advanced on your royalties and it's in advance and so you need to earn that back.

00:24:33.385 --> 00:24:39.653
You actually get, say, $11,000, $12,000, but you got to earn back the $20,000.

00:24:39.692 --> 00:24:39.772
Yeah.

00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:44.448
At increments of roughly $0.60 to $0.75,.

00:24:44.448 --> 00:24:55.469
You have to go do all that work, you follow me, yeah, and you are expected to do the marketing, so that traditional publishing model is not good for authors anymore.

00:24:55.469 --> 00:24:58.817
You have to do all the work, you get very little money, mm-hmm.

00:24:58.817 --> 00:25:05.839
And even if I could go a step further, about $11,000, $12,000 is broken up into three parts Over the course of, say, three years.

00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:07.768
It's just not worth it.

00:25:08.806 --> 00:25:10.799
No, but you got to sell a lot of books, sell a lot of books.

00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:14.839
You need marketing to help you sell those books.

00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:16.839
And yeah, I know about advance.

00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:18.806
There's advances for all this.

00:25:18.826 --> 00:25:30.296
That's one model, and then the second model is that small independent press and I hate to be Debbie Downer, I really do it makes me sound all negative when I talk about all these options.

00:25:30.296 --> 00:25:32.933
But I would say, please just learn from my horrible mistake.

00:25:32.933 --> 00:25:33.839
It was so expensive.

00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:40.890
That's what I want to give back anyway and I want to sort of become an advocate for authors.

00:25:40.890 --> 00:25:52.173
But the small indie press, they are doing that old fashioned model where they're either just producing the book and not giving in advance.

00:25:52.173 --> 00:25:54.538
Yeah, and the model just doesn't work.

00:25:54.538 --> 00:25:55.239
So what happens?

00:25:55.239 --> 00:25:58.819
They go on a business and I'm telling you why don't I see it all day, every day.

00:25:58.819 --> 00:26:02.233
I must get an email twice a month or something about.

00:26:02.233 --> 00:26:09.115
I published my book with who's he, what's it publishing, and just to get notice that they're out of business.

00:26:09.115 --> 00:26:11.799
Wow, they can't get their files back.

00:26:12.963 --> 00:26:15.673
No, they have to start over all the time.

00:26:16.034 --> 00:26:16.936
So that's not a good model.

00:26:16.936 --> 00:26:19.953
No, it's not, and then they already probably paid into it.

00:26:19.993 --> 00:26:24.535
Already they paid them the money, so they've already paid for that, because people always say I have my manuscript.

00:26:24.535 --> 00:26:25.839
Yeah, now you got to do the layout again.

00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:27.839
You got to do the cover again, et cetera.

00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:32.630
And sometimes you can get those files sometime, not all the time.

00:26:33.109 --> 00:26:34.553
Yeah, you have to pay for the files.

00:26:34.553 --> 00:26:44.244
We're dealing with this right now again, yeah, trying to get files back from a publishing company that is either rotten or has gone out of business entirely.

00:26:44.244 --> 00:26:45.689
So that's another model.

00:26:45.689 --> 00:26:53.451
And then a third model is that kind of subsidy publishing where you just pay and order what you want Click, click, click.

00:26:53.451 --> 00:27:02.632
Yeah, I need editing, click, I need cover, click, and another one of those cons for that is just that they're beginner service providers.

00:27:03.071 --> 00:27:03.333
Yeah.

00:27:03.353 --> 00:27:11.570
You're not talking to them, it's not collaborative, you're not joining forces, they're just doing it, sending it back and almost like it can be your belt is what I envision.

00:27:12.354 --> 00:27:12.736
Wow.

00:27:13.136 --> 00:27:13.839
Those are small models.

00:27:14.527 --> 00:27:16.021
You have just given us so much, god.

00:27:16.021 --> 00:27:27.145
There's so much information, and I really want you to reach out to you, because those models, the pitfalls and options in publishing are something that we don't think about when we want to.

00:27:27.145 --> 00:27:29.310
I want to write a book and then people do it.

00:27:29.310 --> 00:27:35.507
So when they saw that I wrote my book at least my third, but the other two are collaboration but how did you do that?

00:27:35.507 --> 00:27:39.027
And I just follow the process I just followed.

00:27:39.027 --> 00:27:39.888
I went on my checking.

00:27:39.888 --> 00:27:41.432
Okay, let me get copyright.

00:27:41.432 --> 00:27:46.655
I want to make sure my first of all, I made sure my name was ready to collaborate.

00:27:46.655 --> 00:27:51.819
I did go down why I actually own my own name, and then I went to a copyright.

00:27:51.819 --> 00:27:54.839
So there was another writer and she told me she didn't want to disassociate.

00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:58.521
So she came in checklist and that's how I was able to do it and it.

00:27:58.521 --> 00:28:02.731
But it takes time, but at the same time, you'll be happy when it's all done, probably.

00:28:03.161 --> 00:28:04.104
If you're going to do it.

00:28:04.104 --> 00:28:13.890
If you want a professional book, you need to get professionals involved, and you got to do it, I would urge anyone to certainly reach out to us.

00:28:13.890 --> 00:28:16.768
There's a lot of information on our website.

00:28:16.768 --> 00:28:20.170
It's MyWordPublishingcom, but certainly someone can reach out to me.

00:28:20.170 --> 00:28:24.655
We can just have a chat, and that's Polly at MyWordPublishingcom.

00:28:24.655 --> 00:28:25.819
Polly is P-O-L-Y.

00:28:25.819 --> 00:28:27.682
I don't know how they got that name.

00:28:27.682 --> 00:28:28.805
But there you go.

00:28:28.805 --> 00:28:31.028
I love it.

00:28:32.211 --> 00:28:32.711
I love it.

00:28:32.711 --> 00:28:36.689
You are just a wealth of knowledge and the energy that you have.

00:28:36.689 --> 00:28:38.527
I love it as far as you tell them this is.

00:28:38.527 --> 00:28:53.010
I'm glad you're part of this series, the book collaboration, because I had some of the authors actually one who actually was part of the collaboration but I wanted to get people another option of other parts of ways of doing publishing your own book.

00:28:53.010 --> 00:28:54.594
Polly has it all.

00:28:54.594 --> 00:28:56.807
I wish I knew you before, polly.

00:28:57.079 --> 00:29:00.750
Yeah, we'll have to talk to the guy above here when we get there.

00:29:02.482 --> 00:29:03.988
She was stuffed on that a little earlier there.

00:29:04.348 --> 00:29:04.789
Exactly.

00:29:04.789 --> 00:29:28.762
Polly, I know you're getting information, but share your information again, how people can contact you again, if you want to set up a consultation, meaning just let's talk about it, polly, at MyWordPublishingcom and our website is full of information it's MyWordPublishingcom, let's talk and let's help you get your book out into the world In the back of her wall.

00:29:28.803 --> 00:29:29.625
You can see it right there.

00:29:29.625 --> 00:29:33.512
No mistake, mywordpublishing MyWordPublishing that's rightcom.

00:29:33.512 --> 00:29:35.984
But thank you so much for being a part of this.

00:29:35.984 --> 00:29:41.887
My podcast, ready to Set Collaborate in my second series, book Collaboration.

00:29:41.887 --> 00:29:45.348
This was episode 16, the art of book collaboration.

00:29:45.348 --> 00:29:50.169
I want to make sure that everyone subscribe to my YouTube channel.

00:29:50.169 --> 00:29:52.500
Wd Tres Associates all of those Polly.

00:29:52.500 --> 00:29:56.769
This is going to be on the video on YouTube as well once we air your episode.

00:29:56.769 --> 00:29:59.944
Make sure you subscribe and share.

00:29:59.944 --> 00:30:02.049
Share I will.

00:30:02.049 --> 00:30:05.965
I know you will, girl, I thank you so much for that.

00:30:05.965 --> 00:30:09.288
Find your impressions, thank you, thank you so much.

00:30:09.288 --> 00:30:09.970
Thanks again, pam.

00:30:09.970 --> 00:30:11.925
So my next episode stay tuned.

00:30:11.925 --> 00:30:18.373
We've got some great information on Ready Set Collaborate with the book collaboration.

00:30:18.373 --> 00:30:19.703
Stay tuned for the next one.

00:30:22.317 --> 00:30:22.500
Thank you.

00:30:22.500 --> 00:30:27.111

Navigating the Publishing Maze with Polly Letofsky - From Self-Publishing Insights to Mastering Book Marketing

Listen On

Recent Episodes